Discourse Communities and Tension
I am currently apart of three main discourse communities. I am apart of my family, my hometown Wayne, New Jersey, and also the Syracuse University community as a whole. The first artifact I had brought in is a flyer from my hometown to sell t-shirts for the high school football game between our in-town rivals. This alone created so much tension between people within our own town. There would be many disputes, fights, vandalism, and pointless hate toward the opposing valley side of town. And every year we had a chance to prove ourselves better than them, which we did more times than we didn't. However, a coach even lost his job because football players got in a fight with some other kids from the valley side of town. It's amazing how a town could be so divided even though we are all apart of the same community, these two high schools have created two completely separate communities on their own. All of the kids I used to be friends with because of the team I played on with them in 8th grade became distant friends and some even enemies as we now were looked at differently. It is very strange to me that these people that I could be friends with for so long, suddenly I would never see again just because of the high school we were in. And the weird part is that we live in the same town. It's a shame how a high school can tear people apart.
The next artifact I would want to bring in is one from Syracuse University. This hat symbolizes a togetherness that the entire Syracuse community makes me feel apart of every day. Even when I wear the hat and am at my hometown, I will get many comments of people passing by that tell me their experience with the University and of any people they know there. Its amazing how being apart of such a broad community brings people together. However, even in such a tightly knit community, there is still tension between people. Especially as a freshman, meeting people can be an awkward experience as well as disagreeing with others in a classroom discussion. This just comes along with everyone being from different communities in their hometown, and how everyone was raised differently. Everyone is naturally going to have different opinions and this can be a cause of tension within the discourse community.
The third and final artifact I had brought in is a picture of my family. This discourse community might have its daily disputes of who is using too much cellular data on our plan or of who ate all the leftovers, but when it comes down to it, we all do things to help each other out and we do it out of love. There is always tension between family members, but overcoming that tension is what will ultimately pull the family closer together and help them make decisions together. My family is one of the strongest discourse communities I am apart of and I will do anything for them. They are the reasons for the way in which I act every day and they are the reasons why I might cause tension with others in my other discourse communities. However, I wouldn't trade them in for anybody else and am glad of the person I am today because of them.
I like what you said about your family. Funny and sweet!
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