Now that I have started my Research Paper and I am well underway to completing it, I would like to take the time to really reflect on some things that I have found interesting while writing this paper. Now, if the title doesn’t give away too much detail, I am doing my research essay on the social networking site called PostSecret. PostSecret is an online website where anonymous people send their hand crafted postcards to a given address every week and the top 10 submitted every week get uploaded every sunday to PostSecret for all to see. As mentioned before, all postcards and uploads to the website are anonymous making the people who created the postcards unsearchable.

By doing some exploring, I have found another website linked to PostSecret called PostSecret community (http://www.postsecretcommunity.com) where there is much news about different upcoming events related to PostSecret, a PostSecret chat where users can chat about different postcards they see on the website and even offer support to many of the people who send in these postcards, plus much more. This brings me to my research question of the type of community that PostSecret creates and offers for its users.

The first thing I noticed while I was searching through many of the online forums on PostSecret community was the large amount of people that are willing and want to help others out in any way they can. Many of these people are posting numbers for suicide help lines, even their own personal phone numbers and email inviting people to talk. Many people also just say they are there to listen to anyone who needs to vent or get things off their chest. Other people have posted inspirational quotes and even different strategies to help distract yourself from self harming.

In response to much of this feedback, people that have depression and other problems, such as they may self harm to make themselves feel worthy, are responding positively and thanking many of the anonymous helpers that post for support. It creates an environment where these people are not judged and not called names like “emo” or “gothic,” but rather are respected and welcomed. This becomes really contradictory to what really happens in everyday situations where these people are shamed for there actions and not accepted by society.

I find it very interesting in the way that people can come together to help others in an online community such as PostSecret, where they are so open to talk about their problems and also so willing to help others that may be facing these problems. I believe that much of this has to do with our aging population that isn’t so acceptant of these self harming ideas because it is more of a 21st century thing that has developed over the past decade. The reason I see PostSecret and many other online communities to be very much accepting of these things is because the people that are online on these websites are all people ranging from 12 to 30 years old rather than our older population.

As I have been reading the novel, What is the What by Dave Eggers, some interesting things have surfaced about the way the book is written and published. These ideas of racism the style of which the book is written really draw in the reader, being myself.

Something I noticed right away was the racism that was still present and the clear separation of racial groups in america such as the “black” or “caucasian” and the way that it is stressed even in the first couple chapters of the book. When Achak, the main character, voluntarily lets some robbers into his house because at first he doesn’t understand what is taking place and he just trying to be nice, he gets attacked by an african american man and finds himself on the ground in pain. Throughout his cries and pleas for help, he calls the man and woman in his house “african american” and in respect, the man calls him “Africa” in return. There seems to be no interest in further learning and they respectively give each other these names.

When he wakes up again later on that night or the next day, he finds himself on the floor of his living room still but this time, the two robbers are gone and now there is a young boy who seems to have some sort of connection to the robbers sitting in his kitchen watching tv. Achak proceeds to call this young man, “TV boy,” and even after finding out his name was Michael, he still proceeds to call him TV boy for a while. At this point, it is not just Achak who is acting in disrespect towards the boy, but also the young boy who seems to have no interest in Achak whatsoever. He decides to drop a phonebook on him to try and get him to be quiet and also puts chairs around him and covers him in blankets so he does not have to hear from Achak or look at him. This is all very interesting because throughout all of this, TV boy does not say a word to Achak. I see it as a sort of racism that both characters feel towards each other and have no interest in trying to fix.

Another the way in which the book was written by always targeting a certain audience. Throughout the novel, Achak tells a lot of silent stories to people that he is upset at or people that has wronged him. He did this by silently murmuring stories of his past life in Africa and the struggles that he faced, too quiet that the people they where intended for could not hear him. This gave him a sense of relief somewhat because by telling these stories, he helps himself to see that he has really had it worst before. The whole time that he is being robbed and is stuck in the house with TV boy, he is telling these stories of the encounters he faced in Africa. These silent stories acted as a sort of relief for him and I think, helped him get through all this hard times that he did have to face in America.

All of these silent stories that he told also played as a sort of flashback to his life in Africa. Everything that he talks about in these stories seems to be somehow related to what he is facing at the time of the stories and is always comparing them. Through the tone of racism set at the start at the book, and Achak’s constant flashbacks to his life in Africa, it really sets an interesting read to the audience. For me personally, the way in which the book was written really tied me in and kept me interested to keep reading because I always wanted to know more.

After watching the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, I have really realized how much of a material world we live in and how everything surrounding us goes along with this materialistic attitude. We are born to be consumers and have learned to always want and need the newest or most expensive car, house, cell phone, or even clothes. Such material objects make us who we are and also give us a feeling of self acceptance in society. All this materialism also comes in the western culture that we live in, compared to such developing countries where materialism is very small to none existent, where we always live in a constant cycle of needing new then throwing away and getting new again.

In the film, the Lost Boys came to the United States from Africa and upon arrival, they were amazed of the way everything was so developed and they amount of products readily available for purchase. Even their amazement upon seeing and using an escalator was huge. Everything was new, nothing was close to being the same, the Lost Boys had ever even seen a supermarket or grocery store before and where amazed at the quality and quantity of food and products they sold. Stuff like broccoli and cucumbers were new and they had no idea how to eat them or what they tasted like. A big thing that the Lost Boys came across was a donut and they where in shock of what it really was. I remember one of the boys who started saying that the sprinkles resembled beans and was amazed after trying them because they tasted nothing like beans, plus they had never seen such foods in Africa.

The Lost Boys had a very interesting fascination for america which was quickly changed after they learned that people are not as welcoming and open as they thought they would be. Especially that in Africa, you could walk into someones house and they were welcoming and would offer you food or ask if you were lost and offer help, were as in America, people would call the police if you walked into someones house and are not welcoming to the idea of helping strangers out. The Lost Boys found this difficult since many people gave them weird looks and often tried to avoid them because they are different, thus making it harder for the Lost Boys to adapt and become social with others.

After some time in america, the Lost Boys started to loose their desire for all the material objects that surrounded them and quickly realized what they missed the most and wanted the most; their families back home in Africa. I find it very interesting that after such desire and interest in all the new ways of western culture, they quickly resort back to what they are used to and love the most. They start to feel really lonely because they are used to living with all of their family and friends and now they live on such a fixed schedule where they don’t even see each other much and feel isolated.

Overall, this movie has really made me realize how materialist we are, even in Canada where we are dominated by this western culture also. It really plays a role into our everyday lives even if we don’t think it does. Everyone has a desire for the newest or to have the best all the time and it takes over the things we should focus on more such as our family and friends and not make our relationships with our family and friends so dependent on what material objects we have. I really say this, because I see how important such things are now and how we really push them off for our material world we live in.