My daily routine consists of the same pattern.. After turning off alarm at 4:15 A.M. on my iPhone 6, I roll out of my comfortable bed groggily, stumble to the bathroom, hi on hte light and while waiting on the shower to heat up, I grab my Colgate toothbrush and toothpaste and began brushing my teeth. After I clothed myself, I start my car, and while it warms up, I brew myself a cup of coffee, grab a banana and soon I’m out the door. WIthin minutes of waking up, I am totally dependent on objects around me. Without my phone, how would I ever wake up on time? WIthout my shower and toothbrush, how can I ever expect to keep up my hygiene and appear presentable in society? WIthout clothes? UNfortunately society won’t permit me to live as a nudist.
Objects dictate our lives. Living in a materialistic world, one cannot help put only attempt to fight the urge to keep up with the latest fashion, technologies or cars. Everyday, society reminds us what objects are ‘necessary’ for a happy, productive, fulfilling life. Yet in our contemporary society, pushing aside the massive amount of propaganda directed towards consumers, what objects can be deemed truly necessary?
Growing up, my parents never placed significant evidence on materialistic objects. My family and I lived in a modest house, in a modest surbia. My father, a frugal man, would rather save than spend. My mother, an artist, enjoyed creating new out of old. Hene their lack of materialism rubbed on me. When I discovered this project would be based around objects, I felt lost. How can I write about objects when i feel no personal connection or attachment to such things. But once I began this course, with experiments such as the Reflective Free Writing and the Photo Study Project, I discovered I could write well when describing objects I developed a connection with. These connections I developed with objects formed through different reasons. Some objects such as the blacket my grandmother made for my when I was five remains significant to me and only me through the memories and experiences I associated with my blanket. Objects such as currency and my car provide necessary functions that would make everyday living difficult. WIth this newly discovered concept I learned most objects are deemed ‘necessary’ though individualistic prerogative. For some objects like phones or cars, the need or want for an object remains completely subjective. Yet objects like toilet paper, and warmth and shelter are necessary for man’s survival.Objects’ significance is determined through individualistic opinion and also the emphasis a society may place on such objects.
During this project, I primarily employed logos ( by explaining my reasoning), as my rhetorical device. Objects and its condemnation of necessary or not is subjective. Hence I chose to rely on logic and reasoning to convey this. Preference and opinions fall into pathos.I believe if I attempted to use emotion to convey my message concerning objects, it would appear I have an emotional attachment to objects myself ruining my personal ethos. Overall I enjoyed this project. I enjoyed the combination of research and then combining that research with creative writing. I enjoy historical context and by being able to write my opinion with absolute freedom and few restrictions concerning my writing remained a new concept which I enjoyed immensely. My major complaint was the amount of technical issues I had with this project. Entering my own information into the template was simple. But any additions I added to the original template proved troublesome. My primary problem was when I added new rows, the new categories would not adjust the date to accurately fit in the timeline. The car and tree slide belonged further up but manually moving them in the columns still would not change their position. My final technical issue was entering dates. I had many dates before the year one A.D. but the system never allow me to enter B.C. dates rendering my timeline’s dates not as accurate as possible. All in all, other than my frustrating technical issues, I’m proud of my final product.
