Source Requirements for Your Essay
Your essay requires a minimum of 4 sources (5 maximum recommended).
At least 2 of your sources must come from the list below.
Your remaining sources may also come from this list, or you may find credible college-level sources on your own that are relevant to your topic. Not sure if a source qualifies? Ask me.
🔍 General Research Sites — Multiple Sources Available
- The Pew Research Center Website A major nonpartisan research organization with data-driven articles on technology, social media, news habits, and more. Search by topic to find sources relevant to your essay.
- Our World in Data Website Research and data visualizations on a wide range of global topics. Good for finding statistics and long-term trends related to technology, health, and society.
- APA.org — Social Media and the Internet Website The American Psychological Association's topic page on social media and the internet — research, articles, and resources on mental health and technology.
- The Brookings Institution — Social Media Website Policy research and analysis on social media from one of the leading nonpartisan think tanks in the US.
🔷 Technology, Society & Culture — General & Foundational
- Symbols, Values & Norms: Crash Course Sociology #10 Video A foundational framework for analyzing how technology fits into—and changes—social structures. A good starting point for almost any topic in this essay.
- A Few Rules for Predicting the Future — Octavia E. Butler Reading
- A History of Panic Over Entertainment Technology — Behavioral Scientist Reading
- The Sisyphean Cycle of Technology Panics Reading
- The Perfect Match — Ken Liu (short story) Fiction A sci-fi story about AI, convenience, and surveillance—uncomfortably close to home. Works for almost any connected society topic.
- The Pedestrian — Ray Bradbury (short story) Fiction
- Just Do It (short story) Fiction — Audio version Podcast
- Rocket Surgery — Effie Seiberg (short story, read aloud) Video
- The Illusion of Truth — Veritasium Video How repetition makes things feel true—the illusory truth effect. Useful for essays on media, advertising, misinformation, or propaganda.
- Why People Are So Confident When They're Wrong Video Connects to misinformation, media literacy, and how we form—and defend—false beliefs.
- Truth vs. Reality: How We Evolved to Survive, Not to See What's Really There — Donald Hoffman | Big Think Video 27 min. A deeper look at how perception shapes what we think is real—connects to media, advertising, and misinformation.
- Google, Facebook, Amazon: The Rise of the Mega-Corporations — DW Documentary Documentary 42 min. Also relevant to Privacy & Data and Advertising sections.
- The Shitthropocene: Welcome to the Age of Cheap Crap — Patagonia Documentary 46 min. Consumer culture, advertising, and environmental/social consequences of disposable goods.
🧠 Social Media, Identity & Mental Health
- Friend or Faux: Are Parasocial Relationships Healthy? — Cleveland Clinic Reading
- Parasocial Relationships Can Tell Us a Lot about the Social Brain — Scientific American Reading
- Beauty Filters Are Changing the Way Young Girls See Themselves — MIT Technology Review Reading
- Understanding Social Media Literacy: A Systematic Review — International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Reading
- Americans' Social Media Use — Pew Research Center Reading
- What AI Teaches Us About Good Writing — Noema Magazine Reading
- Is Beauty Culture Hurting Us? — Vox, Glad You Asked S1 Video 20 min. Social media, beauty standards, and identity. Also addresses advertising and gender.
- I Study the Future. We Should Pay Attention to Avatars — Sinead Bovell | TEDxRutgersCamden Video 13 min. Also cross-listed under Work, Identity & Social Connection.
- Loneliness Is a Modern Epidemic — Here's How to Solve It — Johann Hari | Big Think Video 12 min. Social isolation, technology's role, and what connection actually requires.
- Why Teens Are Struggling — CBS Mornings Video 11 min. Jonathan Haidt on smartphone use, social media, and teen mental health.
- The Anxious Generation: A Special Report — CBS News Video 18 min. Phones, social media, and adolescent mental health.
- Teens & Tech: A Parent's Dilemma — NBC News Video 15 min.
- Online Brain — Our Compulsive Relationship with Digital Media — DW Documentary Documentary 42 min. The neuroscience of social media addiction and what it does to the developing brain.
- Understanding Dopamine and Social Media — CrashCourse Video 10 min.
