HW # 31 - Exploring Methods of M,M,C,A, & Aggrandizing the Self

Interview with Mrs. P by Devin

Method of adorning

Ms. P is a woman who lives on our block and is always out walking her dog. The dog always has a big red bow around his neck. He is a boxer, and he always looks uncomfortable to me with the stupid bow on. Mrs. P. also has a very distinctive walk.
She has a straight back (good posture) and takes quick short steps. Her lips are pursed, and she looks everyone she passes in the eye.

D – Why is your dog wearing that big red bow?

Ms. P – It keeps his neck warm in this freezing weather.

D – But he wears it in the summer too, doesn’t he? Is that one a cooling bow?

Ms. P – Ha! Ha! Ha! It’s the same one, actually. He wears it because he likes it. He asks me to put it on before we go out.

D – That’s amazing. You mean he brings it to you in his mouth whenever he wants to go out?

Ms. P. – (thinks) Well, I think he used to do that. He probably did. Now it is a habit.
He would feel undressed without it.

D – And your red scarf? Do you feel the same about it as your dog does about his bow?

Ms. P. – I can tell that people who see us think it is kind of cool that we both have red around our necks.

Mrs. P is obviously trying to get attention for herself. She appears to live alone. . I would normally have little respect for people like Ms. P who try to get attention for themselves so obviously. However, in the case of Ms.P I feel sorry for her, I think she is just lonely.

Part B

Interview with Self by Devin

D Now that you've finished analyzing Ms. P's performance, what about your own?

Self What do you mean?

D Well, you perform for others in some way too, don't you?

Self I guess we all do to some extent. "All the world's a stage," as Shakespeare says.

D Yeah, but you have been performing with real audiences for a long time, haven't you? Why do you think you have done that?

Self Oh, you mean in soccer and in dance. Well, I started both at a young age so I don't think I can be blamed.

D But it has been your choice to continue both. There must be some need you have for an audience to appreciate you.

Self That's something to think about. Both soccer and dance training have been a lot of hard work. Soccer started out as all fun when I was seven, and I have always needed an outlet for my physical energy. My brother and I were both hyper kids. I've been lucky to have been on good soccer teams, and we have played and won so many tournaments. I think the satisfaction of playing well comes from the reaction of the coach and teammates and not so much the audience. As players, we try to shut the audience out. There are a few exceptions. When we represented the US in France, we played in a stadium with 40,000 people, and that was pretty cool. You can't shut out an audience of that size.

D The soccer is part of your identity now, isn't it? If you stopped playing, wouldn't you be less you?

Self I have to admit that's true. Once I broke my wrist and arm in a game and was out for four months. I really missed playing. Luckily, it didn't stop me from dancing. After two months I started the dance training with my cast on.

D Okay, so what about dance? That 's part of your identity too, right?

Self It must be to some degree. Most of the time it is just hard work the way soccer is now that I am older. Both are really competitive. I think that maybe that is what doing both soccer and dance is really all about. I like to compete.

D So competing and winning or doing well makes you feel good about yourself and gives you satisfaction in life. Is that right?

Self. That must be true. Dancing at the Joyce Theater or at the Apollo Theater is exciting, but public performances like these don't happen that often.
I am in class six days a week. I have soccer practice two or three times a week and play on the weekends.

D It's amazing you have time for anything else.

Self That's true. What I think soccer and dance give me are two different worlds. In soccer I am with my team of course, but I know kids from all over the city and in different states too. We've travelled to France and Brazil. Soccer is played all over the world, and I like the fact that I can go anywhere and with just a ball pick up a game and meet people.

D What about dance?

Self That is another world for me. I like the people a lot or I wouldn't stay with it. Also, dance is fun, and it's a social activity that stays with you. Chances are I won't continue to train seriously in college, but the training has been great and helps condition the body for sports too.

D You have to admit your life is a performance or even a big series of performances.

Self I blame my parents. Actually, I can't even do that. I was at Chelsea Piers watching my brother play basketball when I was 7. I started kicking a soccer ball when one of the games ended, and a coach asked me if I would like to play.
My dad knew nothing about soccer. For dance I was auditioned at my school in the third grade. I just got a letter in the mail about a scholarship. Luck had a lot to do with my starting both soccer and dance.

D Luck has a lot to do with being able to continue both too.

Self Right. I could be injured at any time and have to stop both. Then who would I be?

HW # 30 Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool

When Sisyphus, a clever king, fooled the gods one too many times when he captured Hades so no one could die, his own deadth ended in an eternal punishment of having to push a voulder up a hill that would just fall down again just asit reached the top. In this absurd situation, Sisyphus found satisfaction in the struggle to keep trying with the boulder, and this was what was interesting about him to the existential writer Camus. Sisyphus had to look within himself to find some meaning in his life since there was no outside power that was going to help him. I can understand why an existentialist would like to use the Greek myth of Sisyphus as a way of explaing human happiness in an absurd world. An absurd world must be a world without a higher power (a god) who puts people on earth for a reason and gives meaning to their lives. If there is no god and no afterlife to go to no matter what we do in this world, and we are all just going to die, then life can seem absurd. Camus is making the point about Sisyphus that it is the struggle to achieve our own goals that gives us satisfaction and makes our lives worthwhile.

I think that being a teenager can be considered an existential time because a teenager is not a child with godlike parents telling him or her what to do, and a teenager has no idea what being an adult will be like. It is a time to try to find your identity by creating your own existence in the eyes of your peers. Being cool is an identity. We are all judged by our peers, and if they think you are cool then your life has meaning. Whatever you are doing, you are doing it right because the feedback is great. The problem is there are so many ways to be cool, some good and some bad. The ideal way to be cool I think is by developing your talents into skills that can help you achieve goals and help you feel you are contributing to humanity in some way or that you will be able to before you die. This is not possible if you act like a "poser," someone who has the need for attention and acceptance without having developed a sense of self.
I think this a poser does what the existentialist philosopher Sartre called inauthentic acts. Posers are not developing theirr own abilities and identity so they can make some positive contribution to humanity. If death is the end of existence, then making the most of this life means feeling part of something bigger while you are alive, and that bigger thing is humanity. I am not arguing that you should never try to act cool like a James Dean, sometimes it is nice to feel wanted or be found interesting by your peers. Everyone should have some unpredictable qualities that distinguish him or her, but these qualities should have to do with positive achievements of some kind that give satisfaction. This kind of satisfaction gives meaning to life, and that is what humans are all looking for.

I think that Bhuddists are in a sense existentialists because they are trying to live a better life in this world. Even if they believe in some sort of way of the spirit continuing after death, they do not believe that an individual is going to wake up again in an afterlife. So the important thing is to live a good life doing "authentic acts" as the existentialists would say to contribute in a positive way to humanity. Bhuddists believe in The avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions is called Śīla (ethical conduct in Sanskrit),
meaning "the avoidance of unwholesome actions and the cultivation of positive actions." Cultivating positive actions would give life satisfaction, and that brings me back to Sisyphus, who was cool because he kept on trying. No one is going to be cool all the time (think of poor Tiger Woods). But if we keep trying to develop our own talents and live in a way that makes us good human beings (helping humanity), we will get some satisfaction that gives our life meaning.

HW # 29 Merchants of Cool

So What Exactly is the Problem?

Corporations have always manipulated people through marketing and at every age group. And the commercials try to make us feel dissatisfied with our lives and offer their product to help us out. Is it any different marketing to teens than marketing to old people(making them feel less sexy) or to children(get them the latest action figure or Barbie?) After thinking about the merchants of cool, I realize that marketing to teens is different. First, we're a huge demographic with a whale-load of money to spend(not me personally.) Second, we are in the buisness of developing our identities. We're not children and we're not adults. Advertisers can't help giving us materialistic values to identities they seem to think we have or want.

So What is he Danger?

The danger I guess is that the teenage time of life is an insecure time of peer pressure, trying to fit in, and getting self-confidence. Advertisers have the job of taking advantage of our fear of not fitting in and make us feel that buying the right stuff will make us one of the cool guys as defined by them based on what they think we want. Conforming to what everyone else does though is not most people's idea of cool. I think the idea is that corporations want us to believe that before we can even think about how we might distinguish ourselves as cool we must have certain products and dress in a certain way. I guess they are making us first stage cool. Then it's up to us. The scary thing is that for kids who can really get sucked into advertising(and its hard to avoid not getting sucked in to some degree) the identity being sold can get out of hand.

The "Midriff" girl who can only think about distinguishing herself by trying to get sexier and sexier with more revealing clothes. The Merchants Of Cool program says she can't even get in
perspective that she is being manipulated as a sexual object.

