Homework #15, Treasure Hunting

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.