HW 22

INTRO
More and more people are spending a majority of their time indoors playing with technological items rather than being outside. This is what my essay is going to be about: digital media/technology. This world of digital media really affects how we live our daily life and is changing how we think about things.

Argument 1
It seems that whenever we walk around, we always see people talking on their cellphone, listening to their Ipods, or even bringing portable DVD players with them on the subway to watch movies, just to name a few. It is clear that everyone is becoming obsessed with digital things so I thought it would be interesting to do a survey/interview of people on the street to see how much time they spend on the internet, one guy said that he used to spend about 7 hours on his technology all together but since he has a newborn, he spends about 2 hours on technology but when I talked to him, he had his Iphone in his hand. Another guy said that because he works he spends about 3 hours a day on his phone and he doesn't watch much TV. He does think that technology is excellent though and that without technology he would be bored and it is a good form of communication. I noticed many people said this. I interviewed my mom about digital items and she said that on average in a 9 hour work day, 7 hours are spent on the computer and about 1 hour on the phone. She said she gets so sick of being in front of digital screens all day that she just doesn't use technology much at home. She also said that technology makes life easier but is also less personal than it used to be with communication to other people. For example, faxes were easy to use and were fast and you actually had to sit there and type out a letter but now with e-mailing, it is less personal and have incomplete answers. But it does make life simpler. My mom also said that yes, our society is obviously digitally obsessed with all the new gadgets coming out with Twitter, Google, blogs, etc. but the amount of speed is good and now we live in a "I want it now" time where we want everything ASAP. But it is good, though. I also asked some friends for their opinion on digital technology and one friend said that she spends about half the day on her phone but because she is in school, it's a bit less and that she has her TV and computer at home and she spends about 3 hours on the computer for fun, so not including homework and TV she watches like 2 hours. She believes that digital technology is good because it makes it easier for people to talk to each other but that so many people are addicted to it that it's bad and that it is not good to become so dependent on a digital thing. In general, while doing these interviews and thinking about the answers people gave me, I noticed that they were all very similar, which could maybe show how much the digital media has affected how all of us thinks about it.