The Solution

Since it seems that right now there are only a very few(5) corporations trying to sell us their stuff, they will just get more competitive. The Merchants of Cool say that means they will "drag standard down." I guess that means more sex and violence. The answer I guess is to make us aware of what the advertisers game is and make us feel like idiots(uncool) if we don't think for ourselves.Also, we need to develop our own interests. I love playing soccer for example. I buy shoes that are best for my sport, not just buy what I see in ads(although you never see soccer ads with basic cable.)

HW # 28 - Informal Research - Internet, Magazines, and TV Shows

Cool (African philosophy). Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 10 December, 2009
http://infao5501.ag5.mpi-sb.mpg.de:8080/topx/archive?link=Wikipedia-Lip6-2/1576344.x
This is an interesting article about the concept of cool in popular culture coming from
black jazz musicians beginning in the 1920s. Their idea of cool came from a West African concept of the “mask of the cool,” where cool is “composure, dignity in being and comportment and a practiced stoicism… It is a way of being, a way of walking in the world.” In African culture opposite forces create balance so the concept of hot is equally important. Cool represents “stillness, calm and strength.” Heat represents “energy, strength, and movement.” The two mix together well in African movement, dance, music, and art. The word “hip” comes from the African work “hipi” meaning to open up the eyes and be aware. African Americans used it to mean something “fashionable and current.”

This article is helpful for information about the start of the idea of cool and how African-American uses of the word were taken up by mainstream white culture.



Will America Ever Be Cool Again. iNewsit Blog, n.d. Web. 8 December, 2009
http://www.inewsit.com/blogs/entry/Will-America-Ever-Be-Cool-Again

This is a blog in the form of a letter to the editor from a Staten Island Ferry souvenir seller who says that tourists are not interested in buying American stuff because “Bush trashed the American Brand” and even Obama’s “Yes I can” hoodies aren’t selling now. The editor says that a recent survey by Pew ranks the U.S. as 117 on the cool index now. “Only Russia, China, the UK, and Zimbabwe were considered less cool than the U.S.

This is a humorous article about how the U.S. used to be cool and now is not. There is
a lot that is true in it as it talks about what has been cool and uncool in America over time. It is hare on other countries too. “China hasn’t been cool since Confucius…Italy has a seventy-three year old President who brags to teenage girls about his sexual prowess.



Marc, 25 Acts of Body Language to Avoid.. 7 July, 2008. Mark and Angel Hack Life.
9 December, 2009 http://www.marcandangel.com/2008/07/07/25-acts-of-body-language-to-avoid

This is a list of common gestures and other body movements that make us uncool when
we do them. Examples are: holding objects in front of you and sending a message of shyness or wanting to be separate from the person in front of us, crossing your arms and sending a message of “defensive resistance” or arrogance.

The list is interesting in that makes the reader aware of how a lot of what can make people look uncool they aren’t even conscious of doing.



Bharadwaj, Ajay. In Bhatinda, blood donation is considered cool. 27 February, 2006. DNA Read the world. Web. 8 December, 2009 http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_in-bhatinda-blood-donation-is-considered-cool-10

This article is about a certain district in India where people take great pride in giving
blood over and over. It didn’t used to be that way. People who needed blood there 30 years ago used not to be able to get any. Then a man who nearly lost his daughter because there wasn’t a single unit of blood for her started a campaign that now has 10,000 donors. He made it cool to give blood.

The article gives another perspective on cool and that is the idea that people can make change for the better in a society by changing behavior to make something that needs to be done seem cool to do.

HW # 27 Informal Research - Interviews and Surveys

My mom was pacing back and forth, hand to chin obviously thinking, so I went up to her and asked " Mom, what seems to be the bother?" "Well," my mom responded, "I was thinking about whether we really have to have turkey this Thanksgiving. I actually think we should have some filet mignon. The pieces of meat will be really tender, but small, and that will be healthier for everyone. We'll begin with a lot of cajun shrimp that people can peel themselves." Our immediate family loved the idea because we aren't great turkey fans. It was clear that the guests were initially surprised. No whopping plates of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and gravy in sight. In fact, after the shrimp course was cleared, the plates had a small round filet mignon with mushrooms, asparagus, and salad. You could actually see a lot of plate. For dessert there were two big homemade blueberry and raspberry tarts and some small lemon tarts. My uncle said, "This is a very cool Thanksgiving dinner." This was just the opening I needed to ask all the guests about their idea of cool. So here are some of their comments:

Being cool is like this dinner. It has style and it's not copying anybody else.

Being cool is having the confidence not to worry about what others are thinking.

Being cool is not submitting to peer pressure.

Being cool means having a natural swagger without being arrogant.

Being cool means having a style unique to you, not a copy of someone else's.

Being cool means being consistently cool -- not depressed one minute, hyper the next.

People notice really cool people who aren't trying to be noticed.

Cool people develop talents that make them cool.

Cool people are likeable and people are drawn to them.

Cool people don't talk too much about religion. If they have it, they mostly keep it to themselves.

Cool people don't make themselves feel better by making fun of others.

Lupe Fiasco is a cool guy with a quit confidence, unusual for a rapper. His lyrics make you think.

Will Smith is always cool. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Men in Black.

Steve McQueen was definitely a cool guy in The Great Escape. A comic rebel among Nazis has to be cool. Also, he never gave up trying to escape the prison camp. Cool guys have to be consistent and are not be intimidated.

Humpfrey Bogart was very cool. He stood up to Nazis too in Casablanca and he gave up the woman he loved because she was married to a war hero. Beyond cool.

The mention of Humpfrey Bogart made one guest talk about how cool Humpfrey Bogart looked.
She thought he especially looked cool when he was smoking. She said Albert Camus, the writer, also looked cool especially when smoking. My dad said that he thought he used to look cool when he smoked. He thinks there are a lot fewer cooler people now that fewer people smoke. Not than smoking is a cool thing to do. It is a cool thing to look doing.

HW 26 - Photos and Questions Cool Guy # 3

Gustavo

Dean & Deluca -

Prepared food section

Broadway and Prince Street

Where are you from?

I come from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

How long have you been in the U.S.?

I've been living here for 14 years.

What do you like to do best when you aren't working?

I like to watch soccer.

What do you think is the coolest thing about you?

Definitely not my hat. I think I take my hat off for the picture.

I just like to talk to people I like. Most of the people I meet here

I really like, but there are a few...

What would your dream job be?

I would like to be a doctor's assistant. I want to help people who are sick get better.

HW 26 - Photos and Questions Cool Guy # 2

James

Plays guitar in the Prince Street Subway Station (R-W trains)

How long have you been playing guitar?

I only started five years ago. I get my practice in down here.

What do you like to do when you're not playing in the subway?

I'm only just now getting good enough to play in clubs.

Where are you from?

Alexandria, Virginia. I grew up in the shadow of the Pentagon.

What is the coolest thing about you?

Definitely my Sergeant Pepper type outfit.

What would your dream job be?

I want to teach music to kids if I get good enough. I want to be a teacher.

HW 26 - Photos and Questions Cool Guy # 1

Bemmet

Addidas Store -Athletic Shoe Department

Broadway and Houston Steet

Where are you from?

Germany. I came to the U.S. in 2004.

How long have you been playing soccer?

I started playing at the age of 8 in Germany. I played with Germany's third division Bayern Munich professional team.

What do you like to do best when you aren't working?

Surprisingly, I like to play soccer.

What do you think is the coolest thing about you?

Am I cool? I don't know. My hair, I guess.

What is your dream job?

To be a professional soccer player. I have a tryout coming up with the Red Bulls.

HW # 25 Part 2 (short stories)

In the 5 short stories that I have read I noticed that that the writers try to get at two basic aspects of cool: describing a person who may appear cool but who is not, and describing an actual cool-type dude or dudette, according to the writer. Among the appear-cool types there are breakdowns too. There is the person who considers herself to be cool by association with an even cooler person who drinks and does drugs. Obviously in the writer's mind neither one is cool. Then, there is also the person who feels cool by comparing himself with uncool people. Among the actual cool types there is the person who is not consciously trying to be cool but has some leadership qualities and positive energy that draws people to him. And there is the person who is cool because he is different from everyone else and is busy following his own interests. He might not be the most popular person but in the writer's mind he is cool because he is interesting. There is even what I would call an in between cool guy. He is considered cool because he doesn't let anybody get too close to him, making people want to try to get close. It turns out that the reason he doesn't let peoople get close to him is because his parents abused him.

