To Amon: I read both of your feed posts as well as the research that you did, and I'm going to comment on them as a whole here. Overall, I appreciate the tone of your writing. It is always very sophisticated, and interesting. I appreciate that I can relate to what you say in your posts. I also like that you pointed out that we don't really talk like M.T. Anderson's teenagers, which I also said in my post.
One of the arguments that you said is that Feed is both a mirror and a hammer. " I believe we are the hammers that sculpt the world for the better or worse, we just use the book as a mirror to realize our flaws." I have not heard this stated how you did before, and I appreciate it. It's sort of how Kevin said life is like a hammer to shape you, then you go home and look in the mirror.
Your work has been good so far, so just feel like you need to write about the second text. I look forward to reading it when you do.
-Hannah
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Jace, I “treasure hunted” by reading/ skimming through all of your posts so far and picked out ideas that I liked. I commented from your first post on this blog, to your most recent post. Yet when you read this comment (if you do), then it will seem to be in the opposite order because of how I wrote it. I dug out parts from most of your blogs, because it’s a treasure hunt. I hope this is some help in a way.
For “Everything bad is good for you”, you seemed to really enjoy reading it. You kept saying how TV can’t really be that bad for us. I disagree with this a bit, but I like how you said “Not only that but say someone's dream is to play basketball, and they don't have enough money to go see their favorite players in person. They get a lot of joy out of watching basketball on TV.” You were using this as an example, of how if this person cannot go to a game, they are learning through the TV. You also said how television makes us think. I don’t agree with this 100%, but I also admired the graph of how difficult television plot lines were back then, compared to how they are now.
You admitted that you did not like thinking about the parallels between feed and our lives, because it made you depressed. Feed is difficult to think about sometimes, which is understandable. I like how you said “The only person who tried to resist the ‘feed’, ended up getting killed by it. Does that not say something about our society?” I kept thinking about this after finishing Feed as well, and wondering how Violet’s death is a parallel to our real lives? This is still a question that I have yet to answer.
I noticed that some times you have difficulty in writing posts for homework, and that even though you bring in interesting ideas, you never really push yourself to go into a lot of detail. I really wish you would try to go into deeper detail while working. Your comments are always enjoyable to read, and they show that you are capable of putting in your insight of things. You wonder what the world is coming to, when discussing our use of technology. For your research, one of the main arguments you researched is how some parents admitted that their kids talk to them less after they got into texting, and being on the computer. I found this to be really sad, as well as not the case with my family. Yet I still found it interesting to read.
Though your video seemed staged to me, it is okay because I know mine was 100% staged. I had no idea what to do. Yet your video is very convincing, entertaining, and it shows you how you “are”. For your video you said: “I wanted to show a problem that I actually do have a lot, even if it's not completely real.” You admitted that your video isn’t all the way real, but that it is an example of how technology affects you. Another point that you brought up, is that “...it seems like sitting in front of the computer makes my vulnerable to hostility”. This is about how using the computer makes you really angry. This is a good example of how technology can get on our nerves sometimes. You also said: “When I am texting I am very entranced by it, and don't pay attention to anything else”. This shows what we have discussed in class, how some people are very zombified and unaware of their surroundings when under the trance of some form of digital technology.
Your interviews are really interesting to read, as they show people’s dependency on technology. The interview with your mom was different from the interviews that we conducted together. Your mom said that she used digital things for about five hours, but that four and a half ours out of that she was working productively. She seemed very concerned for how our generation spends their time texting, and on the computer. It stood out how she said “I don't rely on those type of things to do work, I usually try to spell things correctly and do the best I can do.” while even I can admit to using spell check. It was sort of sad how many hours the group of kids we interviewed spent using digital technology. Even worse, how they seemed to think everything digital was good for them. Yet the man we interviewed had a good point, on how everything is making us disconnected. He kept repeating that ipods make us disconnected, computers make us disconnected, and social networking can make us disconnected. I think this is a good argument.
“I feel like digital/electronic media is slowly taking the ability to think for ourselves away… It is taking our intellectuality, and our individuality away from us.” This idea of programs like Microsoft word helping us out, like trying to write a letter is really a good point. Also, if you are writing the current date it tries to show you the date even before it is completed.
