Cool People

Anna:

Do you like your style? How did you choose what to wear?

"Yes I like my style. I think we all dress according to what appeals to us. We dress the way we want people to see us. I choose what to wear based on such sources like the media, friends, movies, fashion magazines and people's opinions. I think we are influenced by what we see in our everyday lives."

What do you think cool is and what does it mean to be cool?

"Well even though I do not subscribe to the idea of "cool" and don't use the term, if I had to define it, I would say that some who's cool knows what's going on, who's who, what clothes are in fashion, what books are to be read, what movies to be seen. People who are cool act with confidence. "

Do you think your cool? If so why and if not why not.

"I don't think I'm any cooler then anyone else. I don't always know what's what and there are are lots of things that I'm clueless about, though I may know things that other people don't know about and this is true with everyone. I think even the "cool" people have qualities that aren't so cool."

Would other people call you cool?

"I don't know how many people think I'm cool, though I have heard it."

Would you say your interpretation is a common one, or something that is not?

"I do think other people would defined "cool" the way I have"

Carrie:

What do you think it means to be cool?

"To have a likable personality. I think it's more personality wise than appearance wise"

Do you think your view is a dominant view?

"I'm not sure. I know most people find both to play a big part in the definition of cool. But it varies from person to person. Some people might value appearance over personality"

What do you think people do to to be cool?

"They would try to look "cool" dress-wise or they would try to do things and say things to try to catch others attention"

Do you find yourself doing these things to be seen as cool? Do you even care if your labeled as cool?

"Yea, I do. I care what others think but I try not not to let that rule the way i run my life. I don't want "trying to be cool" to be a big part of my life"

Sandy:

So I see you were picked for some other people's cool interviews too. How does it feel?

"I guess I'm flattered by it. This whole like idea of acceptance, that's all were looking for right? Thats why we all try to be cool. At least I think so."

Do you find yourself doing this? Trying to be accepted.

"Yes"

What do you think about this? That you try to be accepted. 

"I guess the sense of security, that you make connections with people and build trusting relations with friends, family, the people you look up to as well"

Do you think those relations are real? If everyone is trying to be cool is it all real, or just one big lie?

"I think it's a little but of both, I feel like we have all been friends with the people who don't really care about you as much as you would like them to and and we all have had relationships with people who genuinely are about you. I guess we can never really know for sure but thats when you decide to trust or distrust your own judgement."

Lastly, do you think your cool?

"Sometimes i do and sometimes I don't. I guess it depends on how I feel about the environment I am in. If I'm in a comfortable environment I have more confidence than if I am in an uncomfortable environment."

comments on short stories

Part 1:
Carrie- Your cool girl seems to be well liked in the class. She has a charismatic personality and when she speaks everyone listens because she has something smart to say and even the teacher thinks that shes cool.

Maggie- I agree with Sandy, your very descriptive when explaining your cool person. Does this come from anything? Do you wish that you were like this or is this all what you see everyone thinks of as cool? You show she has confidence and that she is not that afraid of what people think of her. I like your ending, its intriguing how she leaves the way she enters and that no one really knows anything abut her

Rachel- I see that your girl is all about outer beauty where she wears the right stuff and has a pretty face and style. She is also in a way isolated/ indifferent since you explain her as not giving anything about her self. This is different then Carrie's story where her cool person had a social personality and that made her cool.

YuXi- I like your cool character. Its so different from all the other stories I have read. Your character is more laid back and you can easily see where it fits into your own character. I love that she is into art, that to me is really cool and even more that she is nervous about showing her art. I also agree with Jia min that in it there is also the possibility of having two cool characters.

Henry- I liked how you started off your story. It gave a really good image into what you wanted the reader to see. I also like how the cool person was not cool the first moment she walked in because its usually not like that. Its the slow build up and how she was smart.

Part 2:
I noticed that in the majority of the stories the cool person had the cool clothes (great style) and has a certain way about them where the person is well liked. Although there were stories where the cool person was not seen as cool to everyone at first but instead was just cool to the people around them, their friends. But it is interesting that so many people where they have different definitions of cool and yet there are some interlocking parts. But Yu-xi's story stands out much compared to the others. I totally agree with her opinion. Although it is interesting to see who her cool person was, the girl who painted the mural or the boy who helped her out. But both were different. They were cool because they helped other people, where the others different because they did not help anyone and even though they were social they pretty much stuck to themselves.

short story

Coming out of final period, I hear laughter from farther down the hallway. Walking along I notice a huge crowd of people blocking the way out. Letting out a sigh I ease my way through while people yell "watch out" or "stop shoving". The guy in front of me gets more angry and turns around to yell at me but then stops short when he figures out who I am, "o Melody, didn't see it was you, sorry." Raising his voice he began "Here, everyone make way, Melody wants to get through". Nodding I say "thank you" and continue on my way to the center.

Ever since high school this has been the kind of reaction I get when people see me. All this just cause my dad has a lot of money and everyone thinks I'm so cool for it. But I hate it, they don't even know me and yet everyone tries so hard to be like me, if they knew how my life really is then I would not be getting this much attention. I hate having to put on this image of beauty queen and smart girl. When in reality I actually hate wearing makeup and designer brand names and need a private tutor to actually pass some of my classes. Through out all of this my one and only best friend has been with me and she is the only one who knows the real me but at the beginning of senior year she moves to another country and we stopped talking. Not that I don't have any other friends but none of them know me, the real me behind the glamour girl.

