The Value of Books

Frist let me say that I am no fan of books.  I was not looking forward to a class just based on the reading of books.  However the discussions of the books and how they where tied back to and question our actions today made it very interesting.  The topics of classes seamed to be based on the roles of media and how they are use to keep people in the dark or complacent with their lifes.  From the stamen of tv stations not airing pro-forest conservation ads to the addictiveness of video games and reality programs that are consuming our lifes today.  The books gave us fictional examples of what we call crazy action, like the thought police in 1984, and then put it into contacts of today, of having censorship and book bands for our schools.  I like the small group discussions, because it made it easier for all of use to share our ideas with each other and clarify the section of reading we had to do.  It was really beneficial since I’m not a big fan of public speaking.  I found a new apparition of books and look forward to setting more time aside to read more.

TV Relationships

In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Peeta pretend to be in a relationship to get more supporters to back them.  Peeta actually cares for Katniss, but Katniss has no feelings for Peeta in the form of a relationship.  In many reality T.V. shows, like Big Brother, you see people forming relationships and alliances with each other; however some of these relationships are not real.  As a view you want to buy into the fact that two people find someone to be with but in the end majority of these relationships end up being one person using the other.  One reality T.V. show, Jon and Kate plus Eight flowed the lives of Jon and Kate and how they handle raising their eight kids.  On Big Brother over the past 13 years that it has been on, there have been numerous love stories and betrayers.  Over all I believe there are only two couples that are still together from all of the relationships from all 13 years.  Rob and Amber from Survivor All Stars is an example of a relationship that was formed well the two of them played the game.  They also were a big hit on The Amazing Race, where they were still together on a team racing around the world for $50,000.  To date they are still together and are going to go full cycle and get married, which will by CBS starting May 24.  It seems as though they may have just found true love or they are both still paling with America, just to get more money out of putting the story on CBS.  Only time will tell.  All of these relationship start out as a strategical decisions just like the relationship between Peeta and Katniss is; however as a view we eat it up, maybe because we want to see some people fall in love and we want that to happen to us.  

BIG BROTHER

One of the big shows of the summer is CUB's Big Brother.  They have just finished their 13th session.  In this show it's the lead up to an evicted, or one member of the house leaving the show.  Tempers flare when Jeff finds out that Shelly is working with the other alliance and is trying to keep Daniele in the house.  It shows the sort of manipulation and games that people will play to win $500,000.  In this game the views get to vote on items, like what the food changes for the week would be or who would have to dress up in a costume.  However the big 'twist' as CBS calls it for this year was the views voted to have one of the evictees comeback and play a game with the evictee of that week, to get back in the house to play.  This year they also had couples come back and play together, the famous of them where Brendon and Rachel, who met on the show and fell in love.  The show itself is interesting when they start felling the betrayals and backstabbing of each other but some of the bitter arguments are stupide and pointless and you can't wait for them to get evicted.  In the clip they focused on the argument of Jeff and Shelly as though it was the only thing happening in the house and the music in the background that they use builds up the suspense, so you want to keep watching to find out what happens. A lot of people believe that they pick cast members who will cause trouble in the house and Dick form this year’s show was that guy.  He came into the show with planes to shack things up and he did just that till everyone voted him out.  It gets you to watch it because you pick up on how they manipulate and play each other without them know what is happening, as though you are all knowing because you get to see everything, almost a God scenes, it could be called.  

State of our Privacy

In 1984 big brother is the face of the ruling party leader that appears ever where.  The best description I have of this is the movie V for vendetta.  In the movie they are patrolling the city listening to what people have to say and have this secrete group that come and take out anyone with an opposing mind.

 It also reminds me of a Simpsons show where they install video cameras to stop crimes and the people revolted over it.  Today we are putting cameras up everywhere.  Also in cities they are installing listening devises that for now are meant the hear gun shots.  Also they are monitoring our internet access.  Companies like AT&T have been found to make copies of their customer’s calls and let the US government listen in.  Recently there have been increases in the invasions of our privacy however we are not to the extent as in 1984.  We still have the right to think our own opinions.  If we were in a big brother state the protesters outside of Wall Street would just disappear overnight.  It’s hard to say how much of our freedoms are being invaded on when you are not told they are invading it so I feel like we are not in the state that the people in London are in the book.  

