PART A
The person I interviewed was my friend john. I aksed what methods he used to mask himself and portray a cool pose to others and also why he does so. His answer was that he does not try to be cool or seem cool to others. He said he simply does what he likes and although many things he likes come from things around that he sees as cool he does not do things because it is the cool thing to do at the moment. His basic answer was that what makes him cool is that he does things he likes and he does not follow others likes and therefore that is cool about him. I think that this is a pretty standard answer but I also think it is somewhat true. I do believe that some people do things because that is what they truly like but the image that you give off as being cool is something that you put out there for others to accept so in a sense you are doing it for others. I find the idea very confusing.
PART B
The different strategies I would say I use to be "cool" would be the way I dress, surronding myself with friends I view as cool, and I guess sports actvities or personal life/activities. I have a deep passion for music and I like to share the music I listen to or the music my friends and people I know make with others. It is something that I talk about alot and the people I am close with know about me. The way I dress would also be another strategy. I dress in a way that I think is cool and other people also like sometimes. I do pay somewhat attention to how I dress but I don't really obsses over it. Also things such as being good at sports, going out outside of school, making jokes, etc. Are other things that give me attention and give me a lok that is cool.
The reason that I do these things is partly because they are what I enjoy to do or at least at this point in time what I enjoy as well as because I am able to surround myself with and be accepted by other people that have similar interests as me and people who I view as cool. I think all of these strategies are about acceptance and a sense of importance.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
HW 30
Cool is an idea that has overtaken our culture. Almost everyone is obsessed with being cool and the only thing that differs is the group that they want to appeal too. What is it about cool that makes us want to be it. What is it about ourselves that makes us so insecure that we have to fit in to other people’s standards. Why do we feel such a sense of emptiness? Maybe it is a lack of attention or love for simply being alive, or maybe it is fear of death, maybe we naturally want to feel important. All of these things play roles in the reasoning for insecurities but one of the biggest reasons we seek approval and importance is that our roles in society change as we get older and we get less attention as we grow. As a child one receives a large amount of attention from their parents, their family and many other adults around them. Little children are tended to most of the time and taken care of. They get attention just for being around and they get used to this attention. As children begin to get older and start going to school where they seek the same attention from their peers and therefore find ways to attract the attention of those around them and feel accepted and important in the same way they do at home. As we being to enter middle school and high school we become more independent and this is many times something we want, or think we want yet we still seek attention from others in school or from groups of friends outside of school. “The goal of being cool is feeling good about yourself, feeling valuable.” (Matt Freud, December 8th)
As we get older more is expected of us we handle more responsibilities and we are expected to care for ourselves. The change of roles we go through and “separation from the mother” both cause us to have a need to fill an emptiness with a feeling of importance and the easiest and most common way to do so is to give of an image that attracts other people and makes you seem important. People have a natural need to feel wanted and accepted however, in our society there is a desire for an unnatural and excessive amount of acceptance and importance. I think society has taken this idea and has turned it into an extreme hierarchy(which by the way goes hand in hand with a capitalist system)that leaves few feeling important and many feeling meaningless. Our need for acceptance has turned into a competition to see who can feel the most important of all. There are people who constantly obsess over feeling important and better then other and it's pathetic. I believe there is a difference between a longing for acceptance and what goes in our society today, specifically in pop culture. I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking acceptance however there is a problem with putting others down and competing obsessively to feel the most important.
As we get older more is expected of us we handle more responsibilities and we are expected to care for ourselves. The change of roles we go through and “separation from the mother” both cause us to have a need to fill an emptiness with a feeling of importance and the easiest and most common way to do so is to give of an image that attracts other people and makes you seem important. People have a natural need to feel wanted and accepted however, in our society there is a desire for an unnatural and excessive amount of acceptance and importance. I think society has taken this idea and has turned it into an extreme hierarchy(which by the way goes hand in hand with a capitalist system)that leaves few feeling important and many feeling meaningless. Our need for acceptance has turned into a competition to see who can feel the most important of all. There are people who constantly obsess over feeling important and better then other and it's pathetic. I believe there is a difference between a longing for acceptance and what goes in our society today, specifically in pop culture. I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking acceptance however there is a problem with putting others down and competing obsessively to feel the most important.
Monday, December 14, 2009
HW 29
The connection between cool and teenagers is essential to the success of big businesses. Big businesses need to find ways to manipulate the feelings of teens to be able to sell products to them. "The Merchants of Cool" shows exactly how big businesses figure what is cool amongst teens and how the use that to sell their products to teens. I think that they are right we are used and our feelings are basically manipulated and if not we are at least influenced to a great extent. We are shown what is cool and what is not and even when sub-cultures pop up amongst teens they are basically infiltrated by big businesses and become part of their marketing strategy. This is very easy to prove in music as "The Merchants of Cool" showed with Limp Biscuit and Rage against The Machine. As teens constantly try to find things that are not mainstream and companies start to use these new sub cultures as marketing strategies teens are constantly changing their idea of cool. Teens are very focused on trying to be different but at the same time are trying to act different and 'cool' to fit in.
I think that big corporations and businesses cause much of the insecurities in teens because the control the mainstream ideas of cool. The constantly change what's cool and I think it comes off as confusing. It is rare for a teen to be truly comfortable with who they are more so in early teen years because the things that are cool are constantly changing around them. I think as people get older and mature they realize what is going on and are more confident but the same things still happen. The insecurities of people in general and their want to be cool is what makes the businesses rich and is the cycle of our society. It is what helps capitalism run and with out the exploitation of feelings a capitalist society would collapse completely. Although businesses play a major role in influencing peoples feelings the society it is tool of capitalism and the blame of the effects of businesses and corporations on our life belongs to the system in general and the people as well for going along with it and not being able to even see what is going on.
I think that big corporations and businesses cause much of the insecurities in teens because the control the mainstream ideas of cool. The constantly change what's cool and I think it comes off as confusing. It is rare for a teen to be truly comfortable with who they are more so in early teen years because the things that are cool are constantly changing around them. I think as people get older and mature they realize what is going on and are more confident but the same things still happen. The insecurities of people in general and their want to be cool is what makes the businesses rich and is the cycle of our society. It is what helps capitalism run and with out the exploitation of feelings a capitalist society would collapse completely. Although businesses play a major role in influencing peoples feelings the society it is tool of capitalism and the blame of the effects of businesses and corporations on our life belongs to the system in general and the people as well for going along with it and not being able to even see what is going on.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
HW 28
It is so obvious from this informal research that so many people try so hard to be cool and some are good at hiding it and some aren't. These articles basically state archetypes or mix some and say that that is what is cool.
http://alanwho.com/ask/how-to-be-cool/
So this guys definition of cool is to be independent and somewhat mystical yet friendly and ambitious. He also states that being relaxed is very important when being cool. It pretty much what we talked about in class. He does not state anything new.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080901214454AALDzPJ
So this is pretty interesting. The guy/girl asking the question is talking down on "cool" people saying there usually idiots and they are all fake. One of the responses says some "cool" people are being themselves(but does not go in to what "being yourself" means) and a third person says they want to be cool to fit in and be happy and avoid loneliness.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/129878-Study_Friends_Determine_What_Is_Cool_Among_Young_People.php
This article is a survey on what young kids and teenagers think are cool. They show a big change in whats cool from 13 and 14 years old to 15-18 year olds and show that kids priorities change and their ideas of cool change. Digital things are shown to be very cool amongst all ages but more social activities such as hanging out with friends become more popular in older kids.
http://www.loganwhitehurst.com/becool.html
This is an essay or at least thats what he is calling. He is pretty much making fun of cool, or at least I hope he is. He ridicules things that some people may think are cool and names ways to be cool in a sarcastic way.
http://www.mindfields.org.uk/blog/?p=140
This article is similar to the first one. The idea of cool here is mystical yet friendly. Also doing your own thing is a big part of it...kinda like the cowboy. All the articles about how to be cool say the same thing. Make people think you don't care, dress nice, be funny, etc.
http://alanwho.com/ask/how-to-be-cool/
So this guys definition of cool is to be independent and somewhat mystical yet friendly and ambitious. He also states that being relaxed is very important when being cool. It pretty much what we talked about in class. He does not state anything new.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080901214454AALDzPJ
So this is pretty interesting. The guy/girl asking the question is talking down on "cool" people saying there usually idiots and they are all fake. One of the responses says some "cool" people are being themselves(but does not go in to what "being yourself" means) and a third person says they want to be cool to fit in and be happy and avoid loneliness.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/129878-Study_Friends_Determine_What_Is_Cool_Among_Young_People.php
This article is a survey on what young kids and teenagers think are cool. They show a big change in whats cool from 13 and 14 years old to 15-18 year olds and show that kids priorities change and their ideas of cool change. Digital things are shown to be very cool amongst all ages but more social activities such as hanging out with friends become more popular in older kids.
http://www.loganwhitehurst.com/becool.html
This is an essay or at least thats what he is calling. He is pretty much making fun of cool, or at least I hope he is. He ridicules things that some people may think are cool and names ways to be cool in a sarcastic way.
http://www.mindfields.org.uk/blog/?p=140
This article is similar to the first one. The idea of cool here is mystical yet friendly. Also doing your own thing is a big part of it...kinda like the cowboy. All the articles about how to be cool say the same thing. Make people think you don't care, dress nice, be funny, etc.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
HW 27
DAD:
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE COOL?
"It means to be your own unique person, be confident and special. At least to be able to pretend that you believe those things about yourself."
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COOL?
"Cool is everything(joke)...The significance of cool is that it gives meaning to empty lives."
WHAT MAKES SOMEONE NOT COOL?
"you know what makes someone not cool, trying to be cool. Trying hard to be cool is the most uncool thing you could do."
John(friend):
1. What makes you cool?
"Because I do what I want, by wearing what I want, singing when I want, dancing when I want and people follow. Sometimes I make people come out their 'shell'.
2. How long to get ready?
30 mins not including shower
3.What makes somebody not cool?
"When people follow. When they follow trends and whats going on at the moment. Oh and when people hate and give criticisms that are not constructive. If your not helping you have no reason to criticize."
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE COOL?
"It means to be your own unique person, be confident and special. At least to be able to pretend that you believe those things about yourself."
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COOL?
"Cool is everything(joke)...The significance of cool is that it gives meaning to empty lives."
WHAT MAKES SOMEONE NOT COOL?
"you know what makes someone not cool, trying to be cool. Trying hard to be cool is the most uncool thing you could do."
John(friend):
1. What makes you cool?
"Because I do what I want, by wearing what I want, singing when I want, dancing when I want and people follow. Sometimes I make people come out their 'shell'.