What is interesting about these various ways to think about who is cool is that we all seem to think that really cool people aren't the phony ones. But probably in our own lives we are all at times conscious of trying to be cool even though we show in our stories that we don't have respect for phonies or posers. The truth is that most of us have are cool and uncool moments, and our perceptions of who is cool change. Also, people can be cool in some ways and not in others. The people who have the most cool moments are associated with archetypes like: the cowboy/rebel, the jock, the knockout, or the mysterious guy, and the saintly person, who usually doesn't get that many cool credits. You can probably be too good to be cool. Another thing I noticed is that the male writers all seemed to write about cool and uncool males and the female writers wrote about both female and male cool and uncool characters. In this regard maybe the female writers are cooler.

HW # 25 Part 1 (comments on short stories)

Andy L. Short Story Comment

What I like a lot about your story is how the main character has to put down or denegrate someone else in order to feel good about himself by comparison. I think you illustrate here really well a pathetic side of human nature which is that our feeling cool depends on our finding other people uncool. I also like that line " The rain does feel nice," which shows that he can't talk himself into thinking that this guy is 100% uncool.

John L. Short Story Comment

I guess what I like best about your story is the fact that Ryan does not seem to be consciously trying to be cool. He just seems to have something inside of him that has to get out which happens to be MJ's "Thriller," or as you say "Thrillers." The reader gets the sense that after this unfilmed music video Ryan and the class can settle down and get back to work and probably pay more attention having had this MTV timeout.

Julie A. Short Story Comment

This is a good illustration of another form of the sorry side of our human nature --Identifying someone as cool or buying into other people's opinions of who is cool and then making yourself pretty miserable trying to be this person's friend. You get the feeling that it will take Leah's switching to heroin before Marjorie sees the light.

Alicia. Short Story Comment

I like the way you contrast the people who are perceived as cool and the person you perceive as cool, Nate, whose interests do not follow the norms of traditionally cool actions like partying and doing drugs but that he instead prefers cultural experiences and having meaningful relationships. From your description of Nate he seems very well rounded and socially adept enough to fit in in multiple "cliques," making him a cool guy.

Max M. Short Story Comment

I like the way you describe a kind of coolness in a person who people are attracted to because he doesn't let them get too close. He seems more mature than the other high school kids but it turns out this is because he has been abused by his parents and doesn't trust anyone. It takes meeting someone who has similar trust problems to help him form a close relationship. The kind of character you describe seems very real to me.

HW 24 - Short Story "Cool Guy"

Cool Guy

“Hey, Iron Man, grab this,” I said, hurling the medicine ball at Harry’s sunken chest. I kept it up. We were the only ones in the gym. “So what’s Harry short for? Hairy hands? Look at all that knuckle hair. It’s disgusting. Least you could do is shave it off so you won’t keep scaring everyone. “You hear about the new school raffle? There’s about five IPods for the person who guesses how many hairs are growing out of your thumb.” I walked over to him and kicked his side before grabbing his lower arm, pulling him up, and pushing him against a window ledge. I walked about ten feet away, grabbed the ball again and slammed it into his bent midsection. He slumped to the floor. “Hey, I got it, Harry’s for Harvard. Your daddy thinks you’re going there, is that it?
“I think if he had had that in mind, he would have called me Harvey. He’s a pretty smart guy,” Harry panted.
“Shut it,” I said, directing my Addidas in his other side.
Later at the end of English class I was going out the door when the smartest girl in the class stopped me. “So,” she said, “How did you do?”
“An A. I’ll make it up to you,” I said.
“ You said you’d take me to the party.”
“Oh yeah. I thought I could at the time. It turns out that Annie and some other girls asked me first. It would be like starting a war if I took you. Some other time though.”
I looked up and there was Harry. He had heard everything. He said nothing. I tried for distraction.
“Hey, Iron man, ya know why I call you that? Caus I hear you can iron like nobody else. Like your underwear. I hear you iron that. You have a real talent like it’s something to put on your application to Harvard.
The last class of the day was chemistry. I’d completely forgotten we had a quiz.
It was understandable. I’d had the game the night before. Friends came. We went somewhere afterwards. I was too tired to do anything. Luckily, Harry was left-handed and next to me on my left. I could see what he was writing perfectly. “Somebody up there loves me, I thought.”
As I was leaving chemistry class, the principal, Mr. Scanning, stopped me in the hallway.
“Could you meet me in my office in about five minutes?” I nodded.
His assistant told me to go in and wait for him. I sat down and gave thought to what this could be all about. At first I thought that he was going to congratulate me on being MVP in the last game. But then my leg started twitching. Scanning had come in the room.
“So, superstar, it turns out that you are the saddest thing in the kingdom here, and I’m including today’s gray burgers. You’re beating the hell out of people, paying people to write your papers, and cheating on quizzes. Anything more lined up for the day?”
“It’s Harry, right? You believe everything he says?”
“Not Harry. I believe the video monitor we installed in the gym and classrooms.
Naturally, I called Harry in to ask him if he was all right and to tell me what happened.”
“What did the little creep say?”
“He said he was all right. He didn’t want to get you in trouble. He said you couldn’t help being a cool guy.”

HW 23 - 1st Constructivist Exploration of Cool

Questions About Cool
a. Is anyone cool to everyone?
b. Is anyone cool for a lifetime?
c. If you try to be cool, aren't you being uncool?
d. Is this mostly an uncool world with just a few cool people?
e. Can there be a whole room full of just cool people?

So, let me think about who is cool. Well, David Beckham seems cool. At least he is a cool looking guy I think most people would agree. He was cool when he scored a goal from the halfway line for Manchester United. He was even cooler when he scored an amazing freekick for England during the 1998 World Cupagainst Colombia. Then he became uncool when he was given a red card in the next game against Argentina, and England was knocked out of the Cup finals. He was hated throughtout England. People said he was stupid. He became cool again in the 2002 World Cup against Colombia. finals when he scored the only goal in a game to beat Argentina. Some people also thought he was cool when he married a Spice Girl. In spite of his very cool freekicks, most people think that Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo are cooler football players. So, is David Beckham a cool guy? The answer seems to be sometimes he is depending on what he does. What I think I am trying to say is that David is a cool guy for his looks but not always for his actions. Also it would be hard for him not to know that he looks cool, and when you start to think you are cool, then usually that it is the beginning of the end of your coolness. You know the way an actor or an actress or a model gets this certain "I'm so cool" look, and everyone thinks "what a jerk."

So, who else is cool. Barack Obama could certainly be placed in that category. First black president of the United States. He is cool for his intelligence and for the way he goes about trying to include as many people as possible in whatever decisions he has to make. And the guy never gets flustered. He has the idiot right-wing conservatives giving him a hard time about evrything, even his birth certificate. There is this story I heard that perfectly illustrates his coolness. At a press confererence when he was about to answer a final question from reporters, he was trying to find a reporter who had not asked a question before. One of his aides told him to pick the baby-face looking guy in the back, and Obama pointed at him saying, "You, the baby-face one." Unfortunately for the reporter, his fiance subsequently dumped him, and he told friends that it might have had something to do with his having been embarassed by the President. The cool part about this story is that Obama was told what happened and found the time to call "babyface" and apologize to him for ruining his "game."

In the book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian the main character Arnold(Junior) Spirit does not fit into the spectrum of "cool." His head is visibly larger then it should be due to a brain condition. He is a Native American boy who lives on a reservation where the older Indians see no future for themselves as they drink their lives away. Arnold goes quite a few miles away from home to an all white school that can give him a better education than that of the reservation high school. I guess I'm a sucker for a good underdog story. I thought it was really cool how Arnold was bold enough to make a move to an all-white school despite all the criticism he got from his friends and family on the reservation. And of course everyone at the new school gave him a hard time too. Arnold, showing great heart and competitiveness, joined the basketball team. When his new school played his reservation high school, it was demolished by Rowdy, his best friend and the school's best player, and the other kids on the reservation team. Later in the season his new school avenged that loss by murdering his reservation school. Arnold actually scored the first bucket of the game after he succesfully blocked Rowdy's dunk attempt. Arnold was very cool. At the very end of the book after all the dramatic events and emotional rollercoasters that came between Arnold and Rowdy's friendship, the two of them met on the playground and just played one on one for hours not keeping score. I really don't know a single cooler way to end a story then having a one on one basketball game with your best friend as the moon rises up and the streetlights come on.

HW - 21 Dev's Digital Dance

Dev's Digital Dance from devin morgan on Vimeo.

