Brave, New World of Digital Intimacy

The main argument that Thompson is making in this article is that social media has made a large change in the way people stay connected these days. He explains the pros and cons of this big change. Zuckerburg decided to create this "News Feed" as a way to stay connected with your friends and see all your friends updates in one spot. All your friends posts and pictures would all come up on one page. You could just keep scrolling and stream through everyone's information.This makes it really easy to become lazy and not go looking through your friends page to check up on them. Our attention spans are shrinking because everything that people used to have to do themselves is now able to do automatically through a little technology. The "News Feed" would probably be a bad thing because it makes us lazier, not wanting to dig deeper. Ambient awareness is like knowing all these things about someone through all the small details and posts but you may not know them. Yes, this is something that I have experienced before.The paradox of ambient awareness is seeing all the little posts someone posts and being able to see their "story" through all these short posts. At first, these posts seem insignificant, but when you look at the posts all together, it starts to create a story and make sense. An example would be "I'm feeling sick today."The article defines literacy as using the social media that has had such a big outburst in today's generation and use it to keep in touch with people.

"Gin, Television, and Coginitive Surplus"

If people actually are using their free-time to do something productive rather than just sitting on the couch watching television, then cognitive surplus occurs. Cognitive surplus is a good thing because people are not just sitting around letting their skills go to waste. He is saying it is always better to do something than nothing.This article says that literacy is beyond just reading and writing. They are saying that people still need to dig deeper and get deeper meaning behind things. Instead of just seeing what is on the surface, one must interpret and analyze what is being said to fully grasp what the writer is trying to say.Cognitive surplus is making use of your free time to do something productive. It is gaining something when doing something in your free-time.This article matters because it is informing the public that it is always better to do something productive in your free time, rather than doing something that is not productive.

"Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

1- This article is speaking about how the way people read has changed so much over the years. Years ago, it took a lot of researching and digging to find out information. Nowadays, everything is accessible with just a few minutes on the internet. The article speaks about how people have changed the way they think because of the way that they are intaking information. Now that people don't have to go out and research the facts about things, it makes it easier to just skim the surface and read what is right in front of you, rather than reading in-depth.

2- It has made it harder for him to sit down and read things that have a lot of paragraphs or pages of reading. It has made it easier to just graze over information rather than being eager to read and gather information about something.

3- He defines literacy as the way you take in information. Whether one lightly reads over something, or really reads in-depth what the author is trying to say.

4- They are both very similar.

5- It has made it easier to just pull up the internet and ask a question into google. It has made it harder for people to read longer paragraphs and actual books.

6-Studies show that most of the time people just click on different sites and read no more than a couple paragraphs to get the information that they are looking for. Another thing that backs up his claim is the story of Friedrich Nietzcshe and the typewriter. The last evidence is all the quotes that he includes.

7-Yes because I do the skimming too. I also experience the not reading as much part. I used to be a big reader and now that I have gotten older and used more technology, I do not enjoy reading as I once used to.

8-It matters because now a days people do not get as much out of reading as they once did. People do not take in as much as they once did and really get a chance to understand the reading if they do not take the time to go over it.

7

Through my twitter posts, I try to limit what I say, but I speak my mind more freely than some do.
I post or retweet things that I find humorous, witty, eye-opening, or just because I like the quote/lyrics. For example, one of my tweets says, "If ya wanna fly, ya gotta give up that stuff that weighs you down." I just liked this quote because it really makes me think about the things or people that I hold onto that are just holding me back from my real potential. Also, I tweet incidents that occur in my life that may be funny, shocking, or just because I want to rant. Lots of times, my bad incidents I tweet about usually relate to the transit. I almost miss it every morning for school, and I will walk up to it at school when it is just leaving, so that I have to wait til the next bus comes. One of my tweets that show this said "Why does the transit hate me so much.. So much for makin it to my first class 😒😞" An example of a funny post I posted would be, "I'm not related to every Asian that walks by okay?!" This was directed towards my roommates because every time another Asian walks by, they always tease me and ask if I am related to them. I will also use twitter and tweet at people instead of texting them sometimes.  Just things like "Happy birthday!" or "Where are you?" Usually I try to keep my tweets on the surface and not about my personal life. I try to keep my information about my personal life very vague. I don't like people knowing all of my business. Overall, I think most of my tweets are appropriate and would be okay if someone else saw them. There are the occasional tweets that I may find funny that other people may find inappropriate, but I don't usually tweet things that I find inappropriate.

Interpretive Leap

I decided to choose the song "Where is the Love?" by The Black-Eyed Peas. The song begins by allowing people to be aware that there is still racial disagreement going on in the world. It goes into depth about how people, even children, are being hurt by all the unjust, hurtful words and actions of being discriminated against. They are hurting because of all the harsh things said to them. By saying all these demanding things, people are just spreading more hate. The song is simply asking, "Where is the love?" It also mentions things about how nations are at war and dropping bombs. In the video, it goes around and shows faces of people from different ethnicities. It is trying to say we all need to treat each other more equal and love each other more. It pushes viewers to think further about racial equality, peace, and love.

