Blog Post #4

I have planned to persuade my audience that my space/cultural group is worthy of study through my speech's content and delivery by using ethos, pathos and logos. Through the appeal of ethos, I will present an informative and uplifting tone/voice through my words such as, “Fear not!” I believe that this will be effective to the audience because it gives variation and breaks up the monotony of a typical speech. It should make it more interesting and easier to be persuaded as to why the Johnson Center should be studied through its social themes. Through pathos, I plan to communicate emotion by explaining some of my first impressions while walking into the gym. I was amazed at how much activity goes on all at once. This will be persuasive because it shows that there are multiple areas to study for the project. Finally using logos, my speech contains several statistics and expert opinions about the relationship between social aspects and physical exercise. For example, according to Paul Steinbach, “Findings suggest that friendships involving exercising together and the social contacts that result from exercising in public places such as health clubs may motivate exercise behavior.” This method should be persuasive because it shows how prevalent social relationships are in a gym to study.

Blog Post #3: Research Memo

After searching for information related to college campus gyms, I came across an article from Purdue University's website. According to a recent study gathered at the university, data has proven a link between visiting a campus gym and better grades of a student. Facts and statistics are used within the text as evidence of the findings. For example, the article states, "students who visit the facility at least 16 times a month earned a GPA of 3.10 or higher." This information will help me support my speech because it shows that there are multiple benefits of visiting the gym. It also mentions how visiting with friends or study groups can be beneficial since the social aspect aids in reducing stress from school while converting it to physical activity. Before reading this article, I didn't know that visiting the gym on a regular basis would ever have a positive effect on grade point average. The article should be highly credible since the author is from Purdue University and is a school nationally known for their research. I believe these details will help me to better persuade the audience to visit the Johnson Center regularly.

Citation

Patterson Neubert, Amy. " College students working out at campus gyms get better grades." Research University | Purdue University. N.p., 15 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. <http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2013/Q2/college-students-working-out-at-campus-gyms-get-better-grades.html>.

Prompt #1: Underlying Unity

"Want to go to the Johnson Center?" I could say that I've heard that question about a thousand times while living several weeks on UK's campus and that's no exaggeration. I knew of the place, but since I live on the north side of campus, it’s one of the furthest walks to its location on south. Regardless, I finally decided it was time to explore this gym as there seemed to be more going on with the regulars than just working out and trying to keep off that freshman fifteen.

The moment I walk through the double glass doors on the front of this large, asymmetrically shaped brick building, warm, musky smelling air rushes to my face and my eyes drift up to the tall, wide open ceilings. Bright upper floors and balconies from the walls of glass windows reveal hundreds of exercise equipment actively being used including treadmills, stair climbers, stationary bikes and elliptical machines. My mind is already mesmerized by all of the activities simultaneously happening. “Welcome and enjoy your day here!” smiles a happy employee behind the brightly lit counter. Already, I was feeling a positive atmosphere being pressed upon the visitors.

Delving through this mega gym, I notice the basketball courts as I walk past and hear the loud thud of the ball being dribbled up and down. The quick squeaks from the rubber soles of shoes meeting the wooden floor make me shudder. Not much further than a single dividing wall is a giant rock climbing area covered with brightly colored plastic stones. I gaze a few minutes to watch a slim and fit woman reach for the last stone, nearing the top. After the spectators’ claps end and the rope holding her up allows her to come down, I continue to move on approaching a wing dedicated to weight lifting. Almost like some kind of popular hangout, every station is taken whether it be by a stereotypical muscle fanatic or slimmer guys trying to gain muscle, hoping to someday look like the others they workout with. The constant “clink” as the barbells slam down on the benches signals me to begin to explore other areas.

Wondering what the upstairs is like, I retrace my steps back toward the front counter and begin to walk up the spiraling plush carpeted staircase. As I come to the last step connecting to a stretched catwalk, the commotion only increases as the amount of people up here is doubled. I take a seat on a hard and uncomfortable bench against a wall. Sitting near a wall speaker, I can finally make out the fast and upbeat music the gym chooses to play. Groups of guys and girls walk past excitedly talking about the events that happened during the week. The faint whirring sounds from gears turning in the occupied machines create a vibrating energy across the floor. As I continue to watch different people stretching on brightly colored mats in front of me, I happen to notice the color schemes of the floor. Subtle blues and greens stand out against the neutral grays within a modern, swirling design. Thinking for a moment, I realize that even small aspects such as color can affect the overall atmosphere of an environment. My eyes focus on the blue and white painted walls lining the balconies. Not only are these our school colors, but it’s all part of the design. I can feel the tension between a relaxing factor the colors are supposed to bring to balance the high energy of everything going on. The open concept of the floor plan allows all to see everything and everyone. It’s a motivation factor. When you feel like giving up, look around and receive support to push on when others are seen exercising diligently beside you. Whoever designed the Johnson Center Gym had a very clever concept in mind: create a space that brings a common unity mindlessly among visitors young or old. There is so much appeal to this gym and it became apparent to me within one trip why many come. It’s a newer space to meet up with friends, get introduced to new people or just to get your mind off of schoolwork. I can see myself coming back soon to take advantage of what it has to offers.

Blog Post #2 - Site Locations

As I thought about possible sites around UK's campus to consider for my culture space project, I asked myself which places are pretty much central to the community, but I'm not familiar with just yet. The Johnson Center instantly came to my mind. I'm more of a technology person, so sports haven't really been my thing. I've played several in the past, but that's about it. The facility is large with all kinds of activities going on whether it be a practice for a team or just plain exercising around the gym's track. There's always excitement waiting when the door opens.

As an alternative, I like the idea of observing the local Keenland Racetrack. I'm from Louisville, Kentucky and our city has Churchill Downs. I've only been a few times, but haven't really noticed the culture of the jockeys or just the general crowd coming to watch another horse race. Everything about the place seems like it would offer plenty of interesting things to write about.

Blog Post #1

After reading the essays, "Economic Citizenship and the Rhetoric of Gourmet Coffee" by Marche and "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" by Mathieu, I came to realize that these authors wrote about these subjects because they are subjects of everyday American life, whether we use them or not.

"So what do we buy when we buy a cup of Starbucks? One might be tempted to argue, 'Just good coffee.' But that position itself engages in scotosis, because it looks narrowly at the quality of the product (something the consumer somehow 'deserves') and ignores the Starbucks worldview as well as the ramifications of its practices within the global economy. When we consume Starbucks, we consume justifying the narratives along with the products."

This quote from Marche's essay has a good point, but almost seems to accuse the consumer for agreeing with the practices of Starbucks through a simple purchase. In actuality, there may be more going on with the company than the consumer will ever know based on how the product is presented to the public. I don't think that Starbucks would be affected much as a whole if a single consumer walked away, but only if large amounts of people banded together to protest what is being sold. Marche sometimes comes off with an unrealistic proposal of how to fix the problem, when it could take much more effort to fix.

"A recent study out of Australia (where close to half the population is active on Facebook), titled 'Who Uses Facebook?,' found a complex and sometimes confounding relationship between loneliness and social networking. Facebook users had slightly lower levels of 'social loneliness'—the sense of not feeling bonded with friends—but 'significantly higher levels of family loneliness'—the sense of not feeling bonded with family."

In Mathieu's essay, I thought this was an interesting quote because it recognizes an arising problem Facebook is bringing to our society. The fact that users are so focused on staying connected with friends whether they are close or distant, at the expense of family is sad because it breaks relationships that are supposed to be the strongest. I have personally seen in some of my own friends how this has affected them to become distant with their parents or siblings.