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Melody of Buzzing Noise
Noriko Suzuki
Professor Janis Filbeck
ENGL 15 Section 901
18 April 2022
Melody of Buzzing Noise
For the longest time ever, I have been a smartphone addict, something I denied whenever my siblings or parents commented about it. I didn’t want to believe I had a smartphone addiction but trust me, I knew where my phone was all the time, and notification buzzes had become my favorite sound. I depended on my phone for more than two years for so many things. It wasn’t all negative since I could manage my whole schedule via phone; however, now that I am looking back, I believe that I spent too much time on my phone, which should never have been the case. I didn’t sit and realize that I had a smartphone addiction something had to happen for me to realize this. My phone was the center of my nervous system; I was attracted to the glowing light and the buzzes from my phone more than anything else.
Once I was presenting in class, and I forgot to put my phone on silent; during the presentation, it kept on buzzing on the table, and everyone was looking at me strangely, and a deafening silence plagued the room. I didn’t deliver my best presentation because the buzz on my phone continued until the teacher handed me my phone and told me to turn it off. I did, and I finished my presentation with a thousand butterflies in my stomach. I should have anticipated this as I went in for my presentation; nonetheless, I didn’t. This wasn’t even the moment I realized that I had a serious problem, the next day, after my very embarrassing performance, my teacher called me aside, and I didn’t know if that man had been watching my behavior since I joined the class or not. Still, he recounted so many instances where my phone had served as a harmful distraction for me. He reminded me of an instance when I tripped while in class because I was too busy trying to balance four books in my hand and scrolling through my phone. To this day, I believe he was brutally honest with me, and if my parents had not pointed out that I had a phone problem, I would have told this man he was wrongly judging me, but he wasn’t. The conversation went on and on for more than 40 minutes. Listening to my teacher lecture me on my smartphone addiction was a definitive moment in my life. It made me realize that I have been prioritizing the buzzes from my phone too much.
Since the introduction of the smartphone, numerous academic research has been conducted to establish its impact on an active lifestyle, relationships, friendships, and how it promotes connection and disconnection with others and mindfulness. The smartphone has changed the way we interact with one another. It has made it easier to connect with people, but it has also made us more isolated. The smartphone has been a major disruption for social interactions. It has changed our relationships, how we communicate, and even how we think.
The use of smartphones has extensively affected how individuals communicate and connect. Today, we live in a more connected world than ever and have become so dependent on smartphones that this dependency affects the relationships and friendships they make (Wright). Some people are so addicted to their phones that they can’t go a day without checking them. They constantly check for updates, whether social media or emails, even with friends and family. This constant need for connection affects how they interact with others in their lives and how they view and interact with the outside world. The smartphone has changed the way people communicate with different people; some choose to text instead of talking on the phone or send emails instead of sending letters through the mail. This change in communication shows how much technology has impacted our lives and what kind of effect this will have. It is not just the people on their phones that are affected by this new technology. Our relationships with each other have been disrupted too. For example, it is now easier to avoid conversations with people or avoid eye contact in public spaces because of our smartphones. We have less eye contact with other people when we use our phones. We also have less physical contact with people because we fear that touching someone else’s phone might break it. We fail to be aware of our surroundings when we use our phones. We don’t see what is happening around us, and we don’t hear what is going on in the environment either. The smartphone has brought about a new era of disconnection in the world. The human-centric design of this device has made it easier for people to stay connected, but at the same time, it has made them less present in their surroundings and more detached from their physical environment (Wright, 18). Depending on how and when it is used, a smartphone can be used to connect or disconnect people.
The smartphone has become an extension of our senses and our minds. It is an indispensable tool for us to process information and connect with the world, but it is also a device that we carry everywhere and use for hours every day. Studies have found that smartphones are a significant cause of unhappiness. According to San Diego State University (16), people who spend more time on their smartphones are less happy and less satisfied with their lives. Also, people who use their phones more tend to be more depressed and anxious. They also have lower self-esteem and higher feelings of loneliness. The smartphone has become an indispensable part of our lives. It’s not just a device for social media. It’s also a productivity device with email, text messages, and work-related tasks. The smartphone has become an extension of ourselves, and we can’t imagine life without it. The more time we spend on our smartphones, the unhappy we are. Mobile phones have been linked to higher rates of stress and anxiety, worsened mental health and sleep quality, and lower levels of happiness and satisfaction with life in general (Stevic, 23). It is not using your phone that makes people unhappy, but rather how often they use it.