2. How long to get ready?
30 mins not including shower
3.What makes somebody not cool?
"When people follow. When they follow trends and whats going on at the moment. Oh and when people hate and give criticisms that are not constructive. If your not helping you have no reason to criticize."
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Hw 26
JAVON
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1. What makes you cool?
"My swagga" (He then sings the chorus to the song 'swagga like us' and adds his name at the end) He explains that it is your demeanor that determines your coolness. "It's the way I carry myself; be confident about yourself and act how you act."
He then explains expensive things are not necessary when trying to be cool. "It depends on how you put things together and your character."
2. How long does it take you to get ready when your going out usually?
"10 minutes at most, wait nah about 20 maybe 30 minutes. I have a huge closet!"
3.What makes somebody NOT cool?
"everything I said but the opposite, like I said it depends on how you carry yourself."
JOHN
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1. What makes you cool?
"Because I do what I want, by wearing what I want, singing when I want, dancing when I want and people follow. Sometimes I make people come out their 'shell'.
2. How long to get ready?
30 mins not including shower
3.What makes somebody not cool?
"When people follow. When they follow trends and whats going on at the moment. Oh and when people hate and give criticisms that are not constructive. If your not helping you have no reason to criticize."
MAX
What makes you cool?
"The white tuxedo jacket sorta gets the looks. It comes off as clean but not trying to hard.
What made you go with this look?
"After seeing James Bond "Goldeneye" I was inspired to pull of the white suit."
What makes someone not cool?
"When it's clear to public that he is trying to hard. It becomes obvious that he wants to be cool."
.jpg)
1. What makes you cool?
"My swagga" (He then sings the chorus to the song 'swagga like us' and adds his name at the end) He explains that it is your demeanor that determines your coolness. "It's the way I carry myself; be confident about yourself and act how you act."
He then explains expensive things are not necessary when trying to be cool. "It depends on how you put things together and your character."
2. How long does it take you to get ready when your going out usually?
"10 minutes at most, wait nah about 20 maybe 30 minutes. I have a huge closet!"
3.What makes somebody NOT cool?
"everything I said but the opposite, like I said it depends on how you carry yourself."
JOHN
.jpg)
1. What makes you cool?
"Because I do what I want, by wearing what I want, singing when I want, dancing when I want and people follow. Sometimes I make people come out their 'shell'.
2. How long to get ready?
30 mins not including shower
3.What makes somebody not cool?
"When people follow. When they follow trends and whats going on at the moment. Oh and when people hate and give criticisms that are not constructive. If your not helping you have no reason to criticize."
MAX
What makes you cool?
"The white tuxedo jacket sorta gets the looks. It comes off as clean but not trying to hard.
What made you go with this look?
"After seeing James Bond "Goldeneye" I was inspired to pull of the white suit."
What makes someone not cool?
"When it's clear to public that he is trying to hard. It becomes obvious that he wants to be cool."
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Hw 25 (part 2)
In all stories cool was one of two things,and sometimes both. The main character was either cool in a very superficial way (fashion, wealth, looks, etc.) or the character was cool because he/she played the role of the nice guy/girl. Of course there were many variations of this but essentially all the stories came down to one of the two. I also read alot of stories about kids who are extremely self concious on the inside and try extremely hard to not show it and succede and therefore are considered cool.
Some of the archtypes in the stories I read were: The jock(basketball player), The popular pretty girl, and the jerk. One of the theme that I noticed were in almost all of the stories was a sense of secretism. Almost all the characters has issues with themselves or with other people outside their group of immidiate friends or the people they act cool in front of. They also hid these problems from the people who viewed them as cool. I guess one thing people were trying to portray was that people who try to act cool(which i guess is everyone) have more problems then you think and are much more complicated than what you see although they don't show it. All the stories were the typical ideas of what is viewed as cool in our society.
Some of the archtypes in the stories I read were: The jock(basketball player), The popular pretty girl, and the jerk. One of the theme that I noticed were in almost all of the stories was a sense of secretism. Almost all the characters has issues with themselves or with other people outside their group of immidiate friends or the people they act cool in front of. They also hid these problems from the people who viewed them as cool. I guess one thing people were trying to portray was that people who try to act cool(which i guess is everyone) have more problems then you think and are much more complicated than what you see although they don't show it. All the stories were the typical ideas of what is viewed as cool in our society.
Monday, November 30, 2009
HW 25 Part 1
ESTHER
Omar S. said...
I like that your story took setting in a place where people don't necessarily act cool or have people around them judging how cool they are. You also showed that plain is cool and having a somewhat normal morning and not really worrying about the thoughts of others is cool. You had a very different and interesting take on the assignment. Nice story.
DEVIN
Omar S. said...
Your story showed the idea that other people have about cool. While you weren't necessarily making fun of the idea of cool you did show someone who was not cool but was thought of as cool by his peers. You showed that the bully who was supposed to be cool in the end really wasn't that cool. Good job
MAX
Omar S. said...
I liked how you explained what the character felt as well as how other people saw and thought about him. You portrayed a typical person viewed as cool who thought they were to good for their peers. You then showed how even people who are so arrogant have many insecurities and issues with themselves. The rust issue showed this and in turn the story was much deeper than an average story about someone cool.
SANDY
Omar S. said...
Good story. You explained the feelings of the characters very well. I like how you narrated the story from the characters point of view and explained it from what he was seeing or feeling. The only thing I would suggest is having more of a conflict or exploring and expanding on the conflict a little more. You left it as a cliff hanger which was pretty good but a bit more prior knowledge before the end would strengthen the story much more. Overall it was a very good story.
BRITTANI
Omar S. said...
The story came out good. I like how you showed exactly what you thought was cool instead of trying to make fun of it. It was also interesting since it was in the viewpoint of a boy. I like that your character was cool because he was not arrogant. You also showed that being cute and playing basketball were part of being cool. This story got your idea of cool across well. Good job.
Omar S. said...
I like that your story took setting in a place where people don't necessarily act cool or have people around them judging how cool they are. You also showed that plain is cool and having a somewhat normal morning and not really worrying about the thoughts of others is cool. You had a very different and interesting take on the assignment. Nice story.
DEVIN
Omar S. said...
Your story showed the idea that other people have about cool. While you weren't necessarily making fun of the idea of cool you did show someone who was not cool but was thought of as cool by his peers. You showed that the bully who was supposed to be cool in the end really wasn't that cool. Good job
MAX
Omar S. said...
I liked how you explained what the character felt as well as how other people saw and thought about him. You portrayed a typical person viewed as cool who thought they were to good for their peers. You then showed how even people who are so arrogant have many insecurities and issues with themselves. The rust issue showed this and in turn the story was much deeper than an average story about someone cool.
SANDY
Omar S. said...
Good story. You explained the feelings of the characters very well. I like how you narrated the story from the characters point of view and explained it from what he was seeing or feeling. The only thing I would suggest is having more of a conflict or exploring and expanding on the conflict a little more. You left it as a cliff hanger which was pretty good but a bit more prior knowledge before the end would strengthen the story much more. Overall it was a very good story.
BRITTANI
Omar S. said...
The story came out good. I like how you showed exactly what you thought was cool instead of trying to make fun of it. It was also interesting since it was in the viewpoint of a boy. I like that your character was cool because he was not arrogant. You also showed that being cute and playing basketball were part of being cool. This story got your idea of cool across well. Good job.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Short Story
The concert was starting in 20 minutes and Jim was outside with his friend James. He looked at his phone to check the time and got a call.
"Where are you?" said his friend Justin.
"I'm about to go into the concert I was telling you about last week" said Jim
"Me too" said Justin. Jim look around and then spotted him across the street with one other person. Justin crossed the street.
"What's up" said justin.
"Nothing much, you know my friend James right?" asked Jim. Justin nodded and said, "Oh yeah, um what's up."
"Hey" said James quickly. Jim could sense the tension between the two. Jim motioned for Justin and his friend to come join and go to the concert with him. They all started walking and got to the entrance of the concert.
"Tickets please." asked the lady at the entrance. They all gave her the tickets and walked in. There was a long hallway with the lights dimmed down and pictures on both walls. They walked down the hallway and Jim was admiring some of the pictures as his phone vibrated in his pocket. His took it out and saw he had a text. He opened the text and it read:"y did u tell him 2 come." The text was from his friend James. He hated when james wrote his texts like that. He looked next to him and saw the tension between James and Justin. He knew they didn't get along to well before. He tried to start up a conversation.
"Jus, when did you buy your tickets for this concert?" James Shot a dirty look at Jim.
"Like two days ago" said Justin.
He knew sensed that both Justin and James did not like each other and decided he would have to do something about it. He was getting frustrated. He stopped and both of them looked at him.
Jim looked at both of them and then said "Look I know you two don't get along that well but were here to go to a concert so if you two are going to complain all night then there's no reason to go." Then Jim kept walking down the hallway. After about a minute Justin looked over a Jim and James and said your right and held his hand out to james for a handshake. James looked at him and hesitantly shook his hand. Jim felt contempt and although the two weren't necessarily friends he knew that tonight he was going to have fun and there would be no drama. The reached the end of the hallway and the music was blasting.
"Where are you?" said his friend Justin.
"I'm about to go into the concert I was telling you about last week" said Jim
"Me too" said Justin. Jim look around and then spotted him across the street with one other person. Justin crossed the street.
"What's up" said justin.
"Nothing much, you know my friend James right?" asked Jim. Justin nodded and said, "Oh yeah, um what's up."
"Hey" said James quickly. Jim could sense the tension between the two. Jim motioned for Justin and his friend to come join and go to the concert with him. They all started walking and got to the entrance of the concert.
"Tickets please." asked the lady at the entrance. They all gave her the tickets and walked in. There was a long hallway with the lights dimmed down and pictures on both walls. They walked down the hallway and Jim was admiring some of the pictures as his phone vibrated in his pocket. His took it out and saw he had a text. He opened the text and it read:"y did u tell him 2 come." The text was from his friend James. He hated when james wrote his texts like that. He looked next to him and saw the tension between James and Justin. He knew they didn't get along to well before. He tried to start up a conversation.
"Jus, when did you buy your tickets for this concert?" James Shot a dirty look at Jim.
"Like two days ago" said Justin.
He knew sensed that both Justin and James did not like each other and decided he would have to do something about it. He was getting frustrated. He stopped and both of them looked at him.
Jim looked at both of them and then said "Look I know you two don't get along that well but were here to go to a concert so if you two are going to complain all night then there's no reason to go." Then Jim kept walking down the hallway. After about a minute Justin looked over a Jim and James and said your right and held his hand out to james for a handshake. James looked at him and hesitantly shook his hand. Jim felt contempt and although the two weren't necessarily friends he knew that tonight he was going to have fun and there would be no drama. The reached the end of the hallway and the music was blasting.
