Esther- I appreciate that you had so much passion in this post, you seem to really enjoy photography and it was nice that you incorporated that into this unit.
Basically, you researched about Brownie cameras which seem to be old fashioned kind of cameras.
I can connect with you where you say that pictures today do not hold much meaning. I agree, I feel like in general, all the pictures today are to brag about yourself, to post on facebook and tag your friends. Cameras today as so high-tech, they will capture everything, whereas, I believe older kind of cameras seem to have more character and it has more meaning. But I'm guessing that at the time period, those cameras were pretty impressive and were just like any other picture. But I guess now we appreciate the history behind it.
You could maybe deveop this post by getting more into what a brownie camera is because I didn't really get a clear understanding of it.
Maybe you could explore what brownie cameras were generally used for at the time and who used them.
Cool research topic-Sandy
Esther- your experiment was very unique.
This blog post, from what I understood, was that without DRDs you were able to apply your emotions physically instead of digitally
I agree that many things are expensive just because its 'branded,' you have to pay extra to be labelled.
This post could be further developed by organizing and making transitions between your ideas I agree with Andy, this would be a pretty cool short story, I would read it.
Exploring, "America's culture is twisted and base on Death." I thought this idea was very interesting and well put. Aside from the Columbus encounter, how is America's twisted culture related to death?
Very creative- Sandy
Esther- I appreciate that even though you did not finish the book, you made an effort to have a general understanding of what happened and get the assignment done.
You basically said that Feed, as an allegory, was on point with the parallels between Titus's life and our own.
I agree with, "Tidus is living a good life but a tragedy. I don't think they are truely happy anyway. They are just following the norm," I think Titus and his friends just do what they think will make them happy according to society, not according to their own beliefs.
To develop this post by including specific examples of how your life is like Titus's. For example, when you said "The randomness of these conversations entertain our "ignorant" minds." maybe you could explain a specific random conversation that entertains our ignorant minds.
To further explore this post, you could connect Violet's quote that you mentioned to our culture, "Do you know the earth is dead?...We take what's coming to us. That's our way." The earth is dead, and death is what builds up our culture (referring to your experiment post) so, the United States being a "leading country," how does our culture influence the rest of the world?
You post influenced some interesting ideas, I liked reading it- Sandy
Omar- You had a very clear and specific post.
You were bascially saying that Feed is on point in the analogy, teenagers relate to Titus pretty closely.
I agree with you where you said that Tobin decided to make the book a traged to make it more realistic. I wrote something along those lines on my blog post as well.
To devlop this blog post maybe by organizing your paragraphs more concisely. For example, in your second paragraph you have two different ideas, so maybe split that up in two seperate paragraphs.
To explore your ideas, after reading this book do you think it has/will influence you to change your DRD habits? How do you think that would affect your life?
I enjoyed reading your post -Sandy
Omar- I like how your post sounded like you were genuinely interested in the book, it made it nice to read.
You basically pointed out the tactics Tobin used to make his book a successful allegory.
I agree with you where you say that although the book is targeted to teenagers, anyone can get something out of it. I said something similar in my post.
To develop your ideas maybe you could use specific examples by using quotes from the book.
To explore this more by thinking about whether Tobin's art would be as effective if it had not been so harsh about the realities of our lifestyles.
You had an interesting perspective in this response- Sandy
Omar- I thought your post was well written
Your main idea was that the two excerpts that you read offered different, more positive ideas about television and video games.
When you make a point to bring up the argument that although video games are frustrating, people still buy them, I thought this was an interesting argument, I see my brothers get frustrated over the games they play but they continue to buy the next versions.
you can develop this post by organizing your ideas in a clear way.
To further explore your ideas, you can get into the specific similarities and differences between Feed and the excerpts.
great post- Sandy
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Hw 14- Second Text
Resoponse to Everything Bad is Good for You- Steven Johnson
The main argum ents about the texts are, the pros of gaming, television, and internet. Johnson talks about how older generations compare the recent digital representation devices to older ones and the percieve the new ones as bad. Johnson then retorts that and goes through all the positive aspects of DRDs.
