H.W 15 Treasure Hunt

My two partners are Elvis and Katherine:
Elvis,

I really enjoyed reading your posts 10-14. I understand what you are trying to show us. I really relate to much of what you have to say, if not your posts open my mind up to new thoughts and ideas. i liked the fact that you found Feed to be a great book and that showed me that you not only read it but understood it well.

Post number 14 was very interesting. You said " We are known for how we speak and if you don't know how to speak very well than you will have a problem finding a "good" job." I believe this is very true and the digital world isn't really enhancing this isn't it? You also said that the digital world is beating the non- digital but is that for our benefit or there's? sure they make money but we get.....? a fun time? . I agree with you when you said that people who read attend museums and what not more. I don't think that just because your read you spend more time at these places, sure it probably is more likely but not 100%.

For your self experiment you decided to do the opposite of what i did. You doubled your time, i personally thought this wasnt the best idea, but it was interesting to see how someone else dealt with that. While i read i realized that what i had thought was right. It didn't work out for you. " i would never recommend anybody doing what i did because it will kill you or mess with you mentally and physically." i found this funny. After doing this will you try to do another experiment where you do less of the digital, do you think you will still be able to know what your friends are saying? and maybe even understand them more?

Overall your posts are very insightful. You think of things that sometimes i let pass by or you open my mind to new ideas. I enjoy reading them and i am looking forward to seeing how your ideas grow in your newer posts.

Katherine,

I enjoyed reading posts 10-14. They had many facts more than anything, and I thought that was something very good. I can tell you really read Feed and thought about what the author was trying to portray. I also like how u related some of your ideas to something like falling in love. ( I didn't even think about it in that specific way lol)

In your response to feed being art you said "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." i think this book was meant to be a mirror and not a hammer. a mirror being the reflection of who we are in the digital world, allowing us to see what we have really become"
I thought it was interesting how you thought differently from myself. I think that they sort off balance each other out, but you believe its just a mirror. Could it have been a hammer as well? Why do you think it is not a hammer?

Your ideas on how Anderson failed to portray his true message on Feed made me think about something new. Maybe the point of us not understanding that it is our lives now is just part of the book, making us just prove once more how dumb we truly are getting?
If this is so, wouldn't you think he actually succeeded in what he was trying to do? Maybe that just proves his point more.

I did notice our self experiments were very alike. We both decided to turn down the digitization and you seemed to think you succeeded, while i not so much. Your experiment seemed to affect your next day, you said it felt good to not be behind on your schedule, while my experiment didn't affect my schedule the next day at all. I was back to my same late to school self (-_-)

Katherine, your posts are interesting to read. I enjoy seeing how different, or alike we may see certain things, it really helps expand my thinking. Thanks :)

H.w # 14

   So I decided to read the longer text, and honestly towards the end I pretty much just tried to pick up the most important points. While reading though, my mind kept wandering back to the beginning of the school year when we had to do the partner responses and Elvis' post talked a little about the good in technology. I thought "ok so that might be true, but there's nothing beyond that" but this text opened up my mind.

  Johnson brings up some very interesting points that I would honestly not think of otherwise. First we find out that reading for pleasure has declined, which wasn't much of a surprise to begin with, but also that people who read are more "active" So I thought "ok this is someone else saying we should read more often"
But I was wrong. Johnson pretty much wants us to see that video games and such could be just as helpful, or even more than reading books. He states "Non-literary popular culture is horing different mental skills that are just as important as the ones exercised by reading books" so video games are actually helpful, they keep our minds thinking , we must "decide, choose, and prioritise" between things in this video world. Even though we still think about the game after playing were actually planning and finding strategies that can help us win. 

  He claims that there's a four part process that enhances these mental skills as well. These are to probe, hypothesise, reprobe, and rethink.  I thought this was very interesting because before I thought of being game being simply addictive, nothing beyond that. It didn't even cross my mind that behind those addictive noises and graphics there was something more. Something that gets us hooked and makes us think, without realising we are actually thinking , or better yet without realising that were thinking in a smart way.

