Thesis statements Blog #9

1. Today's technology, what is it teaching us? I have been doing an experiment on online dating, and really trying to find out what guys are looking for as well as if guy's are being honest and saying what they are really interested is the truth. Is online dating really the answer to finding out how to find your true love? As for my own opinion I would argue that online dating today is the same thing as going to the bar and picking up someone.


2. Are Americans becoming to busy trying to keep up with everyday life, while the nations obesity is becoming more and more of a epidemic? Is this a problem because of growing prices due to cost of living, gas, loss of jobs? In my opinion, I believe a lot of these issues are the cause of our growing prices. But again, I feel that family's are also becoming more dependent on fast foods and packed meals since we are always on the go.


3. Religion even today if your bring up that word, people can become automatically offended or they watch you like a hawk to see what you are going to say about it. Funny story, I was out to lunch with a co-worker and she started talking about her church and then asked me what my opinion was. I told her oh, I have been to that church and I feel it is a great church they made it fun and enjoyable.  So then another person showed up my friend the co-worker asked this other person the same question, and with her head staring at her book she said where she went and was ready for us to make judgement on her. So my argument is, how is it that religion has been taught for hundreds of years and can still have so much power over us?

Blog # 8. Is Google Making Us Stupid

Well I started reading this story, thinking the worst right off the bat but it turned out to be a great story. I took my yellow highlighter and was like okay what am I going to highlight, shoot next thing I knew I was highlighting everything that made me think or laugh.
One thing that really caught my attention was when he is talking about other writers and how that they have so much access to so much information that they find themselves, not being able to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Scott Karp, who writes blog's even confesses that he has stopped reading books altogether.  I was truly blown away by the professor of Medical School admitting that it's hard to read more than one to three paragraphs without having to start skimming through the papers.
So then I started thinking about myself and was like wow, I am just as bad as these people. I just noticed when I was reading a book the other day, I read the summary of the story, then skimmed through the middle and looked at the end to even see if I would enjoy what I was reading.
Maryanne Wolf " If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with content, we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture." Wow, everything she said right there is how I feel in a nut shell.
I have to tell a story, I was at a friends house the other day, and we were helping her 9.5 yr old boy with his homework and he needed help with definitions, so we got out the lab top and looked up the words for him and read what the definition was for him, instead of having him get out the dictionary and look it up for himself.
I think of the move "Walle" by Disney, and how  people basically become vegetables because we let our technology take over .  Granted I feel computers are very helpful in many ways, but I do feel that today as humans we are getting lazier and lazier about things that should be a training/tool to help us not for us to become dependent on. So my thought is yes technology is amazing, but are we as humans becoming lazy? I say yes, but that is my thought only.
 This article, I really did enjoy it and I actually feel like I gained some great knowledge that I can share with others. and Kubrick say's it best with these words, "As we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." Again wow, what a great way to finish off this great story.

Blog # 7 Do What You Have To Do (This I Believe)

                                                                               A Mothers Love of a Child

 

So, I just got finished reading and listening to quite a few different stories and this one jumped out for me. Matter of fact, I even copied her last paragraph she wrote talking about her looking at the moon and her son looking at the moon, and at that that moment they were both connected as if she was giving her a son a hug.

One of the reason I loved this story so much was here was a mother talking about her beliefs and how she was against war and all that inculcates; then 9/11 took place and her son informed her that he was joining the Marines. So far all those believe she had she put them on the back burner and decided to stand by her son. She was a woman who thought teaching love and art was the answer to war and now she had to join forces of the most evil thing that she had condemned.  I felt it was such a powerful statement, knowing that a mother loves her child unconditionally no matter what his decision was. I wish more parents could be open-minded and less opinionated as this mother was. I feel she is an excellent role model to all parents and I was proud that I was able to read such a beautiful story that could impact me to where I felt proud to write about her. It was truly a phenomenal story.

"I was driving home from a late meeting when my son called. The moon in my skies lay behind a slight haze, but it shone steadfast and bright, nearly full. I asked Daniel if the moon was out where he was. He said hold on a moment—yes, he could see it too. I told Daniel I was looking at the moon at that very moment and that he and I were making a triangle with our trajectories of sight. The sunlight reflecting off that pockmarked orb was connecting me to my child just as surely as had I put my arms around him. I felt like a navigator and had found my star, and that star had found my son."

Blog # 6 "Facebook in a Crowd" by Hal Niedzviecki

I just finished reading "Facebook in a Crowd" by Hal Niedzviecki, found myself intrigued by his story. It's amazing how he starts off by talking about his 700 online "friends" and how proud he feels to have these friends.  I was very well engrossed in this story, it made me think of my own daughter. She has just as many friends on her Facebook page and I wonder and ask her who all these people? She always says friends of friends so do you actually know all these people, she laughs and says no! So, why do you need to have them all as your friend? She replies and says mom, you wouldn't understand but I will explain it to you.  To be cool now days you don't have to just have friends in school, it also depends on how you do on your social network as well. She had just lost me right there. She say's mom you know it’s all about popularity, so what if I don't know all of them, I still look cool. Has time really changed so much that we really have to depend on what the social network says is cool or not? As reading on with his story, I started to feel sorry for him because here was a man looking to try and meet some of his new friends, old friends and only one person had the decency to show. Granted, I was evinced that the one lady showed up, but still deeply sadden for him for the crush of no other friends had come.  The truth of the story is you may seem on paper or on social networking to be popular but when you are alone, you may ask yourself, where everyone is? I personally love what Niedzviecki says as his last sentence. “The beer arrived, a British import: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. I raised my glass in a solitary toast and promised myself I’d spend less time online. Then I took a gulp: the beer was delicious but bittersweet. Seven hundred friends, and I was drinking alone”.

Blog # 5 Why We Crave Horror Movies

 Why we crave horror movies by Stephen King. I enjoyed reading what he had to say very much. I myself love a great thrill; as far back as I can remember I have been watching horror flicks. My girlfriends and I would camp out in the living room with all the lights off laying in our sleeping bags and our pillows up to our face, just waiting for the monster to jump out and get us. Then after words we would start cracking up laughing saying oh I wasn't that scared. I agree with Stephen King that everyone seeks a thrill in one way or another; it doesn't just have to be from watching a horror flick.  It may come from something going on in our own personal lives. I think one of the best statements from Stephen, is that it's like riding a roller coaster. As we are going up the ramp climbing higher and higher waiting for the drop off at any moment and that feeling of the unknowing creeps up on us. The best way I look at this, is if you are the type who loves a challenge, outgoing and enjoys life then you are a thrill seeker. Stephen says it best when we also go to re-establish our feelings of essential normality, reminding us who is to say what is normal. I also love this line where he says, “I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better”. As for myself, I know I am not normal but who really cares, I love me and I love a great thrill as well as a good scary movie anytime so bring on the normality, heart racing and anxiety, "Here comes Johnny".
                                                                     REDRUM, REDRUM REDRUM