pencils to pixels

According to this article, technology is the gateway to literacy. Which is a strong statement considering only half of people would agree with this. Writing is a technology in its own right because it is a new way for us to store information. The pencil is considered a form of technology because it is how we produce. Plato argued that writing was bad for humans, because it could inhibit ones memory due to that person just being able to simply write something down. A pro of the written word is that it is a good way of keeping record. A con could be having the tone of the writing be taken the wrong way, or simply could be easily faked. Thoreau connects to the pencil technology because his family owns a pencil producing factory and tried many things to enhance the pencil itself. The telephone shapes technology because it has a lot in common with the other early technologies of today, it was looked at as impractical before. As it progressed it ended up proving to be very useful and ended up shocking society to how far it has come today. It changed the way people interact with each other, and now how often they meet up in person to talk face to face. Baron's conclusion is that even if you are skeptical about something, still see what its all about, don't just shoo it off. To be literate today, means to be able to not get out of touch with people, and only relying on technology.

Writing in the 21st century

1. Developing a new method or model of writing, coming up with a curriculum to support such methods, and then creating models to teach the methods.
2. In spite of cultures that devalued writing, prohibitions against females and against blacks and in spite of being too young.
3. That as a society we need to write more and encourage the people around as to write more as well.
4. Reading can kind of control society, whereas writing is almost allowing a break of control. Reading is usually related to emotional and enjoyable things where writing can be a lot more serious as times and more about pain.
5. People relate writing to hard work since it requires more energy than reading. It is not looked at as fun, compared to reading an enjoyable book in your spare time. I can relate to this because writing can sometimes stress you out so much you head starts to throb.
6. Process writing consists of invention, drafting, peer review, reflection, revising, rewriting, and finally publishing.
7. A writing that belongs to the writer with the result that people want to compose and do to each other.
8. Due to blogs and social networking sites, more and more writers are being created these days.
9. Yancey argues that the meaning of literacy has changed, so the education for writing should be changed too.
10. Yancey defines literacy as an ability to read and write and produce something not only on paper, but on social media sites as well.

Digital Relationships

In this article, one of Thompson's main claims is that social media like Facebook and Twitter has made us even more close and intent in our friend's day to days lives. He argues how society blames us not as close to our friends as we used to before all the social media, because it's all we do and care about now, but in reality we know even more things are updated daily on our closest friends. He also argues that the more "friends" and more people you "follow" thins out your relationships even more and more as you add more people and you can no longer hold anymore intimate relationships because you're keeping up with a huge number of people. Zuckerburg introduced the News Feed in response to the large number of friends people were gaining. People didn't have the time to go from profile to profile checking up on their friends every day, causing them to lose touch. So in response he made a news feed that included posts from friends in order of the time they were posted, having the most recent be first. Allowing it to be easier to access and view updates from friends; which turned out to be a good idea.
Ambient Awareness is the ability to infer what kind of mood the publisher is in by their use of words and sometimes body language. However, there is a downfall on being so aware of our friends lives without even talking to them. You may know what's going on in their life, and they may know what's going on in yours but neither of you probably tell the whole word all the little details. Which is what you would discuss having a face to face conversation and is what connected you and continues to connect you in the first place. Without the outside connection, you will grow apart, which is what has happened to some of my old high school friends that don't attend the same college as me. An example of an ambient update is when Thompson was talking about how one of his friends on twitter posted how they weren't feeling good, and every day he would see a new update proving how much worse they were getting. In the end, he was able to see the day they turned around, and were finally healthy again.
Social media updates are in fact skimmable. There is no need to look at every single tweet, read every single word in every single paragraph because most of the time you can manage your time more efficiently and still understand what is trying to be said. As for our "weak ties" on social media, I never personally thought about it, but they are in face hurting us. The more and more friends we get on Facebook, the more people we follow on Twitter, the more people we are putting between our real friends and the more we have to divide up our time evenly to check up on every body. You would definitely be more intent on your friends and people you follow if you compared it to 15 people rather than 50 people.
Fads go in and out but people still stay on their old networking sites because where else do they have to go? They don't want to seem weak or lame by deleting their profile because then there is a chance people will forget about them. This article defines literacy as having a network, friends and interesting strangers to follow. The ability to keep up with a large crowd and not get caught behind.

