Luke Buehrer
English 101
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Discovery Draft
May 6, 2010
Art is a great mode of thought and analysis. Art has the capacity to spark emotion, provoke thought, and stir the imagination. A black and white picture can show the world in a new light, one that may be seen as simpler or gloomy. While an abstract can lead to all sorts of interesting conclusions. The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali is Surrealistic painting; it is an oil canvas painting that was painted in 1931. The Persistence of Memory is a very famous painting that still takes people into thought and wonder. The simple shapes and unusual objects such as the melting clocks, the dead tree, or the abstract face really make it unique. After looking at it for some time, many ideas of its meaning and propose come to mind. Maybe it the distorted clocks could mean that time distorts depending on certain influences such as emotion. It could be revolving around dreams and their impacts, or even other meanings.
Thinking about the idea that time can distort purely based on emotion made me think to times in my life. School was one of the worst areas for this to occur. Somehow ten minutes of hearing my biology teacher talk could feel like hours. But when I get out of school and go bike or hang out with some friends hours turn to minutes. In the painting there is a sagging clock that is on the branch of the dead tree. The tree may represent death, or bad times. And the long distorted clock could represent time being lengthened or slowed. I know for me when something bad happens like crashing on a bike time instantly slows down. Why must the bad times appear longer than the good ones? There is one clock, which is undistorted, and the only one where the numbers and hands are not visible; also, it is much more extravagant than any other clock. I found this interesting; what could Dali be trying to say by painting this? Possibly that in better times (the extravagant decorations) time may almost become irrelevant. I know that when I have no set plans and just go out to have fun, I later realize I have no idea what time it is. Or maybe that if people were to ignore time, put less on their plates to live simpler their lives may become more rich and fulfilling. With all the new technologies the world is becoming a smaller and faster place every day. With high demands at work, and a need for success, stress is an almost certain side effect. Dali may be trying to convey that a slower life style where relationships and passions outweigh the constant push for the latest and greatest may lead to a satisfying life. And that wealth isn’t measured by your possessions, rather your satisfaction in life. Even though time is for the most part constant (light being the only true constant), our perceptions of time can be fairly unstable.
Another idea that came up after looking at this painting was the unconscious. The abstract face appears to be a woman with her eyes closed, possibly asleep. On top of the face is a clock that covers the face like a blanket. What could he be saying here? He might be trying to say that time can also distort during sleep. There are several ways it could do so. First, time could speed up or slow down the way it does in the conscience. During happy dreams time may appear fast, and during nightmares or dreams of bad memories time could slow. There are no limits to dreams, they can distort time be taking you to the distant past of your childhood, or sometimes even combine times of your life together. Could the land Dali painted be the dream of the abstract face? Maybe the face represents Dali, in a dream. If that’s the case, I wonder why he made the land so bleak and simple. The abstract face is in the darkest part of the painting, and the brightest part is the furthest away. Dali may have been going through hard times when he drew this painting. He could have been trying to show how he feels a long ways away from where he wants to be in life, or that he feels depressed and sees no way out. Dreams are abstract occurrences; this surreal painting may just be making sense of them.
The title of the painting really made me think. While looking at the painting before I know what the title was I never thought too much about memory. By seeing how Dali thought it was a fitting title I needed to look in a little deeper. The Persistence of Memory is interesting by its self. Why would Dali call memory persistent? This seems apparent, wherever you go memory will be with you. Could it be that Dali has memories that keep nagging at him, to the point it is annoying? I honestly can’t see why he chose this title, but I still like it. The only connection to memory I see is through time. The distorted clocks could be representing how time distorts when looking back at memories. With memories you have the ability to warp back to any time in you life instantly. This can make life appear short. If you have lived seventy years but are able to look sum up the main event of your life in a few minutes, appear much shorter than you thought. This idea made me think how every year seems shorter. As a child, summer break felt like a lifetime, but now its gone before I even got used to the idea. Pink Floyd a band of the late sixties and seventies sing about this in their song “Time”,“…you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking. Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, the time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say” (Pink Floyd). They Sum up my idea very well here; the idea of time seeming shorter every year. I wonder why this occurs, is it when your younger life is more exciting because you have experienced little making days seem longer. And as you age you get into a routine and the days seem less exciting and just seem to fly by. Our perception of time is very easily altered based on our feelings and age.