Finally making my way to the center of the crowd I recognize Becky from my science class on the floor with her books scattered around her. The girls from my drama class are standing near and pointing and laughing. One of them grabs one of Becky's books and starts mocking her, "look at me I think I'm smart cause I read". In my head I cringe because that very same book is sitting on my table beside my bed. I look down and see tears brimming under Becky's glasses and I turn to look at the snickering faces in the crowd. Ok Melody, you can do two things. You can stick up for this girl and finally stop being someone your not or you can turn around and pretend you never saw what happened here. Knowing that if I turned around I would hate myself forever and I would have finally completed creating myself as someone who I hated I decided to step up. 

"Really Amber, we can't all be like you, some of us actually do read and are smart because of it". Grabbing the book, I help Becky up and hand it to her, "here you go". "um t- thank y- you" averting her eyes quickly away.

"what's the deal Melody?" Amber retorts. "Thought you were cool". Taking a deep breath I say "yes cause cool constitutes making fun and looking down on other people". I turn towards the crowd, "is this what we have become, we have become the kind of people who are insecure they decide to pick on others just to make themselves feel better?". Many people in the crowd started mumbling and staring at me. Great Melody, now everyone thinks your crazy. 

Becky took a step to leave and I grab her arm and walk down the hall with her, everyone making room for us to leave still in shock after what I had done. Then Amber goes, "I knew it all along, your actually one of them, you don't belong at the cool table". I role my eyes and tell Becky to just ignore her and to keep walking. 

Steve comes up and blocks our path. Ok now I should mention that Steve not so long ago was my boyfriend and second most popular person in school next to me. Now what have I done? I quickly look at Becky who has gone a little pale. I stand up straight and ask "what's up?". He looks from me to Becky and then looks behind us at the crowd who is watching us leave unsure of what to do with themselves. "wow, your my idle" as he pats me on the shoulder. Surprised my mouth hangs open a little and I try to say something but nothing comes out. Laughing to himself he walks to the side of Becky and takes some of her books, "So are we just going to stand here or are we going to escort a pretty lady out of here". Blushing Becky mummers a thanks and I nod. As we start leaving Amber shrieks loudly "OMG, not you too Steve. Gosh can't you see she is so uncool?" Before I can get the words out some kids from the crowd yell "shut up Amber, you are so uncool" and the crowd finally disperses leaving her struck dumb with her friends trying to comfort her. 

first thoughts on cool

It took me a really really long time to actually think of someone who I think is cool. I usually do not go around saying "o this person is so cool", I guess I do more of picking out the uncool things. But anyway, after much thought I have finally thought of my cousin Kathy. She is the only one who I would give as an answer to who is cool. Now the definition of cool in the dictionary is "fashionable and attractive at the time; often skilled or socially adept". I also remember that in class Jakob said that we identify people as cool because we project our insecurities on to them. I totally agree with this and it plays a factor in why I think Kathy is a cool person. I grew up an only child and having her in my life in the recent year has felt very much like having a big sister and a huge role model. She was never really awkward with people and was great socially. She could walk into a store or any building and come out with at least 2 new friends not mentioning the other people she talked with. I always admired her for this because I am not really good with conversing with lots of people and usually let them do the talking. Another thing to her was is that she was also kind. Not only did she make a friend every where she went she also kept everyone in mind and helped people when she thought they needed it whether it was someone on the street or someone in her family. This persona of her caused her to quit her job and join the Peace Corp where she is currently in Honduras for 2 and a half years. All of this I consider cool and then there are the parts of her where I think she is a total weirdo but it actually just adds to her coolness.

While doing the web of cool Carrie and I had very similar views and ideas on what should be included (great minds think alike). Though she worded this better then I did and me not copying it down you are left with my interpretation or idea of the concept. Is being cool different then being independent? Often times when you think of someone who is cool they have the latest and newest stuff which is popular and thus making him cool. So in another way it can also be said is being cool just another way of conforming? The example I thought of this was the book Stargirl. The book featured a typical school where they were everything was normal and cool was what it was at the certain time. But then one girl changes everything. Stargirl comes in and everyone thinks she is so weird cause her style is so different then what they have seen and her style is to be different, to not be held down by the set laws of what is acceptable or cool. Then towards the end of the book Stargirl was considered cool and everyone wanted to be like her and they even changed their styles to try and fit her version of cool. But in my opinion does that make her actually cool or just trying to fit in. She was different and independent but then she was just original while others took her style to make themselves cool. They conformed to her and her independence could not be called being independent or different since everyone had developed her style. So once your different is it actually just a way to seem cool or is it because they are actually different? In Stargirls case it was that she was actually different. But today there are many people who change themselves just to fit that persona of being cool and often not trying to be cool is revered as being cool.

Then I was thinking about what was cool and what is cool. What happens to all the things that were cool or all the people that were cool? Are they uncool when the new version of cool is spotted and broad casted? Being cool is only a temporary fad which always changes with the new hype and new generations. But there will always be the people who change themselves like I mentioned above. But one thing that bothers me is what happens to the people that change? How does changing into the cool effect them as people? Our society or social groups put alot on being cool and many kids and even grownups have been pulled into the frenzy of trying to be cool.

Art project

Ok so sorry if the pictures are a little blurry and if you can not really read what is written on them but I will try my best to explain each of them. There are 4 drawings to one page but i also took individual drawings so you could see them better.

First Pictures:

First Panel:

This is where the girl is sleeping and her blanket is made out of the different pieces of technology which are surrounding her and keeping her tucked into bed. The music that is playing is like brainwashing, it is saying that technology is good and you do not need anything else but it.