ARGUMENT 2
Digital technology also shows up a lot in society and the media, which is most likely why all of us in society are so enamored with these gadgets. There are constantly new phones coming out that is either an upgrade with newer features from a previous phone or a completely new phone that has a lot of cool features. When the Iphone came out in 2007, there were extremely long lines at every Apple store nationwide where people were camped out for days to get the phone that sold out very fast. Also, when the Wii came out, people camped out for days to get it and then fights and such ensued when people could not get a hand on the Wii. That shows how obsessed we are with this kind of media culture. I also found some interesting about this. The topic I'm really interested in is the addiction to digital media and how it affects us.
1. http://www.livescience.com/technology/080125-tech-addicts.html
This article said that some people's addiction to technology such as Blackberries is equal to a persons addiction to drugs or alcohol. It also shows different tests done in various years to show how people are addicted to this and what people think about this subject. It is a good article.
2. http://www.physorg.com/news171819640.html
This article is from a British newspaper saying how a study conducted in teenagers showed how technology has ruined teenagers learning especially written work because they are so used to using text speak and abbreviations and hardly spend any time doing actual home work that writing and grades have gone way down. Also, plagarism has gone up because teens and people in general can get so much info by looking something up online. This is also a good article.
3. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/07/01/la.tech.addictions/index.html
4. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-bootcamp/200907/techno-addicts
This article talks about the actual things going on in one's body when they use technology. (Endorphins etc.) its a great article also. For example, for the V.M.A.s on MTV and there was a scandal with Kanye West and Taylor Swift and what happened was that Taylor won an award and was in the middle of giving her speech when Kanye jumped onto the stage unexpectedly and said "i'm sorry, Taylor, but I think Beyonce has the best video." Taylor was left speechless and in tears. The second that happened, Facebook friends statuses exploded with things on how big a jerk Kanye is and their opinions on it and when they showed Lady Gaga and her performance, statuses were all about her and how she looked. People were both watching TV and were on their computers or phones talking about it. This alone shows how obsessed people like myself are when it comes to electronics. This shows how everything is quicker with the media.
The message of digital media is represented a lot in movies and songs. In Wall-E, for instance, the people are shown sitting on a couch watching TV, getting fat, and eating a lot. There's also one scene where a robotic like voice says "red is the new blue" and the people, with just one lick of a button, change their red clothing to blue and everything around them is all technology because the people buy into what the advertisements tell them to do. And the people in the advertisements speak in a robotic voice, which could represent how all of society is robots when they listen to what the media tells them what to do and what is the latest technological thing that is out, and so on. The band, Bad Religion made a song called "21st Century Digital Boy" which is about how digitalized the kids of our generation are today and another song of theirs, "I Love My Computer" is a song that sounds like the character is talking about the computer in a way that a person would talk to a fellow human being. In "Digital Boy", he chorus says "See I'm a 21st century digital boy I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual Ain't life a mystery?" These lyrics are saying that in this generation, people use technology more than doing other more productive things such as reading. In "Computer", one of the lyrics are: "I love my computer for all you give to me: predictable errors and no identity And it's never been quite so easy I've never been quite so happy All I need to do is click on you and we'll be joined in the most soul-less way And we'll never ruin each other's day 'cuz when I'm through I just click and you just go away." These lyrics are saying that the character in this song is saying that he loves his computer because the computer never makes him mad and that when he has a bad day, the computer will make him feel better and it is easier to use the computer than talk to a person because a person can talk back to you and piss you off but the worst thing a computer can do to him is have an error and it won't talk back to him, which is why he likes it so much. In both Wall-E and the Bad Religion songs, the common theme is that they are both kind of making fun of the media way of life. The same goes for the book, Feed which describes how the characters go into an outer space like world and try to avoid doing things having to do with technology but that they still can't do it because everywhere they look it is something digital. Movies, music, and books are big influences in teaching and showing the public about this digital world we live in.
In my opinion, technology and digital things in general are good things when they are not used in excess. I think that things like phones help us out tremendously in contacting people who don't live close by and for spreading information. The experiment I did is not using my internet or Aim for about 1 week so far. This is not my choice but I own a Sidekick which had and is still having a massive, nationwide data outtage. I haven't had good, working service since last Thursday and most my friends who own Sidekicks have full service back but me. I have mostly only been able to text and call on my Sidekick so it feels like I'm owning one of those phones from the 90's that only had calling or texting on it. I only recently got Aim back but still no internet, which is what I want the most. Because I had a messed up phone all last weekend, I was in a pissy mood and most of my time was devoted to trying to fix it. I've called T-mobile numerous times over the past week because I need my phone to be in perfect working order soon. This outage really has shown me how addicted to my phone and digital media I am. I could barely function on anything but my phone which is a sign of how much I need my technology. I do so much on my phone already so it was as if I was having a withdrawal. I also do some homework on my phone which was also a problem. I think if I wasn't so obsessed with my phone, this technical problem would have been easier for me to deal with and it wouldn't have taken up so much of my mental energy. I am definitely trying to cut back on my electronic time because it also distracts me from doing homework which of course, isn't good. Since I can barely do anything on my phone now, I actually feel more productive and hopefully, this continues even when my full service is restored. I also think it is useless for people to keep upgrading their technological devices every couple of months because most of the time, there aren't drastic changes being done to the gadget and people just want to have the newest item to seem more up to trend with the latest thing. As you can see from this essay, this new digital media life we live in really influences how we behave in our everyday life.