The older generations compare reading to video games. The bad aspects of video games are generally that it makes you want to play the game until you beat it, so you just sit there all day playing which prevents physical activity and physical interaction. Like reading, it prevents physical activity. But the pros of reading that Johnson mentioned are, that it allows you to exercise the mind which requires effort, concentration and attention. All that video games require as well. To get to the next level a gamer is focused on the game for long periods of time and thinking of ways to get to the next step. Video games can be challenging as well. In a sense, reading and video games do have some core similarities.
Johnson also makes an argument that says, video games are created to make you curious and make you want to know what comes next, that's why it is so addicting but I personally do not find certain games so addicting and it makes me wonder why that is. I can watch my brothers play their video games for about five minutes and it will not interest me and I wonder, if it is designed to grab my attention, why doesn't it grab mine. I think maybe because I am not so accustomed to them, like in Andy's example of how television does not attract him because he is not accustomed to it, while I might find television entertaining because I am accustomed to it, Andy is not.
Then he argues that in comparison to reading, video games expands useless knowledge. Everything you learn in the game is not necessarily of any help to you. But arguably, in reading, depending on what you are reading, they can be useless as well, such as teen fiction books, they are more for entertainment as well. But we don't really learn anything from them, but it is still reading so it physically looks better than sitting and playing a video game all day. But is it really all that much better? Personally I think a good balance of the two is okay.
Then comparing video games to television. There is no interaction with television, you sort of just pay attention and listen to what is going on. Which personally, I don't think is very challenging to do because the shows are created so that people with limited attention spans can watch and remain interested. Some shows require that you watch it from the beginning so you understand what is going on. Others are entertaining whether you have seen the show or not. Either way, I think you can basically figure out what is going on. Johnson also talks about how the audience has to trust the creator to fill in the details for you. In the positive aspects of television, Johnson explains how the viewer analyzes the relationships in the shows and it forces them to pay attention to the connections between the characters. Television also allows you to connect with the characters. On a reality show, the environments might be produced and fake but the emotions are real and relatable to the audience.
In comparison of internet to video games, there is interactivity. You control what you do on the computer and in video games, you control what you do in the game, but in gaming, what you are doing is more specific. If you want to get to the next level you figure out what you have to do. On the computer there are many more options. You have the option to "project your identity onto," you have the freedom to express yourself through the computer. This exercises your cognative muscles.
This excerpt contradicts with Feed in several ways. Feed mainly argues that television, and internet, and gaming generally forces you to be lazy. Because everything is so easy to have access to, all you have to do is think and your answer is there, it makes us brain dead. Whereas, in this excerpt, it goes through what tv, computer, and games does for us in a positive sense.
The main argum ents about the texts are, the pros of gaming, television, and internet. Johnson talks about how older generations compare the recent digital representation devices to older ones and the percieve the new ones as bad. Johnson then retorts that and goes through all the positive aspects of DRDs.
The older generations compare reading to video games. The bad aspects of video games are generally that it makes you want to play the game until you beat it, so you just sit there all day playing which prevents physical activity and physical interaction. Like reading, it prevents physical activity. But the pros of reading that Johnson mentioned are, that it allows you to exercise the mind which requires effort, concentration and attention. All that video games require as well. To get to the next level a gamer is focused on the game for long periods of time and thinking of ways to get to the next step. Video games can be challenging as well. In a sense, reading and video games do have some core similarities.
Johnson also makes an argument that says, video games are created to make you curious and make you want to know what comes next, that's why it is so addicting but I personally do not find certain games so addicting and it makes me wonder why that is. I can watch my brothers play their video games for about five minutes and it will not interest me and I wonder, if it is designed to grab my attention, why doesn't it grab mine. I think maybe because I am not so accustomed to them, like in Andy's example of how television does not attract him because he is not accustomed to it, while I might find television entertaining because I am accustomed to it, Andy is not.
Then he argues that in comparison to reading, video games expands useless knowledge. Everything you learn in the game is not necessarily of any help to you. But arguably, in reading, depending on what you are reading, they can be useless as well, such as teen fiction books, they are more for entertainment as well. But we don't really learn anything from them, but it is still reading so it physically looks better than sitting and playing a video game all day. But is it really all that much better? Personally I think a good balance of the two is okay.
