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Rootlessness is the Source of Randomness

Rootlessness means lacking foundation and purpose. People who embrace randomness are increasingly becoming more popular across the nation. It seems the nation has a fascination with the random things that people do. A growing number of people are consuming much more of their time with doing random things. Even on Twitter, you will see many people type #random for a thought (or utterance) that comes out of nowhere and/or that makes absolutely no sense. Because many people refuse to stay focused for even two minutes during a conversation, they will say, “I know this is random but…” They don’t want to sit still long enough to continue a coherent conversation. They have so many random things that they want to say that they don’t make it possible to have a coherent conversation. When you have a conversation with someone who embraces randomness, you better be prepared for the conversation to take all kinds of unexpected twists and incoherent transitions.

Many people enjoy randomness so much that their enjoyment of randomness renders them fundamentally useless. It seems like many people consume most of each day doing random things and living random lives. Have you ever just stopped and asked yourself why do people love randomness? These people suffer from rootlessness. They have failed to establish a strong foundation for themselves and have not identified their true purpose in life. If you consume most of your day with trivial things, then you suffer from rootlessness. A rootless person is a dangerous person. Rootless people have the capability of doing anything without notice, including things that can cause others around them to die. When you are truly rootless, you are unstable.

I know rootless graduate and professional school students who should be spending more time with conducting research in their fields, but will elect to devote a significant amount of their time to trying to come up with random outfits that are going to catch people’s attention. These graduate and professional students will spend a great amount of time on putting things on Facebook and Twitter just to get attention. The stuff that they post on Facebook and Twitter never has any substance—it’s just stuff that they know will get a reaction from the people who see it. To invest such a considerable amount of time on inconsequential stuff like this is a problem. You may say, “Antonio, you are making more of this than it really is,” but I want you to know that many people are wasting lots of their time on doing random things.

I wish that those who get a significant amount of attention for having a true commitment to being random would not receive so much attention from those of us who know we should not be entertaining their randomness. When people who are embracing randomness reveal their ignorance, we should not simply laugh at them—we need to tell them that they are being stupid. We need to ask them what’s ailing them. If we really care about them or just care about people in general, we need to help them to work through their rootlessness. Let’s help people to understand the how and the why behind their randomness. Many people who love randomness may not really understand why it is that they do what they do. You can make a true difference in a person’s life by simply asking him or her to think critically about why he or she does the things that he or she does.

When an adult constantly does random things every day, there’s something wrong with this adult. Doing random things every day evinces a person’s immaturity. Start to challenge adults who love to be random to replace their randomness with substance.  Don’t simply stand by and let people waste their lives being fools. I want you to understand that people who are regularly random are people who suffer from rootlessness. They need someone to care for them. They need someone to help them to develop a foundation and a purpose. Be that person that they need to change their lives for the better.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Social Media and Composition

Social media is providing people with a fun and interactive way to improve their writing without them necessarily being conscious of it. For many people who I have observed using social media, it has made them more conscious about what they are actually writing. Even when many people are on Facebook using all of this slang, Ebonics, and intentional (and unintentional) incorrect use of language, I have found that they are still heavily focused on the content of what it is they want to communicate. One of the reasons I encourage blogging is it’s a form of social media that is a fun way to give people practice with their writing. To ameliorate your writing, you are going to have to practice writing more. Blogging is a way to make yourself vulnerable to the world through your writing and offers you an opportunity to receive feedback on your writing from a global audience.

Facebook has a “Note” function that allows you to pen your thoughts and share them with all of your Facebook friends or those who you “tag.” I encourage more people who use Facebook to use the “Note” function to share your thoughts with your Facebook friends. It’s a great way to share your thoughts that take more words than you are allowed through your Facebook status.

As a university Composition instructor, I have had great success with integrating social media into the Composition classroom. I have engaged my students with blogging, Facebook, and Twitter. Many classroom assignments that I have given have involved the use of social media. What I have discovered is social media makes more students become excited about Composition. Students who are less vocal in class during classroom discussions become more willing to share their thoughts through Facebook, Twitter, and blogging. Twitter forces Composition students to be much more disciplined writers because they have to say something meaningful with only 140 characters available to them. Now, if you have not used Twitter before you may not think that this is not a serious writing challenge, but being limited to only 140 characters can be quite challenging when you have something truly substantive to articulate. I encourage more college professors to integrate social media into your diverse classrooms. I strongly believe that you will find it to be rewarding.