Smartphones are just one of the many distractions in our lives. And it is not the only one that affects our mindfulness. Technology and social media have also taken their toll on us. We are constantly bombarded with notifications, messages, and updates that keep us from living in the moment, reducing our mindfulness. Some people have found ways to combat this issue by using their smartphones in moderation or turning off notifications for certain apps (Regan, 12). But there is another option for those who can’t do either of these things – a mindfulness app. Mindfulness apps help users to focus on their breathing and clear their minds of any thoughts that might be distracting them from what they are doing in the present.
The smartphone has become an extension of our lives; at this point, there is no life without technology. Research has associated the increased use of smartphones with increased physical disconnection, increased levels of unhappiness, anxiety, and decreased mindfulness. The smartphone has significantly affected our daily lives.
Works Cited
Regan, Timothy, et al. “Does mindfulness reduce the effects of risk factors for problematic smartphone use? Comparing the frequency of use versus self-reported addiction.” Addictive Behaviors 108 (2020): 106435. Accessed 26 April 2022.
San Diego State University. “Screen-addicted teens are unhappy: A new study finds that more screen time coincides with less happiness in youths.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 January 2018. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180122091249.html. Accessed 26 April 2022.
Stevic, Anja, et al. “You are not alone: Smartphone use, friendship satisfaction, and anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis.” Mobile Media & Communication (2021): 20501579211051820. Accessed 26 April 2022.
Wright, Louisa. “Disconnected: How phones affect our relationships.” 2021. https://www.dw.com/en/disconnected-how-phones-affect-our-relationships/a-57433757:~:text=Brown’s%20research%2C%20published%20in%20the,close%20they%20were%20as%20friends. Accessed 26 April 2022.
Megan’s Law A Policy Review
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Megan’s Law: A Policy Review
7-year old Megan kanka and her parents lived in Hamilton Township without knowledge that a twice-convicted sex offender was living across the street. Megan’s parents only knew when it was too late during the arrest of the man after the brutal rape and murder of their daughter (Weiss & Watson, 2008). A similar incident had occurred in Monmouth county two months prior, promoting the passage of laws requiring the notification about sex offenders who may be a risk to the community. This gave birth to the “Megan’s Law,” New Jersey’s Law requiring sex offenders to register with the local police.
The Law also establishes a three-tier notification process giving information concerning sex offenders to law enforcement agencies, and when suitable, to the community. The notification depends on the an evaluation of the risk the a particular sex offender poses to the community. The evaluation is carried out by county prosecutors who are given the factors used in the determination of the level of risk an individual poses by a 12-member council in consultation with the Attorney general’s office (Wilson, 2010). With this information, communities will be able to protect their children better.
The sex offenders are given a form that is filled out and submitted to the local police department. The information requested in the form includes the personal information of the sex offender, including their home address and place of employment. A Division of State Police confirms the information and keeps it in a sex offender registry.
The following offenses are required for registration:
Sexual assault
Criminal sexual contact with a minor
Aggravated sexual assault
Aggravated criminal sexual contact
Engaging in sexual conduct endangering the welfare of a child by possibly impairing or debauching the morals of the child
Kidnapping
Promoting child prostitution
False imprisonment of a minor
Endangering a child’s welfare through pornography featuring a child
Criminal restrain
Luring or enticing
People required to register include:
Sex offenders convicted after Megan’s Law took effect on October 31, 1994
People serving a sentence for a sex offense when the Law took effect
Repetitive offenders
People found compulsive by courts and experts regardless of the date they were convicted
The Law also requires juvenile sex offenders to register as well. If convicted in other states, sex offenders are required to register within 10 days of moving to the state of New Jersey. This registration is compulsory even for individuals who are only attending school or working in the state. When they change address, they are required to notify the locals police 10 days before they move to the new address. Law enforcement monitors whether these people have changed address and whether they reported it. Some offenders a required to do annual verifications of their addresses while others are required to do so every 90 days.
