Bibliography Rasmussen, R. "Another Bad PR Month for Foxconn." SMT Surface Mount Technology Magazine Apr. 2012: Print. Q, Cheng. "The Foxconn Suicides and Their Media Prominence: Is the Werther Effect Applicable in China?" BMC Public Health 11 (2011): 841. Print

For my digital story, I am going to start by giving the basic information on my topic, which is the suicides at Foxconn. I plan to talk about the factors leading up to the suicides and the deaths in general. I would also like to elaborate on how the materials that the workers are dealing with are dangerous. From there, I am going to insert pictures and a video of the conditions at Foxconn such as the images that follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tus3SBlI4XM

Next, I plan to talk about the steps that Apple took to eliminate the problems and the viewers will see that Foxconn did not do much. From there, I plan to include pictures of the dorms and more pictures of the factories. I will close my digital story with a video of testimonials from Foxconn employees as seen in the link that follows.

                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPzvBeMVU9k

I would like to end my digital story by leaving it open ended and make the viewers think about other steps that Foxconn can make to improve their working conditions.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/26/edward-snowden-hero-traitor-debate

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/edward-snowden-poll_n_4175089.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10162351/Edward-Snowden-is-a-traitor-just-as-surely-as-George-Blake-was.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/06/edward-snowden-treason.html

Digital Story Annotated Bibliography

Lindsay Georger

November 16, 2013

Digital Story Annotated Bibliography

Lucas, Kristen. "Workplace Dignity in a Total Institution: Examining the Experiences of Foxconn's                                    

                Migrant Workforce." Journal of Business Ethics 114.1 (2013): 91-106.

On top of my research of the horrible conditions that Foxconn employees endure, a source in this essay says that the factories work under mismanagement and abuse. Employees have expressed their dissatisfaction with their place of employment. One worker even states that the factory employees are not human beings but treated more as machines. This evidence backs up the portion of my digital story that states that Foxconn’s employees are not treated fairly.

Rasmussen, R. "Another Bad PR Month for Foxconn." SMT Surface Mount Technology             

               Magazine Apr. 2012: Print.

This article that comes from a magazine argues that even though it may seem like the media is targeting Foxconn, they are the ones putting a target on their own back. The CEO of Foxconn was just caught referring to his employees as animals. This caused much controversy and brought Foxconn into the spotlight even though they are trying to lay low. Why would they try to lay low? It is because they are not doing anything to fix their working conditions. The people at Foxconn are essentially just hoping that this blows over instead of facing the problems head on. My goal with my digital story is to bring the problem back to light and think of some simple yet effective solutions.

Q, Cheng. "The Foxconn Suicides and Their Media Prominence: Is the Werther Effect          

            Applicable in China?" BMC Public Health 11 (2011): 841. Print.

This article refers to the suicides that occurred at Foxconn as a temporal cluster of suicides. It also talks about how the media contributed to the controversy. The article says that if people had not killed themselves, no one would have known or cared about the conditions at Foxconn. It also states that if the media had not talked about it so much then it would have seemed like a coincidence. We have talked about the media being involved in everything we do and in this case, it is good that the media was involved. My goal with this article is to relate it to inquiring how we can use media to spread the message even more and I intend to use my digital story to do so.

Xu, Kaibin, and Wenqing Li. "An Ethical Stakeholder Approach to Crisis

            Communication: A Case Study of Foxconn's 2010 Employee Suicide Crisis."Journal of    

           Business Ethics 117.2 (2013): 371-86.

This article focuses on the efforts made by Foxconn as a result of the suicides that I describe in my digital story. The authors of the article say that the executives at Foxconn reached out to the valuable stockholders who were bringing in a lot of money for their company to answer their questions and addressing their concerns instead of worrying about the other workers. Foxconn neglected to realize their employees as important stockholders as well and they would not take responsibility for the suicides. This article supports my idea that Foxconn is not doing enough for their employees to prevent future suicides from happening.