Time can be distorted quite easily when in the presence of memory, as well your age. This painting has made me think a lot about time and how it can be so easily altered by perception. Although I doubt that this is what the painting means, I would rather think about the painting and it mean then just going on-line and looking up what it means. If you just find the meaning without looking for it, there may be no meaning at all.
Works Cited
Floyd, Pink. “Time.” Dark Side of the Moon. London: Abby Road Studios, 1973.
Dali, Salvador. “The Persistence of Memory.” 1931. Oil on Canvas.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Discovery #2
Luke Buehrer
English 101
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Discovery Draft
May 6, 2010
Art is a great mode of thought and analysis. Art has the capacity to spark emotion, provoke thought, and stir the imagination. A black and white picture can show the world in a new light, one that may be seen as simpler or gloomy. While an abstract can lead to all sorts of interesting conclusions. The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali is Surrealistic painting; it is a oil canvas painting that was painted in 1931. The Persistence of Memory is a very famous painting that still takes people into thought and wonder. The simple shapes and unusual objects such as the melting clocks, the dead tree, or the abstract face really make it unique. After looking at it for some time, many ideas of its meaning and propose come to mind. Maybe it the distorted clocks could mean that time distorts depending on certain influences such as emotion. It could be revolving around dreams and their impacts, or even other meanings.
Thinking about the idea that time can distort purely based on emotion made me think to times in my life. School was one of the worst areas for this to occur. Somehow ten minutes of hearing my biology teacher talk could feel like hours. But when I get out of school and go bike or hang out with some friends hours turn to minutes. In the painting there is a sagging clock that is on the branch of the dead tree. The tree may represent death, or bad times. And the long distorted clock could represent time being lengthened or slowed. I know for me when something bad happens like crashing on a bike time instantly slows down. Why must the bad times appear longer than the good ones? There is one clock, which is undistorted, and the only one where the numbers and hands are not visible; also, it is much more extravagant than any other clock. I found this interesting; what could Dali be trying to say by painting this? Possibly that in better times (the extravagant decorations) time may almost become irrelevant. I know that when I have no set plans and just go out to have fun, I later realize I have no idea what time it is. Or maybe that if people were to ignore time, put less on their plates to live simpler their lives may become more rich and fulfilling. With all the new technologies the world is becoming a smaller and faster place every day. With high demands at work, and a need for success, stress is an almost certain side effect. Dali may be trying to convey that a slower life style where relationships and passions outweigh the constant push for the latest and greatest may lead to a satisfying life. And that wealth isn’t measured by your possessions, rather your satisfaction in life. Even though time is for the most part constant (light being the only true constant), our perceptions of time can be fairly unstable.
Another idea that came up after looking at this painting was the unconscious. The abstract face appears to be a woman with her eyes closed, possibly asleep. On top of the face is a clock that covers the face like a blanket. What could he be saying here? He might be trying to say that time can also distort during sleep. There are several ways it could do so. First, time could speed up or slow down the way it does in the conscience. During happy dreams time may appear fast, and during nightmares or dreams of bad memories time could slow. There are no limits to dreams, they can distort time be taking you to the distant past of your childhood, or sometimes even combine times of your life together. Could the land Dali painted be the dream of the abstract face? Maybe the face represents Dali, in a dream. If that’s the case, I wonder why he made the land so bleak and simple. The abstract face is in the darkest part of the painting, and the brightest part is the furthest away. Dali may have been going through hard times when he drew this painting. He could have been trying to show how he feels a long ways away from where he wants to be in life, or that he feels depressed and sees no way out. Dreams are abstract occurrences, this surreal painting may just be making sense of them.
The title of the painting really made me think. While looking at the painting before I know what the title was I never thought too much about memory. By seeing how Dali thought it was a fitting title I needed to look in a little deeper. The Persistence of Memory is interesting by its self. Why would Dali call memory persistent? This seems apparent, wherever you go memory will be with you. Could it be that Dali has memories that keep nagging at him, to the point it is annoying? I honestly can’t see why he chose this title, but I still like it. The only connection to memory I see is through time. The distorted clocks could be representing how time distorts when looking back at memories. With memories you have the ability to warp back to any time in you life instantly. This can make life appear short. If you have lived seventy years but are able to look sum up the main event of your life in a few minutes, appear much shorter than you thought. This idea made me think how every year seems shorter. As a child, summer break felt like a lifetime, but now its gone before I even got used to the idea. Pink Floyd a band of the late sixties and seventies sing about this in their song “Time”,
“…you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking. Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, the time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say” (Pink Floyd).