Second Panel:

The second panel is a look at what the average day is composed of. People sit in front of huge computer screens and get feed numbers which come out as information about anything. The helmet is where all those numbers go and get converted into data and the glasses are the screen where you see what your learning. 

Third Panel:

So here we have our main character go home and on his way he passes many people like him who are tied down by technology, the big box says digitalization: 90 pounds. The guy on the floor has been so caught up that he can not move or help himself get up, the other guy is almost there and keeps stumbling since his feet are bound. 

Fourth Panel:

This fourth panel is where our main character meets this girl blowing bubbles. Don't ask why bubbles, I just like them, something nice/ peaceful about them. Anyway, if you look at the picture her digitalization box is now 100 pounds and the other girls is only 10 and her strings are much looser. 

Second Picture:

So close up on her bubbles. Just saying the bubbles are the only things in color through out the whole thing, no I was not lazy, I just felt like they were important so they should stand out. But all the bubbles have something inside of them and they connect with nature because thats what I think were mainly losing by giving into technology.

Third Picture:

First panel:

In this picture the main character has popped the bubble and is saying why she can not be free to fly like they can. She is finally tired of his life and has seen something perhaps better in those bubbles the girl was blowing. 

second panel:

Here she is imagining being in one of those bubbles and floating away from the city and all it pollution of digitalization. The words in the caption say (sorry no service) and those check marks are supposed to be birds, yes we can't all be artists.

Third Panel:

Ok here is a balloon being pumped full of air. The main character has decided to take some action and is going to create her bubble from her imagination. She does not want it to be a dream but wants it to be reality if any more real then where she is already living.

fourth panel:

Here the balloon is tied down so it wont fly with out her and she is starting to undue her strings which keep her a slave of digitalization.

Fourth Picture:

Here she is up in the balloon with the first girl who had shown here what her life is missing and they are soaring above the city. The arms are coming from the different pieces of technology trying to drag her back down but there is a force field protecting the balloon so it can not be touched. On the ground there are many people watching this event but think nothing of it since they are to under the control of digitalization to think much of it. They are all outside the store that says: Technology superstore (where you can get everything you want and need)

I am not sure my piece of art is either a hammer or a mirror. Though I would say more a mirror where you see what is happening in our lives but there is also the bit where the main character escapes into the sky to fly and be free but I do not really give the real life alternative to it. I do not really think this is what I wanted to do. I was kinda stuck on what I wanted to do for my art and i just happened to start drawing and then this came out of it. I feel like it could have been a little more put together but I do like the panel where she is connected to the big computer and all those numbers are getting fed straight into her head through wires and getting seen by her through glasses. The most interesting is I think i may have gotten a little personal with the nature aspect of it. I felt that it was important so I put it as the thing that they were missing. 

ENTANGLEMENTS

Introduction:
Today we are consumed with moderate pieces of digitization so much that we forget what is happening in the real world. You cannot go anywhere with out seeing someone who is using a piece of technology. People are consuming their day with a fake reality and are slowly forgetting about the one they actually live in. This fake representation of life and what is real verse what is not has become a faded line. No one goes out and takes a walk just to be outside, to get away from everything. If you take a close look everyone is connected with invisible strings that keep their devices bound to them. These strings will get more dominant where everyone will be walking around with them and be entangled. These entanglements will snare us and the funny thing about it will be that it will all seem normal, no one will know the difference between the liberty of being free and the feeling of being ensnared.

Argument 1:
Through different media, people are interpreting how to live their lives. Everyone bases what they think a good life is and how to live one with what gets portrayed in the digital and corporate worlds. Thus begin the threads, which are slowly wrapping around us. M.T. Anderson’s book Feed can be considered an allegory of our lives though he is more drastic in our relationship with technology. In the book, they have the "feed', which is a computer chip in their head on 24/7 and it is never off. After Violet gets sick she explains to Titus what she wants to do before she dies but then notices how everything she said up till then was “just the opening credits of sitcoms” (217) and that her “idea of life” comes from those sitcoms or movies that the media has put up. She recognizes how having the “feed” has caused her view of life to be how everyone else is living. Even though she tries to go against the feed and live independent of it she has fallen to its influence.
Getting the feed later on in her life then everyone else helped Violet understand the world. This also made her less perceptible to the feed and the corporations trying to control them, "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with- the stories on the feed, the games, all that- it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to" (feed, 97). Even today this goes on and no one catches it. Everyday we are "attacked" with ads and posters for new consumer products and after seeing it a lot people get it into their minds that it is what they want and they must have it. This also goes for what the stars do. If some famous person goes walking around with an ipod or a specific clothing line, soon everyone will want to be like them because "its cool" and its what the famous people are doing. "They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (feed, 97). Even though Violet says this she has a feed herself. She gave into the corporate media and got a feed, her dad even gave her one because he felt that since everyone had one, he did not want her to be left out of the times. Society made it hard for anyone to live with out a feed and her father cracked and bought her one. But it did not change her. Even though she was chained down with digitization she was able to loosen those ties Even today it is odd to hear that someone does not have a cell phone or an ipod/mp3 player. It is not such an impossible idea for someone to loosen the threads that have imprisoned us. Violet may not have been totally free from those chains but she was able to give herself some room in which she was able to live for herself and go against much of what was being shown to her. Today if people took the time to reflect and see that they actually spend an excessive amount of time with technology then perhaps they could see how those devices are ruling their lives and can learn to not use them as much anymore. So what if society makes it hard for anyone to be totally free? As long as someone is aware of those threads and keeps an active eye on them then the chance that they will become tighter and greater in number will decrease and you can learn to manage them.