📵 Phones in Schools
- Phone-Free School Policies — Pew Research Center Reading
- Should Students Have Phones in School? — NBC News Video 10 min. Covers both sides—academic focus, social connection, and safety concerns.
- France Bans Smartphones in Schools — Here's What Happened — DW News Video 5 min. Real-world results from a national phone ban.
- Are Phones Ruining Your Students? — The Atlantic Video 12 min.
📣 Advertising, Branding & Consumer Culture
- How Consumer Propaganda Changed America — Epic Economics Video 24 min. Also cross-listed under Bias, Truth & Media Literacy.
- Targeted Ads: The Dark Side of Divulging Your Data — iluli by Mike Lamb Video 5 min. Also cross-listed under Privacy & Data.
- What Is Sensory Marketing? — The Packaging School Video 3 min. Quick overview of how brands use the five senses.
- IKEA Isn't Designed for Convenience, It's Designed to Make You Buy More! — Brendan Kane Video 30 sec. Short but punchy illustration of deliberate store design.
- Rebranding Snickers for Gym Bros, Moms, and More — Matt Rosenman Video 2 min. Target marketing and brand identity in action.
- Jon Stewart Smashes the Myth of Corporate Morality in Pride, BLM, and Beyond — The Daily Show Video 14 min. How corporations use social causes as marketing.
- McMindfulness: When Capitalism Goes Buddhist — Elliot Sang Video 35 min. How corporations co-opt wellness and mindfulness culture for profit.
🔐 Privacy, Data & Surveillance
- Data Brokers — EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) Reading
- Online Advertising & Tracking — EPIC Reading
- What Is Data Ethics & Why Do We Need It? — Wall Street Technology Association Video 27 min.
- Targeted Ads: The Dark Side of Divulging Your Data — iluli by Mike Lamb Video 5 min. Also cross-listed under Advertising.
- Why Privacy Matters — Glenn Greenwald | TED Video 20 min.
- Why Automakers Are Invading Your Privacy — CNBC Video 14 min. How cars have become surveillance devices.
- Google, Facebook, Amazon: The Rise of the Mega-Corporations — DW Documentary Documentary 42 min. Also cross-listed under Technology & Society.
- VFX Artists DEBUNK AI Influencers & Scams — Corridor Crew Video 20 min. Also relevant to AI & Misinformation.
- Meta's $14.3B Investment in Scale AI — What It Means — Harper Carroll AI Video 3 min. The intersection of big tech, data, and AI development.
- Ebooks, Kindle and the Erosion of Ownership — Plant Based Bride Video 14 min. Who really owns what you buy digitally—and what companies can take back.
🤖 AI, Misinformation & the Information Landscape
- The Illusion of Truth — Veritasium Video How repetition creates the feeling of truth—the illusory truth effect. Also cross-listed under Technology & Society.
- Why People Are So Confident When They're Wrong Video Also cross-listed under Technology & Society.
- How to Safeguard Your Mind in the Age of Junk Information — Yuval Noah Harari | Big Think Video 13 min.
- AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver — HBO Video 29 min.
- Can We Teach Our Moms to Spot Fake AI Videos? — Corridor Crew Video 16 min.
- How to Spot Fake AI Photos — Hany Farid | TED Video 12 min.
- VFX Artists DEBUNK AI Influencers & Scams — Corridor Crew Video 20 min. Also cross-listed under Privacy & Data.
- STOP USING GENERATIVE A.I. — Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq (original song) Video 2 min. A creative take—could be an interesting way to introduce a section.
📰 Bias, Truth & Media Literacy
- How to Detect Bias in News Media — FAIR Reading Also useful as a how-to for evaluating your own sources.
- The Five Key Questions and Core Concepts of Media Literacy — Center for Media Literacy Reading
- Evaluating Sources & Fact Checking: Crash Course Scientific Thinking #6 — CrashCourse Video 10 min. Very recent (2025).
- How Consumer Propaganda Changed America — Epic Economics Video 24 min. Also cross-listed under Advertising.
- Americans Exaggerate How Often They Go to Church — ReligionForBreakfast Video 13 min. Note from Kelli: This is especially interesting in terms of how data was gathered—location sharing revealed when people were actually attending church versus just saying they did. Think about what that tells us about how data collection works.