Before I end this piece, I would just like to encourage you to be more conscious about your writing when using various forms of social media. Bad writing is never a good look. Of course, social media allows us all to have more freedom to be less formal than when we’re writing for academic purposes, but always be aware of the type of person you are presenting to the world when you communicate with others through social media. When blogging, I certainly don’t write like I do when I’m writing my academic papers because I want to be able to reach a much more general and global audience, but I do think it’s vital to maintain some formal standards with your social media writing.

One grammatical error that I would love to see more people using social media address is noun-pronoun disagreement. For example, one might write the following: “Most of the time a lawyer has their own best interests in mind.” In this aforementioned sentence, the pronoun (“their”) that refers the reader back to the noun (“lawyer”) does not agree. Of course, I could get really sophisticated with you about this error but, as I stated earlier, I want to be able to reach a more general and global audience.  I just want you to think about it numerically: “Lawyer” is one person, right? “Their” has to be more than just one person, right? Okay, now, let’s eliminate this grammar problem from our writing. Thank you!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Use of “Lol”

I’ve been thinking heavily about social media lately and have found the various uses of “lol” to be quite interesting. “Lol,” of course, traditionally means laughing out loud. Now, in no way am I trying to present myself as an expert on social media and with using it. After all, I only have 131,000 readers of my blog, only over 500 Facebook friends, and only over 700 Twitter followers. From this audience, however, I have been able to discover some interesting ways in which “lol” is being used. When I’m chatting with many people via instant messaging, text messaging, and other mediums, I’ve found that “lol” is often used when folks don’t have anything to say and the use of “lol” keeps the conversation moving along. “Lol” gives people an opportunity to think about something to say. I just wonder if the frequent use of “lol” gives poor communicators an easy way out of working to ameliorate their communication skills.

I have also found that “lol” can really articulate that one is a person who laughs all the time. I have to admit that I use “lol” often because I’m one who laughs quite often. It’s certainly not because I have difficulty communicating. After all, my undergraduate and graduate training is in English and I teach English at the university level.

“Lol,” unfortunately, has been and is employed many times to say disrespectful, inappropriate, racist, sexist, mean-spirited, and/or threatening things to people. I want you to know that just because you put “lol” somewhere in a sentence where you have communicated something horrible does not make it all better. You are not going to be successful in saying something hateful with an “lol” and not expect people to see right through how deceptive you are being with your use of “lol.”

I want us to begin to think about the ways in which we use “lol” and the ways in which others use it. I certainly want you to start to expose those people who use “lol” to try to mask their inappropriate or hateful comments. Hopefully, this piece will cause you to focus on the use of “lol” in a deeper way than you have previously thought about it. Although I have not really said anything new or profound in this piece, what I hope that it will do is cause us to bring to the surface some interesting revelations about the use of “lol.” I want us to consider how some people are really changing the meaning of “lol” to mean all kinds of things that are not positive.

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

If We Must Die: Winning the War against Your Enemies

When people have declared a personal and professional war against you, you must understand that you will need to counterpunch. Counterpunching is not being dirty. Counterpunching is necessary if you are not going to let your enemies defeat you. One of the things that I have learned most about defeating those who have attempted to destroy me personally and professionally is you have to always keep them off-balanced. Never allow them to be able to anticipate you. You also have to be careful about what you say around even your closest family members and friends. Your enemies do not need to be able to use deceitful strategies to manipulate your family members and close friends into providing them with information that might give them some insights about you so that they can use the data for evil purposes. To win the war, you might have to distance yourself from some of your close family members and friends.

Although you may not always want to, it is important for you to be patient when you have a number of enemies attempting to cause you trouble. You may not want to consider yourself being in a war, but you are really in a war. When you are in a war, it’s okay if you have to lose some battles, even if you have to lose some significant battles. The chief goal you should have is to never lose the war. I’d rather lose a battle or some battles than lose a war. In war, there will be casualties so you are going to have to be ready to deal with that reality. Even if you did not start the war, as is often the case, you must come fully prepared to tackle the war you are facing. When people are making conscious and concerted efforts to destroy you personally and professionally, you have to fight back. Sometimes you just got to rise up! We are Americans and Americans fight! Don’t simply let people try to do great harm to you without fighting vehemently back.

In a famous poem, “If We Must Die,” composed by Claude McKay, the poem argues for those who are fighting against strong people and forces to fight back, even if they are too great to defeat. The poem posits that the least you can do is fight your enemies back with all you have.