From, Hannah.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Homework 14, Technology V.S Reading
At first, I attempted to read the long version of the text. I was doing okay, reading, annotating and skimming, yet I ran out of speed. I got up to page 36 before I decided to read the shorter texts. I found the text to be very interesting, but I also lost the determination to read the long version. I thought the conversation between the two scientists was sort of amusing, and that it made fun of humans. The strange food that was listed, and how it is supposed to preserve properties in life, versus foods like steak, which "were thought to be unhealthy." I really liked the quote "This is progress: more sophisticated delivery of stupidity". George Will was saying how over time forms of technology has become more advanced, yet it is still making us stupid.
Games: There were a few arguments for and against video games and other forms of technology which I've heard before. How video games increase hand-eye coordination, which is a plus. It also said that video games increase aggression and violent tendencies. I remember saying this argument about video games, especially shooting games making people aggressive. I can admit that I do not play video games, and have only watched these bloody games. There is a line that says how readers are active, while nonreaders -video gamers- have no emotion and are less active. I feel like some readers can stay in one place and act emotionless, while some people who play video games can be screaming at the tv, and feeling emotions. There is the quote "books are also tragically isolating" arguing that books are bad. The section on games goes back and forth between discussing how books are bad for you, and video games are good for you, and vice versa. The text also says how reading makes you think, and process the information. As well as being able to share the experience of many people reading the same book. Yet this also happens through playing the same video games. The book cannot be changed by the reader, while the game you can choose from several different options to change the course of the video game. The book also talked about spending so much money on cheat sheets to get to the next level, versus buying CliffsNotes for readers. It said how it is okay to buy things like CliffsNotes for books, while the student cannot read the book that the teacher has assigned, while no one has asked the kid to play video games so the cheat books are not okay.
I found the scene with the nephew playing the Sims to be interesting, how he was learning from the video game without realizing, while if he was in school learning the same things he might get bored. The question of why people spend so much time being frustrated by video games, and still continuing to play, is asked a lot. It reminds me how in class Ian said that he can continue for hours not liking the video game, but screaming at it and yet he does not turn the game off. In the book, it said how your brain rewards you when you have gotten a clue, or to the next level, and that is a large reward compared to real life. It also discussed in real life how your brain delivers disappointment: like the person raiding their fridge late at night just to find out someone else has finished the ice cream. The thing inside your brain that controls your levels of rewards and disappointments is called the dopamine system.
Television: This debates between video games and watching television, and comparing those two things to reading a book. It says how watching smart people on the screen does not make you smarter, and how watching someone play football does not make you active. Yet there are old movies like Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile which do make you think out the plot of the murder, who could of been the murderer, and their motive for committing the murder. The book Everything Bad Is Good For Youdiscusses how in some shows there is hardly a change in threads in the amount of time for one show. The Sleeper Curve shows how the plot in movies has changed over the past thirty years, and that "the conventional wisdom among television execs was that audiances wouldn't be comfortale following more than three plots in a single episode.." In other words, viewers of the show would not like watching things that make them think too hard. Like the example of the flashing arrow appearing on screen with the text that stated: "Door Unlocked!" This discusses how some films helped the audience by giving them clues to tell them what was going on. There was also an example of dialogue from ER, showing the difference between the "arrows" that were given, and the medical talk that was difficult to understand. The section on television seemed to argue that the plot of tv shows has become more challenging to understand, and simpler in the past. Yet it also argued that it takes no effort to watch tv or play a video game.
While M.T. Anderson discussed that as time goes by we are becoming lazy and stupid, in the television section Steven Johnson talked about how tv shows have made people think more while time increased. These two arguments are very different; one saying that we are becoming smarter, and one saying the opposite. Yet overall I feel like both authors are at an agreement: that depending on technology is bad. Feed depicted the world around us dying while we are oblivious, caring about the next sale, or party, or whatever else that is useless and not important. Everything Bad Is Good For You also discusses how it is bad to be immersed in technology, and how you are not active. I feel like I missed the point of how everything that is bad, is really good for us. The Sleeper's Curve stood out to me, how movie plots have challenged viewers' way of thinking over time, and how the feed has decreased our way of thinking over time. Another argument may be how in Feed the kids went to parties, and danced, and moved around.. Yet over all they weren't very active.
The pieces of Everything Bad Is Good For You that I read, seemed to just focus on people and how technology influences us. While Feed discussed the news, the stores, the moon, schools, the environment.. Overall, I feel like these two authors agree that technology is bad. Maybe Everything Bad Is Good For You just focuses on television and games, and Feed discusses the bigger picture.