Argument 2:
Technology has caused the real world to seem less and less important and what is important only goes as far as our mental/ personal bubbles. Nothing in the world is as important. In the 2008 release of Wall-E, the message was clear that people spend too much time with technology. Wall-E is an animated film about a robot that helps Americans see how technology has affected them. The people who live on the ship sit and do nothing but stare at the screen in front of their face. They pay no attention to the outside world. Even the older generations know nothing of what is outside of their screens. During the movie Eve was sent to earth to find signs of life. When she brought a plant back to the captain he did not know what she had brought. He had to learn from the computer what earth was and what the plant was. Having been in space for so long everyone forgot that earth existed and that there was other things outside in space. Even today most people hardly do anything active and do not go out side just to walk and stare at the sky. The most anyone would be active is to play video games and even that has you starring at a screen being passive. Though the Wii is more of an active game where it gets you moving it is still a false representation and people are falling for it, thinking they are being active when they are really just going through the motions the game wants you to play out. There are some who go for walks and runs but they also bring their ipods or phones with them as they go. It is very hard to get away from technology. Even though they are thinking its nice to be outside, they are interlinked with their digital device which creates a thin veil over their perception of the real world and even separates them from it.
In Feed everyone is always online and they do nothing but sit and stare off into space while interacting with the feed. But when the hacker messed up their systems and their feed had to be shut down, they were so lost with out it. They did not know what to do with themselves and when they got it back it was like they had regained their other half. Even toady people cannot be seen with out having at least one piece of technology on them at all times. Though today since people do not have technology physically and mentally connected with them that if there were to be a black out or they lost their digital devices it would not be the end of the world. This is because we are still connected with the outside world, even though it is very little. The people in feed had their own little bubbles in which they lived their lives not caring about anyone else or what was happening in other places. When Violet explains to Titus how she feels about learning what us happening in the world, he pays her no mind because he could careless. He does not give a second thought to anything that is not in his mental and physical bubble. Today it is much the same. People watch the news but other then that they do not seem to care about what is happening outside their mental bubble.

Argument 3:
Representational reality hollows out the meaning of reality. Technology is a false realm where too many people steal themselves. They go around with their eyes on their keyboards and ears to phones that they let everything pass them by. Technology creates a virtual world where many of the conversations lose their significance and have a sense of emptiness. “Technology takes away from the more personal aspects of daily interactions”(Carrie Li). These representations factor much out of what face- to- face conversations hold. Body language and tone are not present in online conversations and often times things are misunderstood because there are just words on a screen. A lot of how things get conveyed is not only the words themselves but also how they are presented to the person hearing them. Devices that enable online communication such as AIM, Facebook, twitter and myspace are becoming more and more common and “the more habitual” they become the more we will “find ourselves isolated from the rest of the world” (Carrie Li). Just like digitalization has made it easy for people to communicate online it has also made it easy for people to create new identities for themselves. Many of the computer games or web sites are interactive and people are able to create new versions of themselves. They can make themselves anybody they want to be, they can take away their flaws and give themselves everything they do not posses. Once your “avatar” is created people are able to go around the virtual world they choose and are able to do anything they want and get what ever they want. And when they are done or ready to go back to reality all they have to do is log off and it will be they’re waiting for them when they sign back on. They are in total control for once and this is the big appeal of these games. "Maybe the same way happiness is infectious, being disconnected is as well. You can disconnect from this world and go to another."(Yu-Xi). Many people through these online games are living fake lives and are in a twisted perception of reality. Soon it will be hard for them to distinguish which for them is the real world and which is the one that is only a representation.
Many people love their digital devices such as their computers, which allows them to keep in contact with so many people. In the song The New America by Bad Religion produced by Atlantic Records in 2000, it express the feelings a boy holds for his computer. “I love my computer” it starts and continues with verses like “I’ve never been quite so happy, the world outside is so big, but it’s safe in my domain”. The song even goes as far as explaining that the computer gives him “no identity” and that “all I need to do is click on you and we’ll be joined in the most soul-less way”. In fact this is what happens to everyone as they turn on their computers. People do not understand that there is a connection between them and their many devices. There is also an addiction in which keeps them together.

