Jacara,
I really enjoyed reading all you blog posts, your titles are always very amusing and i can tell your writing is honest, you always straight to the point, you are not afraid to say what you feel (but who should be afraid in Andys class). Home work 14 on your blog is what caught my attention most! you were able to take the most important and fascinating points out of Johnson's reading, however it would have been nice if you expanded your thought a little more. I always find when you ask the reader questions (its kinda like thinking out loud) they are more likely to think harder about that you are writing. I agree that is video games had been introduced before books, books would be considered bad. I think that the difference between books and video game will become less and less apparent, books are already becoming digitalized (amazon kendles and you can even have books read to you from you ipod). He can argue that books and video games are significantly different but how different are they really? Do you not think that they both impose a sense of disembodiment? Do you think that video games are completely worthless or can you see them being good for something? Just a few thoughts of mine that may help you to expand. Really good job on Homework assignments 10-14 good work!
IAN!
I really all your posts but this one in particular i liked a lot. your thoughts were very unique and interesting. I enjoyed how you decided to talk about an arguments that you have not normally seen. I agree that TV and computers are not given enough credit for what they do provide us, the Internet is a whole other world of information, just think about what we can't find on major search engines like google... practically nothing. That can be good and bad. We have the access to very educational information but we also have access to harmful stuff as well. There is soooooo much information and instead of all being on paper its on a screen. The connection you made between our unit and the over welhming flow of information we have access to and feed was very insightful. GOOD work! and i always enjoy your sense of humor!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Homework # 14
I read the excerpt written by Steven Johnson about how he feels reading is better for you then video games, but he did not completely put video games to shame. For me this brought up the idea, are reading and playing video games (screens) any different? They both instill a sense of disembodiment. When you read a book that you enjoy, your eyes become attached to the page and you get involved in the story being told, you lose your sense of self and your sense of surroundings. When we play video games we become part of the game, we are literally "in control" which makes it seem even more like real. I have never been any good at them but whenever i watch someone else play, the game seems to toy with their emotions, if they are playing a game where zombies are jumping out or they are a solider fighting in WWI they flinch or shrike, games that are more calm and relaxing just make the player look possessed. People always assume that one person spending 4 straight hours reading is more intelligent than the one who sits a just play video games.
Johnson made some interesting points about the perks of video games, he pointed out one that was more obvious than others, we hear it a lot, video games help with our eye hand coordination. Many people who don't play games might now know as well as others but they are more challenging then we assume. Johnson made it clear that he did not think it was fair for people to judge people who play them or generalize the games them self. He stated that video games actually involve thinking (more than some might think). One of the last questions he asked was why are video games fun? The consumer spends a ridiculous amount of money on not only the game system itself but the games which sell on average for at least 60 bucks (this is where the companies make all their money!) To try and solve complicated puzzles that most of the time we look at cheat sheets and manuals to get to the very end of the game.
The second excerpt I read was also written by Steven Johnson about television. He went through a brief history of T.V shows in the 80s (some even earlier). He pointed out that back then television shows where a lot less complex, they did not require as much thinking because usually there were a limited number or characters and not nearly as many conflicts. Modern shows on T.V today are quite different, not only are there numerous characters, there is multiple dramas in each episode. They have become more of a puzzle, certain parts need to be remembered to make the connections. Although the choice of topic may seem meaningless and extremely superficial they involve some degree of thinking.
Overall i found what Johnson had to say to be very relevant and interesting, he left room for the reader to form their own opinions because his writing was very honest and he did not write from only one side.
Johnson made some interesting points about the perks of video games, he pointed out one that was more obvious than others, we hear it a lot, video games help with our eye hand coordination. Many people who don't play games might now know as well as others but they are more challenging then we assume. Johnson made it clear that he did not think it was fair for people to judge people who play them or generalize the games them self. He stated that video games actually involve thinking (more than some might think). One of the last questions he asked was why are video games fun? The consumer spends a ridiculous amount of money on not only the game system itself but the games which sell on average for at least 60 bucks (this is where the companies make all their money!) To try and solve complicated puzzles that most of the time we look at cheat sheets and manuals to get to the very end of the game.