Games: There were a few arguments for and against video games and other forms of technology which I've heard before. How video games increase hand-eye coordination, which is a plus. It also said that video games increase aggression and violent tendencies. I remember saying this argument about video games, especially shooting games making people aggressive. I can admit that I do not play video games, and have only watched these bloody games. There is a line that says how readers are active, while nonreaders -video gamers- have no emotion and are less active. I feel like some readers can stay in one place and act emotionless, while some people who play video games can be screaming at the tv, and feeling emotions. There is the quote "books are also tragically isolating" arguing that books are bad. The section on games goes back and forth between discussing how books are bad for you, and video games are good for you, and vice versa. The text also says how reading makes you think, and process the information. As well as being able to share the experience of many people reading the same book. Yet this also happens through playing the same video games. The book cannot be changed by the reader, while the game you can choose from several different options to change the course of the video game. The book also talked about spending so much money on cheat sheets to get to the next level, versus buying CliffsNotes for readers. It said how it is okay to buy things like CliffsNotes for books, while the student cannot read the book that the teacher has assigned, while no one has asked the kid to play video games so the cheat books are not okay.
I found the scene with the nephew playing the Sims to be interesting, how he was learning from the video game without realizing, while if he was in school learning the same things he might get bored. The question of why people spend so much time being frustrated by video games, and still continuing to play, is asked a lot. It reminds me how in class Ian said that he can continue for hours not liking the video game, but screaming at it and yet he does not turn the game off. In the book, it said how your brain rewards you when you have gotten a clue, or to the next level, and that is a large reward compared to real life. It also discussed in real life how your brain delivers disappointment: like the person raiding their fridge late at night just to find out someone else has finished the ice cream. The thing inside your brain that controls your levels of rewards and disappointments is called the dopamine system.
Television: This debates between video games and watching television, and comparing those two things to reading a book. It says how watching smart people on the screen does not make you smarter, and how watching someone play football does not make you active. Yet there are old movies like Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile which do make you think out the plot of the murder, who could of been the murderer, and their motive for committing the murder. The book Everything Bad Is Good For Youdiscusses how in some shows there is hardly a change in threads in the amount of time for one show. The Sleeper Curve shows how the plot in movies has changed over the past thirty years, and that "the conventional wisdom among television execs was that audiances wouldn't be comfortale following more than three plots in a single episode.." In other words, viewers of the show would not like watching things that make them think too hard. Like the example of the flashing arrow appearing on screen with the text that stated: "Door Unlocked!" This discusses how some films helped the audience by giving them clues to tell them what was going on. There was also an example of dialogue from ER, showing the difference between the "arrows" that were given, and the medical talk that was difficult to understand. The section on television seemed to argue that the plot of tv shows has become more challenging to understand, and simpler in the past. Yet it also argued that it takes no effort to watch tv or play a video game.
While M.T. Anderson discussed that as time goes by we are becoming lazy and stupid, in the television section Steven Johnson talked about how tv shows have made people think more while time increased. These two arguments are very different; one saying that we are becoming smarter, and one saying the opposite. Yet overall I feel like both authors are at an agreement: that depending on technology is bad. Feed depicted the world around us dying while we are oblivious, caring about the next sale, or party, or whatever else that is useless and not important. Everything Bad Is Good For You also discusses how it is bad to be immersed in technology, and how you are not active. I feel like I missed the point of how everything that is bad, is really good for us. The Sleeper's Curve stood out to me, how movie plots have challenged viewers' way of thinking over time, and how the feed has decreased our way of thinking over time. Another argument may be how in Feed the kids went to parties, and danced, and moved around.. Yet over all they weren't very active.
The pieces of Everything Bad Is Good For You that I read, seemed to just focus on people and how technology influences us. While Feed discussed the news, the stores, the moon, schools, the environment.. Overall, I feel like these two authors agree that technology is bad. Maybe Everything Bad Is Good For You just focuses on television and games, and Feed discusses the bigger picture.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Homework #13 Feed B, As Artwork
Even though Feed is a book, and not a piece of artwork in terms of being a painting, or sculpture; we can still think of this book by M.T. Anderson as art. Being a painter, and a poet, I do a lot of artwork myself. Poetry is in the from of text, and does not have to come with an actual visual, because it is a piece of art. Poets create a picture, and give the reader visual images through their words. If you think about it, this also makes book writers artists as well. To speak of Feed by M.t. Anderson specifically, it is an example of Revelatory Art.
