- Nov 2015
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nymag.com nymag.com
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But there are advantages to being in zoos, from the animal's perspective — safety, mostly, and access to medical care, and the presence of a team of trained professionals who work very hard to entertain and engage you
Throwing a bit of counter argument in the middle of the evidence he uses to argue his points that modern zoos may soon be a thing of the past. This counter-argument would be the exact idea I would ask the author. My general opinion is that zoos operating with the purpose of rehabilitating injured or sick animals, and zoos with a high release rate, are beneficial to society and the animals they serve.
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One long-term 1983 study of animal mortality at the San Diego Zoo found cannibalism and infanticide, widespread malnutrition, and frequent deaths from tranquilizer use. (An online summary is included in the essay here.)
Scholarly source.
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A couple of years ago, the essayist David Samuels published a long piece in Harper's on the Bronx Zoo.
Another non-scholarly source.
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A giraffe develops a compulsive fear of men with large cameras. Halberstadt writes, "Disorders like phobias, depression and OCD, documented at zoos, don’t appear to have analogues among animals living in the wild."
The assumption that mental disorders aren't present in wild animals is false. There have been documented cases of wild animals with PTSD and other related mental illnesses. It stands to mention , though, that the reason we don't see many of them might be because they simply can't survive with that condition. Animals in zoos may have an advantage, then, by receiving proper care and medication for it.
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sublime documentary Blackfish.
Using Blackfish as a source, which is hinky because Blackfish is hardly a scholarly source and has very, very mixed reviews. Also uses the opinionated term "sublime," which gives away his true stance on this issue.
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whether there is a good reason for zoos to exist at all.
Definitely seems to be the main claim of the argument, as the rest of the article is filled with examples and reasons to support both sides of the argument.
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medium.com medium.com
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The problems of every nation shall be our problems — but so will the opportunities and solutions that we can all build together.
Empathy!
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Our communities have never stopped growing in size and complexity.
Maybe the internet is just the next step in our evolution?
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And some of the most powerful institutions of global collaboration are built on the power of the crowd — with weak hierarchies and emphasis on individuals choosing how to contribute to shared missions.
Evidence for the community claim? The internet is great at boosting our intrinsic motivation because it gives the individual a lot of control over what they see, what they hear, and what they share.
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And the internet itself mobilized using hashtags such as #refugeeswelcome and #refugeecrisis, raising funds for refugees and fighting intolerance against them.
Hashtags seem to be increasing In importance every day. I think of them as the “catchy jingle” of our time. Hashtags make an issue “trendy,” which comes with its own share of criticism. However, online, word travels much faster when summed up in a hashtag than it does written out in articles, such as this one. And this one isn’t even that long! There’s a lot to be said about how patience is dwindling and we’re becoming dependent on instant gratification, but there’s also a lot to be said for how much good has come of the hashtag.
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But they are the first examples of a common planetary culture emerging — global phenomenon that belong to no nation.
Evidence that we have united as one community around the internet.
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And the internet is shaping culture.
Subpoint.
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At moments of crisis, the internet erupts in solidarity — at moments of joy, in celebration
"Solidarity" is a word we've heard a lot lately. Social media specifically has given us a completely new outlet to get involved in global issues.
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the internet is changing the way the world thinks.
Subclaim to support the main claim that the Internet is a worldwide community.
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if more people were connected in developing countries, 160 million people could escape poverty, 140 million new jobs be created and 600 million children receive education.
I think this is a very, very good point to bring into discussion. Education has insane potential to expand via the internet. Increasing availability and access to the internet could quite literally change the world as we know it.
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The internet is the largest community in history — as big as the global population in 1960
Seems like one of his major points in writing this article. The internet has created a community of communities, in a sense. It's one of the few places where anybody (with access), regardless of race/religion/points of view, can come together and collaborate.
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The internet is uniting the world. And it’s going to change all our lives.
Somebody shared a link to an article about Essena O'Neil to our Diigo group, I think it was Alex? This phrase (and the article itself, really) sums up my counter-argument for Essena's social media comments. She spoke so heavily about how social media destroyed her life by making her restrict calories and retake photos a million times to get "the look," and from her perspective I can see how she says social media is a parasite. But it can also do so much good, because it unites the world. We wouldn't know nearly as much as we do now about what's going on with the BLM movement, with feminism. I don't think our would be nearly as involved in politics as we are now if it weren't for social media. I don't think social media is a parasite, but we need to use it for the right purposes.
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