The End.

     Over the course of this semester in class we have covered a great deal of fiction, nonfiction, essays, poetry, videos, television and issues. From our readings and discussions I have learned a lot of very valuable things. This class has really helped me solidify my beliefs and opinions as well as taught me to respond to the literature I read. 

     I have learned a great deal in this class. This class has taught me to become a better reader in the form of being a better critical thinker. Things like annotating, questioning and reflecting really helped me improve in this area. In addition, I became more well rounded from all of the different forms of literature we reviewed. There are many ideas that made me feel different ways like angry or inspired. An example of something that angered me was Mark Bauerlein. He did a number of things wrong and generalized things too much and did not understand generation changes and the form of evolution. 

     I would say that I was inspired by some of the ideas in the novels we have read though. The novel Feed really taught me to value life for what it is and to try not to get sucked in to technology to the point where it is all I know. I really liked this novel and started to see a change in how I lived after reading and discussing it. After reading a novel or other form of literature, I see myself responding in different ways. If I really agree with the novel and take a step back to think, I may start to change my behavior based on it. On the other hand if I disagree with something I read, I may just disregard it completely. 

     Overall I would say that this class has really helped me solidify my own personal opinions or beliefs. I think that the discussions and the group activities we did really helped question ideas and lead to more solid beliefs and opinions for me. I now feel like I am better at reading and understanding the ideas that literature has to offer and what it represents. 

Are We Not Yet Satisfied?

     Over the last couple weeks of class we have been talking about the hunger games and relating readings, media and themes. I believe that these all bring up the idea of what is entertainment to us these days. Over decades it seems like it is taking more and more to entertain us. Where will we be in the future and will there be something to satisfy our crave for this thing we call entertainment?

     Entertainment to us is not what it once was. If I would ask an older person what their favorite scary movie was when they were a kid, I would probably find it really dumb or even funny. I believe that entertainment is in a way a form of evolution. By that I mean that like we see a scary movie and then we get used to seeing other ones like that. After awhile those kind of movies do not even phase us anymore and we become bored. Because of this we then seek find find a scarier movie to quench our thirst of entertainment. 

     The idea of entertainment being a form of evolution does not only apply to scary movies but other things as well like drama and comedy etc. This helps to answer the big question are we not yet entertained? I believe for the time being we are entertained but only for a short while. Eventually we will need to seek for more and more until we get satisfied. Who knows if we will always be able to quench our thirst for this thing we call entertainment or where this will take us in the future.

Who's Shore?

  Over the last week in class we have talked about reality television as it connected with our readings of the lottery, hunger games and Gablers article. I agree with Gabler and believe that reality television has resulted in a culture of voyeurs. I think that we play a very important part as the viewers and fans in the reality of these shows. This causes us to influence the “games” be played themselves in a way. As Gabler says, “what makes reality so darn entertaining?”

  The Jersey Shore is a highly popular reality television show that is usually always being talked about around me. Personally I do not like to watch shows like that but I still hear about it all the time. I did however watch an episode (season 4 episode 9) for this post so I will elaborate on what happened. Basically, there are eight main stars of the show that all have these nicknames that the are called by. The people are The Situation, Jwoww, Snooki, Pauly D, Ronnie, Sammi, Vinny and Deena. This episode takes place in Italy and starts out after a night partying at a club. Snooki gets mad at Jwoww for not comforting her because of a fight they had the night before. After that, some drama takes place when Snooki and her boyfriend get in a fight because he leaves. After that they talk on the phone and “take a break”. Later, they all decide to turn the house into a night club and party in the house. After that The Situation tries to hit on Snooki, but does not work because she feels like none of the guys “have her back”. The show ends with Snooki getting in bed with Vinny and Deena failing at getting in bed with Pauly D. 

  Personally, I do not like watching these types of shows because I feel that all the stars are always just being fake. These stars just like to put on a show for the audience to feed into. In a way we influence these stars to act certain ways and do certain things because they know what their audience (us) wants to see. Although, I can see how a majority of people find these types of shows alluring because if you put the whole “being fake” thing aside, these shows could be kind of interesting to watch. Also, people like these shows because once a week the show is live, so they know it is not edited like the rest of the television they see. I believe that our roles as the viewers and fans play a huge part in these types of shows. I think that our roles as the viewers and fans are to buy into everything the people on these shows do, wear and say. I think if we did not watch these shows and were not interested in them, they would not even exist.