M.T. Anderson expressed his thoughts and feelings through his book. At first he was just going to write a short story, yet he felt like he had to write a book to get his point across in a more detailed way. He revealed to us how he felt that society is like in the world around us today. While reading Feed, I had thought of it as a book taking place in the future. Especially with traveling to the moon, having computers actually installed in your brain, upcars.. Yet in class I realized that these were just some of the parallels between Feed and how he felt we are like today.
There is the quote "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." by Bert Brecht. This is saying that art does not show what is in the world, it is something to mold the world. While applying this quote to Feed I feel like it is a mirror. The book made me think about the world around me, and reflect upon it. I feel like M.T. Anderson would not want us to be beaten into how he believes, but to look at his beliefs and leave us to think it out on our own. He clearly states problems throughout the book, yet he never tells us what we are supposed to do about it. He leaves that up to his readers.
I feel like Feed is the kind of book that is for all audiences. It seems to me like a kid book, with the font and way of writing. Yet the ideas are very out there. It describes to teenagers how M.T. Anderson believes that we are, and it shows how he believes the parents to be: as equally oblivious. Titus' dad was even less intelligent than Titus was. The only really smart people were Violet, and her father. Titus did have a little more knowledge than his friends, yet he did not want to use it. Overall, I feel like Feed is for anyone that wants to read it.
M.T. Anderson expressed his thoughts and feelings through his book. At first he was just going to write a short story, yet he felt like he had to write a book to get his point across in a more detailed way. He revealed to us how he felt that society is like in the world around us today. While reading Feed, I had thought of it as a book taking place in the future. Especially with traveling to the moon, having computers actually installed in your brain, upcars.. Yet in class I realized that these were just some of the parallels between Feed and how he felt we are like today.
There is the quote "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." by Bert Brecht. This is saying that art does not show what is in the world, it is something to mold the world. While applying this quote to Feed I feel like it is a mirror. The book made me think about the world around me, and reflect upon it. I feel like M.T. Anderson would not want us to be beaten into how he believes, but to look at his beliefs and leave us to think it out on our own. He clearly states problems throughout the book, yet he never tells us what we are supposed to do about it. He leaves that up to his readers.
I feel like Feed is the kind of book that is for all audiences. It seems to me like a kid book, with the font and way of writing. Yet the ideas are very out there. It describes to teenagers how M.T. Anderson believes that we are, and it shows how he believes the parents to be: as equally oblivious. Titus' dad was even less intelligent than Titus was. The only really smart people were Violet, and her father. Titus did have a little more knowledge than his friends, yet he did not want to use it. Overall, I feel like Feed is for anyone that wants to read it.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Homework #12 Feed A, My Own Comfy Bubble
Trying to come up with something that has not been said in class has been really difficult for me. There are small things in the book that I realized we as teenagers don't constantly do, yet overall I can see the parallels between Feed and our daily lives. Not all teenagers necessarily talk like "omigod, I like, totally have to get that!" I often categorize girls who talk like that as the girly-girls. A parallel that was found in class is Weatherbee & Crotch being Abercrombie & Fitch.
The topic that I really like, -which was already discussed in class- is how the families all believe they are in their own little bubbles. For Titus and his friends, all of them can control the sun and climate in their own little comfortable bubbles. I can see why M.T. Anderson was mocking people in the world today, and how some people may feel like what goes on in our own little bubbles stays in our little bubbles, and that no one can feel what we feel. I can admit that I disagreed with this in Mr. Manley's class, because we all feel the same feelings at different moments in time. Yet I do look at my family as being fairly unique, and I am rather defensive towards my family. There is that saying especially used at summer camp, movies, and guidance counseling: "what goes on here, stays here" even if people don't really mean it.
One thing that I didn't hear in class, is the connection between getting "weasel-faced" (page 33) to what some may call "shit-faced". They also say "in the mal" which I think is referring to drugs. Even though there is a point in the book where it seems like they are burning or shocking themselves. Overall I feel like they are talking about doing drugs.
