Pencils to Pixels

This article makes the point that the computer is the gateway to literacy today. To be digitally literate you must be able to use a computer. This makes sense and applies to us because I do not know of one Auburn student who does not own their own computer, it is a way of life for us. Most of our homework is done digitally. Writing itself, in any context, is a technology. Writing cannot replace physically speaking, but it is a strong way for someone to get their point across. The bad thing about communicating through writing is there is no way to show emotion through writing, like there is when you are verbally having a conversation with someone face to face. Plato did not like writing because he felt like it weakened our memory. Thoreau thought that writing on paper was more effective than electrical impulses. They also state that telephone communication combined aspects of any type of writing and speaking. Baron concludes with the major fact that technology, especially computers, has changed the way we communicate and express ourselves, along with making communicating quicker and easier. They argue mostly that literacy today is defined as being able to keep up with the latest technologies.

Yancey's Writing in the 21st Century

Yancey describes three challenges of writing in the 21st century. They include developing new ways of writing, designing a new curriculum supporting those models, and creating ways for teaching these models. Yancey tells us that in the past, writing was a delicacy because a lot of people did not have that advantage. Today writing is just known as a great sense of labor, which makes people not want to do it as much, especially on their own without anyone telling them to do so. It is not as easy as reading, which is associated with intimacy and warmth. She argues that writing is a lot more intimate, because writing is how you interact and contribute to the material you read, or your writing could be the material someone else reads. Self sponsored writing is defined as the act of writing on your own intensions. Self sponsored writing takes place in more areas than you would think; including: tweeting, texting, posting a facebook status, blogging, etc. This article is so important because the meaning of literacy has changed over the years and teachers and professors should realize this and help contribute to the literacy through writing of students today. This article describes literacy through writing not as only composing on paper, but also on social media and interacting with it.

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

Thompson's main claim he makes pertains to the fact that social media has become a new way for people today to stay in touch with each other through news feeds, etc. News feeds, developed by Zuckerburg,  have become the more simple way to access information without having to individually surf someones profile. This brings about a new way to be digitally literate. Ambient awareness is being so involved on social media or a profile that it is almost the same as being physically close to a person. Anyone can experience ambient awareness by observing facebook statuses or tweets where people are expressing their moods and activities. Most people, including me, find themselves skimming through news feeds and updates until they find a post they are interested in and only read those. This represents our laziness, just as we cannot stay focused on a long narrative for very long, we only skim, due to the simplicity of most information now. This article defines literacy as being able to interact with others and have ambient awareness just from their social media posts.

Gin, Television, and the Cognitive Surplus

What is cognitive surplus? Cognitive surplus is time people have when they are not performing any important tasks; "free time." Shirky's argument in this article focuses on the fact that being able to interact with, contribute to, and make use of the resources we possess to be able to be more literate today is extremely important. He makes the point that during our cognitive surplus, we waste any effort that should be contributed to the resources we have to become more involved and literate on activities such as television. He defines literacy as being able to create new ideas from ideas you have already developed, which is similar to the last two articles we went over.

Is Google Making us Stupid?

Is Google making us stupid? This is Nicholas Carr's question in a very detailed article he wrote titled "Is Google Making us Stupid?" Carr believes that the extremely accessible knowledge we can gain from any internet source at the touch of a finger today has ruined our drive to go to any type of depth to access information. The way he explains how his thinking process is broken down now is almost identical to the subconscious thoughts I was having while I was reading the article. Carr explains that as he is reading a large piece of work, his brain just almost refuses to take time to read every word, and only skims it. Our brains are so used to the simplicity to access information that any type of hard work is just rejected. In "Socrates Nightmare" that we discussed in class on Monday explains literacy as the ability not only to just simply read and write, but also the ability to interact with the text and have your own ideas and thoughts that you are able to share, not just skim through. Carr's argument of literacy is very similar to the other article's definition. They both believe that it is the ability to be able to understand and really pay attention to the text that is being studied. The main claim Carr makes to support this argument is his own personal experience. This evidence is effective, but studied of other people also included would be a stronger argument. So what? People have to take it upon themselves to  make themselves actually, truly literate and interactive.