My Bigger Brother

     In the novel 1984 “Big Brother” refers to the leader of a group called “The Party”, which rules the state Oceania. Today “Big Brother” is the government, it exists everywhere from satellites, airport computer software, the IRS, security cameras being installed everywhere etc. “Big Brother” exists today because no one is really doing anything to prevent the government from taking our privacy. We need to stand up to the government and fight back. I believe that if we all took a stand and fought for our privacy more, the government would lay off a bit. They do not know it is a problem unless we let them know right? Its not like we have a “thought police force” or something. 

I think privacy still does exist today, but only when we are hidden somewhere with nothing that can get traced like a cell phone etc. But is having to hide away from “Big Brother” really the right to privacy? In 1984, This idea comes up when Winston and Julia have to hide their relationship and meet in places that are not watched like the old church and in the woods etc. I believe that we have lost our right to privacy in a way because we are usually always being observed by the government one way or another just like Winston and Julia. Though this happens to us like the characters in 1984, I do not think it is to that extreme...yet. I think that the problem with our privacy lies somewhere with the progression of our technology. As we advance our technology, our privacy seems to become less and less. This is because we are willing to give up our basic freedoms like privacy to feel more “safe” in this society. For example, we may feel safer when companies and schools install security cameras, but at the same time we will sometimes get annoyed and say that it affects our privacy. Should we eliminate the cameras? Or eliminate our privacy? 

I think that the answer is that we need to find a happy medium somewhere or this will continue to be a problem for most of us. I would say that if things keep heading the way they are now, then we will continue to lose our feeling of security and freedom more and more. This will happen until one day when we do not even know what those words mean anymore. This government is certainly not a very good big brother.

HELL NO!

     During this last week in class, we have had some good conversations about the readings that were assigned. Emerson and Thoreau have some good views and beliefs that I find interesting and that resonate my own. Emerson talks about how if we want to become men, then we have to be non-conformists. By this he is saying that we should not do things just to fit in, but instead we should do what we what to. I agree with this because if we are worried about fitting in constantly, then we do not really get to enjoy the time that goes by. This is because we are constantly trying to find and adapt to the next trend instead of sitting back and enjoying life. 
     Thoreau talks about how we are in sort of a trance and that we need to desperately get out of it and change our ways. Basically, as Thoreau puts it, we need to stay “awake” and progress. I agree with him because we do not even know what we like or why we do what we do anymore. We just like whatever is popular regardless of what we think of it. It is like our own thoughts that make us all different and unique are being taken over. 
     Like Thoreau, I do believe I could give up all of my worldly possessions and technology for a year and live a life of solitude in the woods. But, for what? If I got paid enough or received some special thing for it then yeah I would. The question here should not be "could you" but would you. I am sure we all could if there was no other choice, but most of us would not if we were not forced to. I just do not see why it would be so beneficial to give up all of this progress we earned over the years just to say “yeah I could do it.” 
     However, I suppose if I did follow through and do it for a year, that I would learn a few things about myself that I had not previously known. Some examples that I would probably learn would be that I do not need all this technology to survive and enjoy myself. I would also probably learn to enjoy the world more and appreciate the little stuff in life. Lastly, that my generation for the most part has been so dependent on this technology, that we do not really know what to do without it. In a way I do see how this would benefit me greatly, but it would still suck to do. I think in the end if someone dared me to do this, I would have to turn the offer down.
     I think that the conversations Thoreau, Emerson, Lasn and Anderson create as a whole is that we need to enjoy life as we are brought into it. We should just take one day at a time and be happy to live. We should not run away and drift from the world we once knew and rush into this new technological age. In short, we should not be “determined to be starved before we are hungry.” So I guess my “verse” that I would like to contribute to everyone would be...to just live.

Who's Generation is REALLY the "Dumbest"?