- How Much Water Do You Actually Need a Day? — Gastropod Podcast Note from Kelli: This episode discusses various studies on water needs, including biased studies and the illusory truth effect—which connects to many topics in this essay.
💼 Work, Identity & Social Connection
- I Study the Future. We Should Pay Attention to Avatars — Sinead Bovell | TEDxRutgersCamden Video 13 min. Also cross-listed under Social Media & Identity.
- Can I Be Myself at Work? — Linden Vazey | TEDxUOA Video 12 min. Authenticity, identity, and workplace culture.
- The Death of 24-Hour America — Why Nothing Stays Open Late — Cities By Diana Video 13 min. Technology, work schedules, and how social spaces are disappearing.
- Google, Facebook, Amazon: The Rise of the Mega-Corporations — DW Documentary Documentary 42 min. Also cross-listed under Technology & Society and Privacy & Data.
- RACE – THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION: How the Racial Wealth Gap Was Created — California Newsreel Video 29 min. Systemic inequality and data—how historical policies created lasting economic divides.
- Jon Stewart Smashes the Myth of Corporate Morality — The Daily Show Video 14 min. Also cross-listed under Advertising.
🎬 Video Streaming — Kanopy (EPCC Login Required)
These films are free with your EPCC login. Go to kanopy.com/en/epcc and sign in with your EPCC credentials.
- Sexy Baby — Social media, gender, and growing up online
- Frontline: The Facebook Dilemma — Data privacy, fake news, and the social media ecosystem
- Vulnerable Innocence: The Internet — Are Children in Charge? — Children, online safety, and parental oversight
- What Is the Metaverse? — Virtual worlds and the next evolution of the internet
- I Am Human — Brain implants, ethics, and what technology means for human identity
- Generation Zapped — Wireless technology, cell phones, and health consequences
- Computers v. Crime (2022) — How algorithms are used in bail decisions, sentencing, and policing
- Augmented & Predicting My MS (2022) — Technology and disability
- Why It Matters: Future Tech (2021) — 5 episodes; any of them work
- Black Code: Where Big Data Meets Big Brother (2016) — Governments, internet control, and democracy
- A Good American: Behind a Government Surveillance Program (2015) — NSA mass surveillance
- Pre-Crime: Investigating Predictive Crime Algorithms (2017) — Predictive policing and algorithmic justice
- Origin of the Species (2012) — Android development, human/machine relations, and gender
Assignment, Prewritings & Revision
- Informative Synthesis Essay Assignment PDF
- Prewriting 1: Topic, Subtopic, Sources — Slideshow | Full Text Version
- Sample Prewriting 1
- Prewriting 2: ICE-T Baby! Developing Body Paragraphs — Slideshow | Full Text Version
- Sample Prewriting 2
- Prewriting 2 Worksheet: .pdf | .docx
- Prewriting 3: Developing an Ending and Beginning — Slideshow | Full Text Version
- Sample Prewriting 3
- Revision Checklist
Understanding the Assignment & What Synthesis Means
- How to Write a Synthesis Essay — Grammarly Blog
- How to Synthesize Written Information from Multiple Sources — Simply Psychology
- Chapter 5: Writing a Summary and Synthesizing — A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing
- Integrating Non-Traditional Sources in Academic Writing
Finding & Evaluating Sources
- How to Detect Bias in News Media — FAIR
- The Five Key Questions and Core Concepts of Media Literacy — Center for Media Literacy
- Evaluating Sources & Fact Checking: Crash Course Scientific Thinking #6 — CrashCourse Video
- How to Listen to a Podcast for Class — Abby Mullen Advice on using podcasts as credible sources in academic writing.
- What Is "Academic" Writing? — Writing Spaces
Citation & Source Integration
- The Pearson Guide to the 2021 MLA Handbook
- Writing Down the Basics — Documenting Resources (pp. 59–70) & MLA Citations (pp. 75–86)
- Chapter 11: Ethical Source Integration — Citation, Quoting, and Paraphrasing — A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing
Student Sample Essays
- Phones in Schools: What the Experts Are Actually Saying — Jessica Martinez
- Feeling Close to Strangers: What We Know About Parasocial Relationships — Marcus Ramirez
- The Hidden Trade: How Data Brokers Collect and Use Our Information — Sofia Hernandez