Time can be distorted quite easily when in the presence of memory, as well your age.
This painting has made me think a lot about time and how it can be so easily altered by perception. Although I doubt that this is what the painting means, I would rather think about the painting and it mean then just going on-line and looking up what it means. If you just find the meaning without looking for it, there may be no meaning at all.
English 101
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Discovery Draft
May 6, 2010
Art is a great mode of thought and analysis. Art has the capacity to spark emotion, provoke thought, and stir the imagination. A black and white picture can show the world in a new light, one that may be seen as simpler or gloomy. While an abstract can lead to all sorts of interesting conclusions. The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dali is Surrealistic painting; it is a oil canvas painting that was painted in 1931. The Persistence of Memory is a very famous painting that still takes people into thought and wonder. The simple shapes and unusual objects such as the melting clocks, the dead tree, or the abstract face really make it unique. After looking at it for some time, many ideas of its meaning and propose come to mind. Maybe it the distorted clocks could mean that time distorts depending on certain influences such as emotion. It could be revolving around dreams and their impacts, or even other meanings.
Thinking about the idea that time can distort purely based on emotion made me think to times in my life. School was one of the worst areas for this to occur. Somehow ten minutes of hearing my biology teacher talk could feel like hours. But when I get out of school and go bike or hang out with some friends hours turn to minutes. In the painting there is a sagging clock that is on the branch of the dead tree. The tree may represent death, or bad times. And the long distorted clock could represent time being lengthened or slowed. I know for me when something bad happens like crashing on a bike time instantly slows down. Why must the bad times appear longer than the good ones? There is one clock, which is undistorted, and the only one where the numbers and hands are not visible; also, it is much more extravagant than any other clock. I found this interesting; what could Dali be trying to say by painting this? Possibly that in better times (the extravagant decorations) time may almost become irrelevant. I know that when I have no set plans and just go out to have fun, I later realize I have no idea what time it is. Or maybe that if people were to ignore time, put less on their plates to live simpler their lives may become more rich and fulfilling. With all the new technologies the world is becoming a smaller and faster place every day. With high demands at work, and a need for success, stress is an almost certain side effect. Dali may be trying to convey that a slower life style where relationships and passions outweigh the constant push for the latest and greatest may lead to a satisfying life. And that wealth isn’t measured by your possessions, rather your satisfaction in life. Even though time is for the most part constant (light being the only true constant), our perceptions of time can be fairly unstable.
Another idea that came up after looking at this painting was the unconscious. The abstract face appears to be a woman with her eyes closed, possibly asleep. On top of the face is a clock that covers the face like a blanket. What could he be saying here? He might be trying to say that time can also distort during sleep. There are several ways it could do so. First, time could speed up or slow down the way it does in the conscience. During happy dreams time may appear fast, and during nightmares or dreams of bad memories time could slow. There are no limits to dreams, they can distort time be taking you to the distant past of your childhood, or sometimes even combine times of your life together. Could the land Dali painted be the dream of the abstract face? Maybe the face represents Dali, in a dream. If that’s the case, I wonder why he made the land so bleak and simple. The abstract face is in the darkest part of the painting, and the brightest part is the furthest away. Dali may have been going through hard times when he drew this painting. He could have been trying to show how he feels a long ways away from where he wants to be in life, or that he feels depressed and sees no way out. Dreams are abstract occurrences, this surreal painting may just be making sense of them.
The title of the painting really made me think. While looking at the painting before I know what the title was I never thought too much about memory. By seeing how Dali thought it was a fitting title I needed to look in a little deeper. The Persistence of Memory is interesting by its self. Why would Dali call memory persistent? This seems apparent, wherever you go memory will be with you. Could it be that Dali has memories that keep nagging at him, to the point it is annoying? I honestly can’t see why he chose this title, but I still like it. The only connection to memory I see is through time. The distorted clocks could be representing how time distorts when looking back at memories. With memories you have the ability to warp back to any time in you life instantly. This can make life appear short. If you have lived seventy years but are able to look sum up the main event of your life in a few minutes, appear much shorter than you thought. This idea made me think how every year seems shorter. As a child, summer break felt like a lifetime, but now its gone before I even got used to the idea. Pink Floyd a band of the late sixties and seventies sing about this in their song “Time”,
“…you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun. And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking. Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines. Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, the time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say” (Pink Floyd).