Connections and Significance:
In society there is an invisible quota that it is appropriate and implied that everyone has a digital device. It was odd for anyone under 10 to carry around phones or ipods 7 years ago and now you see these little kids walking around like there so cool cause they have an ipod or the latest cell phone. It is also impossible to really function with out a cell phone or computer. Most of the time work and assignments have to be typed and printed, things get posted online that people need to read, and cell phones keep people in touch especially when you miss someone and want to talk. If someone were to tell you that they did not have a cell phone or TV people would think that person was crazy. And that is exactly what most kids thought when they found out that Andy Snyder (history teacher) did not own either. Many could not even imagine what it is like to live with out a TV or cell phone. Having them in our lives as much as they are it seems like he was living with out his leg. Everyone is so intrigued by his statement and of course they think he is weird. But in society it is so rare for someone to say that they do not own one piece of technology that it has become like a second leg or arm. Andy functions very well in life. He is more connected with the “real” world then any of us. He spends his time swimming, riding his bike, going for walks, reading, doing things that do not involve technology. While many people are spending their time playing video games, watching TV, texting, going on facebook, and instant messaging. More and more people lose touch with the outside world and they become lazy and unappreciative of the world around them and what it offers. Many people have been blinded and cocooned in the world of digitalization and have grown accustomed to being wrapped tight.
People have even started texting and being on the phone while driving. Can people get anymore addicted to technology, that they need it while they should be paying 100% of their attention on the road? Not only is it occurring more often but not that many people are taking it seriously. They figure what’s the harm of doing it while they’re sitting in traffic but in truth it is never all right for anyone to be texting while driving. " 37 percent of people age 18 to 27 saying they text message while driving". While "In 17 states including the District of Columbia, young or inexperienced drivers are banned from using cell phones, even using a hands-free kit, with emergency calls exempted" (Texting While Driving). Everyone who texts on the phone thinks that there’s nothing wrong with it and yet "according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted drivers account for almost 80% of all crashes and 65% of Text Messaging While Driving - a Growing National Concern near-crashes in the United States."(Text Messaging) Using technology too much has become dangerous and yet knowing that there is the possibility of killing someone, people continue to text while driving. This is one of the many examples in which the threads have made it hard to function without using digital devices. If people do not learn that spending too much time with technology is dangerous then a lot of things we do will wind up involving digital representations of what life is and what it means and everything will start to lose all meaning. More and more events will happen like driving while texting and many more problems will arise from them all.


Opposing viewpoint:
Although digitalization has created these strings in which make us their puppets it can be argued that it does in fact help us. Technology has made it possible for people to communicate from two very different locations. Now if you wanted to talk to someone on the other side of the world you do not have the only option of writing them a letter. If you wanted you could video chat them, talk to them on the phone, facebook, myspace, aim and even online games have interactive applications so that you can meet new people. There are many new possibilities. And it does not just stop there. Everyday there is something new coming out and something new and better being made. The Ipod nano now has a video camera on it, the Iphone has many more applications to add to it, TVs are getting better quality and are getting bigger and skinny, DVDs have become blue ray disks and CD’s have been replaced by sites like itunes and other places where you can download music right onto your computer or music device. Everything is made better for the public and it is also made with making life easier for you.


Conclusion
People are so immersed in the digital world that they cannot live with out it. People let technology rule their life and during a black out they go all crazy cause they are not used to being without their digital counterparts. In this day and age you cannot really go out and not see technology. The strings at first are slowly starting to wrap around us so that people do not even notice them until they multiply and tighten and your left as their puppet. If anyone were to go right up to someone and start to tell them that the life style they lived was bad because they are being consumed by digitalization the person would take a step back and argue. Titus does this with Violet when he goes and starts deleting Violet's memory's because he's trying to maintain his way of life. If something is interfering with how we live our lives and if focused on could change how we live our lives most turn away and walk in the other direction, perhaps immersing themselves more into their old lives. Just Like how after Titus broke up with Violet, he went back together with Quendy and went head first into his old life until violets death brought him to the surface again. There are many forms of Violet in peoples day to day lives but it is whether they choose to pay attention or not that make them Titus who chose to ignore what was going on or the guy who would have stuck with her until the very end. There are many hammers in which we can use to reconstruct our lives and those hammers are provided to us by books like Feed and movies like Wall-E. These reflect how our lives are and show us where the threads are the loosest so that we can wiggle out of them and be free from the fake reality we are so comfortable in.

Work Cited

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candelwich Press, 2002.

DVD, Wall-E.

rough draft

Carrie Li's blog post about initial view on digitalization

Rachel's blog post about initial views on digitalization

comments from Digging for treasure blog post - using comments from Yu-Xi's blog

Blog post texting while driving
(http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/14/aa.texting.while.driving/index.html)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/237928/text_messaging_while_driving_a_growing.html

Revised rough draft

Today we are consumed with small compact pieces of digitization so much that we forget what is happening in the real world. You cannot go anywhere with out seeing someone who is using a piece of technology. People are consuming their day with a fake reality and are slowly forgetting about the one they actually live in. This fake representation of life and what is real verse what is not has become a faded line. No one goes out and takes a walk just to be outside, to get away from everything. If you take a close look everyone is connected with invisible strings that keep their devices bound to them. These strings will get more dominant where everyone will be walking around with them and be entangled. These entanglements will snare us and the funny thing about it will be that it will all seem normal, no one will know the difference between the liberty of being free and the feeling of being ensnared.

Through different media, people are interpreting how to live their lives. Everyone bases what they think a good life is and how to live one with what gets portrayed in the digital and corporate worlds. Thus begin the threads, which are slowly wrapping around us. M.T. Anderson’s book Feed can be considered an allegory of our lives though he is more drastic in our relationship with technology. In the book, they have the "feed', which is a computer chip in their head on 24/7 and it is never off. After Violet gets sick she explains to Titus what she wants to do before she dies but then notices how everything she said up till then was “just the opening credits of sitcoms” (217) and that her “idea of life” comes from those sitcoms or movies that the media has put up. She recognizes how having the “feed” has caused her view of life to be how everyone else is living. Even though she tries to go against the feed and live independent of it she has fallen to its influence.
Getting the feed later on in her life then everyone else helped Violet understand the world. This also made her less perceptible to the feed and the corporations trying to control them, "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with- the stories on the feed, the games, all that- it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to" (feed, 97). Even today this goes on and no one catches it. Everyday we are "attacked" with ads and posters for new consumer products and after seeing it a lot people get it into their minds that it is what they want and they must have it. This also goes for what the stars do. If some famous person goes walking around with an ipod or a specific clothing line, soon everyone will want to be like them because "its cool" and its what the famous people are doing. "They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (feed, 97). Even though Violet says this she has a feed herself. She gave into the corporate media and got a feed, her dad even gave her one because he felt that since everyone had one, he did not want her to be left out of the times. Society made it hard for anyone to live with out a feed and her father cracked and bought her one. But it did not change her. Even though she was chained down with digitization she was able to loosen those ties Even today it is odd to hear that someone does not have a cell phone or an ipod/mp3 player. It is not such an impossible idea for someone to loosen the threads that have imprisoned us. Violet may not have been totally free from those chains but she was able to give herself some room in which she was able to live for herself and go against much of what was being shown to her. Today if people took the time to reflect and see that they actually spend an excessive amount of time with technology then perhaps they could see how those devices are ruling their lives and can learn to not use them as much anymore. So what if society makes it hard for anyone to be totally free? As long as someone is aware of those threads and keeps an active eye on them then the chance that they will become tighter and greater in number will decrease and you can learn to manage them.

