Hunger for more

I find it hard to be inspired to read. Throughout my entire academic life I don't think I had ever enjoyed reading a book aside from fight club my senior year in high school. When I read the hunger games, I was literally hungry to read more. In that book, I found enjoyment like no other book or video game I've picked up. The book moved me and I fell in love with it. If only all books could read like this or could captivate me like this, I might not be bored as often.

Dying for Drama

     American society loves drama, whether it be in the form of reality tv or just our every day life, we love to have drama in our lives.  What else is there in our day to day that entertains us?  Class? Watching TV? I doubt it.  I always hear gossip between my girlfriend and her friends about so much different stuff, I don't know how she keeps it straight.  But maybe this is just our perverse tradition of our need for drama, or maybe it is just a portion of our life that is unavoidable.
     On the other hand, why is America so entertained with violence?  America is not entertained by real violence, it is dramatic or virtual.  If the majority of Americans were to see a person actually die in a movie, they would be absolutely repulsed.   The networks know this so they gives us the dramatized and "clean" version.  But we as the audience keep the dramatic violence and every day drama coming back because it is what we know and love.

Prison of Ignorance

     Big Brother is all around us, although no where near to the extent as the novel 1984.  If you think about it, any security camera or any thing like it is controlled by the government.  I assume that it is against the law just to seize someone's video footage, but let's be honest, our government does what they want.  If they don't like something you uncover, you'll disappear.  My dad was telling me once about a conspiracy theorist that was uncovering a long hidden secret in the government.  During his research, he wrote a journal ,in which he stated
  he was coming close to finding out something big, and don't be surprised if he was "suicided" because of what he was finding.  I believe it was a month later, this same man was found dead of apparent suicide, but with no weapon or means to kill himself near him.  Getting to my point, what the government wants, the government gets, and there is nothing we can do about it.  Sure we may try to fight, but who is willing to give their life for something as simple as their video footage.
     Their is obviously no such thing as privacy anymore.  if you have a cell phone, the cell phone company can track where you are whenever they want.  Sure, there is an option to turn the gps signal off, but do you really believe that they can't just flip a switch and turn it back on?  Of course no one is watching us in our homes, but when we are out on the street, there are traffic cameras, store security cameras, etc... in short, I believe that America is ignorant to the fact that we are really always being watched, but i guess ignorance is bliss and U.S.A seems to be the happiest place on earth.
     Many people give up some of their freedoms for their own safety.  Back to my point about all of the cameras and being watched, people feel safe because their is a security camera watching out for you, but truthfully, that camera is suspicious of each and every one of us.  No one is a normal person in a security camer's eye, you are the criminal until you leave that camera's view without committing a crime.
     I hate being watched and the feeling of being watched.  i am especially uncomfortable with all the GPS tracking that in my phone and my computer.  I don't want the novel 1984 to become reality, but in some ways, it already has.

Harder Than I Thought

The Challenge that was posed to us early in the semester to give up our worldly possessions is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  Like I said in class Thursday, my phone died last Tuesday, so I was without my phone for about 3 hours.  I hated it.  i couldn't talk to my girlfriend, I couldn't check my email, and I simply couldn't check the time.  My phone has become part of me.  I guess it could be because i had to have my phone with me all the time, or my dad would take it away.  He wanted my sister and i to answer the phone whenever he called, and i did it.   He saw it as more of an emergency line than anything.  How I felt when I didn't have my phone to use was awful, but I don't think I would have any problem giving up my TV or xbox.  I barely watched TV this summer and used my xbox maybe once or twice.  There truly are way more productive things that I could be doing rather than watching TV or playing xbox.  This is the first time in my life that I am actually reading for leisure.  I'm still not the biggest fan of reading, but the books seem to keep me interested more now for some reason.

I also want to say a little bit about our small conversation about corporations and what will happen if there is not more control of them.  I really liked when Abraham Lincoln was quoted in Culture Jam saying, "Corporations have been enthroned....An era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working on the prejudices of the people....until wealth is aggregated in a few hands....and the republic is destroyed." (68).  We can see corruption in high places everywhere.  Bernie Madhoff is a prime example.  Men with too much power will abuse it to a dangerous extent, and maybe the only way to stop it is another revolution.

Stereotypical Author

Bauerlein made some really good arguments, and I do not entirely believe that we are the dumbest generation.  Someone in class pointed out that every generation thinks the one after them is the dumbest.  If you were to give my parents the quiz you gave me today, they would probably score even lower than I did.  It is not that we are dumb; we are adapted to what we need to know.  If an adult does not know how to use a cell phone, some of the people in today’s society might call them dumb.

I also really did not like how he was stereotyping us all.  I don’t know how everyone else is, but I know that schoolwork is dominating my brain almost all day every day.  Usually, I am so stressed from my school work that I have regular headaches.