Monday, November 16, 2009
HW 23
Cool. Im not sure if cool can be defined. Cool is constantly changing and for many people is very different. I think that cool can be categorized into two different types: 1. What's cool in pop culture or the mainstream 2. What is cool to you as an individual.
What is cool in pop culture/mainstream?
The definition of col in pop culture/mainstream is defined by fads ad constantly changes. Celebrities constantly changes styles and activities and as a result many people follow them and constantly change with them. It is kind of like an x to y relationship as x(actors, musicians, etc.) changes they y(people who follow mainstream culture) changes.
It seems to me that main times being cool according to pop culture means showing off your money or at least pretending to have a lot of money. It is not uncommon in new york to see someone who lives in a projects or bad neighborhood wearing n extremely expensive label. The idea of being cool teaches people to want to fit in and conform with what celebrities are doing and with what everyone else is doing. In many ways it takes someone's or part of someone's personality and individuality away from them. Everyone is affected by pop culture in different ways some times to the extreme and some times not so much. This idea of being cool and fitting in is one of the main ways we are influenced too buy so much. It is one of the essentials to consumerism. It keeps us wanting more and many times it keeps us poor. People work and spend their hard earned money on things that they eventually wont use in a matter of months. Its pretty sad...
Going deeper in to the mainstream definition of cool the question of why people do this comes up. Taking a step back and really looking at it it's quite idiotic, but we have become accustomed to this way of life that we hardly take time to think about it. Why do we allow ourselves to be influenced so heavily to buy new version of ipods that essentially do the same thing, or buy new clothes that we may not even like. What is the point? I think there are two main steps in breaking this down(I'm sure I will think of more later on.) The first part is causing insecurities within people, making them feel as if they are not good enough or need to change them selves to be accepted. The second part is providing the things that they can buy to fit someone else's standards. It's pretty sick. Many people are buying clothes and changing their appearance to fit other people standards. People feel as though they are not good enough so they spend massive amounts of money covering themselves up in an artificial personality and sometimes appearance. So many people especially teens don't feel as though they can express themselves in a way that is true to them. They don't feel that they can share the things that they like with others because it is not something that everybody likes. "Cool" pop culture is all about fitting someone else's standards and they get people to do this by telling them that if they buy certain things they will stand out when in reality there are simply fitting in. Cool is artificial in pop culture.
2. Cool in terms of the individual
This varies much more than the first one. This is unique for every person. It's what you really like what you want to do, what you want to say, or how you want to dress. Cool to the individual is what they like about others what they like about themselves. However, everyones perception of cool is affected by pop culture; sometimes in minor ways sometimes in major ways. People who stray from the norm always have other people who are just like them. It's impossible to be completely original and every gets their ideas of cool from other people and from mainstream culture in some ways.
It is impossible for some one to be completely unaffected by pop culture because we grow up with pop culture all around us. On t.v, on the computer everything around us is somewhat associated with pop culture and therefore, even if it is sub-consciously we are all affected by pop culture.
What is cool in pop culture/mainstream?
The definition of col in pop culture/mainstream is defined by fads ad constantly changes. Celebrities constantly changes styles and activities and as a result many people follow them and constantly change with them. It is kind of like an x to y relationship as x(actors, musicians, etc.) changes they y(people who follow mainstream culture) changes.
It seems to me that main times being cool according to pop culture means showing off your money or at least pretending to have a lot of money. It is not uncommon in new york to see someone who lives in a projects or bad neighborhood wearing n extremely expensive label. The idea of being cool teaches people to want to fit in and conform with what celebrities are doing and with what everyone else is doing. In many ways it takes someone's or part of someone's personality and individuality away from them. Everyone is affected by pop culture in different ways some times to the extreme and some times not so much. This idea of being cool and fitting in is one of the main ways we are influenced too buy so much. It is one of the essentials to consumerism. It keeps us wanting more and many times it keeps us poor. People work and spend their hard earned money on things that they eventually wont use in a matter of months. Its pretty sad...
Going deeper in to the mainstream definition of cool the question of why people do this comes up. Taking a step back and really looking at it it's quite idiotic, but we have become accustomed to this way of life that we hardly take time to think about it. Why do we allow ourselves to be influenced so heavily to buy new version of ipods that essentially do the same thing, or buy new clothes that we may not even like. What is the point? I think there are two main steps in breaking this down(I'm sure I will think of more later on.) The first part is causing insecurities within people, making them feel as if they are not good enough or need to change them selves to be accepted. The second part is providing the things that they can buy to fit someone else's standards. It's pretty sick. Many people are buying clothes and changing their appearance to fit other people standards. People feel as though they are not good enough so they spend massive amounts of money covering themselves up in an artificial personality and sometimes appearance. So many people especially teens don't feel as though they can express themselves in a way that is true to them. They don't feel that they can share the things that they like with others because it is not something that everybody likes. "Cool" pop culture is all about fitting someone else's standards and they get people to do this by telling them that if they buy certain things they will stand out when in reality there are simply fitting in. Cool is artificial in pop culture.
2. Cool in terms of the individual
This varies much more than the first one. This is unique for every person. It's what you really like what you want to do, what you want to say, or how you want to dress. Cool to the individual is what they like about others what they like about themselves. However, everyones perception of cool is affected by pop culture; sometimes in minor ways sometimes in major ways. People who stray from the norm always have other people who are just like them. It's impossible to be completely original and every gets their ideas of cool from other people and from mainstream culture in some ways.
It is impossible for some one to be completely unaffected by pop culture because we grow up with pop culture all around us. On t.v, on the computer everything around us is somewhat associated with pop culture and therefore, even if it is sub-consciously we are all affected by pop culture.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
My art piece is more of a mirror than a hammer. It is a mirror because it reflects our dependence on digital representation devices. My art work makes the statement that computers control the world. It also shows that computers and the world don't connect smoothly. The fuzz or electrical malfunction between the connection of the earth and the cord from the computer represents the "malfunctions" that computers and digital representation devices in general cause society and the world.
My art is specific enough that it shows the viewer the main idea of the message the art work is trying to show. It is also not too specific therefore people can interpret it in different ways. My reaction to my art is that it makes me realize how we are losing control of our own lives. We are letting computers and other digital representation devices do things for us and practically live our lives for us. It is kind of scary to me.
The most interesting part of making this for me was coming up with the idea of what to draw. As I started drawing I had a picture in mind and while I was drawing it, it took a completely different course and turned in to a completely different picture. This was pretty interesting to me because I found that this drawing best represented my point and it's frightening that this best represents the world we live in.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Essay (final)
Omar Stevens
11A – Social Studies
Ignorance in today’s society
We are currently living in an age where our society revolves around digital technology. We have become dependent on the digital technology available to us. We use digital representation devices for practically all of our daily activities. Our digital lifestyle has provided us with easier access to information, unlike anything ever before. The ability to learn and gain a great amount of knowledge is much easier than in the past. Yet, it is a growing trend that each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. We are less aware and have thorough knowledge on current events and issues such as our economic failure and the war that we are in. We are now less aware of the true problems of our world and the reasons why our society is the way it is. Many people blame the growing ignorance of our society on the growing amount of electronics and digital representation devices around us. Although digital representation devices consume an enormous amount of the average Americans life, it is not the cause of our mass ignorance. The ideas of this country that are pushed through pop culture and the digital media are the cause of our ignorance. These ideas teach us to value only ourselves and to go about life in the most convenient way possible. Our desire for convenience and short cuts have led to major set backs intellectually as well as physically. Our current ways of life have proved to be disastrous and can only lead to more harm. The dominant ideas of our society, which are selfishness and individualism, and a false sense of happiness are what drives our society and determines the way we function as individuals and as a society. These are the ideas that people have been taught to believe in and they have shown to be ideas that lead to failure in thoroughly and effectively educating us to critically think about the world we live and how we can better it and ourselves. Our digital developments have provided us with more opportunities but our ideas have restricted us. Digital representation devices have given our society less of an excuse for its substantial amount of ignorance.
Our society has taught us to be intensely concentrated on pop culture. In turn, the priorities of people have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture as well as their ignorance. It is equally uncomplicated for someone to blame it on our digital advancements. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices and many other ways, the ideas of pop culture are spread to the masses. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that keep us ignorant. We have been taught to seek the lives that celebrities live and focus on materialistic things. We have been taught to constantly buy things and get happiness from spending money. We have been distracted from the issues such as the lack of jobs and the scandals going on in big businesses. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the truly significant and important issues that affect our lives, the lives of other, and the world we live in.
The Internet, which provides us with endless possibilities, is hardly if ever used for a positive purpose. Many people today use digital networking sites such as Facebook as a pastime. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. People on Facebook spend time talking about meaningless things while it could be used to spread knowledge on current events or talk about the important issues we are currently facing. Unfortunately this is not how it is used. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”(Facebook.com), and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”(Facebook.com), finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).”(Facebook.com) It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults. These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 years old (Facebook.com) shows that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture and celebrities are what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness although there are different things to conform to essentially they are the same. People find it easier to be interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, and most importantly the cause of the problems we face. It is much more convenient to look at something that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world.
Twitter is a social networking website in which small messages called “tweets” are displayed for everyone to see. These are usually short messages saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users. (Michael Arrington, page 1) People feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that can change people’s lifestyles.
It is arguable that new digital technology causes us to distance ourselves from other people. The Internet has caused us to have fewer connections with other people around us. “The Internet also alienates the person from his social self.”(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9) It is also arguable that the Internet has cause drops in reading and physical activity. It is arguable that the Internet has caused reading levels to drop “from three-quarters to 70 percent over the last six years.”(Helen Legatt, pg.1) It is very standard for people to blame the Internet for the ignorance of our society and the lack of education. However, this reasoning is wrong. It is not what we are using but it is how we are using it and what we are taught to do with the materials or tools given to us. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
The digitalization of our society has opened up many doors for us. It has also given us less of an excuse for the mass ignorance of current society. A change in the dominant ideas of society is essential in making any progress towards the elimination of the massive ignorance and failure of society. Society has been headed in the wrong direction. We are currently dealing with economic failures, mass unemployment, war, and many other problems. A change is necessary in saving the people and the world we live in. We are the only ones who can save our world and ourselves and a major shift in the major ideas of this society is the only thing that will change us. We need to use our digital technology to our advantages instead of letting it distract us and affect us negatively.