I cannot think of something specifically like the Feed that is literally in our brains. I have heard the connection between the Feed, and the Bluetooth. Or those people that walk around with the things in their ears screaming when you aren't sure if they are talking to themselves or an actual person. I thought m-chat was like IM on the computer. I felt like there were several things the Feed could be, like IM, the computer, cell phones, the ipod touch.. Yet I could not figure out if it was supposed to be specifically one thing. Like how when they all ended up in the hospital on page 55 where the dad says "Oh. Shit. Yeah, I forgot. No m-chat. Just talking". I wasn't really sure what this would be like in real life. Sometimes I text my mom or my brother when we are all in the same household, because we all have different rooms or we are all in different parts of the house. Also, like Jace was saying and I was thinking, sometimes we do stand next to each other and text when talking about someone that we are with when we don't want them to hear. I can admit that Yasmin J and I do that a lot when we want to say something about someone else that we don't want them to hear about. This is like one of the pages where the girls are talking about Violet through the feeds but don't want her to hear them.
In Feed, they trademarked Clouds^TM and School^TM. Mostly, we don't do things like this. Yet I remember hearing about how Paris Hilton wanted to trademark "that's hot", and how stupid I thought that was.
The book Feed and the book Be More Chill, seem very similar to me. They both have computers installed into their brains to help them get what they want. Be More Chill isn't a connection with other people though, it is a computer in your brain trying to help you get what you want in life (like how to be cool). Also, in Be More Chill at the end of the book the main character learns how to destroy the chip and get it out of his head. There is also the series by Scott Westerfield (The Uglies, The Pretties, The Specials, and The Extras) which is based around this futuristic world where everyone has rings that are like cell phones, and where you can get this operation to make your face symmetric; in the book they pick the side of their face that they like best, and they all get operations to make their faces better looking. There is also this series by Nora Roberts that I am reading, the "In Death" series, set in the future. While M.T. Anderson's book is supposed to be an allegory for today, some of his ideas are also found in the other books that I have listed.
When everyone is in the hospital and they feel stranded reminds me of the blackout. It was really different with the lights off, refrigerators not working, and phone lines down. Lots of people were worried about loved ones and hoping that everyone was okay. We all felt strangely isolated and concerned during the blackout, at least speaking for myself. Violet fights the Feed, and she dies from it. Thinking of computers, and cell phones.. etc, I don't understand how fighting technology would generally make oneself die.
The topic that I really like, -which was already discussed in class- is how the families all believe they are in their own little bubbles. For Titus and his friends, all of them can control the sun and climate in their own little comfortable bubbles. I can see why M.T. Anderson was mocking people in the world today, and how some people may feel like what goes on in our own little bubbles stays in our little bubbles, and that no one can feel what we feel. I can admit that I disagreed with this in Mr. Manley's class, because we all feel the same feelings at different moments in time. Yet I do look at my family as being fairly unique, and I am rather defensive towards my family. There is that saying especially used at summer camp, movies, and guidance counseling: "what goes on here, stays here" even if people don't really mean it.
One thing that I didn't hear in class, is the connection between getting "weasel-faced" (page 33) to what some may call "shit-faced". They also say "in the mal" which I think is referring to drugs. Even though there is a point in the book where it seems like they are burning or shocking themselves. Overall I feel like they are talking about doing drugs.
I cannot think of something specifically like the Feed that is literally in our brains. I have heard the connection between the Feed, and the Bluetooth. Or those people that walk around with the things in their ears screaming when you aren't sure if they are talking to themselves or an actual person. I thought m-chat was like IM on the computer. I felt like there were several things the Feed could be, like IM, the computer, cell phones, the ipod touch.. Yet I could not figure out if it was supposed to be specifically one thing. Like how when they all ended up in the hospital on page 55 where the dad says "Oh. Shit. Yeah, I forgot. No m-chat. Just talking". I wasn't really sure what this would be like in real life. Sometimes I text my mom or my brother when we are all in the same household, because we all have different rooms or we are all in different parts of the house. Also, like Jace was saying and I was thinking, sometimes we do stand next to each other and text when talking about someone that we are with when we don't want them to hear. I can admit that Yasmin J and I do that a lot when we want to say something about someone else that we don't want them to hear about. This is like one of the pages where the girls are talking about Violet through the feeds but don't want her to hear them.
In Feed, they trademarked Clouds^TM and School^TM. Mostly, we don't do things like this. Yet I remember hearing about how Paris Hilton wanted to trademark "that's hot", and how stupid I thought that was.