  Even though I don't really play video games, I do occasionally fall into the trap of SIMs and the Wii and what not, but I do enjoy reading. I don't think I gain knowledge from doing either though, unless I'm reading a non- fiction text. I read to pass time, enter a different world, kinda the same thing someone who constantly plays video games would do. I think we learn some things but on occasions more then for learning, its more like an escape almost.

Anderson unlike Johnson, does not believe technology brings any good. Feed tells us that teens today are becoming mindless, stupid, dumb beings who don't have emotions and can't feel what life truly is. Its like a game of tug a war, we are being told on one side "stop and realise what's going on! How fucked up your lives are turning out to be!" While one the other side we hear " actually its not that bad." So which side do we listen to, which side do we pull with?
    
  I guess we can be in the middle, learn to balance out, even though were so far failing at it. We can learn that there's always two sides of the story and that one might not necessarily win. Technology will always be around and people will keep debating about its good and bad points.

  I still believe technology isn't the best for us though, I mean sure video games can help stimulate mental skills, but what about ipods? Phones? What's the good in that? It seems as though there's so many little sections in the technology issue that can help or not the issue of how good/ bad it is. I don't think one side will ever truly win.

Feed B- H.W # 13

   Art is pretty much what we want it to be. From the way we make it, the meaning we believe is behind it and what people think of it. What makes art though is the audience understanding what the artist was trying to portray. If not exactly , something that relates to it, if this cant be done, then its pointless. Trying to portray what you believe and seeing the different ways people see that in your art work must be really rewarding.

   The book feed is a piece of art, not your typical, but art non less. The way it was written shows us the similarities between Titus and ourselves.  This paints a picture in our heads. Most importantly , we get the idea the author is portraying, we get what hes trying to shows us, making it a true piece of art. I guess for an art piece adding simple words that hold such strong meanings can make a difference, other than just having a picture. I for one wouldn't do that to my art piece because i wouldn't know how to make it work the way i imagine it. 

 

  I think due to the fact that feed was written as a allegory also has to do with making it a piece of art. This also has to do with it speaking to a mainstream audience of both adults and teens. We are all being sucked into the technology, but teens especially the victims. So while reading the book adults will probably judge us and we will probably not even understand whats being said.  

 "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." is such a true statement. With this being said i think that Feed is both of these things. We see the teens and how they are affected but at the same time we see how dumb they are. I think that just like a hammer is helpful to keeping the mirror in place, they need to be togeatheror else they just ont work. In my own art piece i think i will try to make it so that it is both.

Feed A-H.W # 12 (Draft 1)

    Feed, it pretty much shows us how we live our lives now just with a clever touch, one that may not be so obvious to others , or that some people just wont get until they are told. Knowing that Feed is just mocking us can makes us get a bit angry. Who likes to be told the truth of the way we do things right in our face ,right? The truth is though, we need to be shown the flaws of our ways inorder to become better, in this case become...smarter maybe?

  While reading Feed we are told our lives are meaningless, that we depend on technology sooooo much to a point that we dont function without it, we cant even fight it. At the same time though we see these ideas of things that seem so unrealistic for us. Things that seem impossible for us to do now, such as going to the moon. At first someone may think how this even realates to us? or that this is something that will happen in the near future, when truth is this is our lives now.

  I believe that in many aspects Feed is right on about our digital lives. Were so drawn into these technological things that we forget or not even notice our surroundings, they become part of the background. We are no longer experiencing things through our own bodies, such as in video games. We arent doing anything imporant just sitting there pressing buttons that make the person in the screen do all these awesome moves and do things that will help/ change the world, while were doing nothing for this cause. The lesions in feed are sort off like this, they are eating away at whats left of there human bodies, of what they feel and can do on their own. When it comes to us not having all these things we turn into beings that cant function, we feel out of place, lost, bored. Kinda like in feed once they are hacked. 