People subject to Megan’s Law are required to register for the remainder of their lives. Those wishing to be removed from the register may send an application to the court if they are one-time offenders and have not committed the offense within the last 15 years and have proof there is no likelihood of them reoffending or pose a threat to the safety of the community. Juvenile sex offenders convicted under the age of 14 can register when they attain the majority age of 18 years.
The Law only permits the information on all high risk (Tier 3) offenders and particular moderate risk (Tier 2) offenders to be published on the internet. The Law excludes most juvenile sex offenders excluding Tier 3 Juvenile sex offenders, a majority of Tier 2 sex offenders who committed the crimes against members of the same household or their families, and most moderate sex offenders who committed statutory crimes or crimes considered so because of their age.
Failure to register or to comply with the Megan’s Law is a third degree offense.
The original Megan’s Law has been strengthened over the years particularly in 2006 where Senator Skelos the pioneer of the laws wrote a new law that kept 3,579 people convicted of sex offense from escaping the sex offender registry kept by the state in 2006. Tier 2 and Tier 3 sex offenders are required by these laws to register for life and be able to petition the court for removing after 30 years. Tier 1 sex offenders are also required to register for 20 years. The old Law removed Tier 1 and Tier 2 sex offenders from the register automatically after ten years. It also allowed offenders registered before March 11, 2002, and not designated as a heightened risk by Federal Law to petition for removal after 13 years.
These sex offender laws have, however, been criticized for doing little or dealing with the actual sex offenses particularly those that go unreported. Megan’s Law and civil commitment and emerging trend in in anti-sex offender legislation, or banishment zones, which keep criminals away from certain geographic areas, all play to the fears of the public. When it is about preventing sex assaults, these measures do more harm than good.
The Megan’ Law Reform Act
After three hearings in Albany, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the Megan Law Reform Act (Senate Bill 4793-B) was written (Zgoba, 2011). Senator Skelos strengthened the Law in twenty-five areas, including being the police creating a notice once a sex offender joined the community, registering sex offenders for life, requiring comprehensive information about sex offenders being published on the internet, and the monitoring of worst offenders by GPS.
The legislation was drafted to consider the inputs of teachers, parents, law enforcement officials, school representatives, and advocates before being presented in Senate where it passed. The first hearing featured a speech by Megan’s mother, who worked with Senator Skelos during the original enactment of the Law in 1995. Since the enactment of the Law, the New York State Senate has acted upon on Megan’s Law on 100 different occasions and 200 times of other laws concerning sex offense.
An Empirical Analysis and Review of the Policy
Megan’s Laws are based on Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN). Research exploring the success of SORN laws to particularly reduce recidivism in convicted sex offenders monitored under Megan’s Laws, or the overall rate of general sexual crimes, has reported little to no deterrence effect. As a result, most researches have concluded that these laws have not reduced sexual offending by first-time offenders nor impacted the reoffending of convicted rapists, molesters, and other offenders in a meaningful way. Only a few studies have recorded limited positive results with SORN.
There is significant evidence to indicate that SORN legislation for crooks sentenced for sexual offenses does not have a palpable effect on future offending. A study by Zgoba, Jennings, & Salerno (2018) indicates that the effects of SORN are not just limited to the short term but also the long term, as these researchers find no evidence in the differences in recidivism rates in cohorts of criminals released before and after the enactment of Megan’s Law in New Jersey. The researchers, however, collected evidence that showed being subjected to SORN laws have impacted on the trajectory of offending within a decade of release from prison where high-rate offenders released under these laws appeared to commit crimes almost immediately before decreasing offending to almost zero after a period of about seven years. Although SORN laws such as Megan’s Laws may not affect recidivism rates, they may have a small effect on the timing of crimes committed after a prison release. This does not, however, provide a guarantee for the safety of communities.