Couch Potatoes and Gin

This article by Shirky is about how our society used to and still has, loads of cognitive surplus. The argument Shirky makes throughout the article is how society has no idea how to use it. We spend it doing useless things like watching tv, rather than editing a wikipedia article online to better educate the society. However she makes a point with the ones who spend all their time watching tv, saying it's better to do something than nothing. Her definition of literacy would be determining how well people are able to manage their free time and what they do with their surplus and if they manage it efficiently or not. It's definitely doesn't relate to the previous definitions of literacy, but I think it's the most smart approach and one that I might end up using in my paper. A cognitive surplus is what humans have and use in order for them to have free time. Most of the time, it's cognitive surplus thats being wasted. This article matters because it can help open the eyes of our today lazy society, the one constantly making up excuses, being couch potatoes, procrastinating with their work, to get out there and actually do something useful and productive.
Similarities throughout this article include the words time and and surplus. Making them directly correlated because they are the main two things we waste to an extreme level every single day. It goes to waste right before our eyes and we even realize we're watching it, but we choose to continue sitting there on the couch and not do anything.

Goooooooogle

In this article, the author talks about how once a simple thing to do is now so difficult. The author used to love sitting down and reading long lengthy books and articles however now he finds himself trying to distract himself with almost anything. He goes on to blame the internet for changing him and his thought process and how he can no longer focus. With all the information we could ever need and think of at the tip of our fingertips, getting too focused on the information we're reading an article on never seems to happen anymore. With the many articles and sites telling us the answer to our question, we no longer have to think so hard, causing our thought process and work ethic to decrease in skill.
Literacy in this article means similar to the previous definition just print instead of speech. It means the deep thought processing when it comes to text or printed articles and how we need to more deeply analyze into things instead of skimming over them.
The internet has changed the thought and reading process of many people. People take half the time they do nowadays to read an article. The internet is broadening what people read rather than making people think deeper into what they read. The author uses older changes in technology to demonstrate what people thought about changes similar to this and how they actually turned out such as the transition to mechanical clocks. In the end, the author is cautioning us to be skeptical of the internet and its ever growing reach, but not to totally cancel it out, for improving technology can be good int the long run.

Miley Ray Cyrus

I am choosing to do my paper on Miley Cyrus's feed on twitter and instagram. Although she's not one of my role models or favorite celebrities, she sure does have a lot of stuff to say. Interesting at that too. Her twitter is not at all censored and she post literally whatever she wants. There is no one stopping her, thus giving great insight onto what she really thinks and is interested in. She is completely out of her shell on social media and I think this could provide a lot of great information for my paper. She gives a great deal of examples with her explicit tweets and pictures that I could use to ask the question, did social media turn her this way? Or has she always been like this and social media has been hiding her until now? I think there's a lot to go into investigation here and i cannot wait to go in depth in her social media accounts.

I wish I had a real tattoo

When I stalk myself on Facebook...well majority of my tagged pictures include me out at a party or concert with my friends. I would probably say that I go to a lot of concerts and night time events, but it's not over the top and it's not like I make it my first priority. My pictures on Facebook probably make me seem like a party girl who is going out every night when in reality I don't. But I will say I do go to my fair share of concerts and music festivals. The same image of me would probably be portrayed through my Instagram also. Not saying that these photos are inappropriate, but it does represent that yes, i do have a social life. However a different image would probably be portrayed on my twitter account. I would probably come off as sarcastic funny person that's constantly joking about the things that's wrong with the world today. Although i do feel pressured to censor myself on twitter because I'm a very outspoken person and I don't want my followers to get upset or offended.
I think if i was sat down on my dream job and handed my most recent activity, the only thing i would be worried about would be twitter. I would consider the others to be fairly safe because i have family on them and am conscious about what i post. Twitter is my go-to. Which is why it's private. However soon I'm going to have to start censoring 24/7 and being careful since I'm going through spring rush next year.

Applause

I'm sure most have seen the cute KIA car commercials with hamsters. Which is why i was ecstatic when i saw that not only did they make a new adorable commercial but it was to one of my new favorite songs, Applause by Lady Gaga. The KIA commercial is a very motivational advertisement. It consists of a story of 3 hamsters going through a process of losing weight, getting in shape, and in the end going to a red carpet premiere. Giving you the feeling of motivation every time you hear the song. However when you go look at the music video, it's like nothing you would expect. It's full of a bunch of weird props, costumes, and makeup. At one point, her head is on a body of a black swan. There's definitely a lot of things to pick apart in her music video because it's full of tons of symbolism. I think I might run into some problems though when it comes to finding what the music video and the commercial have in common. The commercial is motivational while the music video is full of weird symbolism. However, the lyrics can go both ways and I think i can connect the lyrics to either video.

