Zachary Boykins

Visual Rhetorical Analysis

1st – Servers

  • When the COVID-19 lockdown started it had affected so many jobs around the world.

This virus kept over 114 million people out of work. During the tough times a lot of

people struggled to even find new jobs because everything was closing due to a severe

illness around the world. There were a lot of people getting sick and just a very sad time for the hard workers. Restaurants around the world we’re closing and there was a

tough time for servers to get paid. Being a server was a job required for people to have face-to-face contact with each

other and because there was a virus those protocols were prohibited due to a shut

down.   When the restaurants were closing down people who were working as that server

lost their jobs and was struggling to find another hobby or workplace. As the months

went by, restaurants started to open but only for delivery services only. Servers still had

a hard time trying to find a job because the hours of operation at the restaurant we’re

only for a limited time which is a huge effect. In the aftermath, restaurants opened back up for a limited capacity of people. Servers still wasn’t making the right amount as usual. In the aftermath, servers were required to wear masks while working in order to not get sick. This picture shows a woman who’s in work-mode on duty working.

Security- 

Being a security guard is not a easy job. You have to watch people before they make a mistake, you have to control crowds, and you have to hear the mouth of someone else often. Before there was a lockdown

Events we’re opening all around the world for the city of Atlanta. The Mercedes been stadium is where I work and I had just got a job there October 2019, five months later there was a serious illness breaching to the United States. We had to go in lockdown and it affected me and other people who worked as a security guard. It also affected the events that were supposed to be taking place for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Most of the people at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium who works there were impacted heavily and it was very sad because a lot of those workers were very elderly ages range from 19-70. Most of the age range were 50-70. They were impacted The words because that was their only job and it got took away because of the pandemic. As the months went by we can do anything about work because riots and crowds were taking over Atlanta while there was a serious illness. Next, around July happened and Arthur Blank gave out a $1 million fund for workers at the stadium. So we had something coming in every month but it was not enough to support the family. In the aftermath, when August 20 20 started did stadium begin to open back up for football season but the protocols were very different. I did not know how we were going to go back to work during an illness. So I briefly read the rules on when coming back to work. The rules were very different than normal, we had to wear masks, we had to monitor people very differently by doing it with technology and we had to use hand sanitizer more often. I did not know how this was going to work but the minute I went back to work. Everything went very strictly well.

  • Doctors & healthcare workers-?

on the other hand,  despite this illness taking out servers and event securities out of work. There was one job that was still required to work every day during the lockdown. Before the crisis, there were healthcare workers who did their jobs with not much precaution but when every other stores and businesses close down temporarily, hospitals and doctors were still required to work. They had to handle their job with the lot of protection. Doctors were required to wear protective shoe wear, mask wear, clothing wear and headwear. This was huge so they had to protect their self while working. People who were working had to be very careful about going out every single day while there was a serious disease going around the world. This was very concerning because every day was a hard day for them. Workers that worked in hospitals had to wake up every day and have a lot of shenanigans going on at their jobs. When I mean shenanigans they had to deal with people dying, a lot of victims from this disease in the hospital, and it was a very busy day every day. After business is started opening up, the workers still have to wear masks and protective wear to keep from getting this disease because even though things slow down and businesses opened up, the business in the health industry continue to be the same. This argument is Stated how workers process through a global shut down.

Contribution to the Archive

My last social experience before COVID-19 was late March 2020. One thing I remember is always getting up at 8 AM, did the same routine. Brush my teeth, take a shower, and drive to school. I never had to wear a mask to cover up myself and everything just seem more peaceful and normal. But also, at the time, I was always working. I work at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but I didn’t always work like 40-60 hours a week. I worked a solid 30 hours a week. Working here was my last social experience. The interactions
with people was always fun as usual, I got to know more people around the whole stadium and seemed more adaptable every time I went up there. I was always able to walk to work from either Georgia state or the Marta train, happy, listening to music & even dancing. The music I listen to then is the same as I listen to now. Straight Taylor Swift and Chris Brown. I did not read as much before the pandemic. I would always watch my favorite sport, basketball every day at 7 PM when I left work. The last fun activity I’ve done before everything got out of hand, was going for a walk on the trailer with my friend. Just walking in the woods with her, looking at the water & ducks, taking pictures, and videoing ourselves. It was a very fun experience. That was the final social interaction, I’ve done before the infamous outbreak.

