Put the Phones Down at the Table

The dinner table, a place for family members to have conversation and spend quality time for each other. Dinner time at the table was always the time and place to talk about each other’s day and have valuable time together. Now it’s just another time of the day to be on your phone and barely pay attention to the conversation and your family members. For parents and older people out there, the question is when will the dinner table talks and family time come back.

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One of the possible reasons why the younger generation may not care about the importance of the dinner table time is because they are more worried about what is happening in the social media world. They would rather scroll through twitter and snapchat then talk with their family members. Another reason why the family dinner time may be a thing of the past is everyone in the family is so busy with other things, there is no time for a full family dinner. Both of these reasons may be the cause of why the precious family dinner table conversations have gone by the wayside.

When we take a closer look at the family dinner table conversation, I believe we can see just how important it is for a family. Sitting down at the family dinner table and talking to your loved ones is an invaluable part of the day that you can never take back. For most families, there may not be too many times where you can sit down with your family and talk about your day, problems you're facing, or just life. So when you and your family get the chance to have a family dinner with everyone, put the cellphone down, take part in the conversation, because one day you won’t be able to sit down with your whole family and just talk to each other. 

Google Images url

This is my micro theme I typed up about the dinner table phone usage. It is getting out of hand people! Don't you want to spend time and talk with your family? In most cases now I guess the answer is no, I'd rather check my twitter feed and snapchat my food to people. We need to wake up people and realize that the dinner table is not a place to tweet and post pictures, the dinner table is a place where families gather and talk about what happened in their lives, where they share memories of the past, and a place where the younger members gain wisdom from their elders. In my life, whenever we have a family dinner the phones go into a basket and are put away. I personally love giving my phone away because I want to take the dinner table time I have and spend it with the people I love, my family. The younger generation doesn't understand that the dinner table conversations are important, because they won't be able to happen forever, family members passing away or moving, you won't be able to say "Oh there will be more of these". So next time you are having a family dinner, hold off on the tweet or snapchat and talk to your family, that precious time doesn't last forever. 

TRAFFIC

My micro theme topic is very close to my heart, and I have a problem with it everyday, TRAFFIC. There is nothing worse than being stuck in traffic, absolutely nothing. How does it even start is my question, because if every car is moving there is no way that there can be stopped cars on the road to create traffic. As a commuter I deal with traffic all the time and I get frustrated easily so the rush hour is not a happy time for me. Now I do understand that road work and construction can cause delays, but if every car can move a little there should be no reason for start and stop traffic to happen. The driver I hate the most is the driver that stops and watches the construction and the accidents on the road. WHY?!?!? You are about to cause the next accident if you keep your eyes off the road so just keep driving and mind your own business. I can't stand drivers who text either because they are the ones who drive slow to accommodate their texting. A text, selfie, or a tweet can wait till you are done driving. I personally believe that Chicago has the worst traffic in all of the US, but anywhere you go traffic will be bad, its become a part of your life and it will never go away.

The video shows traffic in Mumbai, yikes is all I have to say.

Documentaries

Documentary movies are the best types of movies. Personally they are my favorite, and I will watch at least one during the week when I have free time. These type of films are so interesting because they show an event or series of events that actually happened, with going in depth and showing the background information that we didn't know while the event was going on. My favorite types of documentaries are ESPN 30 for 30, documenting a wide range of stories from the sporting world. These are my favorite because I have a deep passion for sports, and I love looking at past sporting events and finding out the story          behind these impactful sporting events. 

I believe that watching documentary films can really advance a writer's skill and knowledge about reporting information. Relaying information and describing it to the reader is so critical as a writer and we need to know how to do these skills in order to put out our best work. Documentary directors and writers do a really good job relaying new information to the viewer about an old topic, which can be a very hard thing to do. I know  by watching my documentary I chose I am more knowledgeable about how to express my feelings about a topic that has already taken place. 


My documentary is called, "Of Miracles and Men", which an ESPN 30 for 30 film that shows the soviet side of the 1980 hockey game between the United States and the Soviet Union. There has been countless commentary's and shows about what the United States players, fans and citizens felt about the game, but this documentary goes into great detail and shows this historic event from the soviet side, and how the game of hockey was started back in the country. With hockey as my life, I was so interested and loved every minute of the film. Seeing how the  Russians really felt after the loss to the United States and how if affected them opened my eyes to the other side of an event I thought I knew so well. I highly recommend this documentary and promise you that even if you don't know hockey at all, you will learn so much about one of the most impactful sporting events in history. 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twitter.android

If you were to ask everyone of my fourth graders in my day camp group what this logo is; I guarentee you that all of them would say Twitter in less than a second. Twitter is the life source of most teenagers now a days, I did say most, some still stick to Facebook. Those "some" are now middle age people and you can even see some old people having a Facebook now! Now who wants their grandma commenting on every one of their pictures, I know my answer would be a big no. Twitter is now slowly starting to take over Facebook's spot at the top of the mountain, and here is the big reason why. 

With Twitter, you can report something that is going on right this instant. Now I guess you can do the same on Facebook, but with Twitter it gives you updates by the second. A reporter who is in Europe reporting about the refugee crisis can put out two tweets in about 20 seconds giving a person back in the USA knowledge that they wouldn't have known without this tweet making app. Twitter allows stories like the refugee crisis and the riots in Baltimore to become relevant and known quicker then ever. You can be in Romeoville, IL and find out whats going on in Beijing, its that universal. Even though the company was started in 2006, it really didn't start to become popular till a year later. Since it became popular, Twitter has given the people of the world an outlet to share their feelings, a place to interact, and most importantly, has been a catalyst for people to be heard. 

It surprised me when most of my College Writing class said they didn't have a Twitter account, because many college kids use Twitter to network with companies they would like to work for along with the many personal reasons why they have it. My personal opinion on Twitter, I love it. I can connect with so many people all over this planet and can get the latest and fastest news updates, faster then even the news stations at times! So if I were you, I would get a twitter, there isn't any grandmas commenting on photos and you will be more knowledgeable then ever!