Codes of Gender

Lindsay Georger, Megan, Noemi, Catie, Ashley

Digital Story Proposal

             Workers at Foxconn have endured less than ideal conditions in the Apple factories. Foxconn supports Apple, Sony, HP, Dell, Nintendo, Motorola, and Nokia. Mainly in the Apple factories, the workers put up with low wages and long hours under an inhumane and abusive management system. For my digital story, I will start by talking about the harsh realities that are Foxconn factories.

             The employees are being driven towards suicide so I will explain the reasons behind the suicides. First and foremost, the “employees are paid only $1.78 per hour.” (Mashable.com) While working they must have some place to live so they can rent out dorms for $17 a month. These are not your average double rooms however. The employees share the rooms with seven roommates. While on the job, the work is lengthy and difficult making the low wages not even comparable to what they deserve. To assemble a single iPad, it takes five days and three hundred seventy five pairs of hands. Employees are using chemicals and materials that may be harmful to be around such as raw aluminum amongst other metals. In one shift, an employee can carve the apple logo into aluminum three thousand times or make 150,000 iPad cameras. They do this by taking very short breaks or no breaks at all in their already long workday. Their shifts are twelve hours and they get two meal breaks. The meals are seventy cents for cafeteria-style meat and rice. Despite these horrible conditions, thousands of people line up for the job because they need some sort of income. Of the people that want the job, Foxconn hires eighty percent of those people, some of which are as young as thirteen.

            Due to all of the previous conditions, between 2010 and 2013, twenty-four people tried to kill themselves because of the circumstances. In that time period, there were three suicide attempts in three days all of which ended with death. All of the people who attempted suicide were under the age of twenty-six. One specific instance was a seventeen-year-old girl who attempted suicide in 2010. She is now paralyzed from the waist down. Another circumstance falls on July 16, 2009, which is the date of one of the very first suicides. A man lost an iPhone so employees with seniority beat him and searched his room. He jumped from his apartment building the next day. Clearly, this is not right and there is no coincidence in this situation. Next in my digital story, I am going to try to collect some footage from the actual factory workers or stories about them in order to portray to my audience the type of people that are working in the factories and the type of people that are ending their lives all for a job. By putting in little clips of the factory workers, it will strike the viewers heartstrings hopefully because it’s hard to watch something and think that the person in the video is so unhappy.

            Following the clips of real life Foxconn employees, I plan to elaborate on the improvements that Foxconn has made even though very little progress has been made. However, small changes have been made to alter the once unimaginable work place that was Foxconn. First, they announced, “No employee could work more than 49 hours a week”. (NY Times) Also, people working for Foxconn who were sixteen and seventeen have to work lighter jobs and cannot work at night. Regarding the suicides, all Foxconn has done is put a suicide net around the perimeter of their factories and dorm buildings. People consider this to be putting a bandage on the issue. I intend for my digital story to make people think about what else could be done to make working at Foxconn less miserable.

            The style of my digital story is going to be set up like a power point but the pictures are going to play as videos as a means of transitioning from topic to topic. My digital story will start with the horrible things that have happened to the employees at Foxconn then transition into what the employees did because of their circumstances at the factories. From there, I will talk about what Foxconn did to improve how the employees felt about the company. At the end, I plan to leave it somewhat open-ended in hopes that the audience can join in and offer some better solutions to help the employees at Foxconn.

  

Works Cited

"Improving Working Conditions at Foxconn." New York Times. New York Times

            Company, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com>

Kelly, Samantha Murphy. 10 Staggering Facts behind Apple's Foxconn Factory.

            Mashable. N.p., 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. <http://mashable.com>.

In doing our social action project, it has gotten me thinking about the suicides at Foxconn. It poses a lot of questions. Does employees losing their lives not strike a cord with the owners? Do the other employees try to stop the suicides? How could they not try to stop the suicides sooner? Why did it take eighteen attempted suicides for it to get people's attention? The answer to these questions are anything but simple. The owners definitely could have done something to prevent the suicides. After the second person that should have triggered something and made them investigate and wonder. Didn't they think of the worker's families? Or the lives that they were leaving behind because of their working conditions. Why did it have to take multiple suicides for them to even put up nets? The people at Foxconn are selfish and apparently heartless. To know that eighteen people wanted their lives to end because of the working conditions that the owners lay out for them is disheartening and needs to change. Hopefully our social action project can have some effect on the situation. Even though we are only six people in a school of less than four thousand, we are hoping that through the student body and the power of the internet that we can make a change or at least make some steps towards a change.

