What about the message your sending.....

Recently The New York Times covered a controversy that was stirred up from a particular jungle gym in a local New York City Housing Authority playground. This jungle was set up to look like a jail. It is painted orange with crow bars and the word jail painted across the top. This playground is located in a historically black neighborhood in Brooklyn. Residents of the neighborhood were outraged because of the message it sent to the children of the community. Local newspapers wrote articles about the jungle gym and the housing authority caught notice. Eventually employees of the New York City Housing Authority went out to the playground and painted over the jungle gym in hopes to fix the mistake they made.


This jungle gym sends off a serious message that jail is fun and not something to take seriously. Though kids may not think much of it, it definitely sends them a message that jail must not be that bad if it is in a playground. When designing a playground, I would think that the designer would think of things a child would be drawn to and eventually like to play with. A jail is not something a child should play with like it is fun.

The recent readings I’ve done about violence in the media immediately came to my mind when reading the original article on this story. Violence in the media is very much displayed and also has proved to have great effects on children. Kids may play games that involve “good guys” and “bad guys,” just like they see on television or in movies. They may play these games in the playground and send the bad guys to the jungle gym labeled “Jail.” To kids this may be all in fun, but studies have shown that the violence they see in the media or the violence they may practice in the playground follows them as they grow up and get older. This can cause them to act out or have serious behavior problems in the future. This playground just like the violence seen in the media sends messages to kids making them think that violence and jail is a regular part of life. Though the violence is widely displayed we must not accept it as the norm, just like the residents of the neighborhood didn’t. They made it known that their children will not be subject to jail and had it removed from their neighborhood. What are some of your thoughts?

Thanx for your time,

Paige

No Social Media on the Clock!

              Anthony Balderrama, in his article Social Media at Work -- Bane or Boon?, discusses how many employment companies are beginning to ban the use of social media sites like Facebook and Myspace. He talks about how some employers feel as though these sites and others like it are preventing people from working harder, staying focused, and could have the potential to "post confidential, sensitive or private information." Balderrma finds that "10 percent [of companies] have taken disciplinary actions against an employee who violated social networking policies in the past 12 months. 8 percent [of companies] terminated an employee for violating a social networking policy. 45 percent [of companies] are highly concerned about unauthorized information being posted on social networks." While employers think this is the right thing to do, many employees disagree. Nan York, an interviewee of Balderrama, negatively reacts to her boss's blocking several sites, including Facebook. York says, "I am not more productive for it. I worked hard for my employer before the ban, and appreciated having something I really enjoyed doing in my few minutes of break from my work. I am a grown-up and take my grown-up responsibilities very seriously -- from paying my bills to doing my work. I don't need stodgy, out-of-touch corporate drones to censure me." This type of response is common among employees who have been banned from social media sites at work. However, even if the company bans the sites from their computers, employees can still access these sites from their smart phones, or iPods. So are companies really "meeting their goal?"




             Why is this important? Well, Facebook and other social media sites are not going anywhere. Even if some people think that these are just fads, and will soon disappear like other things, I dare to say they won't. Although it may be true that too many employees waste too much time on social media sites, it is also true that companies can get more "publicity" from sites like these. If companies continue to ban these sites, could their companies being to suffer? It is also important that we know what some employers are doing so that if we are at a place that has these bans, we will understand that these companies are serious and not afraid to fire people for breaking their rules. We might think they are being silly, but is Facebook worth loosing a job?



          I think companies and employers stress limiting the time a person spends on a social media site in hopes to insure hard work and constant focus. Banning people from using these sites, seem ineffective to me. I would rather companies encourage employees to promote their work place on social media sites so that they could gain more publicity.

What do you think? Lets talk about this!




~Lexi