Then comparing video games to television. There is no interaction with television, you sort of just pay attention and listen to what is going on. Which personally, I don't think is very challenging to do because the shows are created so that people with limited attention spans can watch and remain interested. Some shows require that you watch it from the beginning so you understand what is going on. Others are entertaining whether you have seen the show or not. Either way, I think you can basically figure out what is going on. Johnson also talks about how the audience has to trust the creator to fill in the details for you. In the positive aspects of television, Johnson explains how the viewer analyzes the relationships in the shows and it forces them to pay attention to the connections between the characters. Television also allows you to connect with the characters. On a reality show, the environments might be produced and fake but the emotions are real and relatable to the audience.
In comparison of internet to video games, there is interactivity. You control what you do on the computer and in video games, you control what you do in the game, but in gaming, what you are doing is more specific. If you want to get to the next level you figure out what you have to do. On the computer there are many more options. You have the option to "project your identity onto," you have the freedom to express yourself through the computer. This exercises your cognative muscles.
This excerpt contradicts with Feed in several ways. Feed mainly argues that television, and internet, and gaming generally forces you to be lazy. Because everything is so easy to have access to, all you have to do is think and your answer is there, it makes us brain dead. Whereas, in this excerpt, it goes through what tv, computer, and games does for us in a positive sense.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Feed B
Looking at Feed as an art, Tobin uses the allegory to show the reader the typical modern day teenage life in a more extreme way. Tobin uses the allegory as an artistic choice to force the reader to draw the connections between Titus' life and our own. It was also an artistic choice for him to make the book a tragedy. I don't think the readers would feel the same way of the book had a happy ending. As a writer, they try to send a message to readers, to make them think or feel or notice something. A happy ending would make a reader have an 'its okay because everyone else is doing it' kind of attitude about the book. But because the book is a tragedy, personally it made me feel like our society is so corrupt and so lost in norms and technology and that there's something wrong here. Tobin leaves noticing the negative aspects of modern day teenage life.
Also noticing that Tobin's ending is just pointing out that there is a problem and not necessarily going into what should be done about it. He leaves that for the reader to decide whether to go with the flow of society or do something to make it better. I think because he may not necessarily know what to do about it either, he decides to just raise awareness about the ignorance of younger generations in today's world.
I think he is speaking to both mainstream adults and young adults because I feel like this topic of technology distracting us from the world around us is important not only to the young adults, but also to the mainstream adults because I believe they are getting sucked into all the new technologies as well as the younger generations (also shown in the book).
I would think that Tobin decided to write a book instead of a film or a website to shy away from the technologies. I think it would be kind of hypocritical if he decided to use new film or internet technology to make a point that technology is a negative aspect of modern teenage life and that it is making us more ignorant.
"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think that Feed is both a hammer and a mirror because it shows average American teenagers what they look like and how dumb they act when they are trying to be cool and trying to be like everyone else, but in proving this, it begins to shape the reader, depending on how they are affected by the book, in giving them another perspective. The book I don't think is necessarily telling you what to do and specifically shaping your life but it makes the reader almost feel guilty and get the incentive to want to change because of the book's influence. I would want my art to be a mirror and a hammer as well.
Also noticing that Tobin's ending is just pointing out that there is a problem and not necessarily going into what should be done about it. He leaves that for the reader to decide whether to go with the flow of society or do something to make it better. I think because he may not necessarily know what to do about it either, he decides to just raise awareness about the ignorance of younger generations in today's world.
I think he is speaking to both mainstream adults and young adults because I feel like this topic of technology distracting us from the world around us is important not only to the young adults, but also to the mainstream adults because I believe they are getting sucked into all the new technologies as well as the younger generations (also shown in the book).
I would think that Tobin decided to write a book instead of a film or a website to shy away from the technologies. I think it would be kind of hypocritical if he decided to use new film or internet technology to make a point that technology is a negative aspect of modern teenage life and that it is making us more ignorant.
"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think that Feed is both a hammer and a mirror because it shows average American teenagers what they look like and how dumb they act when they are trying to be cool and trying to be like everyone else, but in proving this, it begins to shape the reader, depending on how they are affected by the book, in giving them another perspective. The book I don't think is necessarily telling you what to do and specifically shaping your life but it makes the reader almost feel guilty and get the incentive to want to change because of the book's influence. I would want my art to be a mirror and a hammer as well.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Feed A
1. I think that feed is on target as an allegory of modern teenage life. When I discussed with John and Omar on Friday about the parallels, it was easy to find what was similar and difficult to notice what was different when comparing our lives to Titus's. We noticed that we both get very distracted by digital entertainment. It allows us to escape from reality and we both use it to our advantage more than we should. We also noticed that we are so brain dead we are almost immobile, people feel uncomfortable walking the streets without their ipods and in Feed, everyone has their technology implanted in their brains. We both don't really know what it is like to live without technology. He found it surprising when he Violet told her that not everyone owned a feed, "only about seventy-three percent of Americans have feeds. Oh I said. Yeah. And so I felt stupid. There's so many who don't?"(112). We find it surprising when we know of people who don't own TVs or cell phones etc.
