I’ve struggled with school and classes for a long time. There’s always been classes where I never enjoy learning, doing the work, or even just showing up to class. In James Gee highlighted the rigidness of school and how fixed of a system it is. With focuses on just reading letters to sounds, with no attention to social circles and how others may not understand as well just based on the circles they’re in. This is just one of the many ways school remains rigid and restricting. I’d always thought maybe I just don’t enjoy learning, but this isn’t true. I spend my time outside of school constantly learning, whether that’s, training for the Olympics, working in restaurants, or even finding good spots to eat in town. All of these things I do because I enjoy them. But why can’t I enjoy school? I believe the answer lies in the fact that I do enjoy school. But only specific classes that come along. Especially with the way majors are structured, I’m forced to take certain classes. Over the years I feel that I’ve built a resentment for classes that are required and I’m the slightest bit disinterested in. Yes sometimes we have to do hard things, but at some point the amount of classes you’re forced to do adds up and it becomes not worth it anymore. This is also present in video games. But the ability to pick and choose as well as follow genres and games you find familiar and enjoy create a much more enjoyable experience and I find myself coming back and enjoying my time. Maybe I have to change my degree like I would change games in hopes of finding something I enjoy and would come back to.
Author: Adiam Alula Frezghi
RefAnnBib #3: Social Media Affects on One’s Mental Health
Part 1: Bibliographic Entry: Ánges Zsila and Marc Eric S. Reyes. Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health. BMC Psychol 11, 201 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01243-x .
Part 2: Terminology/Keywords
- Mental Health
- Social Media
- Self-esteem
- Increased Sadness and Isolation
- Health Conditions
- Positive and Negative Effects
- Behaviors
Part 3: Précis: This article more of highlights the pro and cons of how and what social media does to everyone. It definitely causes some severe mental health issues, especially when it comes the more negativity side, cyberbullying, death threats and more. Yet, for the positive side of social media, there are definitely helpful things to look at, as well as things that you enjoy and make you happy, like for example, there’s a video of a puppy of social media, I find it cute and it makes me happy because I love puppies. For the negative side, I know the many bad things there is on media platforms, but it’s best to steer clear of that and don’t let it take over and get to you because the ending result can be very consequential and scary, like leading to mental health and other issues. Social Media’s Pros and Cons is something you have to look out for.
Part 4: Reflection: I decided to choose this topic because I definitely know the different effects of how social media does to one another. I remember doing a high school statistics project similar on that and the results were pretty high on how it negatively affects students. Social media is a good platform to connect with others, as well as family, but it definitely has it’s downfalls that cause insecurities and sadness for people who currently use social media and how often they use it.
Part 5: Quotables
“Social media can provide opportunities to enhance the mental health of users by facilitating social connections and peer support.”
“Social media has become integral to our daily routines: we interact with family members and friends, accept invitations to public events, and join online communities to meet people who share similar preferences using these platforms. Social media has opened a new avenue for social experiences since the early 2000s, extending the possibilities for communication.”
“Concerns have been raised that social media may lead to body image dissatisfaction, increase the risk of addiction and cyberbullying involvement, contribute to phubbing behaviors, and negatively affects mood.”
“Indeed, online communities can provide a space for discussions regarding health conditions, adverse life events, or everyday challenges, which may decrease the sense of stigmatization and increase belongingness and perceived emotional support. Mutual friendships, rewarding social interactions, and humor on social media also reduced stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
RefAnnBib #2: Diversity and Inclusion in the WorkPlace
Part 1: Bibliographic Entry: Matt Bush. “Why is Diversity and Inclusion in the Work Place Important?” Great Place to Work. https://www.greatplacetowork.com/resources/blog/why-is-diversity-inclusion-in-the-workplace-important. Published 25 Aug, 2023. Accessed 4 Dec, 2023.
Part 2: Terminology/Keywords
- Diversity
- Inclusion
- Difference
- Importance
- Workplace
- Genders, Race, and Nationalities
- Interconnected Concepts
- Equally
- High-trust workplace
Part 3: Précis: This article clearly dives into explaining a understanding of some reasons of how diversity and inclusion is more important in the workplace, following the race, age, culture, nationality and the sexual orientation that sums up how people are viewed in the jobs they work because of how people can be treated differently from others. Companies should strive to create a diverse and inclusive workplace that helps to create a positive and productive environment for everyone. This can help to reduce bias and discrimination and create a more inclusive culture. As a result, it is also a useful tool for attracting and retaining high-quality employees. In order to create an environment where everyone, regardless of race and origin, is comfortable and safe, as well as being recognized for their work in the workplace, as well as being respected by their coworkers. When it comes to some jobs that are done in the world, some might only include the majority of men, when there are very little women and or men/women of color that might work in the job, which is an issue for some people because they don’t feel comfortable or respected enough as a person in their job, which is why diversity and inclusion is partically important as a whole.
