I think I can !

Do I think I could live in the woods for a year? No way José! I could never give up everything and live deliberately without technology. I cannot go anywhere without my cell phone, I’m constantly texting and calling my friends and family. I like to talk on the phone and use the computer for social networks such as, Facebook, and twitter.  If I was to live the way he did for a year, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I think I would mentally break. I would go insane! What would I do with myself? No outside contact with the world! In class, I remember one of my classmates saying he didn’t know what to do when his phones dies. I feel the same way; I will stop whatever I’m doing to get it on the charger as soon as possible. I feel like the world stops and won’t continue until my phone is back on and then it starts again with communication. I do have an obsession with my technology, in this class and reading the literature we do I realize that it consumes me. I am a victim of technology in this generation. If I were to live in solitude for a year I think I would learn to live without technology and it would undo some of my bad habits. I think that my life would be filled with more constructive things to do and I would be a lot smarter if I was stuck with some of the basics. I wouldn’t want to try it but if I was put into a situation that I was forced to I think I could sustain a good life and break my bad obsession with technology.

The Dumbest Generation? Well thats harsh...

I do not believe we are the dumbest generation, we may not read some of the classical books or watch some of the movies, but we are like every other human being who has knowledge. Who is the one defining what is important in today’s society? What once was important, isn’t important anymore, its time to let go. Culture in America is changing everyday, it would be silly to try and retain information that is useful to us, wouldn’t you agree? Yes, knowing the founding fathers and knowing the map as well as knowing documents such as the bill of rights and the constitution is important, and most of us can say that’s fair to know about and we do know about it. But who says reading huckleberry fin is important? Who says that these well known authors are important? What else did they do in history besides write books? Who tells us these things are important? Personally I think, Bauerlein, is trying to make the rest of us feel “dumb” for not knowing what he knows, and not studying in school what he did. TIMES HAVE CHANGED, lets not be so closed minded about the world we live in today, live every moment, and if those moments are bad then we learn to deal with them, yes, there are precautions, but some things are beyond one mans control. It simply isn’t fair to place a label on a generation where we are all being taught the same things, who is teaching us, who is providing this great deal of technology for us? Are we wrong for taking full advantage of what is available in this day in age? Lets get real! We are not the dumbest generation. 

Yes, I think this "Virtual" Word Crap is Ridiculous !

Lets begin with a question, how many of us were shocked by the way videos games made these people feel like they were in a different world? To be completely honest, I was. I never knew this kind of gaming took over people’s lives the way I saw in the video, Second Skin. The most shocking part of the video for me was when they established relationships with people they met over the Internet and connected with. In my opinion, these kinds of relationships are bound to end up in despair because the ONE thing they have in common is gaming. Well I lied, there could be more, but the thing that drew them together was gaming. As far as I’m concerned any kind of relationship that’s established any other way but face-to-face is not real and there’s always going to be the feeling of some sort of disconnection. In psychology class, I once learned that when babies are born they need that PYSICAL touch of the mother, and they need that to feel connected. I still think this hold true to adults as we grow up. Everyone needs that deeper connection that I feel can only be found in relationships that have communicated face to face. I agree with the title of the documentary because it’s literally a different skin! They make new names, YOUR IDENTITY ISNT EVEN THE SAME! They make figures that don’t look like them, they may talk how they normally wouldn’t and they could even be a man when online they could be a woman. One never knows, so my advice to these addicted online gamers is to be careful and know that just as things happen in real life they could happen in the “virtual” world too.

Blog # 2

Blog# 2

This week during class, my eyes were opened to how America is overwhelmed with all the advertisements out there and the consumption of goods. The most interesting part that caught my attention was when a survey was done on kids in school. They had pictures of fictional characters and real ones. I was amazed to see how many of the kids didn’t know the more popular faces of our culture but could recognize the make- believe ones. This cant be good for society in the long run. In my wifys class we are also talking about analyzing commercials and videos for subliminal messages, I have been exposed to a lot of them and as I continue to watch TV I can pick up on almost all of the commercials.

            The consumption is also a major problem, not just food, but entertainment items, jewelry, cars, etc. In my estimation, America is greedy, we all want the next new thing, and we all want something better than what we already have. Lasn refers to it as “Plentitude.” I agree with his statement made in the book because we already have jobs for things that don’t yet exist, most people are never really satisfied, which brings me to my next point about “American cheese,” by Slam Poet.

            Poet writes, “ For breakfast melted on an English muffin for lunch in a sandwich with processed lunch meat processed salad spread on processed white bread for dinner obliterating my broccoli at bed…” This quote taken from a poem speaks to me; it shows just how “processed” America really is. It gets the message across in a funny way but makes you stop and ponder about what he’s really saying. I enjoyed this week of class, I had a lot of input and this topic was interesting!