We also discussed what we thought the lesions represented. Omar thought it was more of the big picture, how we are so digital its almost unhealthy while we talk about it like its something cool. I thought maybe it was like cigarettes, they are clearly bad for you but people continue to smoke because they want to look cool, then it turns into an addiction. Then, we talked about Violet, how she was so aware of everything around her but she still cared about what people thought of her. After a party with Titus and his crew Violet chats Titus and says, "Your friends hate me. They think I'm stupid...They think everything I say is weird and stupid...Take me home."(164-165). Although she tried to resist falling under the typical modern teenage life, she still cared about what they thought of her. In our lives we are constantly trying to be accepted by other people.
2. I think there are two main perspectives to the main tragedy, the culture is collapsing. Violet's perspective as a girl who resists the feed, she sees all the misery in the world, she knows more than just what her feed tells her. "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it? No. No, no, no. We don't know any of that. We have tea parties with our teddies. We go sledding. We enjoy being young. We take what's coming to us. That's out way."(273). She tries to resist the feed by "Trying to create a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it. I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible."(98). Although she was aware of what was going on around her, it lead her to her death.
The second perspective is Titus's, he lives a tragedy because he doesn't notice the world around him. He tries to live his life to the fullest by doing stereotypical modern teenage activities, but he is still unhappy. He lives his life just like any other typical teen not knowing what the feed is doing to them. He is so caught up in trying to be cool but he is never really happy.
"It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279).
His perspective adds to the book as a tragedy because he is always "null," he never seems to be satisfied with the thiings he buys or what his feed suggests.
In regards to my life, I suppose I could sit here and say all the things wrong with my life that would mean my life is a tragedy but I think that would just prove it even more of a tragedy. So I'll say that my perspective can be similar to Titus's in how I am dependant on technology and how often times I can be unaware about the world around me. But when I learn about the world around me, I don't really do anything about it, I may make minor adjustments in my own life which in the end, doesn't really solve anything in the bigger picutre.
Imagining our lives as a movie like a modern teenageer, "My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits"(217) I guess in the end everyone's life is a tragedy because we all will die. There may be happy moments in our lives (of course it is debatable whether we are really happy or we just think we are happy) where momentarily you will be happy but at the end of all our lives is death. As of right now my life is not a tragedy because I'm not dead or totally brain dead yet (at least I don't think I am). I think my life is more of a boring sitcom because I my life isn't dramatically sad or dramatically amazing, so somewhere in the middle.
3. I think Feed is pretty on point, while I was ready I easily related to Titus which basically proves the parallel between average teenagers today and Titus. I don't think Titus and his crew are livin "brag" lives. They may be convinced that they are happy because they are following the norms but I don't think any of them will be truly happy until they decide what makes them happy and goes by that instead of what society influences them to do.
We also discussed what we thought the lesions represented. Omar thought it was more of the big picture, how we are so digital its almost unhealthy while we talk about it like its something cool. I thought maybe it was like cigarettes, they are clearly bad for you but people continue to smoke because they want to look cool, then it turns into an addiction. Then, we talked about Violet, how she was so aware of everything around her but she still cared about what people thought of her. After a party with Titus and his crew Violet chats Titus and says, "Your friends hate me. They think I'm stupid...They think everything I say is weird and stupid...Take me home."(164-165). Although she tried to resist falling under the typical modern teenage life, she still cared about what they thought of her. In our lives we are constantly trying to be accepted by other people.
2. I think there are two main perspectives to the main tragedy, the culture is collapsing. Violet's perspective as a girl who resists the feed, she sees all the misery in the world, she knows more than just what her feed tells her. "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it? No. No, no, no. We don't know any of that. We have tea parties with our teddies. We go sledding. We enjoy being young. We take what's coming to us. That's out way."(273). She tries to resist the feed by "Trying to create a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it. I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible."(98). Although she was aware of what was going on around her, it lead her to her death.