The second excerpt I read was also written by Steven Johnson about television. He went through a brief history of T.V shows in the 80s (some even earlier). He pointed out that back then television shows where a lot less complex, they did not require as much thinking because usually there were a limited number or characters and not nearly as many conflicts. Modern shows on T.V today are quite different, not only are there numerous characters, there is multiple dramas in each episode. They have become more of a puzzle, certain parts need to be remembered to make the connections. Although the choice of topic may seem meaningless and extremely superficial they involve some degree of thinking.
Overall i found what Johnson had to say to be very relevant and interesting, he left room for the reader to form their own opinions because his writing was very honest and he did not write from only one side.
Homework #13 - FEED B
Art is a very vague word, it can be interpreted in numerous ways and in many mediums. Artists who make art to be seen by an audience is often very significant to the creator, they create something that they think will have a positive reaction but will also be very inspirational. However some art is not as thoughtful and is just well... kinda just a painting or just a pencil drawing. Many are extremely self conscious and never want to show off their work. There is really no right answer about what art is, its a very personal thing and depends on a person to person bases. I think art is created to express thoughts, feelings, and experiences that have been significant in the creators life. I feel people who create art because they just love it, becomes the most honest in the end. I liked the quote that was given at the end of the homework assignment by Bert Brecht "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it. I interpreted the quote in this way; i felt he was saying that art does not show the reflection of the artist, it is not obvious and has to be searched for. The hammer is a strong tool that can break and ruin something very easily, possibly shattering a piece making it seem that many more ways.
Feed is not normally what i would call art but after thinking about how undefined art is, i see the book in a new light. M.T. Anderson wrote his book with an audience in mind and he had a very controversial topic to write about. The meaning has to be searched for but he sends out a bold message, our society and the people living in it are being brainwashed, he represents through conflict and characterization how our society is being taken over by the the digital world. It is an allegory, referring to our lives in this century but showing what is would have been like in the future. I am not sure if i even truly understand the book but this was the right class to take, if we wanted to take a stab at finding meaning in the book. I though M.T. Anderson was very clever in writing the book. To attract a certain audience he used similar lingo and situations that were relatable to our generation, it was clear that is was targeted to teenagers. He did a good job not only showing the effect it had on kids out age but the repeating cycle we are sucked into, the feed will never stop!
Feed is not normally what i would call art but after thinking about how undefined art is, i see the book in a new light. M.T. Anderson wrote his book with an audience in mind and he had a very controversial topic to write about. The meaning has to be searched for but he sends out a bold message, our society and the people living in it are being brainwashed, he represents through conflict and characterization how our society is being taken over by the the digital world. It is an allegory, referring to our lives in this century but showing what is would have been like in the future. I am not sure if i even truly understand the book but this was the right class to take, if we wanted to take a stab at finding meaning in the book. I though M.T. Anderson was very clever in writing the book. To attract a certain audience he used similar lingo and situations that were relatable to our generation, it was clear that is was targeted to teenagers. He did a good job not only showing the effect it had on kids out age but the repeating cycle we are sucked into, the feed will never stop!
Homework #12 - FEED A
M.T. Anderson was able to make many comparisons between how the digital influence had effected out generation. He is written an allegory, some of the similarities he makes in the book are not as obvious as others.
When i first started reading the book i was a little lost about what was really going on, i am not a very strong reader in fact it is one of my weaknesses so it helped to have many class discussions about it. One connection i made quite fast was how his friend had a overbearing attitude that reminded me of some of the people i go to school with. It is natural for all of us to find a group and we tend to stick together, at this age we all want to fit in and do what we think will qualify us to be accepted. we go to parties, experiment with drinking and drugs, most of us want to be dressed in the latest fashions and will drop ridiculous amounts of money to do so. We are"tend" followers... just to "fit in". From Titus especially i got the sense that his look on the ordinary life was that it was uneventful and pretty much all the same, he was looking for new things to do with his time. In our generation teenagers think the same thing, we are active creatures and having a limited amount of things to do gets boring, but i think for us it is more doing something that breaks the rules that excites us rather than finding a new museum or movie to go to.