Time can be distorted quite easily when in the presence of memory, as well your age.
This painting has made me think a lot about time and how it can be so easily altered by perception. Although I doubt that this is what the painting means, I would rather think about the painting and it mean then just going on-line and looking up what it means. If you just find the meaning without looking for it, there may be no meaning at all.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Reflection
Luke Buehrer
Written Reflection
May 4th 2010
Reflecting on my culminating project I realize what I have learned, how I have grown and what I have accomplished. I came into the project not expecting to learn anything. I had this expectation because I received my AA in Building Construction (Running Start, BTC). Seeing how my project revolved around building it seemed like there wasn’t much more to learn. I didn’t learn too much about building methods, although I did learn how to glaze windows (lots of fun). The big thing I learned however, is the Green building methods and technologies available. With Green building becoming an ever increasingly popular choice in new construction, it is very useful to have this knowledge and understanding.
My project did not have a huge or noticeable community impact. However, there could be some more indirect impacts. Since my parent’s house is much more Green and energy efficient there will be a savings on both ends, the money in their pocket and the consumption of outside energy. This could help our local economy, with my parents having a little more cash around they would be more inclined to buy; which would help businesses. Also, there would be an environmental impact. With the savings of energy the environment would possibly be better off because there would be fewer green house emissions, which would slow the rate of Global Warming ( Assuming Global Warning even exists, despite the overwhelming evidence against it, and the fact that there has been proven to be no link between green house gases causing Global Warming).
The one regret of mine is that I was unable to do the project I truly wanted to do. The High School said that there had to be a community impact, which after explaining the relatively low impact mine had, is a little confusing to me. My original plan was to build a house with Squalicum Builders (The boss being my community advisor). But some how building a house, which is quite literally building the community was unacceptable. I did end up working on that house but as a side project. Another reason why I was not allowed to do my original proposal was because I would be paid for it. It seems like this project is partly to help spark students passions and help them pursue their passions so they know what to do after they graduate. But when I get in to a spot where I am passionate, being paid and directly helping the community it is not okay. Instead I have to slightly benefit the environment. And why is it bad to make money while doing this project. I am not a very greedy person, infact I volunteer all the time. It’s just I don’t like the idea of being forced in to volunteering, which is rather contradictory. I am not trying to come across cold and rebellious, I just would like to see this project be a little more flexible to help match all the students’ passion. I did enjoy doing my culminating project, but I would have been happier doing something I feel passionate about, that more directly relates to the career path I have already chosen.
Other than that I think this has been a good project, however it is a bit weird coming back to the High School and doing a project since I haven’t been here for two years
Written Reflection
May 4th 2010
Reflecting on my culminating project I realize what I have learned, how I have grown and what I have accomplished. I came into the project not expecting to learn anything. I had this expectation because I received my AA in Building Construction (Running Start, BTC). Seeing how my project revolved around building it seemed like there wasn’t much more to learn. I didn’t learn too much about building methods, although I did learn how to glaze windows (lots of fun). The big thing I learned however, is the Green building methods and technologies available. With Green building becoming an ever increasingly popular choice in new construction, it is very useful to have this knowledge and understanding.
My project did not have a huge or noticeable community impact. However, there could be some more indirect impacts. Since my parent’s house is much more Green and energy efficient there will be a savings on both ends, the money in their pocket and the consumption of outside energy. This could help our local economy, with my parents having a little more cash around they would be more inclined to buy; which would help businesses. Also, there would be an environmental impact. With the savings of energy the environment would possibly be better off because there would be fewer green house emissions, which would slow the rate of Global Warming ( Assuming Global Warning even exists, despite the overwhelming evidence against it, and the fact that there has been proven to be no link between green house gases causing Global Warming).