Technology in Education

Technology is becoming much more prevalent in schools these days. The majority of classrooms have multiple computers. Some have tv's or smart boards. All of these tools are making teaching easier and using technology to get the lesson across. But is technology also hurting the student? While technology is used in the classroom, it is also used outside the classroom for homework or research. The majority of students have laptops or iPads and stay up late at night to complete their work on them. For some, I know that working on a computer can be somewhat distracting. When typing something up or looking up information on the computer, I know that I personally get distracted. I will type up a little bit and then check facebook, go on twitter, or listen to some music and next thing I know, an hour has passed and I am still not done with my work. The only thing stopping someone from getting distracted is self control which some people lack. Also, studies have shown that using electronics before bed such as a computer or cell phone throws off your sleep schedule due to the bright lights. And I know that lots of students stay up working on homework before bed. An article from US News says "The problem is that light exposure before sleep can disrupt body rhythms and suppress the release of the hormone melatonin, which promotes sleep."

Your iPhone is Killing People

There are many parts to an iPhone and many materials that make up this lovely piece of technology. But what are the dangers behind it and what are the sacrifices being made in order for us to enjoy that phone? The factory where they make these phones has such harsh conditions that the workers are miserable. They work long hours with short breaks if any. They work in uncomfortable conditions that have led some people to suicide. Is it far for these people to lose their lives or work like this just for us to enjoy our phones? Recently we watched a video with all of the chemicals that are in the materials used to make an iPhone. Thinking that people have to work with these materials on a daily basis is upsetting. If this problem was more prevalent in society and people spread the world, would things change? Would people keep buying iPhone's? Would the factory change its ways? No one really knows the whole story behind the production of iPhones. But if they did, what would change? The reality is probably nothing because the brand itself is successful and people enjoy their phone. This is just another example of us being selfish and putting our wants ahead of other peoples need.

Discussion Questions

1) Would you prefer a production based society or a consumption based society? Why?

2) Is there ever a point where we are truly satisfied with everything around us and in our lives?

3) Do you see our society as more production or consumption?

Social Media is An Outlet

The internet is used for everything these days. When we do not know the answer to something, we turn to the internet. You can basically find anything on the internet. People use the internet to make friends even. People will just add random people on Facebook or follow them on twitter and in some cases, friendships form over the computer. Or take match.com for example. People are meeting their significant others over the internet. There are still some concerns with what on the internet is true and what to trust. Some people, I think, are too trusting over the internet. So if people put so much faith and trust into the internet, it has become a great place to rap consumers into advertisements and buying things they do not need. So many people are on the internet these days that advertising on the internet is the most effective way to get a product out there. Personally, I notice the ads but do not necessarily pay attention to them because I find them annoying. On the side of browser pages, there are constantly ads but how often do people pay attention to them? And on videos, there are ads but 9 times out of 10, we skip them or do something else while they are playing. However, ignoring said ads may not be what everyone does. Some people might actually look at those ads and they may appeal to them. Even though some people like myself find ads to be annoying, using the internet to broadcast said ads is the smartest marketing move.

Government Takeover

I recently had a discussion with a student about America and how the government is completely taking over. He was talking all about how technology is giving them access to all of our information. In my opinion, he was being a little extreme. He got into cell phones first. He was saying how the government has every text message or phone call that we have ever sent on file. He also brought up the fact of the camera on our phone. He believes that the government can be constantly watching us through the lens on our phones. He also brought up how the government will soon be controlling everything we do and putting chips in our brain in order to keep track of and control our thoughts. In my opinion, I thought all of his points were a little extreme. How are they going to get the chips in our brain? Sure the government has a lot of control but not that much! The whole phone thing I could understand because that is somewhat true that they do have access to it all. Obviously, the government can find out more than we may want them to but gaining access to your brain is a little far fetched. Maybe I'm wrong and that could actually happen. I guess we will see. The point is as technology is advancing, the government is advancing their information on us. So how far is too far?