During the “Jaywalking” video we were shown, I am fairly sure I did not know only one of the questions that were asked.  Also, if I’m not mistaken, many of the people in that video were from the generation before.  I find that interesting seeing as though Bauerlein is being so hostile toward our lack of knowledge.  He did make another good point though that students want to learn.  We want someone to be our mentor and to kick our asses in to shape.

Take Me Away

     Do the identities we occupy "virtually" have real significance, value, and meaning?  In Second Skin, the handicapped gamers seemed to feel that their virtual selves were in fact significant, valuable, and meaningful.  The significance to these gamers would have to be that they have an escape from their physical selves.  I remember one woman in the film saying that she did not like when a person would see her and immediately judge her.  It is human nature to question what is different, and when we see someone with a handicap, odds are that we think they are different.  In terms of value, what is more valuable than to have the use of your legs again if you are paralyzed below the waist?  What is more valuable then to be able to speak again if you're mute.  no one can put an actual value on these but the gamers.  We wonder why they choose to live these second lives, but they will probably wonder why we don't.  What is imperfect in our lives now can become perfected in the game. 
     In terms of the new frontier, I hope that our generation is smart enough to not let technology command our whole lives.  If a solar flare, like one predicted for 2012, were to in fact change the position of the poles, we would have no way to communicate by phone email or anything like that.  What would happen to society? It can be as simple as no one knows how to send a letter.  What would we do without texting or calling? Would a kid in today's society walk to their friends house to ask them a question? In my opinion, there is no way that would ever happen.  I think that yes technology is the new frontier, but I hope that we don't let technology over run our lives. 
    For authenticity, no matter how original you think you are, in today's society, i believe you can never call yourself original.

Media Emotions

              Today, I’m going to discuss whether or not today’s media, such as television, video games, and commercials can compromise or shape our emotions and sense of empathy.  First off, I do not believe, as young adults, that our emotions are noticeably shaped by the media in the world around us.  In my opinion, children are a lot more likely to have their emotions compromised by the media around them.  When I was a child, I was a perfect example of this.  I used to play video games and watch TV all day.  During my freshman year in high school, my cousin Rachael went missing right after the New Year.  My family was in a panic, but for me, it did not impact me emotionally.  It was almost like she was just kind of in the back of my mind.  Then two weeks later, she was found dead and we heard the news.  My dad came to me crying and told me.  At first I was just shocked, but then I felt melancholy.  I was not distraught, but I was saddened.  It did not really hit me how I truly felt until I hugged my cousin Trevor, Rachael’s brother.  I broke down in tears.  My life changed after that day.

                In contrast, my family was again struck by tragedy last year.  My cousin David had been found dead in Philadelphia.  This time I was not with any of my family.  I received a call from my sister.  I will not forget the way she sounded when the first words came out of her mouth, “Leo, can you talk? I have some really bad news.”  I had no idea what she meant, but I was immediately worried about her.  Then she told me and tears immediately streamed down my face.  It is not easy to describe, but all I could think for the next hour was how I just wanted to talk to David one more time.  With that comparison in mind, I do think children these days will in fact be emotionally compromised unless they are unfortunately stricken by tragedy.  Media absolutely influences emotions and actions of kids especially.

                Also, from the assigned reading, I would like to discuss a question that I came up from the first section, how are our lives affected daily by our “electronic mass media environment?”  Any person who is alive today would have no problem answering this question.  When I walk into my house, I take the remote and turn the TV, even if I don’t plan on watching it.  This could bring me to the point of “noise” in our lives, which is in fact just for the noise.  But in regards to media influencing us daily, I am listening to music and watching TV as I’m watching us.  No matter what we do, the majority of us will in fact watch TV, listen to music, or use our cell phone.  If we were to try to give up any of these, as Dr. Mortimore-Smith was saying, we would have a lot of difficulty.  As Culture Jam also states, we have gone from living in a natural world to a manufactured one.  We will watch nature on TV before we actually go outside and experience it.  We have become lazy, wanting, and shrink wrapped.

"Test"

My full name is Leo Paul Cornelius III.  I love playing hockey and sitting around with my roommates listening to music and just hanging out.  I am majoring in Physics Secondary Education, but I may switch it to some sort of business.  I'm minoring in French and have 5 years with conversational french already.  I don't particularly like to read, but I do in fact like reading and then talking about what I read, and this class seems perfect for that. The last and definitely most interesting book that I've ever read was Fight Club.  I'm a big fan of music and movies.  My favorite movie is Goodfellas and my favorite band is either Pink Floyd or the Grateful Dead.  I have read many books for school, but few without being assigned them.  In my opinion, literature is any form of text.