The one regret of mine is that I was unable to do the project I truly wanted to do. The High School said that there had to be a community impact, which after explaining the relatively low impact mine had, is a little confusing to me. My original plan was to build a house with Squalicum Builders (The boss being my community advisor). But some how building a house, which is quite literally building the community was unacceptable. I did end up working on that house but as a side project. Another reason why I was not allowed to do my original proposal was because I would be paid for it. It seems like this project is partly to help spark students passions and help them pursue their passions so they know what to do after they graduate. But when I get in to a spot where I am passionate, being paid and directly helping the community it is not okay. Instead I have to slightly benefit the environment. And why is it bad to make money while doing this project. I am not a very greedy person, infact I volunteer all the time. It’s just I don’t like the idea of being forced in to volunteering, which is rather contradictory. I am not trying to come across cold and rebellious, I just would like to see this project be a little more flexible to help match all the students’ passion. I did enjoy doing my culminating project, but I would have been happier doing something I feel passionate about, that more directly relates to the career path I have already chosen.
Other than that I think this has been a good project, however it is a bit weird coming back to the High School and doing a project since I haven’t been here for two years
Friday, April 30, 2010
final 101
Luke Buehrer
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Final Draft
English 101
April 18, 2010
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of “The Owl Has Flown”) feel that “ We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. Is technology doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. Texting and other new technologies seem like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But what if it really is hurting instead of helping? Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, people can just stop texting; they don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, one can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity or at least being less competent to find information. Could these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Carrying on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-centered garbage. Since they have access to these technologies all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. Someone wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing,” as is so common now with the internet. Technology has made communication something that people do when their bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. Sites like Face Book and Myspace allow people to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving their computer. There are lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. In order to have a social life individuals must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people about how bored they are. With out real life interaction, it seems hard to call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
Texting has had a huge impact, the U.S. Census Bureau found that text messaging sent on cell phones more than doubled from 48 million in December 2007 to 110 billion in December 2008(Is Texting Destroying English Language).This rise in text must have an effect of communication. Beth L. Jokinen, author of Is Texting Destroying English Language said, “With so much texting, it's bound to impact all the grammar and spelling educators spend valuable time teaching.” This impact easily could be harmful, but I wonder if there could be a more consequences of texting? Without the ability to communicate clearly and intelligently there could be some bigger consequences. If people begin using “Text language” for normal talking, a trend that is on the rise many things could be in harms way. Saying “Lol” and other chat room words makes for shallow communication. Without meaningful conversations, new ideas made be bouncing thought of each other will become scarce. The innovation that has made the past century may slow leading to a bleak future.
Texting also can lead to addictive habits. Teenagers especially have a tendency to over use this new technology. A very common symptom of people who over text is a loss of sleep; because they don’t want to miss a text. Many teenagers are becoming sleep deprived because of this. The director of the Oakland, California-based Public Health Institute's Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development says sleep deprivation is linked to memory and concentration problems, anxiety and depression, moodiness and hyperactivity (What’s that tap tap tap in the night!; Teens’ texting causes sleep problems). If sleep deprivation is link to all these problems then there must be an impact on their social life as well. Being moody, tired and depressed must make socializing hard. It is almost ironic, the desire to be in constant communication may lead to depression, which leads to isolation. So by over socializing it may be possible to become anti-social.
Admittedly these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. People can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If one already know someone well then it’s easier to have meaningful conversations on-line, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make people feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because they can carry on conversations whenever you want with them, and keep in touch with their life. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Burrell, Jackie. "Whats that tap tap tap in the night!; Teens’ texting causes sleep
problems." (2009): n. pag. Web. 30 Apr 2010.
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and
Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The
Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Jokinen, Beth. "Is Texting Destroying English Language." (2009): n. pag. Web. 30 Apr
2010.
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Final Draft
English 101
April 18, 2010
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of “The Owl Has Flown”) feel that “ We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. Is technology doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. Texting and other new technologies seem like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But what if it really is hurting instead of helping? Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, people can just stop texting; they don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, one can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity or at least being less competent to find information. Could these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Carrying on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-centered garbage. Since they have access to these technologies all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. Someone wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing,” as is so common now with the internet. Technology has made communication something that people do when their bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. Sites like Face Book and Myspace allow people to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving their computer. There are lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. In order to have a social life individuals must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people about how bored they are. With out real life interaction, it seems hard to call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
Texting has had a huge impact, the U.S. Census Bureau found that text messaging sent on cell phones more than doubled from 48 million in December 2007 to 110 billion in December 2008(Is Texting Destroying English Language).This rise in text must have an effect of communication. Beth L. Jokinen, author of Is Texting Destroying English Language said, “With so much texting, it's bound to impact all the grammar and spelling educators spend valuable time teaching.” This impact easily could be harmful, but I wonder if there could be a more consequences of texting? Without the ability to communicate clearly and intelligently there could be some bigger consequences. If people begin using “Text language” for normal talking, a trend that is on the rise many things could be in harms way. Saying “Lol” and other chat room words makes for shallow communication. Without meaningful conversations, new ideas made be bouncing thought of each other will become scarce. The innovation that has made the past century may slow leading to a bleak future.