  Im sure that when it comes to the tragic level of feed most teens lives either wont get to that point, or they wont even care or notice about it. Most teens arent bothered by the fact that technology is making us dumb, they dont see it as a problem , more like a solution to things. Teens , kinda like Titus, arent noticing the things around them , they do what other teens are doing , even though they are not enjoying themselves or see the point in any of it. We believe we are living "brag" lives beacuse these are the lifestyles society is showing us, but we wont truly enjoy ourselves until we figure out what makes us happy, whether most of us will ever reach this? im not so sure.

H.W # 11-Self Experiment

So for my self experiment I knew that doubling my digital time wouldn't be the best idea for me, so I decided on doing it less. I decided to start of small, with my phone and possibly ipod ( I didn't want to cut myself off from the digital world completly) My initial thought was that this wouldn't be so difficult. I don't have a working computer at home, but my phone has internet so I spend most of my time on it. With this is mind I remembered how I would get bored of being on the internet and aim on my phone easily, so I thought maybe I can cut that off completly at a time in which I spend on it the most. This is usually from 5- 10 or later depending on when I fall asleep. My small digital fast didn't really work out.

I was planning to try to not listen to my ipod on the train. I has a book so I thought reading it would be good enough. When I got into the 6 train I sat down and opened up my book. Usually when I read my book I have my ipod plugged in and time feels as though it was flying by, this wasn't the case. I really wasn't very interested on the book so I just put it away. I felt really ackward. I didn't know where to look and I felt as though I didn't have a choice but to stare at people. I couldn't even really think because the 6 train got really loud and crowded so I decided to put my ipod on.
Once I got home I tried not to use my phone. I placed it on my kitchen counter and helped my mom out a bit. It was actually refreshing. I realised that I enjoyed helping my mom cook, which I don't usually do because while she does that I'm laying on the couch texting, and I actually listened to her more through out dinner. Once that was done I helped clean up and decided to watch t.v , here it got alittle more difficult. I found myself wanting to text people the most random and stupid things such as " I just saw this and that on this show" or " omg did you just see what so and so did in blah blah blah" . I have never realised that some things I text people or people text me are the most pointless things, but at the time they have great importance.

One thing I do wonder was how different this experiment would have been if I was faced with a different situation. What if I was outside or at a more social event and I didn't have my phone or ipod? Would my feeling be different? Would I be able to deal? Many times my phone is a life savour for many awkward situations, so what would happen if I didn't happen. Maybe that will be my next experiment and ill be able to compare the outcome.

H.W # 10

http://healthmad.com/addiction/cell-phone-addiction/

This article mainly focuses on the addiction to cell phones. The addiction to cell phones affects teens more than adults or younger kids. Just as discussed in class this addiction is because of the handiness of it all. All these things in one simple devise. It also talks about the unhealthy part of this addiction. Such as cancer and possible brain tumors.
I thought what was interesting was the fact that the said the signs on being addicted to cell phones were feeling empty, anxious, even depressed with out your phone. I really that even though not to that extreme, many people I talk to, including myself, do say that when there not with there phone they feel very different. Also interesting was that even though we know this is an addiction going on everywhere, there's no way known to stop it or even help it.


http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/lifestyle/sexting-poses-risk-to-teens-health-warns-expert_100190519.html

This article focuses on "sexting." It is a new trend going on with many teenage girls, in which they send nude or semi-nude pics to male teens. This new trend is even more likely in the younger teens and goes on more that what we may imagine. What is interesting of this article is how teens say that "sexting" is actually helping them in person. They seem to be more forward, having a new found confidence. Many teens do this with out any fear of these pictures being exposed to others, which in almost all cases males will show their friends these.
What I believe is worse is that due to "sexting" some people even consider suicide. Its sad to see how technology and our normal lives collide to make such a disgusting trend.


http://www.csudh.edu/psych/tnp55.htm

This article focuses on Myspace. Based on some studies done we see the down side of myspace. It affects our life at home and schoolwork negatively. People are constantly on it, and its become one of the most popular internet sites.I found interesting the fact that myspace is a place where you can show off your self in many ways, and even though this is so, it causes more and more people to be ver insecure. Maybe its the fact that you have people constantly checking out your profile for new pictures, songs, thought. I guess that could be intimidating to some.