The book Feed and the book Be More Chill, seem very similar to me. They both have computers installed into their brains to help them get what they want. Be More Chill isn't a connection with other people though, it is a computer in your brain trying to help you get what you want in life (like how to be cool). Also, in Be More Chill at the end of the book the main character learns how to destroy the chip and get it out of his head. There is also the series by Scott Westerfield (The Uglies, The Pretties, The Specials, and The Extras) which is based around this futuristic world where everyone has rings that are like cell phones, and where you can get this operation to make your face symmetric; in the book they pick the side of their face that they like best, and they all get operations to make their faces better looking. There is also this series by Nora Roberts that I am reading, the "In Death" series, set in the future. While M.T. Anderson's book is supposed to be an allegory for today, some of his ideas are also found in the other books that I have listed.
When everyone is in the hospital and they feel stranded reminds me of the blackout. It was really different with the lights off, refrigerators not working, and phone lines down. Lots of people were worried about loved ones and hoping that everyone was okay. We all felt strangely isolated and concerned during the blackout, at least speaking for myself. Violet fights the Feed, and she dies from it. Thinking of computers, and cell phones.. etc, I don't understand how fighting technology would generally make oneself die.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Homework #11, Experimenting On The Self
I can admit to putting up a shield, and listening to my ipod when I am outside. There are plenty of days where I get talked ti by strangers, where people cat call to me, or hiss at me from cars to try and get my attention. I'm not sure why old men think they are going to attract me that way, yet I usually use my ipod to tune out those annoyances. Every morning, I am hesitant to leave the house until I have my ipod in my pocket. I'm usually not in the mood to talk to anyone in the morning right after I have left my house, so I listen to my ipod. I remember one day a couple weeks ago I was tearing through my house trying to look for my ipod. Even though I was about to be late, I wouldn't leave without it.
At first, I started experimenting even before it was an assignment. I cannot remember when I started, but as soon as I got to 14th street on the train, I would take off my ipod, and put it away so that I would be able to hear people when I walked the rest of the block to school. I realized then that I felt better being able to hear the noises around me instead of hoping one of my friends wouldn't come up behind me and try to surprise me.
Taking that experiment a little further, at the end of last week I started going to and from school without listening to my ipod. In the mornings, I would try to notice things that I usually did not push myself to notice. Wednesday morning I remember being captivated by the clouds, all the way to school. I watched the clouds and saw how they were moving around the sky, and how beautiful they looked to me. Not to sound corny. I also realized monday through wednesday that I could hear the birds chirping, and I decided to listen to the birds instead of my ipod.
I haven't been feeling great at the end of school days, so it hasn't been much of a challenge at the end of the day to go home without listening to my ipod. The main thing that I've been realizing though, is that even when I'm not listening to my ipod, the songs on my ipod still play through my head. I remember on wednesday when I went home sick, trying to stop all the songs from playing in my head, and to just think, and relax.
At first, I started experimenting even before it was an assignment. I cannot remember when I started, but as soon as I got to 14th street on the train, I would take off my ipod, and put it away so that I would be able to hear people when I walked the rest of the block to school. I realized then that I felt better being able to hear the noises around me instead of hoping one of my friends wouldn't come up behind me and try to surprise me.
Taking that experiment a little further, at the end of last week I started going to and from school without listening to my ipod. In the mornings, I would try to notice things that I usually did not push myself to notice. Wednesday morning I remember being captivated by the clouds, all the way to school. I watched the clouds and saw how they were moving around the sky, and how beautiful they looked to me. Not to sound corny. I also realized monday through wednesday that I could hear the birds chirping, and I decided to listen to the birds instead of my ipod.
I haven't been feeling great at the end of school days, so it hasn't been much of a challenge at the end of the day to go home without listening to my ipod. The main thing that I've been realizing though, is that even when I'm not listening to my ipod, the songs on my ipod still play through my head. I remember on wednesday when I went home sick, trying to stop all the songs from playing in my head, and to just think, and relax.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Homework #10, Researching
I know I only had to do one to two paragraphs, yet I found these topics to be very attention grabbing once I was reading the articles.
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In the year 1992, right after I was born, my mom purchased a pager. She also bought a pager for my babysitter, so that she could stay in touch with my dad and baby sitter if they ever needed her. This is before they had cell phones; pagers were most convenient at the time. You cannot pick up a call from the pager, nor could you text message or answer back. Whenever a pager beeped, it meant that you had to get to the nearest phone and call the number on the screen back.
“The best moment of having it was when Ra (my baby sitter) paged me after the first bomb in the world trade center. You were one and you guys were there right before it went off so I was sooo glad to hear from her!” The World Trade Center Bombing, February 26th, 1993: a moment in the time of beepers, told by my mom.