Texting also can lead to addictive habits. Teenagers especially have a tendency to over use this new technology. A very common symptom of people who over text is a loss of sleep; because they don’t want to miss a text. Many teenagers are becoming sleep deprived because of this. The director of the Oakland, California-based Public Health Institute's Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development says sleep deprivation is linked to memory and concentration problems, anxiety and depression, moodiness and hyperactivity (What’s that tap tap tap in the night!; Teens’ texting causes sleep problems). If sleep deprivation is link to all these problems then there must be an impact on their social life as well. Being moody, tired and depressed must make socializing hard. It is almost ironic, the desire to be in constant communication may lead to depression, which leads to isolation. So by over socializing it may be possible to become anti-social.
Admittedly these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. People can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If one already know someone well then it’s easier to have meaningful conversations on-line, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make people feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because they can carry on conversations whenever you want with them, and keep in touch with their life. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Burrell, Jackie. "Whats that tap tap tap in the night!; Teens’ texting causes sleep
problems." (2009): n. pag. Web. 30 Apr 2010.
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and
Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The
Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Jokinen, Beth. "Is Texting Destroying English Language." (2009): n. pag. Web. 30 Apr
2010.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Draft #1
Luke Buehrer
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Assignment #1
English 101
April 18, 2010
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of The Owl Has Flown) feel that “We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. Is technology doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. This seems like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But what if it really is hurting instead of helping. Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, people can just stop texting; they don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, one can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity or at least being less competent to find information. Could these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Caring on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-center garbage. Since they have access to this all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. Someone wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing,” as is so common now with the internet. Technology has made communication something that people do when their bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. Sites like Face Book and Myspace allow people to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving their computer. There are lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. In order to have a social life individuals must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people about how bored they are. With out real life interaction, it seems hard to call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
Texting has had a huge impact, the U.S. Census Bureau found that text messaging sent on cell phones more than doubled from 48 million in December 2007 to 110 billion in December 2008(Is Texting Destroying English Language).This rise in text must have an effect of communication. Beth L. Jokinen, author of Is Texting Destroying English Language said, “With so much texting, it's bound to impact all the grammar and spelling educators spend valuable time teaching.” While this easily could be true could it have a even bigger impact. Without the ability to communicate clearly and intelligently there could be some bigger consequences. If people begin using “Text language” for normal talking, a trend that is on the rise many things could be in harms way. Saying “Lol” and other chat room words makes for shallow communication. Without meaningful conversations, new ideas made be bouncing thought of each other will become scarce. The innovation that has made the past century may slow leading to a bleak future.
Texting also can lead to addictive habits. Teenagers especially have a tendency to over use this new technology. A very common symptom of people who over text is a loss of sleep; because they don’t want to miss a text. Many teenagers are becoming sleep deprived because of this. The director of the Oakland, Calif.-based Public Health Institute's Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development says sleep deprivation is linked to memory and concentration problems, anxiety and depression, moodiness and hyperactivity ( W h a t ' s t h a t ' t a p t a p t a p ' i n t h e n i g h t ? ; T e e n s ' t e x t i n g c a u s e s s l e e p p r o b l e m s). If sleep deprivation is link to all these problems then there must be an impact on their social life as well. Being moody, tired and depressed must make socializing hard. It is almost ironic, the desire to be in constant communication may lead to depression, which leads to isolation. So by over socializing it may be possible to become anti-social.