Comment on Elvis Comment to my Video: H.W #9

I appreciate the fact that you took the time to watch and comment on my
video project. Also that you realised what i was trying to show/put ot
there with my video and thoughts. Thanks for relating to it aswell.



Your comment on how i should have added more of my digital lifestyle
into the video was helpful. I guess in order for people to really
relate to it I have to add more things which more people do. I know a
lot of people text and listen to there ipod, but you are right, I could have done something even more creative I guess.


Sharing the idea of you learning to multi-task through the years really
made me think about how we priorities things. We can easily multi task
by listening to our ipod, having phone conversations , and being on the
computer all at the same time, but can we do multiple things at once
when it comes to more important things, such as school work. I don't
think we can as easily, I for one get stressed out faster.

You focus on neither the bad or good, while primarily I try to see how it
all affects us in a bad way. I think your way of seeing this helps you
learn more about it. I do think though that we are both interested in
why we use technology so much and what causes this?

Comment on Ellens Video project HW #8

(*I commented on Ellens video so i could finish the triangle partner hw*)

Ellen,

I liked how in your video whe can actually see how your feeling. It shows that even though you into this whole digital world, you still have emotions and your still thinking about the long day you had.So in some occasions all this technology doesnt keep our minds off of things, for too long atleast.

I can see where your coming from when you say that as conversations started to get more interesting you felt even more pulled into it. Sometimes even though you really arent into it you keep do it, and eventually your oulled in. 

The video connects to mine cuz where are doing the same things. I connect to you worrying about your sister, as do i with mine. It just seems as though technology is just affecting kids even earlier than before. When i was gone the only digital device i was hooked on ws tv, and it wasnt even fr too long, i was ended up playing "house" or what not with my cousin.

Your video wa good, i guess like mine you could have added scenes with other digital use. Maybe develop your ideas on how digitalization makes you feel better,worse, the same during the day. When your feeling dow, happy? what does it do to you?

Your video helped me think about not texting so much, especially if i really dont feel like it. Sometimes im just on my phone with nothing to do, when i pould easily find something to do elsewhere.

I enjoyed your video. Thanks.

Comment on Elvis Video Project HW #8

Elvis,

I liked how on your video you didnt focuse on just one part of your digital life. your on your phone texting, on your ipod and on your computer. I also liked tha fact that you seem very interested into what your doing. While listening to your ipod your bopping your head and singing along. You seem to be so into that, but then your attention gets diverted into whatever was on your computer screen, i can see the change in your face, as though you got out of that zone and oulled into another one.

I can see your point in the idea of you thinking " why have it" when speaking of all the technology. I think once we see ourselves in such a hypnoticed state we start having thoughts about what this is doing to us. I also see your point in not wanting to be into the whole digital phase sometimes, but whe are so used to it that we cant let it go. We need these things and without them i personally would get bored very easily. 

i can see that in our videos we are doing the same things, minus the computer. I connect with you saying that your sister is hooked into the digital world already. I dont know how old your sister is, but mine is 12 and shes already on aim and she even had a myspace. I remeber being 12 and still playing with dolls and the only technology i was hooked on was the t.v.Its crazy to walk by schools now and see such a difference from when we were there.

Umm when it comes to your video i think you did a pretty good job at showing us some of your digital life.Maybe you can elaborate on your feelings toward seeing yourself and how they differ or relate to actually being there,

Your video made me realize how quickly our interest can just jump from one digital device to another, but it seems so difficult to do in other occasions. Overall i enjoyed watching it. It was good.