The second perspective is Titus's, he lives a tragedy because he doesn't notice the world around him. He tries to live his life to the fullest by doing stereotypical modern teenage activities, but he is still unhappy. He lives his life just like any other typical teen not knowing what the feed is doing to them. He is so caught up in trying to be cool but he is never really happy.
"It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279).
His perspective adds to the book as a tragedy because he is always "null," he never seems to be satisfied with the thiings he buys or what his feed suggests.
In regards to my life, I suppose I could sit here and say all the things wrong with my life that would mean my life is a tragedy but I think that would just prove it even more of a tragedy. So I'll say that my perspective can be similar to Titus's in how I am dependant on technology and how often times I can be unaware about the world around me. But when I learn about the world around me, I don't really do anything about it, I may make minor adjustments in my own life which in the end, doesn't really solve anything in the bigger picutre.
Imagining our lives as a movie like a modern teenageer, "My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits"(217) I guess in the end everyone's life is a tragedy because we all will die. There may be happy moments in our lives (of course it is debatable whether we are really happy or we just think we are happy) where momentarily you will be happy but at the end of all our lives is death. As of right now my life is not a tragedy because I'm not dead or totally brain dead yet (at least I don't think I am). I think my life is more of a boring sitcom because I my life isn't dramatically sad or dramatically amazing, so somewhere in the middle.
3. I think Feed is pretty on point, while I was ready I easily related to Titus which basically proves the parallel between average teenagers today and Titus. I don't think Titus and his crew are livin "brag" lives. They may be convinced that they are happy because they are following the norms but I don't think any of them will be truly happy until they decide what makes them happy and goes by that instead of what society influences them to do.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Digital Experiment:
For my experiment, I watched tv for half an hour, then read for half an hour and noted the similarities and differences. I started watching the show, One Tree Hill, but because our cable is bad, the picture was really fuzzy so I turned to TBS (where the picture was clear) and watched Family Guy. During commercials I would leave to get some food or I'd get distracted by something else very easily so now I can't really remember what happened in the episode, but I know it was one I had seen before. Then after maybe 10 minutes I started watching the Ellen show and the guy from that show Bored to Death was a guest on her show, they gossiped about his marriage and the show and so on. Then I started reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I read the preface which was about how much the book has become a success, then the author talking about how the book came to be. Then I started to read the first chapter, the book starts off where Yossarian, the main character is in the hospital. Then the half hour was up.
I noticed that when I was watching TV, it was very easy for me to get distracted, I could flip the channels and leave the room all I wanted. But when reading the book, it sort of forces you to focus if you want to understand the text. I also noticed that while I was watching TV (my brother was watching with me), you could make commentary with the people you are watching with, watching TV is an experience you can share at the moment wheras, in books, if you make commentary while you are reading, other people don't really understand (similar to reactions to a computer screen), but you can talk about the book afterwards with other people who have read it as well and make commentary. Finally, I noticed that in a half hour of watching tv, you can see the whole story, but in a half hour of reading I only got to read a small part of the story (depending on how fast you read, this can differ). Overall, I feel like both activities can be entertaining as long as you are interested and you understand what you are watching or reading, but television is more instant while reading requires focus and dedication to the book to finish it and see what happens in the end.
I noticed that when I was watching TV, it was very easy for me to get distracted, I could flip the channels and leave the room all I wanted. But when reading the book, it sort of forces you to focus if you want to understand the text. I also noticed that while I was watching TV (my brother was watching with me), you could make commentary with the people you are watching with, watching TV is an experience you can share at the moment wheras, in books, if you make commentary while you are reading, other people don't really understand (similar to reactions to a computer screen), but you can talk about the book afterwards with other people who have read it as well and make commentary. Finally, I noticed that in a half hour of watching tv, you can see the whole story, but in a half hour of reading I only got to read a small part of the story (depending on how fast you read, this can differ). Overall, I feel like both activities can be entertaining as long as you are interested and you understand what you are watching or reading, but television is more instant while reading requires focus and dedication to the book to finish it and see what happens in the end.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Youtube Research + Response
Fox News
This website is a Fox News article basically advertising for youtube, explaining all the positive aspects of this video website. The most interesting part of the text in my opinon, is when the author talks about how one can create their own tv show on youtube easily. Everything is in your control, when to do the show, how you want to edit the videos, what you want your show to be about, etc, "Now you, too, can be a TV producer and a TV programmer. Scheduling? That's in your hands...the capacity of YouTube would appear to be boundless"
In response to this, I feel like when I watch a show on TV in comparison to when I watch a self produced show on youtube, I don't treat them equally. I feel like when I watch something on TV I give it more attention because I get the impression that professionals produced it while on youtube I might skip around or just stop watching in the middle of it. In my own personal experience I feel like there is a well defined line between TV and youtube but I feel like in the future that line will fade as our digital life continues to grow.