Admittedly these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. People can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If one already know someone well then it’s easier to have meaningful conversations on-line, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make people feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because they can carry on conversations whenever you want with them, and keep in touch with their life. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Beth L. Jokinen. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: Dec 28, 2009.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Jackie Burrell. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Nov 1, 2009. p. 25
Dr. Amy Amendt-Raduege
Assignment #1
English 101
April 18, 2010
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of The Owl Has Flown) feel that “We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. Is technology doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. This seems like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But what if it really is hurting instead of helping. Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, people can just stop texting; they don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, one can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity or at least being less competent to find information. Could these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Caring on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-center garbage. Since they have access to this all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. Someone wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing,” as is so common now with the internet. Technology has made communication something that people do when their bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. Sites like Face Book and Myspace allow people to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving their computer. There are lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. In order to have a social life individuals must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people about how bored they are. With out real life interaction, it seems hard to call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
Texting has had a huge impact, the U.S. Census Bureau found that text messaging sent on cell phones more than doubled from 48 million in December 2007 to 110 billion in December 2008(Is Texting Destroying English Language).This rise in text must have an effect of communication. Beth L. Jokinen, author of Is Texting Destroying English Language said, “With so much texting, it's bound to impact all the grammar and spelling educators spend valuable time teaching.” While this easily could be true could it have a even bigger impact. Without the ability to communicate clearly and intelligently there could be some bigger consequences. If people begin using “Text language” for normal talking, a trend that is on the rise many things could be in harms way. Saying “Lol” and other chat room words makes for shallow communication. Without meaningful conversations, new ideas made be bouncing thought of each other will become scarce. The innovation that has made the past century may slow leading to a bleak future.
Texting also can lead to addictive habits. Teenagers especially have a tendency to over use this new technology. A very common symptom of people who over text is a loss of sleep; because they don’t want to miss a text. Many teenagers are becoming sleep deprived because of this. The director of the Oakland, Calif.-based Public Health Institute's Center for Research on Adolescent Health and Development says sleep deprivation is linked to memory and concentration problems, anxiety and depression, moodiness and hyperactivity ( W h a t ' s t h a t ' t a p t a p t a p ' i n t h e n i g h t ? ; T e e n s ' t e x t i n g c a u s e s s l e e p p r o b l e m s). If sleep deprivation is link to all these problems then there must be an impact on their social life as well. Being moody, tired and depressed must make socializing hard. It is almost ironic, the desire to be in constant communication may lead to depression, which leads to isolation. So by over socializing it may be possible to become anti-social.
Admittedly these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. People can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If one already know someone well then it’s easier to have meaningful conversations on-line, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make people feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because they can carry on conversations whenever you want with them, and keep in touch with their life. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Beth L. Jokinen. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Washington: Dec 28, 2009.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Jackie Burrell. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Nov 1, 2009. p. 25
Monday, March 15, 2010
final essay
Luke Buehrer Out of Class Essay #2
Eng 100 B
March 15, 2010
Poor Communication
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like Clive Thompson (Author of A New Literacy) feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of The Owl Has Flown) feel that “We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. I wonder if technology is doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. This seems like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But I wonder if it really is hurting instead of helping. Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, you just stop texting; you don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems to me that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, you can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity (hence the title). I wonder if these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Caring on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-center garbage. Since they have access to this all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. You wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing.” Technology has made communication something that you do when your bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. One of the biggest things that annoys me with sites like Face Book and Myspace is that it allows you to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving you computer. I know lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. I personally don’t partake in these sites. I think that to have a social life you must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people how bored you are. With out real life interaction I find it hard to see how you can call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. I don’t know the statistics but I am sure they don’t have the longest marriages out there. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
I must admit however, that these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. You can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If you already know someone well then its easier to have meaningful conversations, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make you feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because you can carry on conversations whenever you want with them. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
Chat rooms and texting from every angle I look seem to hurt people’s social, and communication skills. These sites promote easy escape from awkward situations, encourage skimming of conversations that ultimately leads to poor communication skills, let people blabber on about them selves, reinforcing immature habits, and also kill true social lives. Avoiding bias, I agree that these sites are not all bad. They help spark, and carry on established relationships. But without the proper usage of this new technology you can do a lot more harm than good.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Eng 100 B
March 15, 2010
Poor Communication
No one argues that the world has changed drastically in the past decade with the rise of technology. When technology comes up, almost every one has an opinion. Some people like Clive Thompson (Author of A New Literacy) feel that technology is pushing literacy in new exciting directions. Where others like Sven Birkerts (Author of The Owl Has Flown) feel that “We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth—a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical conscience.” (Birkerts 32) What he basically says here is that we are losing depth and wisdom, because of new conveniences technology offers. I wonder if technology is doing what Birkerts suggest (loss of wisdom) to people’s social lives? Maybe social interaction and communication skills are becoming less important with the new ease of technology, making peoples social and communication skills shallower and less meaningful.