Someone is always gonna copy someone else. No matter how different you are trying to be, your fitting someone else's stereotype, we are all followers. That idea was represented a few times in feed, one that came to mind was when Quendy wanted to fit in so badly that she got lesions all over her body because they were cool. Essentially they were open sores eatting away at her flesh. I can make two connections to that, our version of lesions are marking our bodies with tattoos that are almost impossible to remove or getting obscene body percings in places that our bodies should not have holes in. But i also think there is a deeper meaning that Anderson was trying to express that is not as obvious as other connections made, we are living in a world that is becoming less and less natural everyday. A lot of what we used to do by hand can be done with machines and technology. The natural way of life in a sense is being sucked out of us, we are losing the ability to be able to distinguish between our imagination and reality, similar to the lesions on their bodies eating away at there sucking the life out of them.
There are also a few ideas in the book that are not necessary possible yet in our generation but have been in the talks. The feed was able to design people personalities, programming them to like and dislike certain things. I have seem movies and watched shows on TV about how couples will eventually be able to monitor the gender of their baby and ultimately design the genes of their children. Not only does this relate to our digital unit but also to the unit which we covered last year about the American way of birth, on top of how unnatural most American births are (using unnecessary medicines that can negatively effect the babies) eventually we will be able to in a way "build-a-baby".
We no longer have to depend on out memory for much anymore, most everything is done on a computer or over the internet. we even have website to record our thoughts now (blogger.com) this is all information that we will have access to in the future.
When i first started reading the book i was a little lost about what was really going on, i am not a very strong reader in fact it is one of my weaknesses so it helped to have many class discussions about it. One connection i made quite fast was how his friend had a overbearing attitude that reminded me of some of the people i go to school with. It is natural for all of us to find a group and we tend to stick together, at this age we all want to fit in and do what we think will qualify us to be accepted. we go to parties, experiment with drinking and drugs, most of us want to be dressed in the latest fashions and will drop ridiculous amounts of money to do so. We are"tend" followers... just to "fit in". From Titus especially i got the sense that his look on the ordinary life was that it was uneventful and pretty much all the same, he was looking for new things to do with his time. In our generation teenagers think the same thing, we are active creatures and having a limited amount of things to do gets boring, but i think for us it is more doing something that breaks the rules that excites us rather than finding a new museum or movie to go to.
Someone is always gonna copy someone else. No matter how different you are trying to be, your fitting someone else's stereotype, we are all followers. That idea was represented a few times in feed, one that came to mind was when Quendy wanted to fit in so badly that she got lesions all over her body because they were cool. Essentially they were open sores eatting away at her flesh. I can make two connections to that, our version of lesions are marking our bodies with tattoos that are almost impossible to remove or getting obscene body percings in places that our bodies should not have holes in. But i also think there is a deeper meaning that Anderson was trying to express that is not as obvious as other connections made, we are living in a world that is becoming less and less natural everyday. A lot of what we used to do by hand can be done with machines and technology. The natural way of life in a sense is being sucked out of us, we are losing the ability to be able to distinguish between our imagination and reality, similar to the lesions on their bodies eating away at there sucking the life out of them.
There are also a few ideas in the book that are not necessary possible yet in our generation but have been in the talks. The feed was able to design people personalities, programming them to like and dislike certain things. I have seem movies and watched shows on TV about how couples will eventually be able to monitor the gender of their baby and ultimately design the genes of their children. Not only does this relate to our digital unit but also to the unit which we covered last year about the American way of birth, on top of how unnatural most American births are (using unnecessary medicines that can negatively effect the babies) eventually we will be able to in a way "build-a-baby".
We no longer have to depend on out memory for much anymore, most everything is done on a computer or over the internet. we even have website to record our thoughts now (blogger.com) this is all information that we will have access to in the future.
