H.W #24- Short Story

Trynna be Cool:

  He walks in, looks over, no ones looking.
  " Damn" he thinks, someone should have noticed I came in. 
He shrugs it off, they aren't important anyway.
  "What's up matt?" He yells. 
"What are the plans for tonight, anything interesting?" 
He tries to ignore the weird look Matt just made.
  " Nahh, nothings going on, imma just b chilling" he replies.
  " Oo iight can I chill too?" He says while hoping he agrees to it.
  " I dnt think dat will work, anyway I have to go to class, ill c u around?" Matt then speeds off.
  " His loss, shyt would have been fun" 
  He walks off, no need to go to class on time. 
  " Uggh here he comes " some girl whispers.
  He looks behind him " must be talking about some loser behind me" he thinks.
  "What's up ladiessss" he says leaning into the prettier of the two.        
"Umm g2g" she says and runs up the stairs while her friend follows giggling. 
  " Guess ill go to class" he murmurs.
  As he opens the door everyone looks over , disappointed in what they see they go back to work, he tries to crack a joke, it doesn't work. 
  "Take a seat" his teacher yells.
  "Fine" he says while walking towards his seat. He doesn't bother taking notes, he just lays his head down and sleeps through the class dreaming of how great his life is.

Cool IS many things. I don't think we can just say cool is a specific thing or idea, we can't just be like if cool is red, then yellow , blue and green are uncool. There's no specific cool, its different ideas, thoughts,feelings, style, likes, dislikes, but then again one thing I think "cool" def is, is confidence, but what I do believe is that we do know when something is cool. For example if you see someone walking down the street with bird feathers on there head and a bird suit you know that's not cool. Its something like a "cool-radar" sure I guess for everyone its different but most times I do believe people all agree in a certain thing being cool or uncool. What I'm trying to say is that cool can't be put into a specific section, you can't say listening to hip -hop is the only cool thing because ppl listen to rock, country, r&b and all believe its the "cool" thing.

I guess when it comes to how people see "cool" it is being known, looking good, having a massive amount of (sometimes unneeded) friends, being loud, and being "bad." I think these ideas are the ones that society view as "cool" ( though I don't agree with them.) These ideas I believe are the negative of "cool". Why can't "cool" be having a friend you can trust everything with, and keeping things to ourselves but at the same time being confident? When it comes to "cool" most of us forget that there are other ppl who like different things and believe they are "cool."

Am I cool? If we follow what society thinks cool is, no. I'm not loud, my group of friends is small , and I'm overall shy, but I love my "uncool" lifestyle, its how I want to live it and its what makes me happy, I guess thats cool? Sorta lol. Overall honestly I could care less if people think I'm cool or not, just because its kinda pointless to try and make yourself into what others think Is right and "cool." We shouldn't mold each other in pieces that "work" with what others want. Ok , so i know i dont wanna be made fun of everyday and deep down i want to be accepted BUT just because this may be treu i choose my friends who are like me, who understand me, and like me for me. I know who thinks they are "cooler:" than others and just want to bring people down, so i don't want to associate with them. Cool shouldn't be about who's better, it should be about accepting everyone's uniqueness and embracing it.

Art Piece

So my art piece is supposed to go back to what was said in class at the beginning of this quarter. It has to do with most our our videos and how we looked using technology, I think it was something like "we all look like zombies." So my goal for the art piece was to show what all of us looked like and didn't realize. The piece is of someone so into their technology that they have been sleep deprieved, they dont focus on anything but their technology and they don't realize anything of their background (thats why i chose the black background) The black background is supposed to be everything fading into the back,into complete darkness. Its supposed to be just how technology brainwashes us into believing everything they say, hence the words going in through the ear , and getting stuck in our heads with no escape.

Now the second piece of art was supposed to be connected to the first but i couldn't figure out how to do that exactly. Its supposed to symbolize our real feelings and thoughts not being able to come out, thats why their mouths are covered, and how we only experience our true feelings in our heads or in this case the blue dream bubble. The dream bubble is blue, a color i believe to be serene , so thats why every head is in it, trying to escape, but once again fading into the back, into complete darkness.