Bibliography
1. www.Facbook.com/statistics
2. Michael Arrington, page 1, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers
3. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9
4. Helen Legatt, Internet users reading less print)
11A – Social Studies
Ignorance in today’s society
We are currently living in an age where our society revolves around digital technology. We have become dependent on the digital technology available to us. We use digital representation devices for practically all of our daily activities. Our digital lifestyle has provided us with easier access to information, unlike anything ever before. The ability to learn and gain a great amount of knowledge is much easier than in the past. Yet, it is a growing trend that each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. We are less aware and have thorough knowledge on current events and issues such as our economic failure and the war that we are in. We are now less aware of the true problems of our world and the reasons why our society is the way it is. Many people blame the growing ignorance of our society on the growing amount of electronics and digital representation devices around us. Although digital representation devices consume an enormous amount of the average Americans life, it is not the cause of our mass ignorance. The ideas of this country that are pushed through pop culture and the digital media are the cause of our ignorance. These ideas teach us to value only ourselves and to go about life in the most convenient way possible. Our desire for convenience and short cuts have led to major set backs intellectually as well as physically. Our current ways of life have proved to be disastrous and can only lead to more harm. The dominant ideas of our society, which are selfishness and individualism, and a false sense of happiness are what drives our society and determines the way we function as individuals and as a society. These are the ideas that people have been taught to believe in and they have shown to be ideas that lead to failure in thoroughly and effectively educating us to critically think about the world we live and how we can better it and ourselves. Our digital developments have provided us with more opportunities but our ideas have restricted us. Digital representation devices have given our society less of an excuse for its substantial amount of ignorance.
Our society has taught us to be intensely concentrated on pop culture. In turn, the priorities of people have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture as well as their ignorance. It is equally uncomplicated for someone to blame it on our digital advancements. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices and many other ways, the ideas of pop culture are spread to the masses. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that keep us ignorant. We have been taught to seek the lives that celebrities live and focus on materialistic things. We have been taught to constantly buy things and get happiness from spending money. We have been distracted from the issues such as the lack of jobs and the scandals going on in big businesses. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the truly significant and important issues that affect our lives, the lives of other, and the world we live in.
The Internet, which provides us with endless possibilities, is hardly if ever used for a positive purpose. Many people today use digital networking sites such as Facebook as a pastime. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. People on Facebook spend time talking about meaningless things while it could be used to spread knowledge on current events or talk about the important issues we are currently facing. Unfortunately this is not how it is used. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”(Facebook.com), and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”(Facebook.com), finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).”(Facebook.com) It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults. These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 years old (Facebook.com) shows that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture and celebrities are what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness although there are different things to conform to essentially they are the same. People find it easier to be interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, and most importantly the cause of the problems we face. It is much more convenient to look at something that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world.
Twitter is a social networking website in which small messages called “tweets” are displayed for everyone to see. These are usually short messages saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users. (Michael Arrington, page 1) People feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that can change people’s lifestyles.
It is arguable that new digital technology causes us to distance ourselves from other people. The Internet has caused us to have fewer connections with other people around us. “The Internet also alienates the person from his social self.”(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9) It is also arguable that the Internet has cause drops in reading and physical activity. It is arguable that the Internet has caused reading levels to drop “from three-quarters to 70 percent over the last six years.”(Helen Legatt, pg.1) It is very standard for people to blame the Internet for the ignorance of our society and the lack of education. However, this reasoning is wrong. It is not what we are using but it is how we are using it and what we are taught to do with the materials or tools given to us. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
The digitalization of our society has opened up many doors for us. It has also given us less of an excuse for the mass ignorance of current society. A change in the dominant ideas of society is essential in making any progress towards the elimination of the massive ignorance and failure of society. Society has been headed in the wrong direction. We are currently dealing with economic failures, mass unemployment, war, and many other problems. A change is necessary in saving the people and the world we live in. We are the only ones who can save our world and ourselves and a major shift in the major ideas of this society is the only thing that will change us. We need to use our digital technology to our advantages instead of letting it distract us and affect us negatively.
Bibliography
1. www.Facbook.com/statistics
2. Michael Arrington, page 1, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers
3. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/45919/negative_effects_of_internet_usage.html?cat=9
4. Helen Legatt, Internet users reading less print)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hw #20
It is almost impossible for a person to live their life without using some form of a digital representation devices. Our lifestyles revolve around the digital devices available to us. We rely on digital devices an enormous amount to: connect with others, for personal pleasure, for work, and almost everything we do. Our digital lifestyle has provided us with easier access to information, unlike anything ever before. It is extremely easy to research virtually anything we want. The ability to learn and gain a great amount of knowledge is at our disposal. Yet, it is quite clear that each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. Many people blame our ignorance on all the electronics and digital representation devices around us. Although digital representation devices consume an enormous amount of the average Americans life it is not the cause of our mass ignorance as a people and overall societal failure. The ideas in this country that are pushed through pop culture and the digital media are ideas that teach us to only value ourselves and to go about life in the easiest most convenient way possible. This has proved to be a recipe for disaster. The dominant ideas of our society, which are selfishness, a false sense of happiness, and individualism, are what our society revolves around. These are the ideas that people have been taught to believe in and they have shown to be ideas that lead to failure. With massive amounts of information at our fingertips the overwhelming majority of people choose to spend their time interested in meaningless things such as the lives of celebrities and Facebook. We have all the tools to get rid of the great amount of ignorance people have as whole yet we choose not to. Digital representation devices have given our society less of an excuse for its substantial amount of ignorance as well as the societal failure we currently face.
Pop culture is what our society revolves around. The priorities of people today have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture and have it as their main priority whether it is consciously or sub-consciously. It is equally very simple for someone to blame it on new advances in digital technology. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people today, lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices the ideas of pop culture are spread. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love directly. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that force us and keep us ignorant. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the significant and important things that truly affect the lives our lives, the lives of other, and the earth we live on. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours; we have accepted this because in pop culture and our society today things such as Facebook are what we have as a top priority. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”, and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”, finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).” It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. This not only shows the amount of people who spend their time on pointless activities it shows why each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults; “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older.” These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 show that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture is what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness. People find it easier too go about interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, etc. It is much more convenient to see look at something new that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world. Twitter is a social networking website in which small message called “tweets” are displayed for everyone too see. These are usually short message saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users.(Michael Arrington, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/) People want feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance and the dominant ideas of society have taught us to do things the easiest way possible. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that change peoples lifestyles.
Many people argue that the ignorance of society is caused by our lack of reading and our abuse of digital representation devices. The new generations are more ignorant than previous generations because of the advancement and overwhelming use of digital representation devices in the average person’s lifestyle. This is an argument that makes sense to many people and is a very standard argument. It is easy for people to blame problems on something that is right in front of them. However, this reasoning is wrong. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
The digitalization of our society has opened up many doors for us. It has also given us less of an excuse for the mass ignorance of current society. A change in the dominant ideas of society is essential in making any progress towards the elimination of the massive ignorance and failure of society. Society has been headed in the wrong direction. We are currently dealing with economic failures, mass unemployment, war, and many other problems. A change is necessary in saving the people and the world we live in. We are the only ones who can save our world and ourselves and a major shift in the major ideas of this society is the only thing that will change us. We need to use our digital technology to our advantages instead of letting it distract us and affect us negatively.
Pop culture is what our society revolves around. The priorities of people today have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture and have it as their main priority whether it is consciously or sub-consciously. It is equally very simple for someone to blame it on new advances in digital technology. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people today, lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices the ideas of pop culture are spread. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love directly. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that force us and keep us ignorant. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the significant and important things that truly affect the lives our lives, the lives of other, and the earth we live on. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours; we have accepted this because in pop culture and our society today things such as Facebook are what we have as a top priority. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”, and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”, finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).” It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. This not only shows the amount of people who spend their time on pointless activities it shows why each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults; “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older.” These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 show that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture is what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness. People find it easier too go about interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, etc. It is much more convenient to see look at something new that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world. Twitter is a social networking website in which small message called “tweets” are displayed for everyone too see. These are usually short message saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users.(Michael Arrington, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/) People want feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance and the dominant ideas of society have taught us to do things the easiest way possible. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that change peoples lifestyles.
Many people argue that the ignorance of society is caused by our lack of reading and our abuse of digital representation devices. The new generations are more ignorant than previous generations because of the advancement and overwhelming use of digital representation devices in the average person’s lifestyle. This is an argument that makes sense to many people and is a very standard argument. It is easy for people to blame problems on something that is right in front of them. However, this reasoning is wrong. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
The digitalization of our society has opened up many doors for us. It has also given us less of an excuse for the mass ignorance of current society. A change in the dominant ideas of society is essential in making any progress towards the elimination of the massive ignorance and failure of society. Society has been headed in the wrong direction. We are currently dealing with economic failures, mass unemployment, war, and many other problems. A change is necessary in saving the people and the world we live in. We are the only ones who can save our world and ourselves and a major shift in the major ideas of this society is the only thing that will change us. We need to use our digital technology to our advantages instead of letting it distract us and affect us negatively.
HW #19
Omar S. said...
Esther,
Very interesting thesis and viewpoint overall. I personally like your intro and how you wrote, but I don't know if that is going to work for the research paper. Hopefully Andy will let you get away with it.
Your thesis is very good and I like the piece of evidence you are using. Obviously the essay isn't close to being done. It's a very good start though.
I look forward to reading your paper.
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
You have a very strong thesis and very good arguments as well as evidence. You reference many different sources such as Feed, Banach, Wall-E which all make your arguments much stronger.
You have a lot of arguments which is very good and helps support your thesis in a major way. However, I think you need to expand on each of the arguments a bit. Also, you should add more numerical data that shows statistics on the tools of distraction the media uses on us.
Overall very strong paper. I look forward to your revised version
Esther,
Very interesting thesis and viewpoint overall. I personally like your intro and how you wrote, but I don't know if that is going to work for the research paper. Hopefully Andy will let you get away with it.
Your thesis is very good and I like the piece of evidence you are using. Obviously the essay isn't close to being done. It's a very good start though.
I look forward to reading your paper.
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
You have a very strong thesis and very good arguments as well as evidence. You reference many different sources such as Feed, Banach, Wall-E which all make your arguments much stronger.
You have a lot of arguments which is very good and helps support your thesis in a major way. However, I think you need to expand on each of the arguments a bit. Also, you should add more numerical data that shows statistics on the tools of distraction the media uses on us.