Technology has caused the real world to seem less and less important and what is important only goes as far as our mental/ personal bubbles. Nothing in the world is as important. In the 2008 release of Wall-E, the message was clear that people spend too much time with technology. Wall-E is an animated film about a robot that helps Americans see how technology has affected them. The people who live on the ship sit and do nothing but stare at the screen in front of their face. They pay no attention to the outside world. Even the older generations know nothing of what is outside of their screens. During the movie Eve was sent to earth to find signs of life. When she brought a plant back to the captain he did not know what she had brought. He had to learn from the computer what earth was and what the plant was. Having been in space for so long everyone forgot that earth existed and that there was other things outside in space. Even today most people hardly do anything active and do not go out side just to walk and stare at the sky. The most anyone would be active is to play video games and even that has you starring at a screen being passive. Though the Wii is more of an active game where it gets you moving it is still a false representation and people are falling for it, thinking they are being active when they are really just going through the motions the game wants you to play out. There are some who go for walks and runs but they also bring their ipods or phones with them as they go. It is very hard to get away from technology. Even though they are thinking its nice to be outside, they are interlinked with their digital device which creates a thin veil over their perception of the real world and even separates them from it.
In Feed everyone is always online and they do nothing but sit and stare off into space while interacting with the feed. But when the hacker messed up their systems and their feed had to be shut down, they were so lost with out it. They did not know what to do with themselves and when they got it back it was like they had regained their other half. Even toady people cannot be seen with out having at least one piece of technology on them at all times. Though today since people do not have technology physically and mentally connected with them that if there were to be a black out or they lost their digital devices it would not be the end of the world. This is because we are still connected with the outside world, even though it is very little. The people in feed had their own little bubbles in which they lived their lives not caring about anyone else or what was happening in other places. When Violet explains to Titus how she feels about learning what us happening in the world, he pays her no mind because he could careless. He does not give a second thought to anything that is not in his mental and physical bubble. Today it is much the same. People watch the news but other then that they do not seem to care about what is happening outside their mental bubble.

Representational reality hollows out the meaning of reality. Technology is a false realm where too many people steal themselves. They go around with their eyes on their keyboards and ears to phones that they let everything pass them by. Technology creates a virtual world where many of the conversations loses their significance and have a sense of emptiness. “Technology takes away from the more personal aspects of daily interactions”(Carrie Li). These representations factor much out of what face- to- face conversations hold. Body language and tone are not present in online conversations and often times things are misunderstood because there are just words on a screen. A lot of how things get conveyed are not only the words themselves but how they are presented to the person hearing them. Devices that enable online communication such as AIM, Facebook, twitter and myspace are becoming more and more common and “the more habitual” they become the more we will “find ourselves isolated from the rest of the world” (Carrie Li). Just like digitalization has made it easy for people to communicate online it has also made it easy for people to create new identities for themselves. Many of the computer games or web sites are interactive and people are able to create new versions of themselves. They can make themselves anybody they want to be, they can take away their flaws and give themselves everything they do not posses. Once your “avatar” is created people are able to go around the virtual world they choose and are able to do anything they want and get what ever they want. And when they are done or ready to go back to reality all they have to do is log off and it will be they’re waiting for them when they sign back on. They are in total control for once and this is the big appeal of these games. "Maybe the same way happiness is infectious, being disconnected is as well. You can disconnect from this world and go to another."(Yu-Xi). Many people through these online games are living fake lives and are in a twisted perception of reality. Soon it will be hard for them to distinguish which for them is the real world and which is the one that is only a representation.
Many people love their digital devices such as their computers, which allows them to keep in contact with so many people. In the song The New America by Bad Religion produced by Atlantic Records in 2000, it express the feelings a boy holds for his computer. “I love my computer” it starts and continues with verses like “I’ve never been quite so happy, the world outside is so big, but it’s safe in my domain”. The song even goes as far as explaining that the computer gives him “no identity” and that “all I need to do is click on you and we’ll be joined in the most soul-less way”. In fact this is what happens to everyone as they turn on their computers. People do not understand that there is a connection between them and their many devices. There is also an addiction in which keeps them together.

Although digitalization has created these strings in which make us their puppets it can be argued that it does in fact help us. Technology has made it possible for people to communicate from two very different locations. Now if you wanted to talk to someone on the other side of the world you do not have the only option of writing them a letter. If you wanted you could video chat them, talk to them on the phone, facebook, myspace, aim and even online games have interactive applications so that you can meet new people. There are many new possibilities. And it does not just stop there. Everyday there is something new coming out and something new and better being made. The Ipod nano now has a video camera on it, the Iphone has many more applications to add to it, TVs are getting better quality and are getting bigger and skinny, DVDs have become blue ray disks and CD’s have been replaced by sites like itunes and other places where you can download music right onto your computer or music device. Everything is made better for the public and it is also made with making life easier for you.