Big Paper

*It's Kinda late but I got really stuck -_-*

Digitalization In Our Lives: Pretty Much the bad in it. 


Introduction-

   When it comes to our lives and what we want/ need almost everyone will say "I WANT to be happy." We base our daily lives and our daily routine on things that we believe will genuinely make us happier.  But we never think deeper into where we all got these "genuine ideas." Have you ever realized that the ideas that we think are unique, aren't really? How many people want to be happy? how many people really believe happiness is what we need? the answer is sooo many, and though I do believe happiness is what we want/ need and will really make us better, I also believe that TRUE happiness is what we should be looking for. So where do we get this idea of what happiness is? Technology, and Digitalization are brainwashing us into becoming beings that THEY see as "happy."     

  We honestly don't know any other form of happiness other than what we are told, and even though most of us will deny it, that is usually how everything in our lives works. We are told something, it is proved and we automatically believe it. Why doubt it huh? Why question it when its soo much easier to just follow it? We believe that if we think someone knows more than us or proves themselves to us we need to follow them. We look up to people with power, they seem better to us, almost as though they know more. “Power is everything in life” thats something I’ve heard people say so many times, so could this be the reason why technology has had such a big effect on us throughout time? I believe so.        

Argument 1-

  The truth is that the digital world IS very powerful, one can say its power shines over others. It has become the center of pretty much everything we do, we rely on it to do many everyday things. Nowadays everything is digital. We meet new people in websites such as, Facebook, Myspace and an endless list of more, with these we can also keep up with the people we already know. AIM,Yahoo Messenger, MSN, all help us do these things as well, not only with people here, but even with people from other countries. Its power expands from more than just us here, but everywhere around the world. With power like that how easy can it be to transmit a message, make it popular, and make everyone believe it with out them thinking, realizing, KNOWING that  what you are doing isn’t good for them? How is easy is it to manipulate everyone by having them just click a button on a device? Because that is what they are doing to us, MANIPULATING us into believing EVERY THING they say.          

  On a day to day basis we are surrounded by more than one kind of digital device. We are so used to having these devices that without them we feel different, maybe even empty. It sounds drastic but that is just what our society has come to. For a school assignment we had to interview strangers about their digital lifestyle. During the interview of a stranger these were some my results:  
..........  
Me: How many hours would u say you spend on things such as your phone,ipod, internet, t.v?   Stranger #1: A lot of time! Its my whole life in this one simple device, it can't get better than that. 
  Me: Really? So you don't see any harm in it? You don't think ppl are too addicted? 
Stranger #1: Hmm , there might be some harm and ppl might be addicted but honestly I dnt see myself without all this technology. Where would we be?
  Me: Ok, so on that note, do you think well ever go back to how it was before?  
Stranger #1: I hope we don't haha, its too useful.  
........

  The answers the stranger had given me weren’t much different from what I saw other people had gotten. It just goes to show us how much we rely on the digital world. 
Its something that we just can't hide from due to the amount we see all around us. That is already a problem. How can we do simple everyday things when they are made to be EVEN MORE simple, even though that can work for our benefit, think about how everything is making us dumber. Do we really need to make things sooo simple? The only thing we are getting out of it is STUPIDITY. We won't be able to do anything by ourselves and well end up relying even  more on the digital. Something soo big as this can make us believe anything. Even something so personal like what makes us happy.
  
  Happiness is something we all look for. We want to enjoy life, be free, be ..happy right? Its a powerful idea that we all want/need, technology knows this. It portrays a vision of what they see as "happy" puts it out there, and we FOLLOW. This vision is of having the BEST digital item, getting things done quickly and as easily as possible, having things rite then and there, as well as feeling like YOU have the POWER to do ANYTHING. 