When your enemies lie about you, you don’t have to worry about correcting the record about each lie they tell about you. Correct the record about the most egregious lies they tell about you. Don’t be afraid to be an Army of One if you have to. If you have people you can trust to be on your team, then allow them to be on your team. You will need to make sure, however, that the people you allow to be on your team have a vested interest in you and/or the defeat of your enemies. Use the resources that you have to defeat your enemies and use any platforms you have to defeat your enemies. I am thankful that Revolutionary Paideia is a powerful platform that I have to fight against my enemies, and my Facebook page is also a pretty strong platform I have to fight against my enemies.

Therefore, if you have blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and etc. through which you have amassed large audiences, I greatly recommend that you employ these vehicles to help you to fight your enemies. These vehicles can prove to be highly valuable when you are fighting against enemies who are well-respected, highly paid, have large megaphones, and who can use deceit successfully against you. You will be surprised how once you get your true message out how many people will begin to support you. Don’t ever give up during the war against your enemies.

Never attack first but always be ready to counterpunch! You need to create a strategic plan to defeat your enemies. This plan should be written. Revisit it often, revise it when necessary, and follow through with it always. You need to be well-organized when you are fighting against powerful enemies and forces. Demonstrate to people why your enemies should not be believed and trusted. Use every legal measure at your disposal to defeat your enemies.

Ultimately, when you have your enemies down on the ground, stomp them! War is not pretty and war is not easy. You must always be ready for the unexpected. You have to outlast your enemies. You don’t have to have the money, respect, talent, and etc. that you’re enemies have, but you will need to be sophisticated enough, well-organized enough, and strategic enough to outlast them. I wish you all the best in your efforts to win your wars against your enemies!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

NFL Player O’Brien Schofield, Ciara, and Stalking Claims on Twitter

O'Brien Schofield

(Photo Credit: Arizona Cardinals)

O’Brien Schofield, former University of Wisconsin-Madison linebacker and current Arizona Cardinals linebacker, has been accused of stalking Ciara, a R&B star, on Twitter (see it here: http://blogs.bet.com/entertainment/spotlight/2010/09/07/nfl-star-denies-cyber-stalking-ciara/) by some people. O’Brien Schofield denies the claims. Although his tweets do not demonstrate that he is seriously stalking Ciara, what is important about his tweets are they indicate how important it is for him to be more responsible about how he conducts himself, especially in public. He must learn that his status as an NFL player is going to place him in the public eye constantly. It seems to me that this is exactly what he wants, but he never thought that his actions on Twitter would gain him this type of negative attention.

O’Brien Schofield thinks that just because he is an NFL player that this will make Ciara want him. Boy please! You are not even that good of a player and don’t nobody really even know who you are. You were not even really that good of a player at UW-Madison, and you certainly was not a hot commodity with the ladies at UW-Madison. So what would make you think that Ciara would even consider you? If you don’t already know by now, cyberstalking is a serious crime. Although I know you were not seriously stalking Ciara, your careless and stupid comments on Twitter placed you in a position to have your tweets seriously investigated.

Mr. Schofield, if you don’t know already, Ciara does not want you and probably never will—face it! I would encourage you to never do anything again that could potentially get you suspended from the NFL. As you know, NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell does not play! You could have risked a million dollar salary by doing something so stupid. Embrace the fact that you are simply a below average NFL football player. You were able to get a spot in the NFL because you played in the weak Big Ten on the weak UW-Madison football team and not in the SEC, where you would not have even started.

I hope you have accomplished what you wanted by your tweets: to get attention. Be more responsible!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Black Bloggers Unite!

In general, I think more bloggers should engage in collaborative efforts, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, and etc. Those aforementioned things, however, can be used as vehicles for collaboration. I contend that African-American bloggers need to increase their influence in the blogosphere by joining forces through collaborative blogs, guest blogging, visiting one another’s blogs regularly (not every now and then), comment on one another’s blogs regularly (not every now and then), find mediums like Twitter, Facebook, email, telephone, and etc. to discuss blog posts ideas and future directions for one another’s blogs, and etc. Now, this is not an effort to try to increase my own readership, especially since I will soon be well over 100,000 readers in just my first year of blogging, I just want African-Americans to have a greater influence in the blogosphere.