People are so immersed in the digital world that they cannot live with out it. People let technology rule their life and during a black out they go all crazy cause they are not used to being without their digital counterparts. In this day and age you cannot really go out and not see technology. The strings at first are slowly starting to wrap around us so that people do not even notice them until they multiply and tighten and your left as their puppet. If anyone were to go right up to someone and start to tell them that the life style they lived was bad because they are being consumed by digitalization the person would take a step back and argue. Titus does this with Violet when he goes and starts deleting Violet's memory's because he's trying to maintain his way of life. If something is interfering with how we live our lives and if focused on could change how we live our lives most turn away and walk in the other direction, perhaps immersing themselves more into their old lives. Just Like how after Titus broke up with Violet, he went back together with Quendy and went head first into his old life until violets death brought him to the surface again. There are many forms of Violet in peoples day to day lives but it is whether they choose to pay attention or not that make them Titus who chose to ignore what was going on or the guy who would have stuck with her until the very end. There are many hammers in which we can use to reconstruct our lives and those hammers are provided to us by books like Feed and movies like Wall-E. These reflect how our lives are and show us where the threads are the loosest so that we can wiggle out of them and be free from the fake reality we are so comfortable in.

Works cited

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candelwich Press, 2002.

DVD, Wall-E.

rough draft

Carrie Li's blog post about initial view on digitalization

Rachel's blog post about initial views on digitalization

comments from Digging for treasure blog post - using comments from Yu-Xi's blog

comments on tri rough drafts

Yu Xi,

I love your first body paragraph. It definitely keeps the reader captivated. It reminds of the feed in which is always spitting out ads from different companies, the way you are talking is as if you are selling the reader something which goes along with what you are trying to say. I agree with how everyone is always putting up a front and the Internet makes it so much easier for people to be able to lie because the screen separates them from the on looker.

I totally agree with you about how so many have begun to use acronyms. I always find it funny when I go and write an essay or something and I find myself using abbreviated words such as u for you and idk for I dont know. I also find it funny when I go outside and hear the "older" generations going around saying lol or ttyl.

I also love all the information you are giving. Its all interesting and new, and makes it even more enjoyable to read. Learning new information is great and it is even better when it is not presented in a boring way. Your info is sprinkled into your and is nicely added.

Out line revised

argument 1
digital world is driving people away from the real world (live in a fairy tale, telling us how to love our lives)

• wall-e
• Feed
• juno (Mr. Tsui)

argument 2

always looking at a screen (digital conversations)

• Wall-E
• Feed
• Interviews
• song from class

argument 3

not sure yet (technology is encompassing our lives and is making us stupid)

• Feed
• andy lectures
• interviews

opposing points of view

1. Rachel thinks digital conversations are good

• going against carrie's pov (using carrie as evidence)

2. Second text saying technology helps you (everything bad is good for you)

• not sure direct connection yet

17- supportive comments on blogs

Yu-xi

Hey sushi,
I think your thesis can be a little more i dont know um I guess in a way bring the reader to be o wow. But maybe you can come up with a good hook to tie in your reader. To get them going, o I need to read this paper.

I love how you start off your 1st body paragraph. It sounds like on of those ads you see on line or as a commercial. I feel like that is very much what technology does to drag you into using it. I also like how you added statistics and numbers in your evidence, giving good examples to how many people use those social networks even got the age group which I never knew, I would have expected younger then 35.

O I like the insight you give on the relationship networks. How you compare us hiding ourselves with the real world and on line, but online is much easier.

I think you can also add feed as an example to argument two. The Feed kept giving them ads from different stores so that they would buy. Violet even had a good quote that was like The corporations are making us easy to market to (something like that). I feel like you can connect this to the world today because there are always ads and commercial trying to get us to buy things. That we most are concerned with wearing the brand labels and who they get to wear the merchandise so that teens or people will buy them.

Just in general pay attention to your grammar but other then that it looks like this will be a very interesting paper. Looking forward to reading it


Charles,

I like how you added in your thesis that because they use technology is because it makes them feel good. I feel like most of time when people go into saying that everyone uses technology alot they do not get into the argument that it is because it makes them feel good. I think having a good hook will make your paper even better, so dont forget that when your writing it full out.

I think you can use Feed as an example where Violet it talking with Titus about things that are going on and he is just sitting there not knowing about any of it and not wanting to know about it. Something else you can add is how the Feed can be passive that even when they all go to a party they are still with in their own heads watching tv or something, like even though they are all watching the same thing, its individual because its linked with in their own mind.

I think another good piece of evidence you can use is the song about the guy and his computer (or it was the internet) but he talks about loving it and how he cant go on without it and that would help support your 2 argument.

Just as a reminder do not forget to work on you spelling and grammar and I can not wait until I read more of it.

Paper outline (turned out to be a rough draft)

Today we are consumed with moderate pieces of digitization so much that we forget what is happening in the real world. You cannot go anywhere with out seeing someone who is using a piece of technology. Everyone always seems to be connected with invisible strings that keep their devices on them. These strings will get more dominant where everyone will be walking around with them and be entangled. These entanglements will snare us and the funny thing about it will be that it will all seem normal, no one will know the difference between the liberty of being free and the feeling of being ensnared.