Overall very strong paper. I look forward to your revised version
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
my extremely rough essay draft (HW 18)
It is almost impossible for a person to live their life without using some form of a digital representation device. Our lifestyles revolve around the digital devices available to us. We rely on digital devices and enormous amount to connect with others, for pleasure, for work, and almost everything we do. This digital lifestyle has provided us with easier access to information then ever before. We can research virtually anything we want. The ability to learn and gain a great amount of knowledge is at our disposal. Yet, it is quite clear that each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. Many people blame our ignorance on all the electronics and digital representation devices around us. Although digital representation devices consume an enormous amount of the average Americans life it is not the cause of our mass ignorance as a people and overall societal failure. The ideas in this country that are pushed through pop culture and the digital media are ideas that teach us to only value ourselves and to go about life in the easiest most convenient way possible. This has proved to be a recipe for disaster. The dominant ideas of our society, which are selfishness, a false sense of happiness, and individualism, are what our society revolves around. These are the ideas that people have been taught to believe in and they have shown to be ideas that lead to failure. With massive amounts of information at our fingertips the overwhelming majority of people choose to spend their time interested in meaningless things such as the lives of celebrities and Facebook. We have all the tools to get rid of the great amount of ignorance people have as whole yet we choose not to. Digital representation devices have given our society less of an excuse for its substantial amount of ignorance as well as the societal failure we currently face.
Pop culture is what our society revolves around. The priorities of people today have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture and have it as their main priority whether it is consciously or sub-consciously. It is equally very simple for someone to blame it on new advances in digital technology. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people today, lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices the ideas of pop culture are spread. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love directly. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that force us and keep us ignorant. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the significant and important things that truly affect the lives our lives, the lives of other, and the earth we live on. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours; we have accepted this because in pop culture and our society today things such as Facebook are what we have as a top priority. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”, and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”, finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).” It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. This not only shows the amount of people who spend their time on pointless activities it shows why each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults; “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older.” These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 show that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture is what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness. People find it easier too go about interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, etc. It is much more convenient to see look at something new that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world. Twitter is a social networking website in which small message called “tweets” are displayed for everyone too see. These are usually short message saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users.(Michael Arrington, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/) People want feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance and the dominant ideas of society have taught us to do things the easiest way possible. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that change peoples lifestyles.
Many people argue that the ignorance of society is caused by our lack of reading and our abuse of digital representation devices. The new generations are more ignorant than previous generations because of the advancement and overwhelming use of digital representation devices in the average person’s lifestyle. This is an argument that makes sense to many people and is a very standard argument. It is easy for people to blame problems on something that is right in front of them. However, this reasoning is wrong. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
Pop culture is what our society revolves around. The priorities of people today have been completely disordered. It is very easy to blame an individual for their desire to follow pop culture and have it as their main priority whether it is consciously or sub-consciously. It is equally very simple for someone to blame it on new advances in digital technology. The true problem and explanation for the significant amount of ignorance in people today, lies within the dominant ideas of society. Through digital representation devices the ideas of pop culture are spread. We are taught to value ourselves and only things that affect us or the ones we love directly. We are taught how to be happy, we are taught how to be successful, and we are told to try our best and work towards fulfilling these false ideas of success and happiness. We are told to be different and unique but at the same time we are told how to live our lives. We are taught to conform to lifestyles that force us and keep us ignorant. We are taught to value meaningless and pointless things and in turn we are distracted from the significant and important things that truly affect the lives our lives, the lives of other, and the earth we live on. Facebook has been a widely used social net working site that people go on to connect with friends. It is not uncommon for someone to go on Facebook for hours; we have accepted this because in pop culture and our society today things such as Facebook are what we have as a top priority. Facebook has “over 300 Million users”, and “50 percent of our active users log on to Facebook on any given day”, finally “800 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily (worldwide).” It is quite obvious that Facebook is one of the major distractions, and similar to everything else it will eventually die off and something new will come and replace it, and the people will spend there time distracted on this new meaningless website. This not only shows the amount of people who spend their time on pointless activities it shows why each generation is even more ignorant than the previous one. The statistics on the usage of Facebook also show us how pop culture and the value of fake happiness are ideas that have been a round for a long time and are pushed through society. These ideas affect young children, teenager, and adults; “The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older.” These ideas have been constantly taught to people of all ages. In the last 15 years there has been a great leap in the amount digital representation devices available to us as well as the capability of them. The fact that the largest growing demographic of Facebook users are over 35 show that it is not the tools or devices we have but it is what we are taught to use them for.
Digital representation devices do not change our priorities or the basis of our thinking they simply give us different ways to go about our lives, although we may be, essentially doing the same thing we did prior to them. Digital representation devices are ways of people conforming to pop culture. The reasons for our societal failures and mass ignorance lie within the ideas conveyed by pop culture. One of the main priorities of people today is fitting in with whatever is new or cool at the moment. Pop culture is what people follow to feel as though they are fitting in. The majority of people conform to the ideas of individualism and selfishness. People find it easier too go about interested in things that are meaningless and pointless instead of figuring out and learning about many significant problems we currently face, such as the war, economic problems, etc. It is much more convenient to see look at something new that a celebrity wrote on twitter than to do research and learn about current events a spend time thinking about the significant problems that affect our world. Twitter is a social networking website in which small message called “tweets” are displayed for everyone too see. These are usually short message saying what you are currently doing. Mostly this website is used for people to follow the lives of celebrities. Although the number is not as big as Facebook it is still excessively large at 1 million active users.(Michael Arrington, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/) People want feel much more comfortable looking at things that have no real significance and the dominant ideas of society have taught us to do things the easiest way possible. The over whelming numbers of people using these purposeless although amusing websites show that people simply do not want to learn and face the real problems in our world. No matter what site people are being distracted by and wasting their time on nothing will change unless the ideas of what is most important and the priorities of society change. The dominant ideas of society are what determine how people live their lives; a change in these ideas is the only thing that change peoples lifestyles.
Many people argue that the ignorance of society is caused by our lack of reading and our abuse of digital representation devices. The new generations are more ignorant than previous generations because of the advancement and overwhelming use of digital representation devices in the average person’s lifestyle. This is an argument that makes sense to many people and is a very standard argument. It is easy for people to blame problems on something that is right in front of them. However, this reasoning is wrong. The fact that the age range of the highest users of twitter are around 54 years old, and the highest growing demographic of Facebook users are 35 years and older, shows that it is not that new digital technology has caused more ignorance and an overall societal failure but it is the ideas that cause this. Digital representation devices provide another distraction for people. People can use things such as the internet to either expand their knowledge or spend time on pointless things such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Although many people have not realized the immense amount of ignorance amongst people today and possibly their own ignorance it is something that affects all people. It is essential that people change their ways, because nothing good can come from an increasing amount of ignorance. Our lack of knowledge on the issues in the world today keeps us from ever making any significant changes. It is impossible to make change if you do not have a deep knowledge of what you are trying to change. We do not live in a perfect world; our world is very far from perfect. It is essential to make changes to better the world for ourselves and the future generations. Being aware of what causes our lifestyles and ignorance is a step towards figuring out how to better our selves and the things around us. The only way to counter and diminish the mass ignorance of our society is to change the ideas our society teaches people to believe in.
Monday, November 2, 2009
HW 17 outline comments
Omar S. said...
Esther,
You have a good starting thesis and solid arguments and evidence. I would suggest expanding your thesis or going deeper and getting more specific. Your thesis is basically what we talked about recently but it would make your whole paper much stronger if you developed a deeper or more personal thesis, basically a thesis that says something different from what most people in our class are saying.
You also have a lot of good ideas in your arguments and getting more evidence to back them up would make them much stronger
Otherwise the rest seems good.
November 2, 2009 7:13 AM
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
Everything seems really strong. The arguments are very strong and the thesis is solid. You seem to have a good sense of what your going to do in your paper and it seems like a very strong start. The only thing I might add is some numerical information showing how much time or money people spend doing pointless distracting things. Something along those lines. I think that would make your paper even stronger.
November 2, 2009 7:25 AM
Esther,
You have a good starting thesis and solid arguments and evidence. I would suggest expanding your thesis or going deeper and getting more specific. Your thesis is basically what we talked about recently but it would make your whole paper much stronger if you developed a deeper or more personal thesis, basically a thesis that says something different from what most people in our class are saying.
You also have a lot of good ideas in your arguments and getting more evidence to back them up would make them much stronger
Otherwise the rest seems good.
November 2, 2009 7:13 AM
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
Everything seems really strong. The arguments are very strong and the thesis is solid. You seem to have a good sense of what your going to do in your paper and it seems like a very strong start. The only thing I might add is some numerical information showing how much time or money people spend doing pointless distracting things. Something along those lines. I think that would make your paper even stronger.
November 2, 2009 7:25 AM
Sunday, November 1, 2009
History Paper Outline (HW #16)
Thesis: Digital representation devices have given society as a whole less of an excuse for it's massive amount of ignorance and the societal failure we currently face.
MAIN IDEA FOR INTRO: Our digital way of life has provided us with a bevy of sources to get information from. We as a society have been to caught up in our selfish ways of life. Although information is available to us we choose to spend our time on facebook, youtube, and following the lives of celebrities. We are the biggest reason for our ignorance. The blame should not be put on anything else but ourselves, although DRD's have contributed to our ignorance they can be used to learn and be used in other ways than the ways we use them therefore we are the biggest reason for our ignorance...
ARGUEMENTS: People are more worried about celebrities and pop culture than the actual significant problems in the world today and thats what they use DRD's for.
People want to confrom to pop culture and they use DRD's do so.
The dominant ideas of our society are not changed with or by DRD's therefore the usage of DRD's is gonna revolve around the dominant ideas of society which are: selfishness, "individualism", etc.
EVIDENCE: The amount of facebook users. The amount of youtube users. The amount of people spending money to vote for american idol. The amount of twitter users. More numerical data for people using using DRD's in selfish or pointless and meaningless ways.
MAIN IDEA FOR INTRO: Our digital way of life has provided us with a bevy of sources to get information from. We as a society have been to caught up in our selfish ways of life. Although information is available to us we choose to spend our time on facebook, youtube, and following the lives of celebrities. We are the biggest reason for our ignorance. The blame should not be put on anything else but ourselves, although DRD's have contributed to our ignorance they can be used to learn and be used in other ways than the ways we use them therefore we are the biggest reason for our ignorance...
ARGUEMENTS: People are more worried about celebrities and pop culture than the actual significant problems in the world today and thats what they use DRD's for.
People want to confrom to pop culture and they use DRD's do so.
The dominant ideas of our society are not changed with or by DRD's therefore the usage of DRD's is gonna revolve around the dominant ideas of society which are: selfishness, "individualism", etc.
EVIDENCE: The amount of facebook users. The amount of youtube users. The amount of people spending money to vote for american idol. The amount of twitter users. More numerical data for people using using DRD's in selfish or pointless and meaningless ways.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
HW 15
Omar S. said...