HW #11 - self experiment 1
I never leave the house with out two things, my phone and my phone. The first thing i do when i walk out my house to go to school is put my headphones on full blast listening to whatever new music i downloaded from limewire the night before. I thought it would be interesting to ride the subway to school with out my ipod playing, it was surprising to me how different the experience of riding the subway felt. When i walked on to the 6 train at city hall i sat in my normal spot but instead of being emersed in my music i suddenly felt this feeling of total awareness. I found that my brain was thinking a million different thoughts, i was noticing what people where doing more and i couldn't help but just stare. It felt very uncomfortable and awkward, i did not have my security blanket (i guess i can call it that now), i was now in the world with everyone else. While my music plays i get a sense of aloneness, like i am in my own world, it gives me something to do, i have noticed that if my eyes are not on my phone or my ipod playing game i make awkward eye contact with people or go off into blank stares at the most random things. On the day that i conducted the "experiment" i happened to sit next to a young boy (about 6) and his mother who pulled out a tintin book and began reading it to him in french although i did not really understand what was going on i was looking at all the pictures over the little boys shoulder, instead of my eyes glued to a screen it was glued to pictures but i can imagine that either the boy or the mother found it annoying. Overall for me ipods are what start the day off for me right. I can go a few days without one on the subway but when i have it playing loudly in my ears is when my trips to and from school are most comfortable.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
HOMEWORK #8- Triangle comments on video
JACARA!
I really enjoyed your video, it looked as though you almost forgot you were on camera. I was able to capture your emotion through the look on your face. When you were talking to the man in the background you had the classic "ill pertend to listen but I would rather continue doing what I'm doing." that's why when he was asking you questions you said "what?" alot. It seems that once you are sucked in to the digital world it becomes the only thing you care about.
I particularly liked the scene where you were reading a book but also had the distraction of the music playing from your ipod. That made me think more about the point that was brought up in Andy's class a few days ago. How good is reading for you? and why is it thought of as being any different from watching TV or playing a video game? when people enjoy a book it is any less distracting then TV, you still show the similar signs of being completely disembodied from anything else going on around you. People tend to use it as an excuse just to sound educated and "different" almost as if they do not follow the trend of being lazy and just sitting around in front of a screen.
Overall really good job! it seemed very honest and realistic. You did your best to show how it is in real life. Do you think it would have been any different if you had completely forgot about that the camera was rolling? Just something to think about!
good work:)
IAN!
Your video mad me smile, it seemed like you were happy and enjoyed what you were doing. For me most times i find that i don't even really enjoy watching hours or TV or just randomly web surfing for hours but for some reason i do it anyways. I wonder why that is!
You did something in your video that i have not seem in very many others, your first scene was of not only you but your cousin also, It helped to see to faces (which i noticed where a little different because there was also some human interaction). Your last scene was you playing video games and listening to music, i found it interesting that when we watch TV, play video games or even just listen to an ipod we can never do just that. It is in out nature to multitask (at this very moment i am tying on my laptop and watching TV) why do you think that is? Maybe you can answer me back in your next blog.
I really liked watching your video!
:)
I really enjoyed your video, it looked as though you almost forgot you were on camera. I was able to capture your emotion through the look on your face. When you were talking to the man in the background you had the classic "ill pertend to listen but I would rather continue doing what I'm doing." that's why when he was asking you questions you said "what?" alot. It seems that once you are sucked in to the digital world it becomes the only thing you care about.
I particularly liked the scene where you were reading a book but also had the distraction of the music playing from your ipod. That made me think more about the point that was brought up in Andy's class a few days ago. How good is reading for you? and why is it thought of as being any different from watching TV or playing a video game? when people enjoy a book it is any less distracting then TV, you still show the similar signs of being completely disembodied from anything else going on around you. People tend to use it as an excuse just to sound educated and "different" almost as if they do not follow the trend of being lazy and just sitting around in front of a screen.
Overall really good job! it seemed very honest and realistic. You did your best to show how it is in real life. Do you think it would have been any different if you had completely forgot about that the camera was rolling? Just something to think about!
good work:)
IAN!
Your video mad me smile, it seemed like you were happy and enjoyed what you were doing. For me most times i find that i don't even really enjoy watching hours or TV or just randomly web surfing for hours but for some reason i do it anyways. I wonder why that is!
You did something in your video that i have not seem in very many others, your first scene was of not only you but your cousin also, It helped to see to faces (which i noticed where a little different because there was also some human interaction). Your last scene was you playing video games and listening to music, i found it interesting that when we watch TV, play video games or even just listen to an ipod we can never do just that. It is in out nature to multitask (at this very moment i am tying on my laptop and watching TV) why do you think that is? Maybe you can answer me back in your next blog.
I really liked watching your video!
:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