Many Black people have a problem with sharing and helping one another. It seems like many African-Americans are concerned about not letting others outdo them, which ends up causing us to divide and conquer ourselves without any person to blame for this but ourselves. In my little over 6 months of blogging, I have had the pleasure to read the writing of some tremendously talented Black writers like The Realest Dude in the Room (http://realestdudeintheroom.com), I Likes It Raw (http://ilikesitraw.com), Uptown Notes (http://www.uptownnotes.com), New Black Man (http://newblackman.blogspot.com), The Black Sphere (http://theblacksphere.net), Pampered Sweet Tooth (http://pamperedsweettooth.blogspot.com), and many more. These previously mentioned Black bloggers provide a diverse range of topics, interests, ideas, and approaches that represent some of the best of what Black bloggers have to offer.

Unfortunately, Black bloggers are not as organized and collaborative as White bloggers, which results in much our talent not being given the recognition, focus, and attention it merits. It is up to Black bloggers to change this problem. No one is going to take us more seriously until we start taking ourselves more seriously. When you visit the aforementioned bloggers, you have an opportunity to see why Black bloggers need to be more visible and heard. For those who say that Black males are not doing anything but getting into trouble, I would like you to know that all of the aforementioned Black bloggers except for one are Black males.

One of the ways in which we can work to remedy this problem is by encouraging more Blacks to start blogging. Without a doubt, most African-Americans have something valuable to offer and say to America, so we need to encourage them to begin blogging immediately. Blogging gives them a free opportunity to get their voice acknowledged nationally and internationally. If anyone needs assistance with starting a free blog, then just contact me and I will help you to get started.

In closing, I just want to say that Black bloggers need to find ways to collaborate to increase our readership and impact in the blogosphere. I am not for us simply carving out our own “Black space” within the blogosphere, but I am for us having much more significance and power in the blogosphere. I hope that Black bloggers will soon unite!

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Don’t Tell Me What to Say and Do on Facebook and Twitter

Freedom

(Photo credit: Chris Yarzab)

 

People have really gotten on my nerves with telling me and others about what they should and should not say and do on Facebook and Twitter. If you do not like what I say and do on Facebook and Twitter, then please simply remove yourself from being associated with me on Facebook and Twitter. I have even noticed that people who I have talked with in the past quite regularly no longer speak to me anymore because of the things I have said on Facebook and Twitter. For those of you who this refers to, I have a message for you: goodbye and take a hike! It is just really amazing how people do and say all kinds of wild things off of Facebook and Twitter, but they want to act like they are priests and evangelists when it comes to critiquing what other people say and do on Facebook and Twitter.

 

What I am really beginning to learn about why people have a problem with what other people tweet and post is they do not want what is said and done to reflect negatively on them. I am not saying that there are not people who authentically would not want you to be viewed in a negative way by what your status or tweet says.  What I would like for you to do, however, is to contemplate why an individual would want to try to prevent you from tweeting certain things and posting certain statuses.

 

In the empty Facebook status box, it asks, “What’s on your mind?” People should have the freedom to give an update to their Facebook friends about what’s on their minds. Twitter asks, “What’s happening?” People should, of course, have the liberty to give an update about “what’s happening?” Although I am sometimes unsettled by some of the shocking statements, lies, falsehoods, strange comments, and etc. promulgated on Facebook and Twitter, I never attempt to tell people that they need to stop posting things like that and/or need to take down their comments.

 

I long for a day when people will be more willing to allow others to be themselves. Additionally, I long for a day when people will be more willing to be themselves. It has to be a tremendously miserably life to live like others want you to live. To be honest, what’s valuable about a person who lives to be like what others want him or her to be? Nothing! What unique does that person have to offer? Nothing! Is this person really taking up space? Yes!

 

When you refuse to listen to what people who want to restrict your freedom have to say to you, then they will claim that you are simply stubborn and too prideful. They are right! I am unwilling to listen to any non-sense that makes an effort to tell me that I need to be like them or that would attempt to take away my personal liberties. To be frank, when you are worrying so much about what others post on Twitter and Facebook, then you really don’t have a life, are neglecting your own responsibilities, and have some deep self-esteem problems.

 

I encourage all those people who want to limit the freedoms of Facebook and Twitter users to remove themselves from Twitter and Facebook, or at least discontinue associating with people who are causing you such problems with what they say and do on Facebook and Twitter. If anything in this article offends you, then all I have to say is great! Please excuse me while I dust my shoulders off.

 

Antonio Maurice Daniels

 

University of Wisconsin-Madison