Blog #9 Juicy Claim

For my three possible working theses I decided to focus on the topic of technology, since it offers a broad spectrum for writing. As well as a few of our readings have offered information in this area. Thesis #1- Many people in society who missed the technology boom argue that the younger generation are too reliant, could it be that the more technologically advanced children become, the more they seem to rely on technology for everything? Thesis #2- In 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter. A composer friend of Nietzsche noticed that his writing had changed, it became more telegraphic, he conveyed. Ever since the first technological advancement people have been made to believe that they are better or more precise with the most recent inventions. Thesis #3- Propaganda is known world wide for it's lies and deceit to people, no matter what society one might live in. The internet offers a wide spectrum of information, in which anyone in the world can add to the information that already exists. Is the world a more dangerous place because of the internet? The three theses I have decided to choose for this blog are general thoughts that popped into my mind while reading our most recent article, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

Blog #8 Is Google Making Us Stupid?

In this illustration, Nicolas Carr suggests that with all of the wide information on the internet, he is unable to engage into things that he used to. Carr describes that he can no longer just find himself deep in a book, that he always feels that certain drift. He becomes fidgety and can't concentrate on the things that he used to. He explains that over the last few years the internet has been a godsend to him as a writer. Carr says that, the things that used to take him days of research are now condensed into minutes on the computer. So is Carr suggesting that the internet and and such resources a bad thing? I don't believe he is siding with either. In my opinion there are negatives and positives to both sides. He says that it has just changed people and the way they think. Some of us have become lazy, and will hardly skim a few paragraphs. Yet with text messaging and phones, we have certainly started to read more. In the last paragraph Carr says, "As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." Finally he comes to the conclusion that the world is present day is making us similar to robots. Which comes to the ultimate question "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" It's making us much more reliant and anxious. "Oh I'll just look it up" or, "I don't know the answer so I'll go find it" a very common language of ours.

Blog #7 Learning To Listen

From the choices on the "This I Believe" website I decided to read an article about change. It was titled "Learning To Listen," and the author was Peggy, without a last name. I started out just browsing and had no such luck seeing anything that interested me. So I went to the themes and clicked change. I came across this writing and liked the title so I decided to read on. This was a narration/summary of Peggy and her life events which eventually made her become a good listener. She begins by saying that she grew up in a family where arguments and conflict at the table were necessary. Then as her life moved on she found it difficult to listen to people and to take in what they were actually saying. She could not put herself in their shoes. In attempts to cure herself of this attribute she took a trip to South Africa. There is where she helped with the AIDS pandemic and promised she would listen like no other. She listened for two strait months. She says in the article, " Had I not listened I would have missed the very faint 'I love you' of a young child." This was my favorite part because in the end she found that learning to listen ultimately improved her life and gave her the skills to be more open with people.

Blog#6 What's the Matter with Kids Today?

In the beginning of this article it begins to talk about kids today and how they don't care about anything, only their iPods and internet. It then says,"Or is it the older generation that the internet has seduced?" This is now including majority of the world and stating it's not really only the kids that have something wrong with them. The article then transitions into how terrible the internet is for young people, meanwhile they should be reading books and watching Dr. King. When I began reading this article I was sure it was about how corrupt young people were today. As I read further into the text I was surprised that it wasn't bashing on young people as much as I thought. I liked the part where it concludes that teenagers read and write for fun, that it is part of their social lives. What I got from this article was that with a little research regarding the internet, it really isn't the villain at all. Lastly, this article began with the negative effects of today's children, and transitioning into why these "negative" effects are actually positive. "Thank the internet for making him or her a writer and a thinker."

Blog #5 Why We Crave Horror Movies

I chose to write about the article about Stephan King, and why we crave horror movies. This is my favorite article so far, I found it very interesting because I am somewhat of a horror buff myself. This article starts off by saying, "I think that we're all mentally ill;those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better." Then later in the article it says, "If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree." I think the point of that is saying that we are all just crazy, but the ones who hide it are the ones who are a part of society! When I think deeper into this, I believe it is the root of all horror movies. Why do we pursue and watch these movies? They convey the insanity, disorder, and hysteria that modern day society can't. The world may not be a perfect place, but it certainly isn't as corrupt as some of the movies that are made. They make us think and ponder.... "Hmm what if the world was this bad," Or "What makes this Non-Fiction to how the world really is." The article then goes into why we watch these movies. The article promotes the fact that we do it because we want to show that we are simply not afraid. I believe that this is true, but also that some of us do it because we are afraid, we want to overcome these fears maybe. Some of also just like the feeling of being afraid. There are so many different aspects as to why we crave these horror movies.

Blog #4 Malcolm X

For blog #4 I decided to write about Malcolm X and his "Literacy Behind Bars." In this article, Malcolm X describes his experience in a Boston prison and how it transformed him into the Pan-American advocate that he was famous for. Malcolm begins by the article by saying that prison was the best thing that he could have ever done. Malcolm X improved his penmanship and his vocabulary by constantly copying the dictionary word for word, and reading it word for word. He eventually copied the whole entire dictionary into his tablet, and made reading and writing his life in the prison. This seems so surreal to me, with what the world has now. Malcolm X went from hardly reading into a famous intricate voice in America. Present day we have tutors, teachers, and resources. All Malcolm had was books in a prison. In the article Malcolm X says, "Up to then, I never been so free in my life." I loved this quote because I feel like educating himself gave him the strength to keep going and free himself from his mind. He took himself somewhere else. He becomes so intensely obsessed with books, he hardly sleeps, and he reads in the dark. He finds a sanctuary in prison. I never understood why Malcolm X was such an inspiration and so highly regarded. But it certainly makes sense to me now. He went through difficult times and changed history with his own struggles and strength.

Blog #3 Shitty First Drafts

Wow! This article makes me feel so much better about writing a first draft! This article is taken from author, Anne Lamott, and her book Bird by Bird. The depiction is intended to give anyone the courage to write a first draft. Better yet it is much better to get that crappy first draft out. That no matter how terrible it is, you have to get it out on the table. Lamott makes a great reference, she says, "The first draft is the child's draft." She then goes into detail about this by saying just go with every childish inner thought you have. But why start a first draft with the thought that you know it will be atrocious? Well, because almost always you learn from your mistakes. And when you roll around to the second draft you'll know exactly what to do. This makes sense to me, there has been many times where I have sat down to write an essay. A one time, get an A+ on the first shot kind of essay. It's nerve wrecking and could take hours. So why not write a crappy essay really fast and have the second come out better? Sounds good to me. Anne Lamott says in her book, " You need to start somewhere, get anything down on paper." This was a great article to start out a Writing 095 class with.