Over the last week of class we have watched a viewing about Mark Bauerlein and what he thinks about our generation. According to Bauerlein, we are the “dumbest generation”. My reaction to this is that I am pretty annoyed with how he chooses to say what he does. I understand, in a way, where he is coming from, but he makes our generation seem a lot worse than it actually is. From the online article I read and the interview we watched in class, he is saying that our generation doesn’t know anything about history, politics and just the world in general. He is saying that we rely on internet sites like google to do the work for us. Without these sites, he is saying we wouldn’t know anything.

In addition, Bauerlein is also saying that the people in our generation only use the computer for social networking purposes, instead of trying to learn about more important things in our world. The funny thing is that our IQ tests show that we are, in fact, the “smartest” generation. Also, during the in class viewing, Bauerlein questions a bunch of random people and they did not know simple stories and phrases. The thing is that most of us in class knew the answers. Half of the people that were getting questioned weren’t even in our generation because they were definitely over thirty years old.

During our in class groups, we talked about how most of the people in our generation are not even like Bauerlein is describing. Bauerlein is acting like everyone in our generation doesn’t know a thing about the world, history and politics etc. Bauerlein is looking at statistics that may even be a bit biased and basing everything he says off of them. Basically, our generation is getting a bad rep because a few people in our generation fit the statistics he is talking about. I am sure I could find people in every generation that could fit some of those statistics. 

I believe that if Bauerlein would have grown up in our generation, he would be just like the majority of the people in it. The thing is that technology has a big impact on generations. I believe this is a good thing though because without it, generations would never evolve. In the end, it is not only our generation that is to blame for this lack of knowledge about the world and history etc. The people who taught us all these years are in Bauerlein’s generation and they are at fault too. This is because growing up, they never enforced what they thought was right. Instead, gradually this older generation sat back and watched this new technology wave take over our generation.

From Bauerlein’s point of view, I can see why he is saying the things he is about our generation. When he grew up, things were a lot different. Growing up, Bauerlein most likely would have came home from school to a radio being on announcing the news and such. Also, he was probably more inclined to read and learn about history and stuff because he did not have all of these technology distractions. In addition, things were a lot more strict back then. This is what he grew up knowing so, to him, anything different seems wrong. He values what he did and learned while growing up just like the majority of our generation values what we did and learned growing up. Our values just happen to be more technology based. 

Finding your identity...

During class these last few days we have talked about Culture Jam and the Second Skin documentary. These have both discussed some of the same ideas and problems existing around us today. Technology is, in a way, the one to blame because of it’s impact in many ways. Where is this going to take us in the future?

I believe that the identities we occupy virtually have a really big significance, value, and meaning. For example in the documentary Second Skin, the gamers were able to pick how they looked in the games. To the gamers this is very valuable because for once, they could be the person they feel like inside. People no longer would judge them based on their looks because their real looks are unknown. Gamers get a sense of meaning from the identities they have in games because for once they feel important. This would especially involve people like desk assistants who just push paper all day. From playing these games, suddenly they are someone who has all this power and responsibility. This gives them a great feeling and makes them feel better about themselves. This is all significant because it explains why gamers get addicted to these types of games. Honestly, I don’t blame them for hiding from the real world and sticking with these virtual ones. To them, the real world is a harsh place where people judge you about everything you do or don’t do. 

I assume that to many, cyberspace is the “new frontier” because of all the benefits they feel they get from it. In a way they are hiding from who they really are in the real world. This is a problem because these gamers hide from the real world for so long that when they finally do return, it is too late. By this I mean that when they stop with their virtual world, they have destroyed the real world by, for example, losing their jobs, houses and friends. To me, I believe that cyberspace is a vast, endless wasteland. This is because at the end of the day, it is all fake and it doesn’t have a real value or importance. Though it may be fun, it is still in the virtual world.

At the end of the day though, I believe that as long as people are using their own hard earned money, they should be able to do whatever makes them happy. We talked about this in class about how other people sometimes don’t understand why we buy or do certain things.  People do what makes them satisfied, like the one girl in class said she would just go buy tennis shoes whenever, even though they were a lot of money. She did this of course because she liked them and to her, it was worth the money, even though others disagreed.