Esther,
Very good post. (especially cause you mention me haha) I like how you relate the book to our discussions in class and point out what the author is not doing instead of what most people would do and point out what he is doing.
You basically explain that the book is art because it has a deeper message that is not that easy to see on the surface. You go on to talk about how we are so blind to things around us and how we fail to notice many things. You sum it up very well at the end when you say "He's half enlightened with an artistic book." I don't think I can sum it up any better myself.
I think you are completely right that we are oblivious to things around us. Our class maybe less so than others because this is what we are studying but even are class is amazingly ignorant. I also think your spot on when you talk about M.T Anderson is half enlightened. If he can not provide an alternative that actually makes sense he is not fully enlightened, not many people are. However his level of ignorance is much lower than that of the majority of people and most likely ourselves.
I think the best way to develop this is to continue on your points and maybe go a bit deeper. Instead of ending with a question you can pose the question as well as your answer or ideas on the question.
Your post made me wonder what the answer is to fixing our world and in particular our digitalization "issue". Or if there is an answer. I for sure don't have one and I'm wondering if we will come to answer this question as a class. Maybe this is an unanswerable question.
Thanks for the post. Look forward to more.
-Omar
October 27, 2009 6:40 PM
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
Great post. You break everything down and summarize the article effectively. I read the two shorter ones but your explanation gave me a good feel for this. The response is well written, organized and insightful.
You say that the author gives a lot of unorthodox view points and he basically says the things that we view as bad in our society in terms of digitalization may after all be helpful to us and make us smarter in some sense. You then compare the specific points he makes to your own life for example the point about how video games are not addicting to you but the things you are accustomed to are intriguing to you personally.
Your idea on personal connection and how what we are accustomed to affects what we are "addicted" too is a very good point. It is something that changes for every for example many people may be addicted to t.v and watch it a lot but I myself prefer my Ipod over t.v. I like that you explain the alternate viewpoint the reading is not much different than video games much deeper. I don't think I agree with this but I think it is worth looking at thing alternatively because that is the only way you truly learn and you do a superb job of this.
I think what would develop this post even more would be to make it a bit more personal. I find you explain the author points very well but I think adding some more of your personal thoughts on his idea would make the post a bit better. The analysis is great but I think a bit more reaction would be better.
This post made me consider what I view as important in life in general and in terms of me specifically. This post made me think of how I am similar and different to others and how our society affects what we like and dislike or maybe what we think we like or dislike, I am not sure which. It also obviously made me think of a viewpoint that differed from feed and our previous opinion.
Thanks again for the post. Great job.
-Omar
Esther,
Very good post. (especially cause you mention me haha) I like how you relate the book to our discussions in class and point out what the author is not doing instead of what most people would do and point out what he is doing.
You basically explain that the book is art because it has a deeper message that is not that easy to see on the surface. You go on to talk about how we are so blind to things around us and how we fail to notice many things. You sum it up very well at the end when you say "He's half enlightened with an artistic book." I don't think I can sum it up any better myself.
I think you are completely right that we are oblivious to things around us. Our class maybe less so than others because this is what we are studying but even are class is amazingly ignorant. I also think your spot on when you talk about M.T Anderson is half enlightened. If he can not provide an alternative that actually makes sense he is not fully enlightened, not many people are. However his level of ignorance is much lower than that of the majority of people and most likely ourselves.
I think the best way to develop this is to continue on your points and maybe go a bit deeper. Instead of ending with a question you can pose the question as well as your answer or ideas on the question.
Your post made me wonder what the answer is to fixing our world and in particular our digitalization "issue". Or if there is an answer. I for sure don't have one and I'm wondering if we will come to answer this question as a class. Maybe this is an unanswerable question.
Thanks for the post. Look forward to more.
-Omar
October 27, 2009 6:40 PM
Omar S. said...
Sandy,
Great post. You break everything down and summarize the article effectively. I read the two shorter ones but your explanation gave me a good feel for this. The response is well written, organized and insightful.
You say that the author gives a lot of unorthodox view points and he basically says the things that we view as bad in our society in terms of digitalization may after all be helpful to us and make us smarter in some sense. You then compare the specific points he makes to your own life for example the point about how video games are not addicting to you but the things you are accustomed to are intriguing to you personally.
Your idea on personal connection and how what we are accustomed to affects what we are "addicted" too is a very good point. It is something that changes for every for example many people may be addicted to t.v and watch it a lot but I myself prefer my Ipod over t.v. I like that you explain the alternate viewpoint the reading is not much different than video games much deeper. I don't think I agree with this but I think it is worth looking at thing alternatively because that is the only way you truly learn and you do a superb job of this.
I think what would develop this post even more would be to make it a bit more personal. I find you explain the author points very well but I think adding some more of your personal thoughts on his idea would make the post a bit better. The analysis is great but I think a bit more reaction would be better.
This post made me consider what I view as important in life in general and in terms of me specifically. This post made me think of how I am similar and different to others and how our society affects what we like and dislike or maybe what we think we like or dislike, I am not sure which. It also obviously made me think of a viewpoint that differed from feed and our previous opinion.
Thanks again for the post. Great job.
-Omar
Monday, October 26, 2009
HW #14
The First excerpt of the two short ones focuses on television and the advancement television has made on an intellectual level. The author gives you a basic history of what t.v was like in the 80's and prior to that. He explains that all television shows before the big change in t.v were extremely simple and required no thinking. There was one or two characters you had to follow and only one problem or "thread" to follow in every episode. He noted how some t.v shows would even have arrows explaining little things to help the viewer understand things that were pretty obvious. He goes on to give more examples of how simple and straight forward television shows were. He then explains how the show "Hill Street Blues" changed t.v in the future and made it slightly more interactive with the viewer. The difference between "hill street blues is that it had more than one "thread" as the author called it and made you think about what was going on and connect the shows to previous shows. Then he explains how modern shows advanced on this idea and made shows even more complicated and required more thinking to follow them. He explains how shows such as the sopranos follow the lives of many characters and require you to think about the connection of the show your watching and previous episodes. His major point is that although t.v is passive the level of passivity is better then before and it actually does require quite a bit of thinking.
The second excerpt talks about video games and relates video games to books. He does not believe video games are better then books but he does believe video games have their benefits. He goes deeper than just saying that a video game improves your hand eye coordination he argues that video games are very complex and obviously interactive and they do have you thinking more than many people who don't play video games realize. He explains that video games are so complex that many times you need books to complete them and he argues that video games do require some thinking and "improve your visual intelligence and your manual dexterity." He then goes on to explain that many people get too caught up in video games spending hundreds of dollars on them and many times not even having fun while playing them because they are so complex and frustrating. He then questions why do we play if they are so frustrating. He gives two non-traditional arguments of how video games help us and hurt us.
I think both perspectives are accurate because they point out that although many people are against t.v and video games and they do distract us they also do have benefits. They make these arguments with out going to the extreme and saying they are good to us. The author in the first excerpt about t.v refers to a "level of passivity" which is crucial in his argument because it shows he is not arguing that t.v is not passive but merely that it is less passive then it previously was. The idea that t.v requires no thinking is disproved in this passage. He goes in to detail on how the plots of new shows are very complex and require you to fill in the blanks and think about many different things at once to be able to follow these shows well.
In the second excerpt the author clearly states that he believes books are better for your mind that video games are. He then goes on to argue that video games are not all that passive and do require work and improve your "visual intelligence." He does not go as far as saying that video games are the best thing for you but he simply explains they can possibly benefit you in some ways. He also points out that the frustrate you and can stress you out and in many ways are worse for you then good for you. These arguments are not that different but they go deeper than most and explain that t.v and video games aren't all bad although they may mostly be bad.
These two excerpts although not completely, do contradict feed. Feed main point is basically that all this digitalization going on in our world is bad and only bad things will come from it and if we keep doing what we are doing we are headed towards the destruction of our society and the individualism that we have right now, even it may not be that much. These passages basically say, yeah this stuff may not be the best thing for us but its not completely bad there are some good points to it. They contradict Feed by pointing out how these things help us or ways they possibly could help us. But I don't think either author would disagree with the general idea of Feed.
The second excerpt talks about video games and relates video games to books. He does not believe video games are better then books but he does believe video games have their benefits. He goes deeper than just saying that a video game improves your hand eye coordination he argues that video games are very complex and obviously interactive and they do have you thinking more than many people who don't play video games realize. He explains that video games are so complex that many times you need books to complete them and he argues that video games do require some thinking and "improve your visual intelligence and your manual dexterity." He then goes on to explain that many people get too caught up in video games spending hundreds of dollars on them and many times not even having fun while playing them because they are so complex and frustrating. He then questions why do we play if they are so frustrating. He gives two non-traditional arguments of how video games help us and hurt us.
I think both perspectives are accurate because they point out that although many people are against t.v and video games and they do distract us they also do have benefits. They make these arguments with out going to the extreme and saying they are good to us. The author in the first excerpt about t.v refers to a "level of passivity" which is crucial in his argument because it shows he is not arguing that t.v is not passive but merely that it is less passive then it previously was. The idea that t.v requires no thinking is disproved in this passage. He goes in to detail on how the plots of new shows are very complex and require you to fill in the blanks and think about many different things at once to be able to follow these shows well.
In the second excerpt the author clearly states that he believes books are better for your mind that video games are. He then goes on to argue that video games are not all that passive and do require work and improve your "visual intelligence." He does not go as far as saying that video games are the best thing for you but he simply explains they can possibly benefit you in some ways. He also points out that the frustrate you and can stress you out and in many ways are worse for you then good for you. These arguments are not that different but they go deeper than most and explain that t.v and video games aren't all bad although they may mostly be bad.
These two excerpts although not completely, do contradict feed. Feed main point is basically that all this digitalization going on in our world is bad and only bad things will come from it and if we keep doing what we are doing we are headed towards the destruction of our society and the individualism that we have right now, even it may not be that much. These passages basically say, yeah this stuff may not be the best thing for us but its not completely bad there are some good points to it. They contradict Feed by pointing out how these things help us or ways they possibly could help us. But I don't think either author would disagree with the general idea of Feed.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Feed B Hw 13
Feed was an amazing book. M.T Anderson created a book in which you were interested in the characters, and you thought about the moral of the story and how the book connected to your life. The reason this book is so effective in getting you to think about your life is because the characters in this book either remind you of yourself or someone you know. This book was almost a mirror image of our society today. He made the book an allegory which made the book interesting because he was able to be creative and add his own creative symbols to represent the setting we live in and our actions. An effective and thoughtful work of art is one that not only intrigues you but also makes you think. M.T Anderson's way of doing this was reminding you of your self or past experiences with people you know. He uses your own personality and way of life to make you think about the message he is trying to get through.