Preview your embedded video

HW - 21 Art Project Digital Dance

Dance Digital

Choreographer/dancer: Devin Morgan


Movement I: Energizin’

Music: Universal Mind Control – Common featuring Pharrell



Movement II: Zonin’ out

Music: City Life Part I – Steve Reich



Movement III: Crash & Burn

Music: Pursuit of Happiness – Kid Cudi featuring Ratatat

Question # 1

I hope my dance is both a mirror and a hammer, a mirror
of how the digital life affects me for better and for worse and a
hammering home of the danger of getting too much of it and having
the addiction take over my body and mind.

Question # 2

Dancing is a way of feeling intensely whatever it is you are trying to express with the dance. In the first part of this dance, I was completely into the video game and it was a good feeling. In the second part, I was on cruise control going through the motions without thinking about what
I was doing. In the third part of the dance, my brain was hurting, I wasn’t thinking straight, and I was losing control of body parts. Like Violet in Feed, my internal digital device was failing. I was dying. In fact, I died.

Question #3

Finding the music to go with the dance was challenging at first and then
extremely satisfying when the songs fit the movements. The songs by Common and Kid Cudi are two of my favorites. I could not find one I liked for the Zonin’ Out section so I remembered a dance Eliot Feld had choreographed with a kind of driving beat, and I looked it up. The music was by Steve Reich. I listened to some of his other works online and
found City Life – Part I. It seemed perfect. Having a sense right away that it was the sound I was looking gave me some confidence in what I was doing. Finding music and dance movements to go with a story line about digitalization in my life provides a deeper understanding of it

HW-22 Final Draft

Digital Doom?

Tonight I went to a theater performance. Before the curtain went up, the announcer stepped out on stage to ask audience members to turn off their cell phones. When the lights went down, there were hundreds of lights from I-phones and cell phones and Blackberrys. I was in the balcony, and it looked like an infestation of fireflies down below. The curtain went up and then came right down again, and the announcer had to ask again that people turn off their electronic devices. I thought about how crazy it was that people would spend fifty dollars or more to see a show and then find it so hard to be digitally unconnected for even moments in their lives. I also thought about the New York Marathon which took place today. At least the runners were having a few hours that were a time out from cell phones. It seems to me that in spite of the positive aspects of this technology and its instant communication, digital overloading can be physically dangerous because it is anti-exercise, mentally dangerous because it promotes a short attention span, and even a danger to humanity if companies take portability to the next stratosphere and implant devices in our brains.

Argument #1

For too many kids video games take up too much after school and weekend time. For younger kids this use of time is dangerous because they are not developing the coordination that is necessary for team sports, individual sports, dance, or even just recreational activities like throwing a football, swimming, or playing ping pong. They are also not developing the habit of exercise which is necessary for a healthy life. Having physical activity everyday is also important because it helps refresh the brain. It is important for kids and adults to get the blood flowing and ideally be outside breathing fresh air and absorbing vitamin D. What is more, lack of exercise in combination with too much junk food can lead to obesity. "Naturally, Happy Meals and Cocoa Crisps have played a large role in the wave of childhood obesity. But the real culprit seems to be a cultural shift, a new way of life that encourages kids to remain as still as possible," says former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. Dr. Satcher is saying the kids should be encouraged to take time off from their computer games to go to the park. Obesity is a huge problem in this country in every state except Colorado, where outdoor activities must be a big part of everyone’s life. For poorer kids playing video games after school and on weekends can really be dangerous. These kids often do not have good playgrounds near them, and parents cannot afford to put them in after school sports or dance programs or other activities that can be expensive. Poorer kids are also more likely to have food that is not that healthy because many healthy foods, including organic foods, are too expensive. The combination of playing video games inside for long periods of time and eating too much sugar and fat is a deadly one. Some people like to think that games like the Wii that let you simulate playing tennis or golf give you a physical workout. Wii may help with hand-eye coordination and bring the family together for some laughs as players move about on the little square, but they are no substitute for real exercise.All kids need to find a way of balancing their use of digital devices with at least an hour of exercise a day. Even in gym class at my school there are always some kids sitting on the floor playing video games during the whole period. We know that our minds and our physical selves are closely related. If we are listening, our brain is telling us that we need mental and physical exercise to be healthy.

Argument #2

Another danger of digital overloading is that the use of texting, Facebook, and Twitter get our minds in the habit of writing in an abbreviated way. The aim is for speed so the thinking is off the top of our heads. Being asked to write a five-page paper with thought-out analysis is torture by comparison. If I were texting a friend to say “It was nice to see you,” I would write “It wz (smiley face) to c u.” The goal is to shorten words and sentences as much as possible to get a message out as fast as possible and get one back. The article, “British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain” by Robert Mitchum, says that an Oxford neuroscientist thinks that online social networking could be dangerous for our brains and behavior. She predicts that "the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity." I have to say that my reaction was that this seemed like an extreme view, and I expected that the rest of the article would have scientists who disagreed. I was wrong. A UCLA scientist said that the social network sites carry risks for the brain, and a Stanford University researcher thinks that even if people knew for certain that online social networking was harmful to the brain, they would continue using it. Definitely, people play with their identity on Facebook to create a perfected self, and using Facebook can be an intriguing and addictive use of time. As for the mind becoming addicted to sensationalism and unable to empathize, that does not sound impossible since online networking does not promote deep thought. At least in the old days when people wrote letters and even postcards they were thinking mostly in complete sentences and developing some ideas. Whether or not social networking is proven to harm the brain seriously, the risk of shorter attention spans seems real and makes me think even more about how we need balance between time on and off the computer. In the article, “The Effect of Video Games On the Brain,” Eleni Kardara talks about a study in Tokyo that showed that people who played video games a lot were showing a decrease of activity in parts of their brains (prefrontal regions) and that the under use of these parts of their brains might be the cause of their aggressive behavior and inability to concentrate, especially since this lack of brain activity continued after the game playing was over. The author wondered whether the brain is perceiving the video games as real. There are other studies that show how the games make blood pressure and heart rate go up the way they do when the body senses danger. People blame listening to violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior because they have the power of suggestion. It seems to me that people who blame violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior, should be more critical of violent video games because they involve the players in the dangerous action. The difference between what is real and what is make-believe gets murky. One thing that seems provable is that too much time spent on addictive video games and Facebook can also take away from time reading, even magazines and comic books that are read for fun. Since it seems that all the experts say that reading is a great predictor of success in life, all this digital time could be endangering the odds of a happy future.

Argument #3

M.T. Anderson in his book, Feed, writes an allegory about what could happen to us if digital companies keep innovating to the point where the devices become so small that we don’t have to carry them at all because they can be lodged into our brains. The literal story is set in the future as he describes what life is like for a group of teens living with the “feed” implant, a combination of the Internet, television, cell phone and web games. Having a continuous digital feed means not only that people can get all the information they think they need without thinking, but they also live in a “material world” that is the dream of corporations which can run ads in their brains all day long. In the symbolic story the author is showing what can happen when corporations have more power than the government and can control the media (like Fox Five news) and the people and ruin the environment. To me Feed is more than a tragedy about what can happen if the digitalization of our lives goes too far, it is a horror story. Today, we are discussing the possible negative effects of too much usage of digital devices, but in Feed the teens' lives are already totally taken over by technology. For example, we know that there is a danger now of trying so hard to be cool on Facebook that teens give an unreal picture of themselves and spend too much time trying to impress others instead of developing skills that really would make them feel good about themselves. In Feed forget about becoming individuals and developing potential. Most teens seem to have been selected genetically by their parents, have their feed chips take over a lot of their thinking, and allowing the corporations that make the feed to control them. The main character Titus says "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it." It's in the interest of the corporations which have all the power to keep teens feeling in an incredibly direct way that they have to keep making purchases to try to be cool. They can literally break in on teens thoughts without having to waiting to run an ad during "The Simpsons." Then there is the horror that more than one-fourth of the population is not wired with a Feed because they cannot afford it and are at a disadvantage at school without the knowledge feeds and because the corporations are against individualist thinking that is against bombarding the brain with commercials. In the book Titus's girlfriend had an inferior feed implanted because her parents couldn't pay for a better model. She ended up dying because of her low quality feed and she wasn't in line for a transplant of a better one because she wasn't considered to be a good marketing target. I think this is an extreme of a problem today of teens whose parents can't afford a computer or maybe can't always make payments for their kids' cell phones. There is also the horror of what has happened to the environment. Atmospheric conditions have resulted in the development of artificial clouds because the corporations obviously haven't had to worry about pollution. In fact, the ocean is so dangerous that whales have to be covered in plastic to survive. Also, women can't give normal birth anymore, and all babies come from test tubes. It seems that parents can pay to have certain genetic traits for their kids. Nutrition also seems to have had a set back because Coke is the drink of choice for teens. This extreme in the book of what can happen when corporations don't have any government anti-pollution controls seems like a lesson for us today. As a teen using technology now, I don't always unplug devices or give much thought to the energy I am using. Also, I think that using my I-pod on the way to school and sports and other activities probably gets in the way of my thinking about the environment, for example recycling and other "green" actions like using fewer takeout cartons and cups.

