Copyrighted Work-- To Use or Not To Use?

By Unknown  [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I remember when I was in middle school looking up lyric videos to popular songs and hearing the song be distorted. I always wondered why. It was not until way later that I realized it was because the songs were copyrighted, but if the person who posted the photo distorted the song, it would not be considered illegal. After viewing this Prezi, I learned a lot. The Prezi states, "Here are the rules: If you use your imagination to create it from scratch and put it out there (recorded, on the computer, or on paper) then of course you are allowed to do any of the following with it: copy, distribute, perform or display, or change into something new". I also learned about a little thing called fair use. Fair use "helps keep our society's creations in circulation". There was a lot of things about copyright and copyright infringement that I never realized until I looked at the Prezi. I find it very interesting that someone can get sued for using a song in their video that's not yours.

Friends- The Most Iconic TV Show Ever?

Image By National Broadcasting Company (NBC) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Everyone has seen at least one episode of the show Friends, and even if they haven't they know who Ross, Rachel, Joey, Monica, Chandler, and Phoebe are. It's common knowledge that Ross and Rachel were NOT on a break, and that Monica and Chandler might be the cutest TV couple of all time. What a lot of people don't know though, is that as the show progresses, Tuckman's 5 stages of development are present. The stages are present in almost every group, even if it's just the first few. How did the iconic group of "Friends" become Friends you might ask? This wiki will tell you exactly how they formed. And for the second step, storming, there are plenty of parts where they all fight, because that's what friends do sometimes. I think that everyone is so obsessed with the show still because it's so relatable and the gang gets into fight just like any regular friend group would. They do get through all 5 steps, forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, however the middle 3 steps are jumbled together. One episode, they could be in the norming stage, and the next episode they could be in the storming stage again. This is exactly why so many people like the show, and if you haven't watched it I recommend binging it as soon as you can. 

Group Dynamics

Image via Good Free Photos

Over the years, I have had to do a ton of group projects. I hate them. To me, they are super pointless because in my experience, one or two members of the group end up doing all of the work while the other members just goof around the whole time. Or even worse, one member of the group gets all power hungry, bossy, and ends up telling everyone what to do and when to do it (nobody likes this person). The only time that groups actually work is when they go through Tuckman's 5 stages of group development. The stages go as follows: Stage 1 is forming where the group comes together and forms. Stage 2 is storming where the group has a little bit of conflict. This stage can be good because it causes the group to all get on the same page. Stage 3 is norming where the group finally comes together. Stage 4 is the performing stage and is not reached by all groups. This is the stage that I believe is vital to have a good quality group and in turn have a good, quality group project. The last stage is not that important, but it the stage of adjourning, which is just when the group parts.