Another thing he did was while making it seem futuristic and having it be fictional the book was still realistic. Although many of the symbols he used were not realistic the way the story plays out and the interactions the characters have are very realistic. By making the story a tragedy he emphasized his point and showed that not only was this lifestyle making us dumb and ignorant which is a huge tragedy in itself but the repercussions of this lifestyle are even worse. The potential problems on the people around us and ourselves in the future are greater than we can imagine. He also had a character who changes somewhat throughout the book and that made it even more realistic and easier to connect to. We all change over time and realize the flaws and problems in the things we do and sometimes we decide to change as did Titus in the book. M.T Anderson pays a lot of attention to small details like that to make his book more personal for the reader.
Although I think this book is targeted towards teenagers is has a universal message that can be applied to everyones life no matter their age. I think that is extremely important in an art piece. It is okay to target as specific group as long as your message is one that can apply to all people or can make all people think about your message. I think that if he would have made this a film or something digital than it would have defeated the purpose of the book because the book is telling people that digital representation devices are a big contributor to the great amount of ignorance amongst people today.
In this instance I think this piece of art is a mirror but it's deeper than just telling people what they are doing wrong because he does it in a creative way. His book is a mirror of a society today while also being different and interesting. I think art in whatever form it may be can be either a mirror type of piece or "hammer" as long as the art is intriguing and does not bore the viewer and also makes you think on a deeper level then you were before viewing or reading or hearing this art piece. I am not sure I have a preference between the two I think both can be extremely effective in getting a point across as long as you are creatively weave your morals and ideas in to the piece.
Another thing he did was while making it seem futuristic and having it be fictional the book was still realistic. Although many of the symbols he used were not realistic the way the story plays out and the interactions the characters have are very realistic. By making the story a tragedy he emphasized his point and showed that not only was this lifestyle making us dumb and ignorant which is a huge tragedy in itself but the repercussions of this lifestyle are even worse. The potential problems on the people around us and ourselves in the future are greater than we can imagine. He also had a character who changes somewhat throughout the book and that made it even more realistic and easier to connect to. We all change over time and realize the flaws and problems in the things we do and sometimes we decide to change as did Titus in the book. M.T Anderson pays a lot of attention to small details like that to make his book more personal for the reader.
Although I think this book is targeted towards teenagers is has a universal message that can be applied to everyones life no matter their age. I think that is extremely important in an art piece. It is okay to target as specific group as long as your message is one that can apply to all people or can make all people think about your message. I think that if he would have made this a film or something digital than it would have defeated the purpose of the book because the book is telling people that digital representation devices are a big contributor to the great amount of ignorance amongst people today.
In this instance I think this piece of art is a mirror but it's deeper than just telling people what they are doing wrong because he does it in a creative way. His book is a mirror of a society today while also being different and interesting. I think art in whatever form it may be can be either a mirror type of piece or "hammer" as long as the art is intriguing and does not bore the viewer and also makes you think on a deeper level then you were before viewing or reading or hearing this art piece. I am not sure I have a preference between the two I think both can be extremely effective in getting a point across as long as you are creatively weave your morals and ideas in to the piece.
Monday, October 19, 2009
video responses hw 8
Omar S. said...
This was a really cool video. Made mine look like shit. Unique is the perfect word for this video. I like the different camera angles you used and how you should a bunch of different electronics that you used. So yeah pretty cool video.
I like how in your video you showed all the electronics you use and the in your summary/analysis you talk about how you think this is negatively affecting you. I like how you talk about how this whole digitalization has affected to you personally and give specific details.
I think your completely right when you say that new technology has prevented us from using our bodies to the full extent. Looking back this is very significant in my life. There has been thousands of situations where i decided to do something digital or electronic instead of physical.
I noticed that you said you let this digital way of life take over your life because it was a social norm. Do you blame society for the abuse of electronics or do you blame the individual for letting it consume their lives?
Anyways. This was a great video. Look forward to future posts.
-OMAR
September 30, 2009 5:38 PM
Omar S. said...
Esther,
Pretty good video. You basically summed up our digital lives. That's pretty sad. I like how you show a bunch of different digital devices and cut from one too another.
You point out how dumb we look when we are on the computer, watching t.v or whatever else it may be. So true, once we take a chance to look at our selves we really see what we are wasting our time doing.
I noticed that all though your showing more stuff in your video our video are essentially the same, someone in front of a screen completely focused on the screen and not noticing anything else.
I think you can take you analysis to another level by talking about even though we realize that we look so dumb and that what we are doing is kind of pointless, do you think it will really make any difference in us and stop us from continuing to do it?
So yeah, cool video. I look forward to more posts and stuff...
-OMAR
September 30, 2009 5:51 PM
This was a really cool video. Made mine look like shit. Unique is the perfect word for this video. I like the different camera angles you used and how you should a bunch of different electronics that you used. So yeah pretty cool video.
I like how in your video you showed all the electronics you use and the in your summary/analysis you talk about how you think this is negatively affecting you. I like how you talk about how this whole digitalization has affected to you personally and give specific details.
I think your completely right when you say that new technology has prevented us from using our bodies to the full extent. Looking back this is very significant in my life. There has been thousands of situations where i decided to do something digital or electronic instead of physical.
I noticed that you said you let this digital way of life take over your life because it was a social norm. Do you blame society for the abuse of electronics or do you blame the individual for letting it consume their lives?
Anyways. This was a great video. Look forward to future posts.
-OMAR
September 30, 2009 5:38 PM
Omar S. said...
Esther,
Pretty good video. You basically summed up our digital lives. That's pretty sad. I like how you show a bunch of different digital devices and cut from one too another.
You point out how dumb we look when we are on the computer, watching t.v or whatever else it may be. So true, once we take a chance to look at our selves we really see what we are wasting our time doing.
I noticed that all though your showing more stuff in your video our video are essentially the same, someone in front of a screen completely focused on the screen and not noticing anything else.
I think you can take you analysis to another level by talking about even though we realize that we look so dumb and that what we are doing is kind of pointless, do you think it will really make any difference in us and stop us from continuing to do it?
So yeah, cool video. I look forward to more posts and stuff...
-OMAR
September 30, 2009 5:51 PM
Feed A HW 12
When i first started reading feed I didn't really realize how similar it was to my life and the life of kids in my generation. As I think back on what I read I realize that the life of the teenagers in the book and the life of teenagers now are almost identical. The idea that our generation is so distracted by pop culture that we are unaware of the real problems that are happening around is an idea that is a big focus in the book.
Titus basically represents the majority of the teenagers today. He is focused on what new and cool and is completely distracted by all the advertisements around him. I also noticed that even when he is exposed to problems that are going on around the world by violet, he choose to acknowledge them around her but he would rather ignore them and no think about them. he does the easiest thing which I think most teenagers do today which is since it does not directly affect their lives they decide it's not that important. When we were talking about this in class sandy, John Li, and I were talking about how although we know about the problems around the world and even think about them and take time out of our day and think about the world, it's a whole different step to take action on them. It's not that hard to think about problems and talk about them with others although it is more than what the average teenager does. It is a whole different thing to think about these problems and try to fix them or do something about them as violet tries to do in the book.
I find myself many times thinking about the issues going on around the world and wanting to find out more about things but when it comes down to actually doing something about them that is something I don't do. I think there are more teenagers then people may think who are aware of the problems going on around the world and aren't as ignorant as people may think. But, simply thinking about something wont do much, we have to think and then act to actually do something. This book did an amazing job at getting people to think about the society that we live in although some may not agree with the message of this book. For me this book made me think about what I wasn't doing which is acting on my thoughts and sharing my thoughts more which I think is the case with many people who have a lot of good ideas but do not share them with other for different reasons.
I think that by making this book a tragedy M.T Anderson made it even more realistic and similar to our lives today. I think if he would have made it a happy ending it wouldn't have been as realistic because after all our life is full of tragedies. I do not believe that our life is miserable maybe that is because I have been brainwashed to believe in a fake sense of happiness, this I am not sure of. But even though I believe there is some sort of happiness in life I do understand life is full of tragedies and thats what this book focuses on the tragedy we are facing, the tragedy that most teenagers are to caught up in digital devices and pop culture to realize the real problems around them.
I can't think of a part of feed that is not true in the world today. The whole book and all the symbols used make a lot of sense and are spot on in my opinion. This book was much better then I expected and bought to a deeper level of thinking
Titus basically represents the majority of the teenagers today. He is focused on what new and cool and is completely distracted by all the advertisements around him. I also noticed that even when he is exposed to problems that are going on around the world by violet, he choose to acknowledge them around her but he would rather ignore them and no think about them. he does the easiest thing which I think most teenagers do today which is since it does not directly affect their lives they decide it's not that important. When we were talking about this in class sandy, John Li, and I were talking about how although we know about the problems around the world and even think about them and take time out of our day and think about the world, it's a whole different step to take action on them. It's not that hard to think about problems and talk about them with others although it is more than what the average teenager does. It is a whole different thing to think about these problems and try to fix them or do something about them as violet tries to do in the book.
I find myself many times thinking about the issues going on around the world and wanting to find out more about things but when it comes down to actually doing something about them that is something I don't do. I think there are more teenagers then people may think who are aware of the problems going on around the world and aren't as ignorant as people may think. But, simply thinking about something wont do much, we have to think and then act to actually do something. This book did an amazing job at getting people to think about the society that we live in although some may not agree with the message of this book. For me this book made me think about what I wasn't doing which is acting on my thoughts and sharing my thoughts more which I think is the case with many people who have a lot of good ideas but do not share them with other for different reasons.
I think that by making this book a tragedy M.T Anderson made it even more realistic and similar to our lives today. I think if he would have made it a happy ending it wouldn't have been as realistic because after all our life is full of tragedies. I do not believe that our life is miserable maybe that is because I have been brainwashed to believe in a fake sense of happiness, this I am not sure of. But even though I believe there is some sort of happiness in life I do understand life is full of tragedies and thats what this book focuses on the tragedy we are facing, the tragedy that most teenagers are to caught up in digital devices and pop culture to realize the real problems around them.
I can't think of a part of feed that is not true in the world today. The whole book and all the symbols used make a lot of sense and are spot on in my opinion. This book was much better then I expected and bought to a deeper level of thinking
Monday, October 5, 2009
HW #10
http://www.realtruth.org/news/090303-008-society.html
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/090907-003-society.html
http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec00/digital.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-the-impact-of-technology-on-our-society.html
These articles are speaking on the different ways that this new "digital age" is affecting my generation and our society in general. All of the articles are focusing on the negative aspects of new electronics that are being developed. One article focuses on the affect that texting has on my generation and how it removes us from society and does not allow to focus on the tasks at hand because we are constantly distracted by text messages. Another article speaks on the dangers of the internet. It talked about how so many crimes can be committed on the internet and how there is no censorship on the internet. The rest of the articles basically make the same points just on different electronics.