Argument 2-

    In the well knows movie "Wall-E", we meet a robot named Wall-E who "lives" on earth cleaning up a huge mess that was left. There is no, we can say, "real"  life there, all the humans have moved to this EXCITING, EXTRAVAGANT, NEW world in outer space, where everything seems to lead to what's best for them. One day Wall-E meets and falls in love with a robot called Eva who leads him through a journey into this new world, once there we see what/ how this world really is. After living so many years  in microgravity and relying on the ship's automated systems, the human passengers have suffered severe bone loss and become extremely obese. The humans are able to get anything they want by just clicking a button on the chairs they ride in, they don't even have to walk. They have these huge screens on there faces were they see the latest trend , best new device etc. and can easily get it. This is suppose to be our happiness. On an important scene in the movie Wall-E is trying to get past an obese woman but she doesn't even realize he's there, he turns off her screen and for the first time, in what seemed to be a long time, she gets up and really notices her surroundings , the things around her , she even says "I didn't know we had a pool!"

  Does this not remind you of anyone? When were on our phones, texting, IMing, checking facebook our emails, playing video games at home, at our computers, watching our favorite tv shows, listening to our Ipods, we are so ENGROSSED in these things that we don't NOTICE anything around us. Our surrounding fade into a dark background in which we don't hear, see , acknowledge anything. Just look into the beginning of this course, we recorded our selves performing our daily digital activities. ALL of us were staring , sooo concentrated in whatever we were doing. Our faces resembled does of zombies almost. It was as though for the minutes in which we were REALLY into whatever we were doing nothing else mattered, nothing else was IMPORTANT. We are pulled by these digital hands and are held in place until something finally breaks it off.  Is that what happiness is supposed to be? Not ACTUALLY experiencing life first hand? 

Argument 3-

  Feed by M.T Anderson is a great example of how our lives are NOW due to the digitalization. Titus is a young boy who travels with his friends to the moon to have some fun. They want to live "brag" lives, where they try to show off how many places they've been to and who knows the most about how they can live "brag." A problem occurs though when they are hacked and can no longer hear there feeds and must fend for themselves. Titus, with the help of Violet (the only one who can fend with out the feed) must try to overcome the lives they have and truly live and experience for themselves. The feed would control them, help them make something possible, with out it they felt lost , alone, empty,confused. We see the idea of happinnes being "brag" easy and simple , being able to do things that other wise would seem impossible . At the same time though we see that Anderson is trying to tell us to live our lives in a way were we experience and get out of it the most. Happiness isn't depending on an object and what it can do for you now is it?
  
  So what is true happiness? Honestly, I don't think I know that just yet. I'm also a victim of technology and its idea of what is being "happy." I find myself wanting a new phone ( the new blackberry I have for example) and sometimes wanting to get a better ipod, I'm not only pointing fingers at others, but at myself. That's because I don't think we at this point at least, can get over the digital lifestyle we have become so accustomed to. I can't tell anyone "THIS IS HAPPINESS!!!! OPEN YOUR EYES TO IT!!" But I can tell people that the way we are living isn't being TRULY happy. Constant depending on what we see on a screen to tell us what's new, what's in, what's old news, what we should look like , isn't what we need to strive for. We should be able to have our own ideas of what we think is all these things. Happiness should be genuine , not superficial or shallow , it should just be US and our individual and original thoughts, but technology doesn't allow that.
  
  Of course everyone should have their own idea of happiness whether we will get to that point I'm not sure. I do believe though that a start should be having less technology , depending/ relying LESS on it. Imagine how different thing would be, sure it will be hard at first, but idnt that how we BECAMe addicted to technology to beging with? We didn't know about it, we just got used to it, so now we have to get used to beijng WITHOUT it. Maybe then, and only THEN will we experience TRUE HAPPINESS.