Part 4: Reflection: I decided to choose this topic and article because I would honestly say that on TV and in real life, diversity is a big concern for most people. On television, there are some shows I watched that included a workplace with very little women, yet there’s a majority of men included there, which makes the women feel left out and not respected for the majority of work that they all do, while the men mostly don’t care what they have to say. Comparing TV to real life situations is more similar sometimes than you think. In real life, even though I haven’t worked in a workplace, I know that when I think of another situation, like school classrooms, I realized that most times, especially when I was in high school, there was a majority of boys in class than there were girls. This shows that the representation of gender, as well as race and nationality in TV is not that farfetched from reality.
Part 5: Quotables:
“A genuinely inclusive workplace doesn’t just have a diversity of people present, it has a diversity of people involved, developed, empowered, and trusted by the business.”
“The difference between diversity, inclusion and belonging is that diversity is the representation of different people in an organization, inclusion is ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute to and influence every part and level of a workplace, and belonging is ensuring that everyone feels safe and can bring their full, unique selves to work.”
“Workplaces today are more diverse and globally connected than ever before. With the complexities of today’s work environment, leaders must tap into collective intelligence to maximize the potential of every person.”
“Diversity focuses on representation or the make-up of an entity.”
“Inclusion is about how well the contributions, presence, and perspectives of different groups of people are valued and integrated into an environment.”
“An environment where many different genders, races, nationalities, and sexual orientations and identities are present but only the perspectives of certain groups are valued or carry any authority or influence, may be diverse, but it is not inclusive.”
RefAnnBib #1: Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems
Part 1: Bibliographic Entry: National Library of Medicine: Haileamlak A. “The impact of COVID-19 on health and health systems.” Ethiop J Health Sci. 2021 Nov;31(6):1073-1074. doi: 10.4314/ejhs.v31i6.1. PMID: 35392335; PMCID: PMC8968362.
Part 2: Terminology/Keywords:
- COVID-19
- Healthcare and Health Systems
- Impact
- Global pandemic
- Essential Services
- Infections
- Medicine
Part 3: Précis
This article written by Abraham Haileamlak, doctor of medicine, professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, dives into the impact of how COVID-19 affected doctors and people working in healthcare and as well as hospitals where they were taking care of millions of patients that got sick from covid-19 and passed due to it. I know due to COVID-19, it was very devastating for healthcare workers, doctors and nurses to see patients suffer and pass on from the covid-19 virus, a big impact on everyone and families around the world. Stated from the article, “The most common reasons mentioned by for critical gaps or reduced services during COVID-19 were shifting of health care workers to support COVID-19 services, cancellations of planned treatments, decrease in public transport, loss of income to pay for services and limited utilization and high rates of morbidity and mortality among health care workers, were another reason leading to staff shortages.” It provides a pretty good explanation of why healthcare resources and services for covid-19 and sick patients include mostly transportation resources and less money than the healthcare workers, resulting in a shortage of medicines and hospital resources.
Part 4: Reflection
During the covid virus between 2019 and 2020, my family and I were affected by covid-19, which is why I chose this topic. Despite the fact that I find this topic interesting, when it comes to COVID-19, it’s a very important topic to examine, especially when it comes to people’s health. All of us should be aware of the risks and how to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Besides providing support for those affected, we should also provide them with the resources that they need to cope with the situation in the best way possible.
Part 5: Quotables
“Similarly, in Ethiopia, following the first COVID-19 reported case in March 2020, the health system was challenged heavily. The ever increasing COVID-19 cases demanded reshuffling health care workers and repurposing health care facilities.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the direct disease burden, it posed a significant risk of indirect morbidity and mortality from other preventable and treatable diseases as a result of essential health services disruption.”
“The current issue of the Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, the sixth regular issue for the year 2021, contains an editorial, twenty-five original articles and two case reports focusing on various topics.”
“A significant level of health service delivery was impacted, especially, during the early times owing to the steady spread of the virus across all settings. It posed challenge on health human resource management, facility utilization and medical supply management.”
“The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the global pandemic, causing Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus -2 (SARS CoV-2), has devastated the world resulting in several million infections and close to five million deaths till late October 2021.”
Eritrea: Land of Valor
As well as I’m so proud and my home/country where my parents were born and from, I chose to write a prompt for ChatGPT to write a poem about Eritrea, some facts and important things about my culture and how much I love it, as well as everything involved,
Eritrea has a lot of color and love into the culture, as well as with the people. The culture is surrounded with a bunch of beautiful and amazing people, like myself and my family. We also have many traditions and celebrations that are done for a symbolism of strength, as well as growth and suffrage that our country has fought for 30+ years and many more forward on in the future. Eritrea, I would say is known for the cultural dances and the amazing food, which consist of many spices and sauces, and other such dishes that are eaten. Also want to add the type of music that we listen to is so beautiful and memorizing to hear.