Social Media

Social media is very important to me. I honestly feel like how you express yourself on social media is actually who you are and how you want people to view you. Especially in my case, it is crucial that I remember this because, depending on my posts, someone could view me in a very negative way that I do not wish to be viewed in. You may not think of it as a big deal when you are making a post, but anything put on a social media sight stays there forever, even if it gets deleted. Honestly, if an employer, parent, or anyone else higher than me were to view all of my social posts; whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram; I would be perfectly comfortable with it. I have always been told to watch what I put out there, so I always will.

Kim Kardashian

I am going to be analyzing Kim Kardashian's twitter for my essay. Kim Kardashian is a currently a very popular celebrity and a lot of social drama is focused on her and her family. Her personal twitter is interesting. She mixes tweets directly pertaining to her career with glimpses into her personal life. She even adds some emotional touches you would not expect from a professional. It will be interesting analyzing the difference of her fan's views of her from her family's television show to her own personal twitter. I want to research it to see which place she is more willing to express herself more accurately. They may be really similar, so maybe I can find some background information on her before the show even started and changed the view of her publicly. She may have been a completely different person before she had the chance to be in front of millions of people who never knew her before and change the view of herself. I think she will be a very fun person to analyze.

Say What You Need to Say

I am actually very excited about this essay. First of all, I absolutely love John Mayer and I get to analyze one of his songs. Second of all, I love analyzing things; it is one of my better talents, or at least something I really enjoy. I chose to analyze John Mayer's song "Say." This song is used in his original music video and in the movie "The Bucket List". In the original music video, John is standing alone in some type of dark warehouse. Strictly listening to the lyrics would make you think that John has just written some type of "anthem" to encourage everyone to "say what they need to say," which would be a logical observation because he repeats that statement numerous times throughout the song. I think differently after watching his music video. In my essay I want to elaborate on what the setting of the music video, his facial expressions, the transitions of the camera, and a few other details express to me. I'm sure everyone has seen the heart-warming, tear-jerking, hilarious movie "The Bucket List." The song "Say" is used in the trailer of that movie. The way the song and the plot of this movie work together changes the interpretation of the song. The movie is about two men who meet in a hospital on their death beds. They are both given a certain amount of days that they have left to live. They create a list of things to do before they "kick the bucket"-the bucket list. The song gives the idea in the movie of "do everything you can while you are still alive," which is perfect for this movie.

The Great Gatsby

"The Great Gatsby" soundtrack consisted of a variety of jazzy music with hip-hop twists. "The Great Gatsby" is one of my absolute favorite movies. I strongly think a reason I adore this movie so much is because of the interesting music the producers added to the scenes. The hip-hop aspect appeals immensely to a large number of society today; my generation especially, and I believe that was the audience they were shooting for, anyway. The songs included in a movie affect the viewers' mood during each part of the movie. The producers can control the way they want you to interpret each part of the movie by changing up the music. I think the producers did an amazing job in this movie with that. Some of the songs, for example: "Young and Beautiful", contribute to the depressing, intense, and almost creepy parts of the movie. The song is so slow that it gives the viewer time to think about what is happening in the scene, and stresses the importance and intense feeling the scene is attempting to get across. The hip-hop sound to it makes it a lot more interesting to viewers my age. The jazz sound to it also adds so much to the mood of the movie. Since the movie is actually set in the 1920s, the hip-hop music added to the jazz music succeeds in accomplishing everything you would want to in a viewing; it suggests the time period of the story, suggests the time period of the current viewers, and controls the mood of each scene. The party scenes all have extremely upbeat and fun music to suggest the exciting mood of the party; but, they have a subtle, creepy suggestion of heartache. You can see with your eyes how exciting and amusing the parties are, but the certain creepy parts of the song propose a hidden sadness, and everyone who has seen the movie knows the grief behind Gatsby's thoughts, so the songs the producers utilized were perfect.