Connections

Digitalization is just the latest in a long line of technological innovations or, as Mr.Snyder has called them, “Simulations of Reality.” Beginning with written language and followed by the telescope, the microscope, recorded sound, photography, and the telegraph, and moving into the telephone, movies, radio, and television, the next big change was the development of video games, the Walkman, personal computers, the internet, mobile phones, mobile phones with texting, and now mobile computers with telephone and internet service. In the old days when there was just television, people
became couch potatoes from too many hours reved up on tev. Parents were criticized for using the television like a babysitter for their kids. It was not the television’s fault that people were gaining weight from too much watching and not enough exercise. The problem was and still is that people get addicted to watching and watching an amount
that is dangerous because it is keeping them from other activities that could be physically challenging (for example, learning to dunk and marathon running) and more mentally stimulating. Today it is even easier to get addicted to technology because it is letting us do so many things. We have to use the computer for our homework and for research, but we can also use it for Facebook, Twitter, and just surfing the net. We can go anywhere with an I-phone and watch movies, television, listen to music, get email, and surf the web. In other words, it takes more discipline to get away from our digital devices if we even think that getting away from them is important to do. One thing we know is that technology will keep on connecting us, and that M.T. Anderson’s idea of a brain chip seems more likely to us living now than going to the moon did to people living in the fifties.

Opposing View Points

Can a case be made that the dominance of digital devices in our lives is not a bad thing? Cell phones have been a great innovation for communication and taking away the worry about where someone is. I-pods are good for the environment because they store all the music we use to have on records and compact discs. I depend on my I-pod to pump me up before soccer games and also to wind me down after practice on the way home. Video games can be educational or at least informational. I keep up to date with sports statistics playing Madden 09 and other sports games. There was one Japanese game I played called Shenmue, which had amazing graphics and an intricately constructed story line. I think I enjoyed it more than watching almost any television program because I was so involved in the story. Facebook helps people helps people stay connected in a busy world. The problem with digital devices is that it is easy to get addicted to them, maybe even easier than television or even drinking alcohol because you can take them with you, and no one will mind (unless you are driving or talking loudly). Also, the computer is a one-stop place. It is where you do your homework but also where you go on Facebook. There is not the separation there used to be when you would do your homework at your desk and the television was somewhere else. To a certain extent we are all getting drunk on digital devices.

Significance

Before videogames and Facebook, television used to be blamed all the time for taking up too much of kids' time and keeping them from getting exercise, reading or doing enough homework.
The significance of what is happening with digital overloading is that kids still have television, but now they have a lot more digital equipment to distract them. Dr. Melinda S. Sothern, who is director of the Pediatric Obesity Clinical Research at Louisiana State University, says, "For one thing, kids today waste way too much time staring at screens. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American child spends more that five hours a day -- or nearly 40 percent of their waking hours -- watching TV, playing video games, or sitting in front of a computer." The significance of what is happening with digital overload is that it can be overtaking our lives. Then our bodies can get sick from lack of exercise, our minds can get sick from too much short attention span activities, and corporations can keep selling us more devices because they are making them so rich.

Conclusion

The only answer I can come up with to counteract the dangers of digital devices which are definitely scary is to count up the time we are spending on cell phones, on Facebook, on the Internet, playing video games. If we are not finding the time to exercise every day or even every week, if we notice that we cannot concentrate on a book with long sentences, if we are spending more time on Facebook than on homework, if we are buying a lot of stuff off the Internet, and if we never think of where old cell phones, old video games, and old computers and printers go, we need to worry that we might be going crazy on technology and that technology might go crazy on us.

Works Cited

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Candlewick press, 2002

Kardaras, Eleni. “The Effect of Video Games on the Brain,” January 7th, 2008
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1742

Mitchum, Robert. “British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain,” February 25th, 2009 http://www.physorg.com/news154807389.html

Snyder, Andy. “The History of Representational Devices,” November, 2009
http://sofandy.blogspot.com/

Woolston, Chris. “Children and Exercise,” Consumer health international, 2008
http://www.ahealthyme.com/ Accessed on 11/4/2009

Grading My Revised Rough Draft

Point of View-4 

Evidence-4 

Organization-3 

Connections + Significance-3 

Communication Written-3

Communication Performance-4

HW - 19 Big Paper 1 suggestions (Julie)

I think your paper looks really strong. What I think you are getting at with the danger of too much digital overload is the addictive nature of it, especially for teenagers. I think that is maybe the most important insight we can have on this subject and that it should be part of your thesis right up front. I think that is really what you are doing. You are also building a good case about the danger for our society if we keep on this overload course. Good job

HW - 19 Big Paper 1 suggestions (Aja)

I really liked the way you dramatized the way digitalization is taking over teenagers' minds as a build up to what happens in the book Feed. I think, like me, you need to make a case for why these digital devices are changing us and the use of our time more than watching too much television did. We have a choice online to look at the news of the day and see what Obama is doing just the way teenagers have always had a choice about whether to read a newspaper or not. So, what is different about todays use of digitalization by teenagers? I think you have a really good start

HW - 20 Big Paper Revised Draft

Tonight I went to a theater performance. Before the curtain went up, the announcer stepped out on stage to ask audience members to turn off their cell phones.When the lights went down, there were hundreds of lights from I-phones and cell phonesand Blackberrys. I was in the balcony, and it looked like an infestation of fireflies downbelow. The curtain went up and then came right down again, and the announcer hadto ask again that people turn off their electronic devices. I thought about how crazy it was that people would spend fifty dollars or more to see a show and then find it so hardto be digitally unconnected for even moments in their lives. I also thought about the New York Marathon which took place today. At least the runners were having a few hours that were a time out from cell phones. It seems to me that in spite of the positive aspects of this technology and its instant communication, digital overloading can be physically dangerous because it is anti-exercise, mentally dangerous because it promotes a short attention span, and even a danger to humanity if companies take portability to the next stratosphere and implant devices in our brains.



(Argument #1) For too many kids video games take up too much after school and weekend time. For younger kids this use of time is dangerous because they are not developing the coordination that is necessary for team sports, individual sports, dance, oreven just recreational activities like throwing a football, swimming, or playing ping pong. They are also not developing the habit of exercise which is necessary for a healthy life. Having physical activity everyday is also important because it helps refresh the brain. It is important for kids and adults to get the blood flowing and ideally be outside breathing fresh air and absorbing vitamin D. What is more, lack of exercise in combination with too much junk food can lead to obesity. "Naturally, Happy Meals and Cocoa Crisps have played a large role in the wave of childhood obesity. But the real culprit seems to be a cultrual shift, a new way of life that encourages kids to remain as still as possible," says former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. Dr. Satcher is saying the kids should be encouraged to take time off from their computer games to go to the park. Obesity is a huge problem in this country in every state except Colorado, where outdoor activities must be a big part of everyone’s life. For poorer kids playing video games after school and on weekends can really be dangerous. These kids often do not have good playgrounds near them, and parents cannot afford to put them in after school sports or dance programs or other activities that can be expensive. Poorer kids are also more likely to have food that is not that healthy because many healthy foods, including organic foods, are too expensive. The combination of playing video games inside for long periods of time and eating too much sugar and fat is a deadly one. Some people like to think that games like the Wii that let you simulate playing tennis or golf give you a physical workout. Wii may help with hand-eye coordination and bring the family together for some laughs as players move about on the little square, but they are no substitute for real exercise.All kids need to find a way of balancing their use of digital devices with at least an hour of exercise a day. Even in gym class at my school there are always some kids sitting on the floor playing video games during the whole period. We know that our minds and our physical selves are closely related. If we are listening, our brain is telling us that we need mental and physical exercise to be healthy.