But, following along, here’s the poem that ChatGPT generated for me about Eritrea and the importance




After seeing this poem being written by ChatGPT, It’s pretty interesting and as well as it was easy. I really how ChatGPT used really good phrases that makes the poem seem better. I can say generative AI is really useful, as well as it provides you with great prompts and ideas.
Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet
After going on with close reading and analyzing “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet”, this story was done in 2009 and the description online of her story was to warn other about the dangers of climate change and the influence of greed on society, which is basically explaining the concern and feelings and something that’s important for people to know because climate change is a big problem in America and around the world now. For the subject of the influence of greed on society is that this is explaining the amount of greed there is and now going on in the world, especially I would say with politics too. When it comes to greed, I would say it’s a big problem in society, as well as money involved with greed, or anything else, effects to everyone. Greed, I would say, causes people to act selfish and make immoral decisions in life. Both topics are partly harmful in life.
What Margaret Atwood is describing here, as well as how she is using genre conventions to strategically effect change in readers is that she specifically describes different points of life and the environment. She describes the different points written in a poem, starting with this being written, according to “Time capsule found on the dead planet by Margaret Atwood” on theguardian.com “In the third age, money became a god. It was all-powerful, and out of control. It began to talk. It began to create on its own. It created feasts and famines, songs of joy, lamentations. It created greed and hunger, which were its two faces.” I would say this one quote is basically explaining the big effect of what money does in people’s lives. Some points that show the impact of money, good or bad in that, the way it can help and destroy things. Her use of genre conventions helps influence readers to look and watch out for the dangers in society.
“The Comet” Analysis
When reading “The Comet”, the author, Du Bois, chooses to immediately introduce the audience with the context, the setting, the main character Jim, as well as the eventual foreshadowing of current events. Jim is a poor black man, an outcast, someone who is not viewed equally as other “valuable men” due to the presence of racism embedded into the social hierarchy of their society. He is often pushed aside, as a person of no importance or significance and the way Du Bois demonstrates it is through the use of pronouns instead of his actual given name. He was told to stay within the proximity of the basement while “valuable men” like the President and other important figures headed further into the Earth’s surface to their bunkers which Du Bois implicitly hints towards the categorization and description of wealthy White men. The author chooses to tell his futuristic fiction novel through the use of third person narration, imagery, as well as dialogue amongst the characters to give the audience an clear image of what is being depicted. This rhetorical artifact brings up many connections to the world we live in today. Many times we take changes, especially racial changes for granted despite, people of marginalized groups risking their life to fight for their rights as both equals but also as a human being. Such divisions in society would only further divide citizens of a country, whether it is social, economical, political or racial conflicts.
It wasn’t until “The Comet” that supposedly rained down on Earth that nearly wiped out all of humanity except Jim and Julia, that racial barriers were broken. Jim himself, was petrified that everyone around him were dead silent due to the toxic gas that was excreted out of the comet but it wasn’t just that, it was coincidentally that all of those who are dead around him are whites. I think this sort of creates a contrast about the aftermath of racism in comparison to the society that was fundamentally built on systemic racism. Unlike Jim, Julia, the only other survivor, a rich white girl came to see Jim differently than others as a human being now that they were the only ones that survived such a devastating event. But then the question arrives, would Julia have done the same if “The Comet” incident never took place? What if it briefly nearly touched a speck of the Earth’s atmosphere? I would think that the existing racism would be more likely to persist rather than change. It becomes apparent that our ignorance and prejudice have to take such measures and length to achieve equality for minorities.
I think a lot of the issues can be said about the society that America has become over the course of its history and such issues are still enduring today. For example, the controversy of Florida banning the teachings of African American history and LGBTQ sensitive psychology just to name a few. Another conflict that was brought up implicitly by Du Bois was money. Although it is true that money is useful for all sorts of stuff but mainly for the convenience of exchange and trade, there are also consequences of such conventions. Money has caused people to feel greed, the idea of not feeling satisfied with the amount of money that they are making as well as envy, the idea of wishing, fantasizing, and wanting to possess the amount of wealth that they themselves can’t require. The same can be applied to the world today, since the industrial age and pre modern times, many immigrants from all over the world to chase and fly in hopes of achieving the so called “American Dream” alternatively known as “The Land of Opportunities.”
P.S. I’m eager to hear, what are your thoughts of “The Comet” by Du Bois? :3