When I first started hearing about the COVID-19 pandemic. it was early January. I saw on the news that there was an outbreak in China. My initial reaction was to ignore it and that illness wasn’t going to come to the United States. I suddenly got serious about it around mid-March. I saw it on NBA news. the illness. COVID-19. Adam Silver (A.k.a. NBA commissioner) decided to shut down the NBA season after a player caught the disease. I remember this happened on March 15, 2020. I was getting ready to watch Utah jazz versus Oklahoma City. I saw a player named Rudy Gobert. The news also reported that an NBA player tested positive for COVID-19. After that, everything was getting shut down. This started to become real. I went on social media and saw a lot of posts about places, restaurants, cities being shut down immediately. People went into panic mode. There were tissue outages, food shortages, and more. Once that happened I immediately went into my room and got on the joysticks. Turn the TV on and “immediately” played video games. After a couple of hours Of intense gaming, I went downstairs and grabbed a snack, changed to the real TV, and watched the news. I grabbed my phone and looked on the news app. I saw that more people were getting COVID-19 and I took it seriously. So we all got into lockdown mode. The next day, it was a unique day. I couldn’t go anywhere. I wasn’t able to go to work and loads of events were canceled due to this crisis. I started getting very happy because there was about to be a lockdown and super curious about how this was going to go. Once the government started shutting everything down I started to think and think, and said to myself, “What if this is like what I saw in on the Simpsons Movie”. But, I started to wonder if we were going to go back out. This was really fun for me because I get to play
video games with my boys, classes got moved online & I get to eat up all the food!
What comforted me during this lockdown? I got to play so many video games. I loved it. I completed tons of 10-hour shifts by playing the video game. I literally volunteered to work 12-hour shifts by playing call of duty. All jokes aside, I actually went and got a job 15 days after the lockdown. Staying inside playing video games got boring. So, I searched up for jobs. I then got a job. I started working at a particular place named Amazon. Amazon helped me buy so much food and also had a very easy task up there. Whenever I got home from work, I got to play some more video games, watched TV shows like Big Bang Theory, which I binged twice during the lockdown, and I’ve also got to watch NBA-bubble basketball. I also found a show on Netflix called You. Those are some great shows that I spent little time of my free time watching. In my other free time, I got to play some more video games. But there was one month that I actually spent 1-2 hours conditioning my body. This month was July 2020. I spent a great amount of time trying to get my body back until I had a toe injury. Another great thing during the lockdown was my job (Mercedes Benz Stadium) was giving back every month. Besides working at Amazon, I got a little income for six months which was very generous of Arthur Blank. The best day of the lockdown was Thanksgiving 2020. I ate some food, watched football and lastly, I played 2K! I got to the party with my friends debated for about two hours over nothing and went to sleep. starting from March 2020. The world felt normal. Then during the months of the “LOCKDOWN”, I found out that “not everybody is your friend”. Through the course of the lockdown, I wondered, who I will hang out with every day. Despite me not having a lot of friends in my neighborhood, I was a little curious about friends.
During the course of the months of February 2021- July 2021, I found out social media was a huge distraction. When I was locked inside my house in 2020, there were times that were just boring and I just go on social media and see what my friends or others are doing. Throughout 2021, I found out that I have a bunch of hobbies and interests in life than I expected. I always thought I could do one thing but then I learned that I love multiple things. When I stop playing video games on January 14, 2021 because of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I thought I’d be super depressed. I learned that it actually makes me happier. I balanced out everything from social media to reflection to work. I think going forward I will always balance my work, my free time, and alone time. I also worked on my ego and changed it positively. The lockdown and social media made me look at the world differently. I saw the changes, accepted them, & worked on myself. I think the lockdown was a great thing for me.