(Argument #2) Another danger of digital overloading is that the use of texting, Facebook, and Twitter get our minds in the habit of writing in an abbreviated way. The aim is for speed so the thinking is off the top of our heads. Being asked to write a five-page paper with thought-out analysis is torture by comparison. If I were texting a friend to say “It was nice to see you,” I would write “It wz (smiley face) to c u.” The goal is to shorten words and sentences as much as possible to get a message out as fast as possible and get one back. The article, “British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain” by Robert Mitchum, says that an Oxford neuroscientist thinks that online social networking could be dangerous for our brains and behavior. She predicts that "the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity." I have to say that my reaction was that this seemed like an extreme view, and I expected that the rest of the article would have scientists who disagreed. I was wrong. A UCLA scientist said that the social network sites carry risks for the brain, and a Stanford University researcher thinks that even if people knew for certain that online social networking was harmful to the brain, they would continue using it. Definitely, people play with their identity on Facebook to create a perfected self, and using Facebook can be an intriguing and addictive use of time. As for the mind becoming addicted to sensationalism and unable to empathize, that does not sound impossible since online networking does not promote deep thought. At least in the old days when people wrote letters and even postcards they were thinking mostly in complete sentences and developing some ideas. Whether or not social networking is proven to harm the brain seriously, the risk of shorter attention spans seems real and makes me think even more about how we need balance between time on and off the computer.In the article,”The Effect of Video Games On the Brain,” Eleni Kardara talks about a study in Tokyo that showed that people who played video games a lot were showing a decrease of activity in parts of their brains (prefrontal regions) and that the under use of these parts of their brains might be the cause of their aggressive behavior and inability to concentrate, especially since this lack of brain activity continued after the game playing was over. The author wondered whether the brain is perceiving the video games as real. There are other studies that show how the games make blood pressure and heart rate go up the way they do when the body senses danger. People blame listening to violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior because they have the power of suggestion. It seems to me that people who blame violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior, should be more critical of violent video games because they involve the players in the dangerous action. The difference between what is real and what is make-believe gets murky. One thing that seems provable is that too much time spent on addictive video games and Facebook can also take away from time reading, even magazines and comic books that are read for fun. Since it seems that all the experts say that reading is a great predictor of success in life, all this digital time could be endangering the odds of a happy future.



(Argument #3) M.T. Anderson in his book, Feed, writes an allegory about what could happen to us if digital companies keep innovating to the point where the devices become so small that we don’t have to carry them at all because they can be lodged into our brains. The literal story is set in the future as he describes what life is like for a group of teens living with the “feed” implant, a combination of the Internet, television, cell phone and web games. Having a continuous digital feed means not only that people can get all the information they think they need without thinking, but they also live in a “material world” that is the dream of corporations which can run ads in their brains all day long.In the symbolic story the author is showing what can happen when corporations have more power than the government and can control the media (like Fox Five news) and the people and ruin the environment.To me Feed is more than a tragedy about what can happen if the digitalization of our lives goes too far, it is a horror story. Today, we are discussing the possible negative effects of too much usage of digital devices, but in Feed the teens' lives are already totally taken over by technology. For example, we know that there is a danger now of trying so hard to be cool on Facebook that teens give an unreal picture of themselves and spend too much time trying to impress others instead of developing skills that really would make them feel good about themselves. In Feed forget about becoming individuals and developing potential. Most teens seem to have been selected genetically by their parents, have their feed chips take over a lot of their thinking, and allowing the corporations that make the feed to control them. The main character Titus says "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it." It's in the interest of the corporations which have all the power to keep teens feeling in an incredibly direct way that they have to keep making purchases to try to be cool. They can literally break in on teens thoughts without having to waiting to run an add during "The Simpsons." Then there is the horror that more than one-fourth of the population is not wired with a Feed because they cannot afford it and are at a disadvantage at school without the knowledge feeds and because the corporations are against individualist thinking that is against bombarding the brain with commercials. In the book Titus's girlfriend had an inferior feed implanted because her parents couldn't pay for a better model. She ended up dying because of her low quality feed and she wasn't in line for a transplant of a better one because she wasn't considered to be a good marketing target. I think this is an extreme of a problem today of teens whose parents can't afford a computer or maybe can't always make payments for their kids' cell phones. There is also the horror of what has happened to the environment. Atmosperic conditions have resulted in the development of artificial clouds because the corporations obviously haven't had to worry about pollution. In fact, the ocean is so dangerous that whales have to be covered in plastic to survive. Also, women can't give normal birth anymore, and all babies come from test tubes. It seems that parents can pay to have certain genetic traits for their kids. Nutrition also seems to have had a set back because Coke is the drink of choice for teens. This extreme in the book of what can happen when corporations don't have any government anti-pollution controls seems like a lesson for us today. As a teen using technology now, I don't always unplug devices or give much thought to the energy I am using. Also, I think that using my I-pod on the way to school and sports and other activities probably gets in the way of my thinking about the environment, for example recycling and other "green" actions like using fewer takeout cartons and cups.



Can a case be made that the dominance of digital devices in our lives is not a bad thing? Cell phones have been a great innovation for communication and taking away the worry about where someone is. I-pods are good for the environment because they store all the music we use to have on records and compact discs. I depend on my I-pod to pump me up before soccer games and also to wind me down after practice on the way home. Video games can be educational or at least informational. I keep up to date with sports statistics playing Madden 09 and other sports games. There was one Japanese game I played called Shenmue, which had amazing graphics and an intricately constructed story line. I think I enjoyed it more than watching almost any television program because I was so involved in the story. Facebook helps people helps people stay connected in a busy world. The problem with digital devices is that it is easy to get addicted to them, maybe even easier than television or even drinking alcohol because you can take them with you, and no one will mind (unless you are driving or talking loudly). Also, the computer is a one-stop place. It is where you do your homework but also where you go on Facebook. There is not the separation there used to be when you would do your homework at your desk and the television was somewhere else. To a certain extent we are all getting drunk on digital devices.


Before videogames and Facebook television used to be blamed all the time for taking up too much of kids' time and keeping them from getting exercise, reading or doing enough homework.
The significance of what is happening with digital overloading is that kids still have television, but now they have a lot more digital equipment to distract them. Dr. Melinda S. Sothern, who is dirctor of the Pediatric Obesity Clinical Research at Louisiana State University, says, "For one thing, kids today waste way too much time staring at screens. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average American child spends more that five hours a day -- or nearly 40 percent of their waking hours -- watching TV, playing vido games, or sitting in front of a computer." The significance of what is happening with digital overload is that it can be overtaking our lives. Then our bodies can get sick from lack of exercise, our minds can get sick from too much short attention span activities, and corporations can keep selling us more devices because they are making them so rich.



The only answer I can come up with to counteract the dangers of digital devices which are definitely scary is to count up the time we are spending on cell phones, on Facebook, on the Internet, playing video games. If we are not finding the time to exercise every day or even every week, if we notice that we cannot concentrate on a book with long sentences, if we are spending more time on Facebook than on homework, if we are buying a lot of stuff off the Internet, and if we never think of where old cell phones, old video games, and old computers and printers go, we need to worry that we might be going crazy on technology and that technology might go crazy on us.

HW 18 - Big Paper 1 Rough Draft

Tonight I went to a theater performance. Before the curtain went up, the announcer stepped out on stage to ask audience members to turn off their cell phones.
When the lights went down, there were hundreds of lights from I-phones and cell phones
and Blackberrys. I was in the balcony, and it looked like an infestation of fireflies down
below. The curtain went up and then came right down again, and the announcer had
to ask again that people turn off their electronic devices. I thought about how crazy it was that people would spend fifty dollars or more to see a show and then find it so hard
to be digitally unconnected for even moments in their lives. I also thought about the New York Marathon which took place today. At least the runners were having a few hours that were a time out from cell phones. It seems to me that in spite of the positive aspects of this technology and its instant communication, digital overloading can be physically dangerous because it is anti-exercise, mentally dangerous because it promotes a short attention span, and even a danger to humanity if companies take portability to the next stratosphere and implant devices in our brains.

(ARG#1) For too many kids video games take up too much after school and weekend time. For younger kids this use of time is dangerous because they are not developing the coordination that is necessary for team sports, individual sports, dance, or
even just recreational activities like throwing a football, swimming, or playing ping pong. They are also not developing the habit of exercise which is necessary for a healthy life. Kids should be encouraged to take time off from their computer games to go to the park. Having physical activity everyday is also important because it helps refresh the brain. It is important for kids and adults to get the blood flowing and ideally be outside breathing fresh air and absorbing vitamin D. What is more, lack of exercise in combination with too much junk food can lead to obesity. Obesity is a huge problem in this country in every state except Colorado, where outdoor activities must be a big part of everyone’s life. For poorer kids playing video games after school and on weekends can really be dangerous. These kids often do not have good playgrounds near them, and parents cannot afford to put them in after school sports or dance programs or other activities that can be expensive. Poorer kids are also more likely to have food that is not that healthy because many healthy foods, including organic foods, are too expensive. The combination of playing video games inside for long periods of time and eating too much sugar and fat is a deadly one. Some people like to think that games like the Wii that let you simulate playing tennis or golf give you a physical workout. Wii may help with hand-eye coordination and bring the family together for some laughs as players move about on the little square, but they are no substitute for real exercise.