Why SORN Measures May Be Doing More Harm than Good
To understand why these measures do more harm than good, we should look at the realities of sex offenses in New Jersey and the nation as a whole. Most sex offenses are committed by trusted people such as family members, the clergy, and friends, and they go unreported because the victims are manipulated or the reprehensible decisions by other adults or a combination of the two. This is evident when a string of lawsuits uncovered that the Catholic Church and its hierarchy chose to cover up sex assault cases with child victims for decades by choosing to protect its reputation over the minors put under its care (Wilson, 2010). Unfortunately, this is more common in family hierarchies.
Because most cases of a sex crime are not reported, the majority of offenders are never subject to Megan’s Law. For this reason, the public feels a false sense of security where they believe sex offenders have been banished from the community. This belief appears to be a disservice to the children because this sense of security means child supervision is not strengthened as it ought to be because sex offenders are in every community in American, whether registered or not. Children need supervision regardless of the case.
Megan’s Laws make neighborhoods less safe because they hinder offender rehabilitation and increase the likelihood of re-offense (Chaudhuri, 2017). People transitioning from prison into society are faced with unimaginable challenges such as limited resources, financial or otherwise. Those seeking to lead law-abiding lives after serving time cannot be able to establish stable homes, families, or get jobs. The consequences of stigma increase the hardship or hinder the achievement of these things. The fear of the stigma of Megan’s Law leads offenders underground under the watchful eye of law enforcement.
Offenders move from environments where they can access a support system to communities where they have none, putting the residents of these communities at risk. Considering everybody in the community can point to a sex offender, these people get the worst treatment; they lose jobs, are beaten up, and sometimes get their houses burned down. Some suffer from acts of vigilantism. Although their actions are not remotely excusable, coping with this kind of stress causes a relapse, most are doomed to fail, and when they do, then the community will most likely count another victim and more severe case (Levenson, & Cotter, 2005). If people doubt whether the stress of sex offenders should be their concern, they should consider the consequences if such an individual fails. When nothing works out, mental torture results in giving and increases the probability of reoffending significantly.
Recommendations for Improving These Policies
It would be better to focus resources on programs and policies that rehabilitate offenders because either way, they are let back to the society when they have served their sentence. Megan’s Law, similar to banishment laws, ask people to survive in a hostile environment, and expect them to reform. The laws are not doing enough because they do not cover even half the number of offenders. To raise this number, there should be programs that educate the public on the effects of sexual abuse and the importance of reporting it. Even if the names of these people are recorded, it should be for the purposes of helping them integrate back to society through beneficial parole procedures rather than introducing them back to society the way they left and having them in an environment that would increase their threat probability to the community.
These improvements do not call for the repeal of Megan’s Laws but the introduction of certain sections that improve the handling of reported abuse. Wynona’s House in Essex County is a good model because it brings together relevant agencies to ease the burden of reporting abuse on victims. Mental health treatment for offenders and victims should be paramount; otherwise, allowing offenders to live in the same society would be reckless and talking about having people aware of the presence of a sex offender in their neighborhood so as to closely monitor their children is rather naïve. Megan’s Law considering it was named after a girl whose young life was ended tragically, should be something meaningful in actually ensuring whatever happened to Megan does not happen again.
Fixing the devastating problem of sexual abuse is not a simple issue. Instead of pursuing measures that are politically popular but make no difference or, in fact, make the community less safe, the authorities should turn their attention and resources to measures of addressing the epidemic that is sexual abuse. These measures are not popular but will actually work to spare potential victims.
References
Chaudhuri, T. (2017). Megan’s Law and Durkheim’s Perspective of Punishment: Retribution, Rehabilitation or Both?. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 6(7), 62-73.
Levenson, J. S., & Cotter, L. P. (2005). The effect of Megan’s Law on sex offender reintegration. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21(1), 49-66.