In the media today there are some messages on our near distant future. Wall-E is an animated film about a robot who helps Americans see how technology has effected them. The people who live on this ship have become lazy and do nothing because there are robots that do everything for them. They have a screen in front of their face and do nothing but stare at it. They pay no attention to the outside world. Even the older generations know nothing of what is outside of their screens. During the movie Eve was sent to earth to find signs of life. When she brought it back to the captain he did not know what she had brought. He had to learn from the computer what earth was and what the plant was. Having been in space for so long everyone forgot that earth existed and that there was other things outside in space. The captain did not even know how to read. Everything was always verbally told to him or just on his computer screen. Even today most people hardly do anything active and go out side just to walk and stare at the sky. The most anyone would do being active is to (can talk about wii) play video games and even those have you starring at a screen being passive. There are some who go for walks and runs but they also bring their ipods or phones with them as they go. It is very hard to get away from technology. Even though they are thinking its nice to be outside, they are interlinked with their digital device which creates a thin veil over their perception of the real world. 

During his visit on the ship Wall-E interacted with two people and helped show them that there was something else outside their screen. Having grown up on the ship all they do is sit in chairs that enable them not to walk and that's how they become fat. There are also cups with food in it so they take the work out of chewing and all you have to do is sip. When Wall-E interrupted them, they took a look around them and the woman exclaimed "wow we have a swimming pool". With out the screen both people developed an interpersonal relationship with each other. With the screen everything was fake, there was never any face to face encounters and it was merely role play.
Even today we have started to create these fake relationships and made up personalities. Everyone going on Facebook and role playing games online have created this self of them that they show to the world. Through these networks they have fake conversations that hold no real meaning and it is the same with most of the people they be-friend on line.

Feed can be considered a form of art which reflects the world and also shows us where the hammer is to change our ways. Feed is also an allegory of our lives though he is more drastic in our relationship with technology. In the book, they have the "feed' on 24/7 and it is never off. But when the hacker messed up their systems, they were so lost with out the feed. They didnt know what to do with themselves and when they got it back it was like they had regained their other half. Even toady people cannot be seen with out having at least one piece of technology on them at all times. Though today since people do not have technology physically and mentally connected with them that if there were to be a black out or they lost their digital devices it would not be the end of the world. This is because we are still connected with the outside world, even though it is very little. The people in feed had their own little bubbles in which they lived their lives not caring about anyone else or what was happening in other places. Today it is much the same. People watch the news but other then that they do not seem to care about what is happening outside their mental bubble.

Growing up with technology has made the younger generations more lazy and perhaps not all together stupid but close to it. In the book though Violet, is the only one who sees how the feed is effecting everyone and she is the only one that cares about the world outside of the feed and their own little bubbles. She express her opinions to Titus and says " Because of the Feed, we're raising a nation of idiots" (feed, 113). Though after expressing her views and opinions everyone thinks she is crazy and weird for having different opinions. In National Wildlife magazine it talks about the new oxford dictionary for children. It has been brought to light that the "new dictionary no longer defines more then 30 nature words, including 'dandelion,' 'otter,' 'acorn' and 'beaver'. In their place are words such as 'mp3 player', 'blog' and 'cut and paste'". Even today children are learning more about the digital world rather then the natural world. The magazine argues that if these words are kept out of the dictionary and the kids never learn these words then it will be harder for them to connect to the planet and will not see any point to care for it.

Getting the feed later on in her life then everyone else helped Violet understand the world. This also made her less perceptible to the feed and the corporations trying to control them, "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with- the stories on the feed, the games, all that- it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to" (feed, 97). Even today this goes on and no one catches it. Everyday we are "attacked" with ads and posters for new consumer products and after seeing it a lot people get it into their minds that it is what they want and they must have it. This also goes for what the stars do. If some famous person goes walking around with an ipod or a specific clothing line, soon everyone will want to be like them because "its cool" and its what the famous people are doing. "They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing" (feed, 97). Even though Violet says this she has a feed herself. She gave into the corporate media and got a feed, her dad even gave her one because he felt that since everyone had one, he did not want her to be left out of the times. Society made it hard for anyone to live with out a feed and her father cracked and bought her on. But it did not change her. Even though she was chained down with digitization she was able to loosen those ties Even today it is odd to hear that someone does not have a cell phone or an ipod/mp3 player.

During class we ventured out into the street to ask strangers what they thought about the digital world. The first guy who we talked to was walking his dog and listening to his ipod. When asked how many hours he spends listening to his ipod, he replied "50% of time I'm listening to music, I match my mood to my music". Though he does not know if technology is a bad thing. But he does acknowledge that the world revolves around technology and that it is "beyond anyones control". Society today makes it hard for someone not to live with out a piece of technology. The rest of the people interviewed gave the same responses that had little thought put into their answers. Technology is a good thing and for the better part of their day they are on their phones and computers. When asked most said they could go a day without technology but I bet have not even tried. Its easy to say that they will do something but not follow through with it. There was one women who we interviewed and she said that technology shows great improvement and there are a lot of positive effects. Though at the same time she was saying how it was bad for us. That "people have become too lazy" and everyone is "moving to technology", following the flow of teh digital world. She said that "she does not hate it but needs it". Most of the time peoples jobs bring technology into our lives. And people are unable to work with out it. She said she would limit her son from using to much technology "because he could be outside spending time doing other things, though he often sees me on the computer and wants to go on too".