I think all of these articles are pretty standard because they make all of the same points and say all of the same things we said in class in the beginning of our unit. I did not find an article that had a new or different view point. I agree with these articles because it's pretty obvious that this digital age is having as negative affect on us, but none of the articles go any deeper than that.
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/090907-003-society.html
http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec00/digital.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-the-impact-of-technology-on-our-society.html
These articles are speaking on the different ways that this new "digital age" is affecting my generation and our society in general. All of the articles are focusing on the negative aspects of new electronics that are being developed. One article focuses on the affect that texting has on my generation and how it removes us from society and does not allow to focus on the tasks at hand because we are constantly distracted by text messages. Another article speaks on the dangers of the internet. It talked about how so many crimes can be committed on the internet and how there is no censorship on the internet. The rest of the articles basically make the same points just on different electronics.
I think all of these articles are pretty standard because they make all of the same points and say all of the same things we said in class in the beginning of our unit. I did not find an article that had a new or different view point. I agree with these articles because it's pretty obvious that this digital age is having as negative affect on us, but none of the articles go any deeper than that.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
video hw
Watch On the computer... in People & Blogs | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
This was a pretty pointless video. I guess it shows how we basically spend a lot of our time doing very pointless and insignificant things because that is what I'm doing here, nothing. Seeing a video of myself really showed me how pointless what we do with digitalization can be, although it may seem important at times it ends up being very pointless.
I think I would like if my children did not use the Internet and other electronics as much as I did but I think as long as they are doing physical activities that it really isn't that big of a deal.
I think what we do on our digital representation device whatever it may be gives us a sense of false important. The time we spend on these things they seem to be the most important things to us and that is all we are focused on. DRD's give us a somewhat false sense of reality and can mix up our priorities if we allow them to.
I think things such as Wii are just a more extreme way of removing our selves from reality because although you are doing something physically the focus point is a computer and in some ways can be an excuse to use the video game more.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
HW #7
ME: How would our society be different if we did not have the same digitalization we have now? Would it help or hurt more?
Dad(not word for word): Less digitalization would hurt more, but not much more because digitalization is not the main problem that people deal with. For people who can afford new electronic devices it is helpful but for people who can't it wouldn't make much of a difference. The problem is not that we don't have computerized school but that we don't have enough schools or that we don't have computerized hospitals but that there is not enough hospitals. It would make a difference but not to big of a difference.
My thoughts/summary
So digitalization is not really that big of a problem compared to other problems we have actually it's almost microscopic now that I think of it compared to other problems we have. It would make a difference if we lacked the digitalization we have now but realistically we have much more important things to worry about.
Dad(not word for word): Less digitalization would hurt more, but not much more because digitalization is not the main problem that people deal with. For people who can afford new electronic devices it is helpful but for people who can't it wouldn't make much of a difference. The problem is not that we don't have computerized school but that we don't have enough schools or that we don't have computerized hospitals but that there is not enough hospitals. It would make a difference but not to big of a difference.
My thoughts/summary
So digitalization is not really that big of a problem compared to other problems we have actually it's almost microscopic now that I think of it compared to other problems we have. It would make a difference if we lacked the digitalization we have now but realistically we have much more important things to worry about.
Monday, September 21, 2009
1st comments (i forgot to post on my blog before)
Bao Lin,
Let me start by saying that was an amazing post. You bring some really deep and important ideas that I Think go unnoticed by many people. The things you bring up in this post are some of the same ideas that I have(theres so much in my head its hard to organize my thoughts, thats why its not in my blog). I'm referring to the point you make that electronic devices are another way that pop culture updates whats "in" now and makes people feel left out if they don't have this stuff. I also think you bring up a very interesting a true point when you speak about people having real and fake identities online.
Basically in your post you go into depth on how the digitalization of the new age is a tool that pop culture uses to make people spend money on things to try to fit in. You also talk about how people can have different identities online a point I touched on in my post. Overall your post critiques the use of digitilization but notes that it is very addictive and useful.
I think the point you bring up about people and who the "really" are is something that we can have a whole class on by itself. This connects to so much. Pop culture, interaction of humans, etc. I think that what your saying about people trying to fit in is something we see all the time and in a way we are all guilty of it to different extents.
I guess the next step to this post would be trying to figure out an alternative or figuring out how people should use the new electronic devices we have. Is it possible to have these things without abusing them? Is it possible to have these electronics without them having some sort of negative affect?
This post deals with a lot of questions I ask myself just in a different context. Im refering to you asking about our true identity the affect pop culture has on us, etc. This post made me reconsider how many things really are a tool of pop culture and it had me wondering how guilty I am of trying to fit in even though I consider myself aware and not as guilty as others(if that counts for anything haha)
Thank you for such a deep post. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about the questions I asked and in general your view on our future topics. :)
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 6:42 PM
Esther,
Your post is really organized and to the point(something my post lacks haha). I like the style of writing you used. The example you used just reminded me of hundreds of similar situations I've had. I think your view is spot on and your completely right that most people if not all are "digitally corrupted."
You basically say that we are all corrupted by digitalization whether we realize it or not. You note that it is "human progress" but overall it's corruption(completely agree).
The situation you described about brushing your teeth and being pulled towards facebook sounds like something I constantly do(except i live in apartment...so no stairs haha). It's kind of crazy how we all let digitalization take over our lives even though many of us are aware of the damage it can potentially do or is currently doing.
I think the next step of this post would be expanding on your points, taking it to the next level whatever you think that may be(im interested in reading). Also I think you should explore the question of what we would be like with out all the digitalization we have and how we can make the situation better considering the situation we are currently in.
This post was kind of like another wake up call to me on how I let myself get caught up in unnecessary things such as facebook when I could spend time with friends, or exploring other things in life. It made me think of how I spend my time and although I consider myself pretty aware of the corruption around us, this made me wonder how I can take my ideas and actions to another level.
I really enjoyed your post. I look forward to your answers of my questions and your future posts. :)
September 17, 2009 6:59 PM
Let me start by saying that was an amazing post. You bring some really deep and important ideas that I Think go unnoticed by many people. The things you bring up in this post are some of the same ideas that I have(theres so much in my head its hard to organize my thoughts, thats why its not in my blog). I'm referring to the point you make that electronic devices are another way that pop culture updates whats "in" now and makes people feel left out if they don't have this stuff. I also think you bring up a very interesting a true point when you speak about people having real and fake identities online.
Basically in your post you go into depth on how the digitalization of the new age is a tool that pop culture uses to make people spend money on things to try to fit in. You also talk about how people can have different identities online a point I touched on in my post. Overall your post critiques the use of digitilization but notes that it is very addictive and useful.
I think the point you bring up about people and who the "really" are is something that we can have a whole class on by itself. This connects to so much. Pop culture, interaction of humans, etc. I think that what your saying about people trying to fit in is something we see all the time and in a way we are all guilty of it to different extents.
I guess the next step to this post would be trying to figure out an alternative or figuring out how people should use the new electronic devices we have. Is it possible to have these things without abusing them? Is it possible to have these electronics without them having some sort of negative affect?
This post deals with a lot of questions I ask myself just in a different context. Im refering to you asking about our true identity the affect pop culture has on us, etc. This post made me reconsider how many things really are a tool of pop culture and it had me wondering how guilty I am of trying to fit in even though I consider myself aware and not as guilty as others(if that counts for anything haha)
Thank you for such a deep post. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about the questions I asked and in general your view on our future topics. :)
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 6:42 PM
Esther,
Your post is really organized and to the point(something my post lacks haha). I like the style of writing you used. The example you used just reminded me of hundreds of similar situations I've had. I think your view is spot on and your completely right that most people if not all are "digitally corrupted."
You basically say that we are all corrupted by digitalization whether we realize it or not. You note that it is "human progress" but overall it's corruption(completely agree).
The situation you described about brushing your teeth and being pulled towards facebook sounds like something I constantly do(except i live in apartment...so no stairs haha). It's kind of crazy how we all let digitalization take over our lives even though many of us are aware of the damage it can potentially do or is currently doing.
I think the next step of this post would be expanding on your points, taking it to the next level whatever you think that may be(im interested in reading). Also I think you should explore the question of what we would be like with out all the digitalization we have and how we can make the situation better considering the situation we are currently in.
This post was kind of like another wake up call to me on how I let myself get caught up in unnecessary things such as facebook when I could spend time with friends, or exploring other things in life. It made me think of how I spend my time and although I consider myself pretty aware of the corruption around us, this made me wonder how I can take my ideas and actions to another level.
I really enjoyed your post. I look forward to your answers of my questions and your future posts. :)
September 17, 2009 6:59 PM
Friday, September 11, 2009
HW #3
I Think the advancement in technology has been very useful and convenient. It has had many upsides but has also had some downfalls to it. Many people let the new technology available to them take over there lives. Many people spend most of their day texting on their phones or on the computer. I think that the technology is very useful but like everything else should be used in moderation. I enjoy being able to communicate quickly through the internet with multiple people at once but I don't think thats the only way you should communicate. I think people who spend most of their time at the computer are losing social skills and it will hurt them in the future. I think that a balance of both is useful and harmless. I don't think that the new technology is the problem but the way that people use it is a problem. People need to make sure they don't let certain technology rule their lives.
The creation of Myspace, Facebook, AIM, etc. have allowed people to basically live off of their computers. These social networking websites have made it so that you can communicate with multiple people at the same time so they hardly socialize in person and don't have much contact with actual people face to face but instead just talk through the internet. Another issue the advancement of the internet presents is people pretending to be someone who they are not and having a fake identity. The internet has provided us with many useful utilities but many people abuse the luxury that is provided. It is not the technology that is causing the problem but it is the way that people use it.
I think that things such as texting and ipods and other mobile handheld devices many times remove people from reality. Many times people are so wrapped up in their devices that they don't pay as much attention to their settings as they normally would. I myself do this many times with my ipod. I many times don't pay attention to things around me and it can be potentially dangerous. Many people blame this on the devices that people have but again I think this is the fault of the individual I think people should have self control and know when the right time to use their electronic devices is.
Overall I find the new technology very useful and convenient and I support it. I think the problem lies in the people who overuse it and abuse. I think this is a question of self control. New electronic technology should be used but only in moderation just like everything else in life.
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