While reading the article on beepers and pagers, I found many parts of it to be fascinating. One thing that I got out of the article is that beepers and pagers used to be used for just doctors, and plumbers, yet it became used for husbands and wives, school kids, helping the elderly keep in touch with their children if there was ever an emergency. The article talks about a pregnant woman who had a beeper so that she could buzz her husband when it was ‘time’.
Even though I was less than one year old when my mom bought her pager, and I wasn’t even alive when the article came out, I can relate to some of the stuff in the article. I thought that it was interesting that the pager is banned in some schools and colleges because it is associated with drug trafficking. This reminded me of when they tried to ban all cell phones from schools and my friends and I were really angry when we found out they were trying to ban us from carrying cell phones.
While it costs more now for a cell phone, I found it interesting that: “the units rent for $2 to $3.50 a day or $10 to $17.50 a week, depending on the model. Like a Starter, or Sampler Kit”. I’m not sure if you can rent a cell phone today, but I found it interesting that a beeper was two dollars to three fifty a day to rent. Also, that the chain of beepers were rented in every store that had a video department. I know that today most stores that sell videocassettes are gone, and I can speak as an individual that I know I do not have a VCR in my mom’s house. So while reading about renting pagers in video stores, I thought it was sort of interesting that we don’t’ really have either of those things today. Some people still use pagers and beepers today, but it’s mainly doctors and nurses. Back then, more than two-thirds of the beepers were owned by business.
Features on the beeper/ pager, an interesting part that I found in the text: “More than 600 companies around the country, called carriers, offer one or more of four types of services: tone only, a sound or a vibration; tone and voice, a voice message of up to 10 seconds; numeric or digital, which displays a phone number to call; and alphanumeric, which displays a text message of up to 1,000 characters. 11 Million Rent or Own Them”
While researching beepers, I have been having discussions with my mom about when she used to own a beeper. The article said that beepers featured text messages, so I asked my mom about that: “Only numbers. But you can make simple words and we had some codes like 911 meant a problem and we had one for ok but I can’t remember how we made it. Like ok but out of numbers. 0 and um… 4?””
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In the year 1843, the first fax machine was invented by Alexander Bain: “an amateur clock maker, Alexander Bain combined parts from clock mechanisms together with telegraph machines to invent his fax machine.” I often find it really interesting for people to be doing one thing, and mixing it all together to invent something new.
I know that to this day my dad has a fax machine, which he uses often to transmit and receive faxes that are to or from his clients. My dad is a contractor, so he is constantly receiving fax messages. If I had to transmit data, I think I would do it through the computer, yet I have seen the fax machine be useful to my dad.
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Another article that I found to be amusing is the invention of the electric telegraph and telegraphy. When I was reading the article on fax machines, it had a link to telegraphs; which is: “a now outdated communication system that transmitted electric signals over wires from location to location that translated into a message.”
Samuel Morse (1791-1872) successfully invented “a telegraph system that was a practical and commercial success.” Samuel Morse was a professor of arts and design at NYU, when he proved “signals could be transmitted by wire”. Samuel Morse is the man who created Morse Code. “He used pulses of current to deflect an electromagnet, which moved a marker to produce written codes on a strip of paper.”
Annie Ellsworth, who was a young daughter of a friend of Morse’s, chose the line "What hath God wrought?" (Numbers XXIII, 23, by Rev. John Wesley”) to be the first completed line sent through by what was later known as Morse code. When I first read that quote it seemed very poetic for a young lady to pick, yet I found out it was said by a reverend.
When I was in I think eighth grade at School of the Future, I studied the Navajo code, which I found to be very fascinating. While I was reading about the invention of Morse Code I found it to be similar to the Navajo code. Both codes were transmitted through wire, and operators had to be able to translate the codes. They were both like a kind of language, a well as an outdated form of communication.
__________________________________________________
References:
Beepers: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/07/news/a-new-role-for-beepers-keep-families-in-touch.html
Fax Machines: http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/fax_machine.htm
Telegraph, and Telegraphy: http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm
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In the year 1992, right after I was born, my mom purchased a pager. She also bought a pager for my babysitter, so that she could stay in touch with my dad and baby sitter if they ever needed her. This is before they had cell phones; pagers were most convenient at the time. You cannot pick up a call from the pager, nor could you text message or answer back. Whenever a pager beeped, it meant that you had to get to the nearest phone and call the number on the screen back.