Weiss, K. J., & Watson, C. (2008). NGRI and Megan’s Law: no exit?. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 36(1), 117-122.
Wilson, M. G. (2010). The Unintended Consequences of Megan’s Law for Citizens, Law Enforcement, and Offenders: An Empirical Analysis (Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University).
Zgoba, K. M. (2011). Residence restriction buffer zones and the banishment of sex offenders: Have we gone one step too far. Criminology & Pub. Pol’y, 10, 391.
Zgoba, K. M., Jennings, W. G., & Salerno, L. M. (2018). Megan’s Law 20 years later: An empirical analysis and policy review. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(7), 1028-1046.
Lynching Gyneolatry
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Lynching Gyneolatry
Introduction
Gyneolatry may be defined as the worship of women or simply as the adoration of women with some kind of a religious zeal. Lynching gyneolatry in American literature will call attention the murders, rapes, and assault related to racism in America. In the American history, the lynching or the acts of killing people by extrajudicial means occurred many times in the late Eighteenth century up to the 1960s.
Angela, (194–195) argues that these launchings were mainly associated with black supremacy chiefly in the southern parts just after the American Civil War during the reconstruction era between 1865 and 1877, civil rights were being granted to freed men which aroused anxieties within the white communities. These anxieties were mainly about white men blaming the black folks for the hardships, economic downfall, and loss of social privilege. The amounts of the lynching peaked in between 19th and early 20th centuries, before the southern state enacted the segregation laws and Jim Crow laws to reaffirm white supremacy. The freedmen or former slaves were black folks who had been released from slaver either by legal means; slaves became free by either manumission where they were granted freedom by their owner or emancipation where freedom was granted as part of a larger group. Slaves were also able to earn freedom if they were well educated and trained, as a reward for long dedicated service, or at the attrition of their owners. Some became free by buying their freedom through their peculium money personal possessions.These freed slaves was generally referred to as the Free Negroes.
Motivations of the Mob killings
A great number of lynchings of civil rights workers in Mississippi in the 1960s, contributed to galvanizing public support for civil rights legislation. The civil rights movements mounted resistance to these murders in a number of ways. Intellectuals and journalists came out to encourage public education to advocate for, protest, and lobby against the killings by mob violence together with the complicity of the government to the mob violence. The term lynching probably originated during the American Revolution when Charles Lynch who was a Virginia justice of the peace, mandated extralegal punishment for loyalist. Within the southern states before the civil war, members of the abolitionist movement and those opposed to slavery were always targets of lynch mobs.
According to Davis, (123), the motivations for these racially instigated mob killings, particularly, in the southern states was the the enactment of social conventions, which enforced punishment of those perceived to have violated the customs, that were later known as Jim Crow Laws that supported the segregation of blacks and whites. Another motivation could have been the ability to establish economic and political control, and financial gain. The properties of the lynched African American Farmers or the immigrant merchants often became available to whites. These lynchings could also occur in frontier areas where legal recourse was remote. The law enforcement authorities participated and operated to promote white social dominance. During the 21st century, the dispute between the Cherokee Nation and the descendants of Free Negroes of Cherokee masters over the rights of Free Negroes to citizenship. This dispute arose because of the benefits that citizenship or membership of freedmen came with.