Works Cited-

Feed- M.T Anderson

Wall-E

Interviews

Blogs

Comment on Elvis' Draft

  

   Elvis, 

 

     The paragraph you wrote had important information that proves what you designed to be your thesis. I am a little confused about wheter that is your intro? or maybe an argument based paragraph? try to make that clear. In the case that that would be your intro , i would say to make it a bit more  catchy. You  start out straight with important information, maybe  you should make your first sentence like a hook that brings us in and maintins our attention, i think that will help your big paper seem more than just you listing ideas. Once you have an intro that reels us in you can add these two paragraphs. 

     

    Both paragraphs are good but make sure you add more evidence, make it flow. I know you have alot to say in your paper and you will make good points , its just a matter of making them different,once again so the reader can be interested in what you  are saying and proving. Maybe go more in depth with your ideas. Such as when you say "Society needs less technology and more active and safe environment where people can interact and work their minds without having to heavily depend upon technology." Talk about how we can make this possible. What things/ activities can be done in which we dont need technology as much, maybe even at all.

    Try to make your paper personal (i think i said this before?) but i belive the more personal it is the more people can connect and the more they see that this is something going on NOW affecting US,all of us. Add in some ideas you have, some insight you have gained. Maybe you remeber some thoughts said in class that struck you, just add those in aswell. I know you will be abe to pull off a good big paper, im just giving you some advice that i think will make it just  a bit stronger. im looking forward to seeeing your resulting paper. Good luck. :)

Big Paper Draft

    

   When it comes to our lives and what we want/ need almost everyone will say "I WANT to be happy." We base our daily lives and our daily routine on things that we believe will genuinely make us happier.  But we never think deeper into where we all got this "genuine idea." Have you ever realized that the ideas that we think are unique, aren't really? How many people want to be happy? how many people really believe happiness is what we need? the answer is sooo many, and though I do believe happiness is what we want/ need and will really make us better, I also believe that TRUE happiness is what we should be looking for. So where do we get this idea of what happiness is? Technology, and Digitalization are brainwashing us into becoming beings that THEY see as "happy." 

     We honestly don't know any other form of happiness other than what we are told, and even though most of us will deny it, that is usually how everything in our lives works. We are told something, it is proved and we automatically believe it. Why doubt it huh? Why question it when its soo much easier to just follow it? We believe that if we think someone knows more than us or proves themselves to us we need to follow them. We look up to people with power, they seem better to us, almost as though they know more. “Power is everything in life” thats something I’ve heard people say so many times, so could this be the reason why technology has had such a big effect on us throughout time? I believe so.

    

    The truth is that the digital world IS very powerful, one can say its power shines over others. It has become the center of pretty much everything we do, we rely on it to do many everyday things. Nowadays everything is digital. We meet new people in websites such as, Facebook, Myspace and an endless list of more, with these we can also keep up with the people we already know. AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, all help us do these things as well, not only with people here, but even with people from other countries. Its power expands from more than just us here, but everywhere around the world. With power like that how easy can it be to transmit a message, make it popular, and make everyone believe it with out them thinking, realizing, KNOWING that  what you are doing isn’t good for them? How is easy is it to manipulate everyone by having them just click a button on a device? Because that is what they are doing to us, MANIPULATING us into believing EVERY THING they say.      

    On a day to day basis we are surrounded by more than one kind of digital device. We are so used to having these devices that without them we feel different, maybe even empty. It sounds drastic but that is just what our society has come to. For a school assignment we had to interview strangers about their digital lifestyle. During the interview of a stranger these were some my results:

   ..........

   Me: How many hours would u say you spend on things such as your phone,ipod, internet, t.v?

   Stranger #1: A lot of time! Its my whole life in this one simple device, it can't get better than that.

   Me: Really? So you don't see any harm in it? You don't think ppl are too addicted?

  Stranger #1: Hmm , there might be some harm and ppl might be addicted but honestly I dnt see myself without all this technology. Where would we be?

  Me: Ok, so on that note, do you think well ever go back to how it was before?

  Stranger #1: I hope we don't haha, its too useful. 

  ........

The answers the stranger had given me weren’t much different from what I saw other people had gotten. It just goes to show us so much we rely on the digital world. 