From Flappers to Rappers

The 20’s was known for all of their jazzy music and crazy parties. This was an era filled with excitement and rebellion. Alcohol was illegal, yet this did not stop people from their heavy partying. At this time, people wanted to be rich and live the luxurious life like Gatsby, in the movie “The Great Gatsby.” Another thing citizens were going crazy over was money. Everyone just wanted to find a way to get rich quick. Alcohol, money, sex, and music was shaping a whole new era, which we now call “the Roaring 20’s.” I think combining the two different types of music was a very good idea to use for this movie. In the article they refer to this fusing of music as sliding doors. This is so accurate because like sliding doors, the two genres of music overlap each other. This is very creative because it keeps the classic feel of the song. The jazz helps set the tone of the movie in the 1920’s. On the other hand, the more modern music shakes it up and helps keep the viewers more interested. This is so because the viewers will like listening to music that they haven’t heard before but with the voice of hit pop stars in this generation. When listening through these songs, even if you haven’t seen the movie, like myself, it is still so easy to picture what a speakeasy would be like, or even better, a “Gatsby party.” This album does a great job of making a large range of music. There is a song for every kind of emotion and tone that you could think of. For example, the song “$100 Bill” portrays the love for money during the time. Anyone would do anything just to earn a few extra bucks. In the next song on the album, “Back to Black,” you can tell that the tone of this song is dark. This would definitely be used for a sad scene in the movie. It brings dark vibes and a lonely feel. Another example is the song “Bang Bang.” This song is a song that people would party to. It is very upbeat and just make you want to dance. If you watch the video, it is set to resemble the time of the 70’s. Will.I.Am also scats in this song. This is cool because this is something many artists did in the 20’s and it’s cool to see him bring that style back. There is a classical start, then a techno beat comes in and gives it a little modern flavor. I really like the way that Jay-Z incorporates artists like Fergie, Beyonce, Kanye West, Lana Del Ray, and all the others artists. It was very smart to use these artists that everyone knows to attract listeners. Also, they all have various types of music that they sing so there is rap, pop, and even slow songs. This is key to a good album. There must be songs that listeners can listen to when they want to listen to upbeat, happy music, but there must also be songs that listeners can listen to when they are sad or lonely. Overall, I think the clash of the jazz and modern day music was a success.

Process and Product

Usually when writing an essay, I begin by creating an outline. I try to list out at many points as I can. I write down anything I can think of about the topic I am fixing to write about. I will highlight my strong points. My weaker points is where I like to begin writing, followed by my stronger points. In Writing Analytically, it suggests writing the paragraphs out of order. I find this to help me a lot because if I get stuck on a paragraph, I will move on and come back when I can remember more facts to write down about it. I usually have many drafts. I also like to hand-write my drafts at times so I can move around sentences and visually see it. I usually work better under pressure so I feel like if I had not had to turn in the mandatory drafts I would start a couple days before the assignment was due. I'm glad we had these drafts to turn in so I had more time to think about what I was writing, and I was able to fix it. The group workshops helped me a lot also. They helped me point out a couple points I was overlooking because I wrote the paper. They helped me realize how some of the sentences didn't make sense because the readers of the essay had not actually seen my commercial yet, so therefore they did not know exactly what I was talking about. Drafts play a huge role when writing an essay.

Analysis on Crossfire

I have never really been big into politics, and I rarely ever watch the news. When Ms. Worthington said we were going to be watching a clip from Crossfire, I didn't know what to expect. This argument between the two hosts and Jon Stewart got very intense- quick. Jon tries to start it off peacefully by asking, "Why do we have to fight?" The two men do not care about what he has to say really and just laugh it off. The man in the bow-tie even rudely interrupts multiple times as Jon is speaking. I love the way Stewart handles the whole situation though. He keeps his calm. He acts like what the other two men say do not bother him at all. He was very good at keeping his composure. When the two men make snide remarks, he just shoots back with a witty response which keeps the audience laughing. It is obvious that the audience is siding with him. Stewart was good about keeping the talk about the topic and not making personal jokes and commentary, but the one time he made a comment off-topic would probably have been the time he made the joke about the other man's bow-tie. Over all, Jon does a fantastic job by staying so composed and not so jittery and obnoxious as the other two men. He charms the crowd with his wits, and the other two men feel defeated at the end, hence rushing into a commercial. It's great how Jon was able to get his point across without having to once raise his voice or make demeaning comments. He just stated what he thought was true and the audience supported him.

Writing techniques

In high school, my writing skills were just average. Although this is not a very good work ethic, I am very good under pressure. Most of the time, I would wait to start a paper until just a couple of days before. The pressure helps motivate me to finish what I have to get done by the deadline. Before I start writing a paper, I brainstorm in my mind what I'm going to write about. I start by thinking of what the topic and main point are going to be. Once I have these points in mind, I will start to think of examples that could help the reader understand more of what I am trying to say. I will usually draw out a little outline of all the important points I would like to emphasize in the paper. When I begin to write my intro paragraph, I start by beginning with a very broad statement. I will then slowly go into more depth about the topic and begin to get more specific. I usually begin by writing a rough hand copy by hand first. This helps me be able to change a lot of things before I go and actually type up my final draft. I work best in an environment where there is at least a little bit of music. Without music it is a lot more difficult for me to be able to come up with ideas and topics to talk about in my papers. It also helps keep me awake! My strongest point about writing papers is the grammar. Growing up, grammar has just always come easy to me. The hardest thing for me about papers would be vocabulary. I have an average vocabulary, but my hopes are that one day my vocabulary and speaking would improve and I would sound much more educated. Once I am finished writing a paper, I will sit there and read it two more times. First time I go through and check to see if I have covered all the points and topics mentioned before. The second time I go through the essay to check for grammar and spelling mistakes. I will usually let at least one more person read it after me so they can catch anything if I missed it. These are my strategies and techniques I used while I was going through English in high school.