All kids need to find a way of balancing their use of digital devices with at least an hour of exercise a day. Even in gym class at my school there are always some kids sitting on the floor playing video games during the whole period. We know that our minds and our physical selves are closely related. If we are listening, our brain is telling us that we need mental and physical exercise to be healthy.

(ARG#2) Another danger of digital overloading is that the use of texting, Facebook, and Twitter get our minds in the habit of writing in an abbreviated way. The aim is for speed so the thinking is off the top of our heads. Being asked to write a five-page paper with thought-out analysis is torture by comparison. If I were texting a friend to say “It was nice to see you,” I would write “It wz (smiley face) to c u.” The goal is to shorten words and sentences as much as possible to get a message out as fast as possible and get one back. The article, “British Researcher Says Facebook A Brain Drain” by Robert Mitchum, says that an Oxford neuroscientist thinks that online social networking could be dangerous for our brains and behavior. She predicts that "the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity." I have to say that my reaction was that this seemed like an extreme view, and I expected that the rest of the article would have scientists who disagreed. I was wrong. A UCLA scientist said that the social network sites carry risks for the brain, and a Stanford University researcher thinks that even if people knew for certain that online social networking was harmful to the brain, they would continue using it. Definitely, people play with their identity on Facebook to create a perfected self, and using Facebook can be an intriguing and addictive use of time. As for the mind becoming addicted to sensationalism and unable to empathize, that does not sound impossible since online networking does not promote deep thought. At least in the old days when people wrote letters and even postcards they were thinking mostly in complete sentences and developing some ideas. Whether or not social networking is proven to harm the brain seriously, the risk of shorter attention spans seems real and makes me think even more about how we need balance between time on and off the computer.

In the article,”The Effect of Video Games On the Brain,” Eleni Kardara talks about a study in Tokyo that showed that people who played video games a lot were showing a decrease of activity in parts of their brains (prefrontal regions) and that the under use of these parts of their brains might be the cause of their aggressive behavior and inability to concentrate, especially since this lack of brain activity continued after the game playing was over. The author wondered whether the brain is perceiving the video games as real. There are other studies that show how the games make blood pressure and heart rate go up the way they do when the body senses danger. People blame listening to violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior because they have the power of suggestion. It seems to me that people who blame violent rap songs, violent movies, and violent television for aggressive behavior, should be more critical of violent video games because they involve the players in the dangerous action. The difference between what is real and what is make-believe gets murky. One thing that seems provable is that too much time spent on addictive video games and Facebook can also take away from time reading, even magazines and comic books that are read for fun. Since it seems that all the experts say that reading is a great predictor of success in life, all this digital time could be endangering the odds of a happy future.

(ARG#3) M.T. Anderson in his book, Feed, writes an allegory about what could happen to us if digital companies keep innovating to the point where the devices become so small that we don’t have to carry them at all because they can be lodged into our brains. The literal story is set in the future as he describes what life is like for a group of teens living with the “feed” implant, a combination of the Internet, television, cell phone and web games. Having a continuous digital feed means not only that people can get all the information they think they need without thinking, but they also live in a “material world” that is the dream of corporations which can run ads in their brains all day long.
In the symbolic story the author is showing what can happen when corporations have more power than the government and can control the media (like Fox Five news) and the people and ruin the environment.

To me Feed is more than a tragedy about what can happen if the digitalization of our lives goes too far, it is a horror story. Today, we are discussing the possible negative effects of too much usage of digital devices, but in Feed the teens' lives are already totally taken over by technology. For example, we know that there is a danger now of trying so hard to be cool on Facebook that teens give an unreal picture of themselves and spend too much time trying to impress others instead of developing skills that really would make them feel good about themselves. In Feed forget about becoming individuals and developing potential. Most teens seem to have been selected genetically by their parents, have their feed chips take over a lot of their thinking, and allowing the corporations that make the feed to control them. The main character Titus says "It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it." It's in the interest of the corporations which have all the power to keep teens feeling in an incredibly direct way that they have to keep making purchases to try to be cool. They can literally break in on teens thoughts without having to waiting to run an add during "The Simpsons." Then there is the horror that more than one-fourth of the population is not wired with a Feed because they cannot afford it and are at a disadvantage at school without the knowledge feeds and because the corporations are against individualist thinking that is against bombarding the brain with commercials. In the book Titus's girlfriend had an inferior feed implanted because her parents couldn't pay for a better model. She ended up dying because of her low quality feed and she wasn't in line for a transplant of a better one because she wasn't considered to be a good marketing target. I think this is an extreme of a problem today of teens whose parents can't afford a computer or maybe can't always make payments for their kids' cell phones. There is also the horror of what has happened to the environment. Atmosperic conditions have resulted in the development of artificial clouds because the corporations obviously haven't had to worry about pollution. In fact, the ocean is so dangerous that whales have to be covered in plastic to survive. Also, women can't give normal birth anymore, and all babies come from test tubes. It seems that parents can pay to have certain genetic traits for their kids. Nutrition also seems to have had a set back because Coke is the drink of choice for teens. This extreme in the book of what can happen when corporations don't have any government anti-pollution controls seems like a lesson for us today. As a teen using technology now, I don't always unplug devices or give much thought to the energy I am using. Also, I think that using my I-pod on the way to school and sports and other activities probably gets in the way of my thinking about the environment, for example recycling and other "green" actions like using fewer takeout cartons and cups.

Can a case be made that the dominance of digital devices in our lives is not a bad thing? Cell phones have been a great innovation for communication and taking away the worry about where someone is. I-pods are good for the environment because they store all the music we use to have on records and compact discs. I depend on my I-pod to pump me up before soccer games and also to wind me down after practice on the way home. Video games can be educational or at least informational. I keep up to date with sports statistics playing Madden 09 and other sports games. There was one Japanese game I played called Shenmue, which had amazing graphics and an intricately constructed story line. I think I enjoyed it more than watching almost any television program because I was so involved in the story. Facebook helps people helps people stay connected in a busy world. The problem with digital devices is that it is easy to get addicted to them, maybe even easier than television or even drinking alcohol because you can take them with you, and no one will mind (unless you are driving or talking loudly). Also, the computer is a one-stop place. It is where you do your homework but also where you go on Facebook. There is not the separation there used to be when you would do your homework at your desk and the television was somewhere else. To a certain extent we are all getting drunk on digital devices.

The only answer I can come up with to counteract the dangers of digital devices which are definitely scary is to count up the time we are spending on cell phones, on Facebook, on the Internet, playing video games. If we are not finding the time to exercise every day or even every week, if we notice that we cannot concentrate on a book with long sentences, if we are spending more time on Facebook than on homework, if we are buying a lot of stuff off the Internet, and if we never think of where old cell phones, old video games, and old computers and printers go, we need to worry that we might be going crazy on technology and that technology might go crazy on us.

HW 17 comments on Aja's outline

I know you didn't have much time to work on your outline in class so I cannot really judge this outline as seriously as I normally would. So far I think your only legitimate argument is #2, because "is taking away the personal aspect of everyday life"(arg #1) and "oblivious to whats going on around us"(arg #3) are really the same. Try to make your arguments more specific so that the reader will better understand what he/she is reading about in your paper. Also, try not to start off your thesis with the word "Having." It is not proper English but I'm sure you already caught that by now. Remember that your thesis is the most important part of your paper, like Andy said in class today, "crappy thesis, crappy paper." Good luck, can't wait to read it.

HW 17 comments on Julie's outline

I really like your approach in preparing what will be your most important paper for this unit.  Your arguments are pretty solid and your thesis gets your point across in a way that the reader will know right off the bat what topics your paper will be covering. Below, I layed out a couple corrections you can make that I think will make your paper that much better. 

- Your first argument ( 1)How technology is today) is not really an argument.  Try to use what you know about present day technology an incorporate it into your introduction 

- Instead of saying "Teens today are all consumed with electronics" its better English to say "This day in age teens are consumed/emersed with electronic digital devices"

- Try to give an example of what you think the "NEXT BIG" digital representational device is going to be and try to go in depth as a way to keep your anxious readers on the age of their seats.... wanting more. 