Real lynchings that occurred in early years of Western United States in the violent American history were not so focused on crime prevention, but shared many racists and partisan dimensions as compared to lychnings in the south. The mob killings in the Old West were mainly carried out to accused criminals in custody, and did not particularly favour a social class or racial group. The lynchings might have occurred not just because of the absence of law, but also because of the social instability of those societies, and their dispute for property, position, and the description of social order. The mob killings after the civil war were mainly associated with the southern states, especially during the period of the reconstruction. This saw the founding of the Ku Klux Klan in 1866 and was associated with heavy violence. White democrats waged attacks to both black and white republicans, which were the result of the mob violence by the insurgent secret vigilante groups. This heavy mob violence was associated with the partisan political under tones which was followed by more acts of violence that was purely racial. During the mid 1870s, the Democratic Party worked with White Line groups like the White Camellia to terrorize, bully, and slay African American in an effort to regain power. They suppressed black voting and control voting using armed militia to assassinate political leaders, community members, and suppressing civil rights (Jane, 83)
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Most lynchings in the the early 20th century of African Americans, after the Democrats had regained political power, occurred in the south forcing most blacks off the voters lists, and preventing them from serving on juries. Between 1880s and 1890s, lynchings took a seasonal pattern, with the coder months being the most deadly, due to increasing economic pressures. By the late 19th century, lynching was performed by small groups of white vigilantes at night, where they were like mass spectacles with a festival like atmosphere. Children also attended these public lynchings, and were announced in the newspapers. Even photographs were taken of the lynching processes
Lynching Gyneolatry
Lynching gyneolatry is associated with the killings of black folks by white folks in a mythological sense to uphold the supremacy of the white woman. Some of the most intriguing aspects of the white image of the black mind in representing the white women is idealization. In the African American literature the supremacy of the white woman by the media, those defending racism, and black writers, has been clearly against the idealism of the white woman. Many white feminists have been particular of the irony that this idealization has imprisoned to the pedestals of serving the interests of the white man. Many black folks have responded to this psychosexual representation of the white female image by both white men and white women against blacks (Angela, pp. 194–195)
Whatever lies behind the mythology of the purity of the white womanhood, and the myth of the desirability of black men by white women is the demystification priority of black writers. These myths probably arise out of white women to become a liberating condition for black male to white female relationships. The image of the white woman has been used in defence of racism, a part of an ambition towards psychological and physical freedom from racism. Many literary works such as “The ways of White Folks” and others have tried to expose this image as a black liberating mythology.
In most cases where the aspect of blacks liberating mythology against the white woman’s image is that psychological liberation is equated to violence against white women. The American killings and violence against the black folks does not reign on sex, such that where there sex, there is violence. According to Richard Wright novels, The Long Dream (1958) gives the understanding of the representation of the white woman. Many cases of lynching gneolatry happened both in the northern and southern states. For example, in 1892, a police officer who attempted to end the lynching of African American blacks man around Port Jervis, New York, and the lynch mob put a noose round his neck to scare him. The black man was wrongly accused of assaulting a white woman, even at the inquest the police officer was able to identify eight people who were involved in the lynching, and the jury still determine that the murder was committed by unknown people (Pfeifer, 2004).
In 1920, Duluth, Minnesota, three young African American travellers were killed after the community accused them of rape and violation of the rights of a white woman. The justifications of protecting white woman and the rhetoric around the lynchings were actions that attempted to to maintain the domination of the whites in a fast changing society, and the anxieties brought about by social change. These lynchings created victims who were just mere scapegoats of other wider societal problems such as the white man’s attempts to control the economy, agriculture, labour, and education.
In Harper Lee’s novel of 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was a black man who was wrongly accused of rape and narrowly escaped lynching. He was later killed while attempting to escape from prison. Another artistic work that epitomized with lynching is the song “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, and was then written as a poem by one Abel Meeropol in 1939. The song was popular with the anti lynching movement, and contributed to the activities of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Conclusion
Lynching or acts of violence committed by a mob targeted at black folks were very common in America, but historically they are virtually non existence today. The logic of lynching gyneolatry in essence is the promotion of the white woman as the ideal, and the quintessential attraction or repulsion complex held by some blacks against the whites. The portrayal of the white woman as the ideal to the blacks creates a feeling of resentment and hatred of the black folks by the whites and promoting the white supremacy.
Works Cited:
Pfeifer M. Rough justice Lynching and American society, 1874-1947. University of Illinois Press, (2004). Print
Davis W. Goodbye, Judge Lynch: The End of a Lawless Era in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. University of Oklahoma Press, (2006). Print
Jane D. The white image in the Black mind: a study of African American literature. Volume 194 of Contributions in Afro-American and African studies Greenwood Press, (2000) Print
Angela Y, Women, Race & Class. New York: Vintage Books, pp. 194–195. (1983). Print