HW 25: Comments on Stories

Kiana-I REALLY enjoyed your story because I really felt like I was in the head of your character. I also liked how you used the word "cool" a lot to really show how important it is to the story. Some of the lines were funny and I liked it a great deal! -Juju

Michelle- I liked your story a lot and I liked how you gave your character a mysterious personality because I noticed that not many stories had that so I liked that. I also liked how you ended the story with a cliff-hanger type thing. Good work!- Juliette

HW 22

When she looked at her reflection in the store window on her way to the first day of school, she smiled, knowing how good she looked in her skinny jeans and heels. She stood there and smiled and thought to herself "this outfit will definitley get me friends to talk to I mean who could hate it?" She fluffed her hair, retouched her makeup, took out a lint roller and made sure there was no speck of lint on her clothing. With the swish of her hair and the clacking of her heels, she walked in to the school and given the onceover.

HW 23

In my opinion, the definition of cool is subjective meaning that every person has a different idea of what "cool" means to them. Different groups think different things are cool. I think there is superficial cool which is when people are considered cool because they have the latest clothes or gadgets-only things you see on the outside. Then there is inner cool which is when the person might have a good, chill personality or a personality that is really funny or some "good" personality like that. For superficial cool, that changes frequently because there are always going to be the latest must-have gadget or the newest fashion styles that the "cool" people will change to to keep up their "cool" statuses. I also noticed that one thing that is considered to be cool is to be unique and not care about being cool. Personally, I believe that the actual cool people are the ones that honestly don't care about being cool but that it is annoying when people claim to not really care about being cool when really, they actually do care.

People also think that fitting in with a majority of people makes you cool. For example, in my elementary school, I didn't really fit in because most of the popular girls were the rich ones with the PTA moms who didn't work and houses on Fire Island. I didn't have that so I didn't really fit in with everybody and I had few friends as a result of that. When I got to middle school and high school, I realized not many people cared about fitting in and being popular because that was considered not to be cool or nice to care about insignificant things like that. This goes along with a question that somebody brought up in class which was: is being cool more envy than liking? This means that do we envy something that someone has so we want to do or own that same thing to fit in even though you don't like it?

The biggest aspect on what is "cool" is really shown to us by the media. Magazines have pictures of celebrities carrying the latest bag or wearing the latest shoes or magazines like People feature the what's hot/what's not lists which show you what is the coolest new item and what look is outdated. Also, there is always that one song that the radio DJs or VJs think are cool and they play it 24/7 such as the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys song "Empire State of Mind." If you hear the song everywhere or see the fashion everywhere, the thing most likely will grow on you and you will like it. A perfect example is liquid leggings. When they first came out, I didn't like them at all but after I saw them everywhere, I started liking them more. The media "implants" what's cool for you.

HW 19

Yurelis-
POV:4
Evid:3.5
Significance:3.5
Con:2
Opp. View:4
Com:2.5
Total:19.5

Kiana-
your paper was really really good. It was very strong and I liked how you used a lot of statistics and information from the internet to back up your statements. You were very thorough with everything and you hardly left anything out. I also enjoyed how you used some of your own personal statements also so you didn't only use information ot=r facts. Using personal examples is very good in my opinion because it shows your own experiences and not just something an author wrote about in a newspaper. You also cited sources which is good. I also found it was good that you titled each paragraph with the heading like 3rd argument, significance, etc. because it is easy to follow that way and everything isn't just jumbled together. You could adfd like one or two ideas from movies or songs to make your arguments even stronger. GOOD WORK THOUGH!

HW 21 ART PROJECT

VIDEO ART PROJECT from Juliette on Vimeo.

1. I think my art project is a mirror because all I am doing is showing how advanced technology and digital things have become since a while back. As you can see from the first half of the video which is black and white, I am using more simpler technology that was probably advanced for them like the typewriter and the old-fashioned looking phone. Obviously, there were no cell phones/microwaves, etc. there. Then in the next half the video that is in color, I am using my Blackberry, my old Sidekick, a regular desk phone, my computer, the microwave, and the TV. I am trying to convey the message of advancing technology and how different it is now.