Comic Post

Dicussion Questions: Chomsky

1)The US is now just a business party instead of democratic and republican. Do you agree and why? 

2)How do you all feel about our government? if you could change one thing, what would it be?

3)Do you agree that the United States leads in power and influence? Why or why not?

4)How can the government give us more power or how can we bring back the differentiation between the democrats and republicans?

My blog this week is about the article we read for class on Wednesday. The article was all about how different things were technology. We just consider technology to be our digital devices such as our phone or computer but basically anything we use on a daily basis can be considered technology. Technology, in this article, is described as any item that aids us in something or any tool that makes something easier. From the time we wake up, we are constantly using forms of technology and do not even realize it. We wake up and check the time on the clock. Then we check our phones. Next, we put on our glasses which aid us in seeing obviously. Then, some people put on makeup. In order to do this, you need certain tools which qualify as technology. Next, we take our clothes off their hangers, which the article already described as a technology, and put our shoes on. Then we pick up our backpacks and  head to class. Our backpacks help us carry all of our books easier. A lot of things we use in class are technology as well. Pens and pencils aid us in writing things down and calculators help us perform math skills that maybe our brains are not capable of doing. After classes, we head to lunch. Plates help us transport our food, utensils help us eat the food, and cups help us drink. Then we do our homework. Our laptops aid us in that. Also, all throughout the day, we are using our cell phones, iPods, etc. All in all, technology is constantly in our daily lives.

Down With Lifehacking

This post is based on the article "Down With Lifehacking" by Evgeny Morozov. This article is based on making time and managing that time. He describes life hacking as a technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way. People should use technology to get things done more effectively and have more time for oneself. However, he goes on to say that maybe technology is doing the opposite and I agree. Technology is taking up so much of our time and we are so consumed by it that we get distracted from everything around us. Instead of spending our time using technology to make more time for ourselves, we are spending our free time looking for the latest new technology or upgrade. Technology is actually taking away our leisure time because we are wired in 24/7. I can think of multiple occasions of being with my friends and they are all just on their phones looking at twitter or instagram and texting. There are so many networks and sites to keep up with that it is taking up so much time. I personally am not really attached to my phone. Anytime I am on vacation, I just turn my phone off and do not turn it back on until it is absolutely necessary. I am not one of those people who brings their phone everywhere either. I have no problem being without my phone. The same can not be said for others. It actually bugs me how obsessed people are with technology. I hate being with my friends and the only thing they want to do is watch television or play on their phones. I also cannot stand when people use their phones when driving. Like you can't wait? Technology, in my opinion, wastes time verses saving it. Sure, things like google make it easy to access certain information but other than that, we waste so much time on the internet. I feel like most people around my age, myself included, find technology as an easy way to procrastinate. This being said, I think that technology is a lifehacker but not in the most productive way.

Challenging the Chip Discussion Questions:

1) Does knowing that 80% of your "recycled" material ends up actually polluting the earth change your view or opinion of recycling? What could we do differently to avoid this pollution?

2) How much did you know about toxic waste before reading this? Were any facts more shocking than others?

3) Why do they target the poor economies with the toxic waste and jobs taking care of the waste? 

4) Can we reduce the amount of toxic waste? Do we have the power to make a difference? If yes, how can we?  

First Post

Hi, my name is Lindsay Georger and I am from Buffalo, New York. I was a dancer for ten years and in my spare time, I like to hang out with my friends. I am also into art, like pottery and painting. I make a lot of different crafty things. I am into community service and helping others so I suppose that makes me kind of special. I volunteer at a camp over the summer that helps parents who cannot afford day care and my family volunteers at nursing homes. I've always grown up with the mentality that you should help others above yourself. I need to work in a place where I can focus so someplace quiet is good and also an accepting environment is important because we should be able to voice our opinions without being judged. The most important invention was the computer because it has evolved so much over the years and so many other things have come from it. I have 2 things I find essential to my life. That is my computer and my phone. I consider myself pretty tech savvy. I have a lot of social media so I can understand it pretty well. However, I do not know too much about digital media.