Texting and chat rooms are now a huge form of communication. With cell phones people are now able to carry on conversations from almost anywhere, at any distance and at any time. This seems like it would be a good thing. First it makes communication much more efficient, allows for more social interaction, and can promote relationships. But I wonder if it really is hurting instead of helping. Texting is now more common than phone calls; it’s quicker and allows people to hide behind text. Where people once had to practice carrying on real life conversations, texting offers relief from possible awkward situations. If something uncomfortable comes up, you just stop texting; you don’t have to try ending the conversation. This can lead to poor communication skills, because little effort is put forth practicing communicating in hard situations.
Nicholas Carr, author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” notices a different developing trend caused by the Web, “The more they (literate types) use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing.” (Carr par. 5) He is saying that the ease of sites like Google and Spark Notes is making reading for extended periods of time harder and harder. It seems to me that this same principle may be true for communication. Like skimming over different texts, you can skim over different conversations in chat rooms, never fully committed to one. This possibly leading to weak skills on carrying on lengthy talks, similar to reading long books or articles. Carr suggests that this inability to read leads to stupidity (hence the title). I wonder if these chat rooms could do the same? If people rarely carry on in deep conversions how could they develop vertical thinking? As Birkerts suggests, personal reflection and resonance is a big key to gaining wisdom. But without others to bounce ideas off of, wisdom is hard to grasp.
Caring on conversations is important, but the context of the conversation is equally if not more important. Particularly true with teenagers, the conversations revolve around shallow self-center garbage. Since they have access to this all the time there is little effort put forth to have a meaningful talk. When this technology was not around, people had to either write a letter, or call a person up. This made for more meaningful conversations because access to talk was not always present. You wouldn’t write a letter to a friend saying you were just “hanging ‘round doin’ nothing.” Technology has made communication something that you do when your bored, just to entertain, not gain depth.
Technology is a great time-killer, but also offers a false sense of a social life. One of the biggest things that annoys me with sites like Face Book and Myspace is that it allows you to have friends and a “social life” with out ever leaving you computer. I know lots of people with hundreds of on-line friends, but they don’t know half of them. They just like the idea that they are popular. I personally don’t partake in these sites. I think that to have a social life you must go out and do stuff with others, not just sit around blabbering to people how bored you are. With out real life interaction I find it hard to see how you can call these on-line friends true friends. Relationships are built off of past experiences together. This is hard to accomplish on-line, some people manage to meet on-line, get engaged on-line and first see each other on their wedding day. I don’t know the statistics but I am sure they don’t have the longest marriages out there. Although these sites can help spark relationships, healthy relationships occur off the computer.
I must admit however, that these sites do offer some good. They can help people’s social lives, but if only used correctly. The way I see how to use these site appropriately is to do two things, first use it to spark relationships. You can meet lots of people on web sites (like E Harmony a dating site), but you don’t continue your relationship on the site you go out and get to know them in real life. The other way it can be used for healthy relationships is by carrying on an already established relationship. If you already know someone well then its easier to have meaningful conversations, because you know them. But relationships based around the computer can never be strong. Another way that sites offer good is to enable far away relatives or friends to communicate with each other. These sites can make you feel a lot closer to far away relatives and friends because you can carry on conversations whenever you want with them. The big key to using this technology, like almost anything, is moderation.
Chat rooms and texting from every angle I look seem to hurt people’s social, and communication skills. These sites promote easy escape from awkward situations, encourage skimming of conversations that ultimately leads to poor communication skills, let people blabber on about them selves, reinforcing immature habits, and also kill true social lives. Avoiding bias, I agree that these sites are not all bad. They help spark, and carry on established relationships. But without the proper usage of this new technology you can do a lot more harm than good.
My perspective may be different from the average American because I use these technologies little. So I may not have first hand experience, but I have observed my friends partake in these technologies. I am not saying they are brainless robots, but I am concerned that this life style could lead to a loss in the future, with poor communication skills and possible weak relationships; life may not seem as fruitful. In the end, these trends will not end the world, but certainly technology like texting and chat rooms are not an activity to overindulge in.
Works Cited
Birkerts, Sven. "The Owl Has Flown." 1994. Making Sense: Essays on Art, Science, and Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 28-34. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic July-Aug. 2008. The Atlantic Wire, July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
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