Nick's Blog

What I knew Starting Out When I first chose this topic I knew a lot of the basics about social media, like some of the positives and negatives that I covered in my talk. I knew that social media was good to help raise money, build relationships, and form communities. I also knew the negatives, such as cyber bullying, addiction, and mental/health issues. Although I knew the broad genres of social media use I did not know the details to both positives or negatives. For example out of everyone that sees cyber bullying occur, only 10% report it. It was facts and research like this that really opened my eyes to the benefits and downfalls of social media. Why I Selected This Topic The reason why I picked this topic is because it related to everyone in the classroom and arguably in the school. In our world today over 85% of teens and younger adults have smartphones and use social media daily, whether that is texting, snapchatting, going on Instagram, or tweeting. My goal was to...

Please Ignore Vera Dietz , by A. S. King, is a fiction novel about a girl named Vera and the mystery of what happened to her best friend Charlie Kahn. At the beginning of the novel Vera is attending her best friend’s funeral after he has died suddenly. Throughout the novel Vera is faced with the nagging of Charlie’s ghost constantly trying to get her to clear his name, trying to forget that her mom left her and her dad to be a stripper in Las Vegas, and the everyday struggles that a teen faces in their life. Throughout Vera’s life all she ever wants is to grow up to be her own person and not take after her mother or father, but could some of the choices lead her down the path she so desperately wants to avoid? A huge key to this novel and why the novel is so good is because of the main character Vera. Readers could make the argument that Charlie is the most important character due to his secret and death but Vera takes the ranks. She is an interesting and conflicting character and ...