"Ted Talk: The Surprising Science of Happiness" Response

In this Ted Talk, Dan Gilbert explains the idea of synthetic happiness and how it can sometimes be even more valid than "natural" happiness. Basically, we have the ability as humans to create happiness within ourselves in any situation, whether good or bad, with our mindset and attitude. I enjoyed listening to this speech and was able to easily remained focused during it because of Gilbert's effective speech tactics and organization.

I think Gilbert did a superb job in his speech with his tone, volume, and organization. In general, he had an interesting, non-monotone vocal projection that made listening fun and effortless. My favorite part about this is in the introduction. He asked the audience who they thought would be happier after a year: a person who won the lottery or a paralytic.  He displayed a graph that showed that lottery winners were approximately 3 times happier, causing the audience to chuckle slightly because of this obvious claim. But, then he switched the slide quickly to show that the ACTUAL data says that the paralytics are slightly happier on average. The crowd grew silent quickly because it was as if he had punched them in the face with this shocking statistic and made their attention level skyrocket. I think using a quick curveball in a presentation such as this is an affective way to quickly catch the audience's attention in a unique, non-cliché way. The other thing that I thought was affective in this was his use of many examples supported by graphs and pictures. Visual representations of what you are saying that are simple and easy to remember can be beneficial, but I also think they can be slightly distracting. A few of the graphs he used were slightly confusing to me, which required much of my focus, resulting in distraction from the main point. Overall, I think he did a fairly good job using the visuals, but I would have liked to see the graphs laid out in a more comprehensive way. Lastly, I think Gilbert had a great conclusion. He encapsulated the main idea of his entire speech into a few short sentences that make it easy for a listener to walk away remembering the most important ideas, rather than insignificant details. I will be using many of these techniques in my upcoming speech to maximize my chance of success.

Detroit vs. Everybody Response

Normally, reading something as descriptive as this would bore me immensely, but this article actually kept my attention very well. Part of that might have been because of the frequent pictures every few lines, but I think it is also because of good writing that gave a good look into a place I've never been to or thought much about. The first example Rembert gave about the Heidelberg Project is one of the odder things I've heard about a city. I don't think I'd particularly enjoy going to the area and seeing the different buildings of art, but I respect it and think it is a pretty neat idea.
The thing I liked reading about the most was the bizarre, near-empty Belle Isle Park. While most people would find it unappealing to go to a park that is near abandoned, I find the idea quite interesting. I would not like to go to this place alone, but with a few friends, I think it would be a place I would enjoy spending my weekends at.
I enjoyed the content of this article because of the idea of looking past the bad to see the good. So often in life we are consumed with people's and things' negatives characteristics over their positive ones. Even if someone does ten good things and one bad thing, we will always be quick to remember that one bad thing and dwell on it and base our opinion of that person off of it. This article does point out the negative things of Detroit right off the bat, but I think he does a good job of counterbalancing those with unique, positive things that the city brings. Now, is it a city I would like to visit one day? Not particularly, but, I do have a respect for it and I understand why people might love it. Every city, and person, has a unique thing to contribute to life. I think we need to stop acting like it is our job to judge who and what is the best and just enjoy the simple pleasures of the variety of life.

"My Bodies of the Year" Response

I feel like Morris does not start or end this article in a very relevant way. In the actual article, he talks a lot about how bodies are highly praised in today's world, but he did not really do a good job at connecting these many points to his main idea that today is more about the "little things." I did think, however, that he did a great job with supplying multiple examples of how this year has not been the year for "beautiful" bodies. Although, there is one huge example from 2013 I can think up the top of my head that stands against his claim: Miley Cyrus. She tried to be sexy and whatnot in "Wrecking Ball," but I don't think many people saw it as that. They just saw it as another nice Disney Channel Star going off the deep end.
Even though I do not think Morris's intro did a good job at relating to the idea that today is more about the "little things," I think the story about his mother did a great job at easing into his thoughts about how bodies are seen. He also did a successful job of reminding us that the media isn't always right and life is more than just about sexiness. I personally get tired of constantly seeing hotness and sexiness flaunted everywhere. Personally, I like it when girls are more cute than hot and it gets tiresome when I feel like every girl is aiming to be hot. It's just not as attractive to me. People are so consumed these days with finding a partner who is just hot as can be and personality, beliefs, and other things don't matter, and I think that's partially media's fault. Once you get old and your spouse gets unattractive... then what? I don't like the role that media plays in our society now. Everyone keeps up to date with all these famous people's lives and marriages and what not, and not that there is anything wrong with that, I just don't understand the point. I want to enjoy my own life and be successful in what I do, and I don't need to feel the need to follow all these celebrities who are indulging in whatever they want and coming out unhappy in the end. Basically, I just think that looks and hotness are much too overvalued in today's society. There is definitely more to life, such as my faith in God, that I would rather consume my time with than worry about what I look like on the outside. The things of this earth will pass away sooner than we know it, and I'd rather focus my time and energy on the things that will matter after it is all said and done.