-The most important thing to know while writing your blog is to get your opinions across and keep it as interesting as possible

HW 16 - Big Paper Outline

HW 16 - Big Paper Outline



Tonight I went to a theater performance. Before the curtain went up, the announcer stepped out on stage to ask audience members to turn off their cell phones.
When the lights went down, there were hundreds of lights from I-phones and cell phones
and Blackberrys. I was in the balcony, and it looked like an infestation of fireflies down
below. The curtain went up and then came right down again, and the announcer had
to ask again that people turn off their electronic devices. I thought about how crazy it was that people would spend fifty dollars or more to see a show and then find it so hard
to be digitally unconnected for even moments in their lives. I also thought about the New York Marathon which took place today. At least the runners were having a few hours that were a time out from cell phones. It seems to me that in spite of the positive aspects of this technology and its instant communication, digital overloading can be physically dangerous because it is anti-exercise, mentally dangerous because it promotes a short attention span, and even a danger to humanity if companies take portability to the next stratosphere and implant devices in our brains.

For too many kids video games take up too much after school and weekend time.
For younger kids this use of time is dangerous because they are not developing the coordination that is necessary for team sports, individual sports, or dance. They are also not developing the habit of exercise which is necessary for a healthy life. Lack of exercise in combination with too much junk food can lead to obesity.

The use of texting, Facebook, and Twitter get us in the habit of writing in an abbreviated way. The aim is for speed so the thinking is off the top of our heads. Being asked to write a five-page paper with thought-out analysis is torture by comparison. Too much time spent on addictive video games as well as on Facebook can take away from time reading, and since it seems that all the experts say that reading is a great predictor of
success in life, all this digital time could be lowering the odds of a happy future.

M.T. Anderson in his book, Feed, tells a horror story about what could happen if digital companies keep innovating to the point where the devices become so small that we don’t have to carry them at all because they can be lodged into our brains. Having a continuous digital feed means not only that people can get all the information they think they need without thinking, but they also live in a “material world” that is the dream of corporations which can run ads in their brains all day long. The dangers of this mind control by for profit companies are having people with “the feed” not be concerned about anything that corporations would not be concerned about like disadvantaged people who cannot afford it or, as in the book, have cheaper models that can end up malfunctioning and killing them.

HW 15 - ABCDEF - Treasure Hunting for Julie

Dear Julie,

I appreciate the way you wrote about finding Feed more interesting when you realized it was an allegory. I like your honesty in saying that at first you were just reading it to get through it, but then it started saying something to you.

Your major point seems to be that if we get more and more stuck in a digital world, we could end up like the society in Feed. I also like your use of the example of the artificial air factories that mean that trees aren't needed for oxygen.

I think the look on our faces when we were making videos demonstrated the cluelessness you predict we will have if with even more digital devices and technology in our lives.

One thing I think you could do if you were going to write more about this book is to talk about how the corporations are running everything because they make the digital devices. They are getting rich from the sales from all their brainwash marketing, and the only people left to challenge them are the poor people like Violet, whose father couldn't afford a feed until she was older and then only a cheap one. The trouble is the cheap ones can kill you.

I think you are right about this book predicting environmental disaster. As we know, most corporations have to be hammered before they will change their ways and make things that aren't terrible for the environment. Hard to believe that people in New York City are still driving SUVs and vans and mini-trucks all over this city.

As you suggest, this book should make us think about not only our overusing digital devices but also about what we are not doing now to create a better environment. Good job.

Devin

HW 15 - ABCDEF - Treasure Hunting for Aja

Dear Aja,

I really appreciate the insights you had into the book Feed and the fact that you presented them clearly.

I like the fact that you admitted that at first you didn't think of it as a work of art, but then you began to think of it as an allegory with symbolism in it, and then you could appreciate the art in it. You also rightly point out that certain parts of the symbolic story would make more of an impression on some readers than on others just as certain works of art say something more to some people than to others.

As you say, the fact that the book is an allegory for what could happen if we carry our use of digital devices too far makes readers compare and contrast their lives to what is happening in the book. Allegories can really make an impression because they are more than just a literal story. When you get the symbolism, you get a deeper understanding of what the author is trying to say. The book Animal Farm is an allegory story about animals on a farm who start out as a happy community and then get taken over by a dictator pig. The symbolic story is about communisn and Stalinism, and the simple animal story has a lot of impact because of the understanding that we get from the animal symbols.

I think that one thing you could do if you wanted to develop your idea of the book as a good allegory is to give examples from the book. For example, who does Violet represent to you?
You could talk about why you think M.T. Anderson has her die at the end.

Your post made me think about what struck me most about what I thought worked well in the book. I liked the way there were just suggestions about what this future world was like that made you realize it was an environmental disaster and that the poor people were losers even though they were the smart ones.

I also liked your ending of your post about Feed with the quote "Art is not a mirror with which to reflect the world. it is a Hammer with which to shape it." As you said, the book is a mirror because it shows us a side of our superficial life, but it is also a hammer to make us see the danger. Good job.

Devin

HW # 14 Second Text

In the first excerpt the author is making the point that television is more passive than video games but that “there are degrees of passivity.” The author represents how movies/television shows have increased the amount of effort that a viewer needs to follow a show in order to grasp the more advanced and accelerated plots that didn’t exist 30 years ago. According to him, the best television shows demand more cognitive thinking, and for those shows have multiple threads going on like “West Wing” and “ER,” the audience has to use some analysis and “fill in,” to make sense of information “that has been either deliberately withheld or deliberately left obscure.” The arrival of multiple threading, the author says, began in the early 1980’s in show called the Hill Street Blues. Earlier shows consisted of one to two main characters actions around one plot and conclusion that could be followed by a monkey, that is, without effort.

In the second excerpt the author is trying to make the point that although he considers reading to be more important than playing video games, he thinks that we might not be judging the cognitive value of video games fairly. He goes on to describe certain incredibly complex games like Ultima that require book-like guides to be able to figure out how to get to the next level. One interesting thing he does is to ask us to pretend that video games came before books in our culture and to consider how books might be judged to be boring and one-dimensional compared to the excitement and variety of skills like memory and hand-eye coordination needed for a video game. He ends up by describing how frustrating and even painful these games can be.

My reaction to the first excerpt about television becoming less passive over the years because of more series having multiple threads is that like any arts entertainment, that is, movies or plays, there are ones that are more intellectually challenging than others. Some television shows are more complex than ones in the past, and some are not nearly as clever as earlier ones (thank god for reruns of “The Honeymooners” and “Mash.”). I have not seen “West Wing” or “ER,” but I like “House,” which has multiple threads. As for the author’s statement that television is more passive than video games, it is true that
with television there is not the hand-eye coordination and there is not the same kind of active quick mental and physical participation needed to control the action. The problem is that it is impossible to compare television as a whole to video games as a whole. There are television shows that are challenging on Channel 13. Sometimes there are adaptations from great books like Oliver Twist. There are documentaries on the civil war and the history of Jazz. There is also a lot of garbage like Tyler Perry shows.

My reaction to the second excerpt about trying to judge video games fairly, giving then credit for cognitive value, and just not comparing them negatively to reading is that I think what the negative comparison is all about is the amount of time kids spend on video games compared to the amount of time they spend reading. The thing is that playing video games like watching television and going to movies comes under the category of fun. Reading a book comes under the category of doing something that is good for you. The perspective that I think is missing is the need for humans to have “down” time from school and work. Personally, I think that playing sports is even better than video and television even though I like watching football on television and playing Madden 09 from time to time. I have not played many video games that are not sports-related, but I did once play a game called Shenmue, which had amazing graphics and an amazingly constructed story line. I probably did get more out of playing that game than watching most television shows because I was so involved in the story. Reading is incredibly important for the development of our minds as the author says, and is a predictor of success in life unlike watching TV and playing video games. No matter how frustrating videogames are, they are still more entertaining to most kids than reading a challenging book.

The author of these excerpts who is making a case that television requires more thinking than it used to and that videogames can be challenging to the mind and have more dimensions that reading seems to be going in a different direction than the author of the book Feed. This book is a kind of horror story about a future where everyone has all the technology of today, TY, the Internet, Ipods, web games, implanted in their brains. Reading is totally unnecessary, and so thinking is very limited. The book is a warning against spending too much of the day on the Internet, on Facebook, texting, and listening to Ipods and letting electronic devices rule your life, but it is mostly about corporate control of people who are totally dependent on electronic devices. Steven Johnson is trying to say that television shows and video games have some good qualities and require some thinking, but he also thinks reading is much more important and chooses to write a book to express his ideas instead of creating a video or a script for a TV show. M.T. Anderson’s characters don’t even watch good television shows or play challenging video games. They are just into instant messaging and shopping. Steven Johnson seems to be giving some perspective on what can be positive about some forms of popular culture, but M.T. Anderson is giving perspective on what can happen if there is too much dependence on the Internet for information so that we don’t have to think anymore let alone read.