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
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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.
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