Are we capable for lives of solitude

I know that I could not live in a cabin by myself for more than a week.  Humans are social beans we need our interaction with each other to make us whole.  One of the punishments for people how break laws and are trouble makers in prison is solitary confinement.  It is meant to drive you crazy because you have no interaction with any one.  I personally feel that I don't spend enough time with my friends and I feel like I am left out because I have a full work load.  Plus I feel like we make technology an essential part of our society so we don’t feel left out when we spend time alone.   We always want to hang out with someone; we don’t like to spend time by ourselves.  When we spend time by ourselves we wonder why no one wants to talk to me.  We see being alone as a sign of being socially awkward.  I think it all goes back to the noses question. Are we so used to all of the distractions that we want them in our life and without it, we feel like our life is not real? In feed when the kids lost their feed chip and when they were being reconnected, they were flipping out like a drug addict going through withdrawal

post 4

Is the youth generation today the dumbest ever?  First let us look at the statistics.  In 2001, 52 percent [of high school seniors] identified Germany, Japan or Italy, not the Soviet Union, as America’s World War II ally (Begey, Interlandi).  This is very sad to find out but what does it mean?  It is simple most seniors in high school that where spending their time in homeroom to take some national test that they did not have to worry about how they did.  Most of the people that I know that toke these assessment test like the PSSA, did not take them seriously.  They filled in their name and random bubbles so they could go to sleep.  I have seen surveys here where people just fled in bubbles on options that went use to promote an event here at SHIP.  Plus he never talks about how well any other age groups of Americans score on the same survey. 

Secondly this is all the same story that has been said for hundreds of years.  The old have been wringing their hands about the young’s cultural wasteland and ignorance of history at least since admirers of Sophocles and Aeschylus at the end of the Greek civilization ((Begey, Interlandi,). 

The Best argument that they can make is that we are lazier in ways then in the past.  Take a look at my Mondays I get up at 8:00 AM and I don’t get back to my room until 8 or 9 PM and then I have homework to do.  Majority of the students here that I know are managing school work and a job.  So how can we be lazy?  It is in the way we use the web.  That we week out what we already hope to find, and we want it fast and free with minimum effort (Drutman).  We like doing a Google search and if we can’t find what we want in the first few pages we start getting frustrated. 

They say because we rely on the internet that we don’t know anything, but we are taught that if you can easily look up the information then you don’t need to commit it to memory unless it is your major subject material.  We haven’t fight over religious believes or the color of someone skin, or created weapons of mass destruction that can destroy the world three times over.  So who is really dumb?  

Post 3

I’m going to vent a little here.   I don’t get Lasn.  He is looking through a filter that is so thick it is insane.  Frist about 70% of the US economy is made up of small family owned companies.  They employ majority of the American work force and contributes back to their local community supporting schools and youth sports programs.  Then he goes on and talking about how the internet is bad for us.  But yet when he couldn’t get the air time he wanted form the big new networks in Canada, he could have turned to the internet to inform the public about the whole deforestation that the one paper company was doing.  He just jumps to the conclusion that everything about who we are and what we use are bad for us.  He is writing one sided and not looking at any of the good aspects of the internet and technology.  In Second Skin, Dan came to the realization that the game was fake and just something stupid that he let fill his mind.  Yes computer games take you away from you current crappy life and it is understandable for one to think, if I could only do this I would be happy forever, because they are living in a fantasy.  It is no different than when you go to a sporting game or to the theater to watch a play.  You let yourself go; it just happens that the games and plays end because there are humans in them that need to eat and sleep just like us.  If you could have a play with 8 Million people in it from all over the world and it could never stop, would you want to leave that world?  If anything its more about how much time the people spend in these fake worlds that we should worry about.  That is what makes their fantasy world their real world.  I don’t want to sound ignorant but people do decide to kill themselves over a lot of different things.  It could be a dramatic loss of a love one, their significant other braking up with them, the voice in their head, or these games.  It happens and it has happen before the modern economic system was evented by the Romans and the introduction of technology.  After our last class most of us if not all of us where laughing because this gamer life that Second Skin and Culture Jam try to portray on us is a little out there to me.  Here at SHIP there is a gamers club, I don’t think they represent even one present of the campus community.  I’m just waiting for Lasn to say games like pokemon, uno, sudoku, etc. are hindering us from our max social potential between humans.  We are social.  Its human nature to be, that’s why facebook is so popular and they have chat windows in games.  We are connecting with people who have the same interest as we do, so why does it matter how we go about it?  There will always be this trade off effect in this world.  So the true question is, do the social networks and technology benefit or hurt the majority?  I say it benefits us.