Business Week
This website is about how youtube was created, two employees of pay pal wanted to share a video from a party in a simpler way, "It was January, 2005, and they couldn't figure out a good solution. Sending the clips around by e-mail was a bust: The e-mails kept getting rejected because they were so big. Posting the videos online was a headache, too. So last February the two buddies got to work in Hurley's garage, determined to design something simpler." So they came up with youtube. They thought up something that could be done in a simpler way and created it.
It seems to me that most recent technologies are made this way, someone realizes that a proccess is too complicated and they decide to do something to make it easier. Emails makeit easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives mor convenient. This allows us to become lazy. That's why I think electronics are so easy to get addicted to, because it makes things more managable in life even if it does not have to be.
Wikipedia
This is a wikipedia page on youtube about how it was created, and it goes into the social impact which I thought was the most interesting part. "YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture." So in addition to email and facebook and itunes etc. youtube is apart of the essentials to have on your computer.
My response to this is, it makes me wonder, is youtube really all that important, what kind of significance does it hold in my life or other people's lives? Personally, it really has not done very much for me, it has keeps me entertained when I go on youtube, but is it really important? Then I thought about Omar's blog, where he says that most things we do on the computer are pointless. In regards to youtube specifically, I agree. When you go on the computer, what is considered important for you? and why?
This website is a Fox News article basically advertising for youtube, explaining all the positive aspects of this video website. The most interesting part of the text in my opinon, is when the author talks about how one can create their own tv show on youtube easily. Everything is in your control, when to do the show, how you want to edit the videos, what you want your show to be about, etc, "Now you, too, can be a TV producer and a TV programmer. Scheduling? That's in your hands...the capacity of YouTube would appear to be boundless"
In response to this, I feel like when I watch a show on TV in comparison to when I watch a self produced show on youtube, I don't treat them equally. I feel like when I watch something on TV I give it more attention because I get the impression that professionals produced it while on youtube I might skip around or just stop watching in the middle of it. In my own personal experience I feel like there is a well defined line between TV and youtube but I feel like in the future that line will fade as our digital life continues to grow.
Business Week
This website is about how youtube was created, two employees of pay pal wanted to share a video from a party in a simpler way, "It was January, 2005, and they couldn't figure out a good solution. Sending the clips around by e-mail was a bust: The e-mails kept getting rejected because they were so big. Posting the videos online was a headache, too. So last February the two buddies got to work in Hurley's garage, determined to design something simpler." So they came up with youtube. They thought up something that could be done in a simpler way and created it.
It seems to me that most recent technologies are made this way, someone realizes that a proccess is too complicated and they decide to do something to make it easier. Emails makeit easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives mor convenient. This allows us to become lazy. That's why I think electronics are so easy to get addicted to, because it makes things more managable in life even if it does not have to be.
Wikipedia
This is a wikipedia page on youtube about how it was created, and it goes into the social impact which I thought was the most interesting part. "YouTube made it possible for anyone with an Internet connection to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes. The wide range of topics covered by YouTube has turned video sharing into one of the most important parts of Internet culture." So in addition to email and facebook and itunes etc. youtube is apart of the essentials to have on your computer.
My response to this is, it makes me wonder, is youtube really all that important, what kind of significance does it hold in my life or other people's lives? Personally, it really has not done very much for me, it has keeps me entertained when I go on youtube, but is it really important? Then I thought about Omar's blog, where he says that most things we do on the computer are pointless. In regards to youtube specifically, I agree. When you go on the computer, what is considered important for you? and why?
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