“The best moment of having it was when Ra (my baby sitter) paged me after the first bomb in the world trade center. You were one and you guys were there right before it went off so I was sooo glad to hear from her!” The World Trade Center Bombing, February 26th, 1993: a moment in the time of beepers, told by my mom.
While reading the article on beepers and pagers, I found many parts of it to be fascinating. One thing that I got out of the article is that beepers and pagers used to be used for just doctors, and plumbers, yet it became used for husbands and wives, school kids, helping the elderly keep in touch with their children if there was ever an emergency. The article talks about a pregnant woman who had a beeper so that she could buzz her husband when it was ‘time’.
Even though I was less than one year old when my mom bought her pager, and I wasn’t even alive when the article came out, I can relate to some of the stuff in the article. I thought that it was interesting that the pager is banned in some schools and colleges because it is associated with drug trafficking. This reminded me of when they tried to ban all cell phones from schools and my friends and I were really angry when we found out they were trying to ban us from carrying cell phones.
While it costs more now for a cell phone, I found it interesting that: “the units rent for $2 to $3.50 a day or $10 to $17.50 a week, depending on the model. Like a Starter, or Sampler Kit”. I’m not sure if you can rent a cell phone today, but I found it interesting that a beeper was two dollars to three fifty a day to rent. Also, that the chain of beepers were rented in every store that had a video department. I know that today most stores that sell videocassettes are gone, and I can speak as an individual that I know I do not have a VCR in my mom’s house. So while reading about renting pagers in video stores, I thought it was sort of interesting that we don’t’ really have either of those things today. Some people still use pagers and beepers today, but it’s mainly doctors and nurses. Back then, more than two-thirds of the beepers were owned by business.
Features on the beeper/ pager, an interesting part that I found in the text: “More than 600 companies around the country, called carriers, offer one or more of four types of services: tone only, a sound or a vibration; tone and voice, a voice message of up to 10 seconds; numeric or digital, which displays a phone number to call; and alphanumeric, which displays a text message of up to 1,000 characters. 11 Million Rent or Own Them”
While researching beepers, I have been having discussions with my mom about when she used to own a beeper. The article said that beepers featured text messages, so I asked my mom about that: “Only numbers. But you can make simple words and we had some codes like 911 meant a problem and we had one for ok but I can’t remember how we made it. Like ok but out of numbers. 0 and um… 4?””
__________________________________________________
In the year 1843, the first fax machine was invented by Alexander Bain: “an amateur clock maker, Alexander Bain combined parts from clock mechanisms together with telegraph machines to invent his fax machine.” I often find it really interesting for people to be doing one thing, and mixing it all together to invent something new.
I know that to this day my dad has a fax machine, which he uses often to transmit and receive faxes that are to or from his clients. My dad is a contractor, so he is constantly receiving fax messages. If I had to transmit data, I think I would do it through the computer, yet I have seen the fax machine be useful to my dad.
__________________________________________________
Another article that I found to be amusing is the invention of the electric telegraph and telegraphy. When I was reading the article on fax machines, it had a link to telegraphs; which is: “a now outdated communication system that transmitted electric signals over wires from location to location that translated into a message.”
Samuel Morse (1791-1872) successfully invented “a telegraph system that was a practical and commercial success.” Samuel Morse was a professor of arts and design at NYU, when he proved “signals could be transmitted by wire”. Samuel Morse is the man who created Morse Code. “He used pulses of current to deflect an electromagnet, which moved a marker to produce written codes on a strip of paper.”
Annie Ellsworth, who was a young daughter of a friend of Morse’s, chose the line "What hath God wrought?" (Numbers XXIII, 23, by Rev. John Wesley”) to be the first completed line sent through by what was later known as Morse code. When I first read that quote it seemed very poetic for a young lady to pick, yet I found out it was said by a reverend.
When I was in I think eighth grade at School of the Future, I studied the Navajo code, which I found to be very fascinating. While I was reading about the invention of Morse Code I found it to be similar to the Navajo code. Both codes were transmitted through wire, and operators had to be able to translate the codes. They were both like a kind of language, a well as an outdated form of communication.
__________________________________________________
References:
Beepers: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/07/news/a-new-role-for-beepers-keep-families-in-touch.html
Fax Machines: http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventors/a/fax_machine.htm
Telegraph, and Telegraphy: http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm
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