My writing process for my essay began with choosing a commercial that I could relate to so that I knew more about the subject it may be trying to get across. I chose a commercial on dentistry because my grandfather was a dentist and my mother is a dental hygienist. Needless to say, I hear plenty about the subject at home. I chose specifically a commercial on Crest toothpaste because that is the toothpaste I use today. It was interesting comparing the toothpaste advertisements back then, and now. As I pointed out in one of my earlier blogs, the hardest part of writing for me is getting started. It was a lot easier for me to begin because of the mandatory blogs and drafts. I also pointed out in my older blog that once I begin writing, I somehow enjoy it and do not stop until I finish. That is definitely what happened with this paper. I watched the commercial multiple times so that I knew it backwards and forwards. I took notes on it every time to make sure I noticed every detail. This could count as using heuristics, which is a method I never would have thought of using before I was taught about it in this class. It helped so much because with every idea I wrote down about the commercial, I could think about the implications that existed in those ideas. That helped so much when I was trying to find things to elaborate on in my paper. I never thought about actually applying the “paraphrase X3” method. I think I subconsciously used it, though. I would write a paragraph, then completely rewrite it using different words that strengthened it. I also cannot stress enough how helpful the workshops were. Reading other students’ work helped me to think what could be helped in my own paper. Also, the notes I received criticizing and praising my paper were so helpful and I will use every suggestion in completing my final draft. I can honestly say I am already enjoying this class more than any high school English class I have ever taken!

Crossfire

This was my first time watching “Crossfire”. I found it very interesting being that this time I was actually analyzing how they expressed their arguments to each other. A few things I noticed about the so-called “debate” was that Jon Stewart was able to use his comedic personality to get the audience on his side. I also saw that the hosts of the show had the advantage to list on screen three of the questions Jon used in his interview, which makes their argument seem much stronger.  Jon later on shoots an immature, but useful, comment about one of the host’s bowtie to make him seem younger and more ignorant. Towards the end of the argument, the hosts criticize the way Jon is speaking to them currently, which makes it appear that Jon is winning the argument and they feel threatened.

            Using “The Method” to point out a few repetitions and contrasts during the debate was very difficult for me. I did notice a few words that were repeated multiple times; such as: argue, bad, comedy, and funny. I am having trouble finding a meaning behind these words. The reason for repeating argue may be just emphasizing the fact that they have completely different opinions on these matters they are discussing. They repeatedly say bad, which is also a little humorous because it is obviously not a very intense word, but they use it to describe each other’s shows. Comedy is common because they are using comedy in this debate to make it more interesting, and funny falls under that category also. Argue and bad could be a strand and comedy and funny could be a strand as well. I am still learning how to use The Method, but that is what I understand from it right now!

My Type of Writing

I can honestly say that writing has not always been one of my favorite activities. My mathematically inclined mind constantly makes me dread writing. Writing assignments in high school were always my last priority, but I always completed them. Probably the hardest part about writing, for me, is getting started. Maybe the reason I hate the thought of writing is because I know how hard writing makes me think. Once I get started on a writing assignment I begin to enjoy it more than I expected. My mind wanders to the millions of topics I can cover and how to cover them. It really does not matter to me whether I write it down on paper or if I type it on my computer. Either way, once I begin writing I continue until I finish. I am not the type of person to erase or go back on what I have written; I would rather just rewrite the whole article once I complete it if I do not like it. Everything I am writing at this moment is popping into my head as I continue to type on. Sometimes my thoughts come out in a jumble, but once I see them on paper I can put them all together in a way that makes sense to everyone else.

 In addition, I enjoy hearing noise while I work. It does not matter what type of noise. It may be students comparing answers in the student center, or it may be my music playing inside of my dorm room. Any type of soothing noise calms me; unlike silence, which only intimidates me. I work better in an open environment where there are interactions going on. Somehow this keeps me interested in what I am working on. One thing I can say is I am definitely excited about my Composition 1 class this year. This new environment and new ideas on how to teach composition is intriguing to me.