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby soundtrack uses a blend of contemporary music and 20's jazz music because they are establishing the stylized past while glimpsing through modern beats. The hybrid comes across most clearly on retro-modern songs that fuse old and new that include people like Jay Z, Lana Del Rey, Fergie, Will.I.Am, and Amy Winehouse. The times of the 20's and the music of today go together well because some of the main interests were the same. As in the fascination with money, power, violence, and sex. Depending on what song is playing in the background, the mood from the music affects the mood in the movie. For instance, if Lana Del Rey is playing, the mood is usually solemn, gloomy, and melancholy. I think one of the main reasons why they chose Lana Del Rey's music is because her feelings in the lyrics of her songs really relate to the main girl character in the movie, Daisy. They both portray a longing romance with a certain guy in mind and no one else. All of Lana's songs are a love story with a real sadness so they relate to each other perfectly. If Jay Z or Will.I.Am. is playing, the mood is upbeat with a catchy rhythm like a party. Their music is also usually very masculine with controlling lyrics, giving you the feeling of power. These songs would probably be played in the scenes of parties and big gatherings. This unexpected music adds to the movie because it takes the audience by surprise. With the popular modern movie intertwined with this 1920's movie, an audience viewer might be a huge fan of Lana Del Rey (like me) and become even more attached and like the film even more just because their favorite song is in it. I think the modern music was a great idea and it's one of the most genius ideas. I won't be surprised to start seeing soundtracks like this with old movies more often. 

Process and Product

My writing process for Unit 1 was different than usual. This new way of writing definitely has helped me notice more strategies and ways to realize the patterns in writing. Noticing these patterns really helps you write more clearly on the topic you're discussing and also gives you more information to write about. Required drafts played a big role in my writing process and they were a big help. Without them I probably would have been really behind on my essay. It also probably wouldn't have ended up being as good because it was so last minute. This new process of having deadlines for drafts of a certain amount of pages has definitely helped me not procrastinate. If it weren't for canvas I honestly wouldn't have started my paper until last week.

Crossfire

My first thought on Crossfire was definitely an "oh great". I hate politics and anything to do with them, including debate shows. It probably has something to do with the fact that I don't understand any of it. However, this show was made interesting by Jon Stewart.
With his snide remarks and his ability to make the others look bad on their own, was the only reason this show was at all bearable. He was very straightforward and that's what you hardly ever see in politics. The first thing that i was expecting out of this show was a serious argumentative debate, but it ended up being a childish game show where they were sending personal blows at each other. Considering that it started right off the bat it was just a little bit immature, or a lot, and not at all the point of the show. But i do have to admit if thats how political debate shows usually went, i'd probably watch them more often.
One of the things that I noticed was how different their attitudes were. They were both straight forward, however Jon Stewart was not taking it as seriously as bow tie. He was cracking jokes and telling them to stop repeatedly. You could kind of tell that bow tie was getting irritated with how Stewart was acting. Another thing that i noticed was that it was probably intimidating to bow tie because you could tell that Stewart was the crowds favorite with them all laughing at his jokes dissing the others and applauding at his comments about how this is what's wrong with America. The last thing i noticed was that Stewart was in a casual sweater and the other two were nicely dressed up. Which speaks a lot.
From this assignment, one of the main things that i learned was that the term "debate" can go a long way.

first assignment YAY

My high school writing process, well.... i honestly hate to look back at it because i consider myself a horrible writer. And of course every time i mention that to my teachers they are always like no! no! you're a great writer, everyone is! But lets be honest here.. They say my main problem is probably my vocabulary, you could probably rank it on the middle school level. It's not that i don't know big words, it's just that i never think about using them!
But the process of a paper all starts when the teacher says something along the lines of, "okay so who's excited to write an essay!" and as soon as i hear that my face instantly changes. It looks like i've just been shot, but I won't be a dramatic 18 year old girl and say thats when the world ends. However, when they say that it's going to be more than 3 pages..., thats when the world actually ends. But of course sooner or later all the emotions go away because i realize that I'm going to have to do the assignment whether i like it or not. It's usually when they're going over the paper requirements when i zone out and start brainstorming and thinking how the heck am i going to write this paper.
As you can probably tell already, the hardest part of writing a paper for me is the whole thing. However, if i did have to think of one thing thats the easiest, it would probably be the first sentence. I would say I'm kind of good coming up with witty, attention-grabbing sentences to get the reader drawn in.
But back to the process of my paper that i still probably haven't started yet, it usually takes me a day or two to put a pen to paper. I like writing my drafts on paper, usually because if i start on a computer I'll stare at an empty word document and end up going on twitter. I usually just do one rough draft and just have a whole page of completely different colored marks everywhere with arrows in every direction because at the end it looks like a masterpiece and i think its cool. Then after i have somehow managed to complete and finish my essay i type it up and turn it in and thats pretty much it!