*( This is only a draft im planing on talking about what happiness is shown by the digital, what thi skind of happiness can do to us not only now but in the future, as well as what TRUE happiness is/can be/should be and if we will ever get to that point, will things get better, worse? can they even change?)*

Hw # 17 - Outline Suggestions Part 2

* My 2nd Triangle Partner has not yet done her work, soo im going to comment on someone elses outline*

Ellen,     Your thesis caught my attention. Disembodiment is not something most people  think about when talking about technology and how it affects us, so good job  with that. Also your idea on corporate propaganda and "the fostering of  capitalist values at a young age" is a very good point to add on. It will make  your paper that much stronger. I can tell that your going to focus on what you  believe is important for us as humans, which is to be able to feel , have  emotions, and realize the things the going on around us, pretty much being  aware.    The evidence you are planning to use in your big paper is good. You are using  feed which we primarily looked at and I like that your using a specific part of  the book, like the lesions and how they prove your point of disembodiement. With  this beng said though, try to add more evidence. I know its your outline but I  would like to see what other evidence you can use to further prove each  argument.    One thing I think will make your paper that much interesting is making it a  bit personal. I know your thoughts are personal but I know that you've  heard/seen/done things that can also prove each argument and overall your paper.  Also try to compare the digital with ourselves to prove your point. What if the  digital is actually part of what makes us feel etc these things? Idk just look  into something like that. ( Even though u seem to have your mind set on what you  believe, which either way I agree with lol)   Overall I know your paper will be powerful. Just addd on the ideas you believe  are helpful and that will work. I'm looking forward to reading what your paper  will end up as.

H.w # 17- Outline Suggestions

Elvis,

Your thesis is strong. The fact that you said "digital obsession is a disease" was very good. Its kind off what Andy was talking about, making your thesis confrontational. Its going to make people wonder why your comparing it to a disease.

Your first argument about society seems to be good. I know its an outline, but maybe talk about specifically what kind off technology makes us impaired. Also talk about your self. What have you done that makes you believe all these things? What do you see? What have you heard? Keep does in mind. Make sure to go in depth on Feed because I know it will help your arguments stronger.  

Connect your second argument to your first. It is a good. Compare the world from now to before and talk about how bad it will get. Our planet is important but will the change of technology make great change. Try thinking about that as well.

 
  When talking about what the world will become ask yourself, How can we fix what we started? Go into detail about that because it can make your paper a bit stronger.

Good start for your big paper. Go in depth with your arguments and make sure to talk about more than one source and your paper will def be strong. Good luck.

H.w 16- Big Paper Outline #1

Thesis:

We are being brainwashed by the digital world into becoming beings that they portray has "happy."

Argument Brainstorm;

Argument #1-

* What does society believe is happiness?
Having the new, best most expensive thing. Showing off to others as well as having more than does around you. This makes you superior than them. The more you spend the better you are.
Easy, and Fast is better. You can know or even have everything you've ever wanted with the click of a button. No hard work is needed when it comes to knowing.

Argument #2-

*Wall E:
In the movie we see what technology can possibly/ or has already made of us. These are fat, lazy beings who don't even realize what is going on around them.
The scene where Wall -E pushes off the woman's screen and she "sees everything for the first time" shows us this. Before that she was sooo engrossed into her little screen, button clicking, object appearing world that whatever went on around her was just a blur.

*Related back to us?
We have everything in this little square screen, we are all at fault (I'm doing this assignment on my phone -_-) With an object such as a cellphone we can control more than just our phone calls. We can do so much, when this happens we don't even realize what goes on anywhere other than the screen. We are pulled in by these imaginary screen hands and they hold our attention in place until something finally breaks that off.



Argument #3-

*Feed
In the book Feed we see that these teens go to the moon to have fun , to live "brag" lives. When they get there they want to show off where they have been. Each of them requests a place to have fun, and even though they go along with the idea we see that Titus is not happy. He's bored, he thinks its stupid, yet he doesn't complain , he stays there with his friends and doesn't say a word about the way he truly is feeling.