2. Some reactions I have about my art project is that I tried to drop little hints about how advanced we are today with digital things. For example, In the black/white video where I go into the kitchen to cook, I said: "I wish I could make food easier so that I don't have to slave over a hot stove all day." Then in the color video, you see me using a microwave, which is an easier way to cook, of course. Personally, I don't think this video makes you feel or think anything very insightful or brings in new ideas, but I do think it makes us actually see or realize how much more technologically advanced we are today compared to 50 or so years ago.

3. I think there are many interesting parts of making my art project but the one that I found interesting was that I had a good amount of "old-fashioned" technology-based items. In a world where most people don't even own a typewriter, desk phone, or VCR anymore, I own those things. (The typewriter belongs to my sister because she wanted it for some reason.) Evidently, I still have a computer, a TV, a DVD player, and so on, I also own "old" digital devices and I don't upgrade these things a lot. But while setting up for the first video, I hid some of the current digital devices to make it look more outdated. I thoroughly enjoyed this art project, though.

Comments on rough draft

i think this is a really good rough draft for a paper because it is very detailed but clear at the same time and not much is missing. You should just add more sources. Good job! to Kiana

Yurelis- your rough draft is pretty good because everything is organized and i can follow your thoughts well-they aren't jumbled everywhere. I think you could have added some more info to each paragraph and shown other points of view to like an opposing viewpoint. Good Job! -Juliette

Hw 16 Essay

More and more people are spending a majority of their time indoors playing with technological items rather than being outside. This is what my essay is going to be about: digital media/technology. This world of digital media really affects how we live our daily life and is changing how we think about things.
It seems that whenever we walk around, we always see people talking on their cellphone, listening to their Ipods, or even bringing portable DVD players with them on the subway to watch movies, just to name a few. It is clear that everyone is becoming obsessed with digital things so I thought it would be interesting to do a survey/interview of people on the street to see how much time they spend on the internet, one guy said that he used to spend about 7 hours on his technology all together but since he has a newborn, he spends about 2 hours on technology but when I talked to him, he had his Iphone in his hand. Another guy said that because he works he spends about 3 hours a day on his phone and he doesn't watch much TV. He does think that technology is excellent though and that without technology he would be bored and it is a good form of communication. I noticed many people said this. I interviewed my mom about digital items and she said that on average in a 9 hour work day, 7 hours are spent on the computer and about 1 hour on the phone. She said she gets so sick of being in front of digital screens all day that she just doesn't use technology much at home. She also said that technology makes life easier but is also less personal than it used to be with communication to other people. For example, faxes were easy to use and were fast and you actually had to sit there and type out a letter but now with e-mailing, it is less personal and have incomplete answers. But it does make life simpler. My mom also said that yes, our society is obviously digitally obsessed with all the new gadgets coming out with Twitter, Google, blogs, etc. but the amount of speed is good and now we live in a "I want it now" time where we want everything ASAP. But it is good, though. I also asked some friends for their opinion on digital technology and one friend said that she spends about half the day on her phone but because she is in school, it's a bit less and that she has her TV and computer at home and she spends about 3 hours on the computer for fun, so not including homework and TV she watches like 2 hours. She believes that digital technology is good because it makes it easier for people to talk to each other but that so many people are addicted to it that it's bad and that it is not good to become so dependent on a digital thing. In general, while doing these interviews and thinking about the answers people gave me, I noticed that they were all very similar, which could maybe show how much the digital media has affected how all of us thinks about it.
Digital technology also shows up a lot in society and the media, which is most likely why all of us in society are so enamored with these gadgets. There are constantly new phones coming out that is either an upgrade with newer features from a previous phone or a completely new phone that has a lot of cool features. When the Iphone came out in 2007, there were extremely long lines at every Apple store nationwide where people were camped out for days to get the phone that sold out very fast. Also, when the Wii came out, people camped out for days to get it and then fights and such ensued when people could not get a hand on the Wii. That shows how obsessed we are with this kind of media culture. I also found some interesting about this. The topic I'm really interested in is the addiction to digital media and how it affects us.
1. http://www.livescience.com/technology/080125-tech-addicts.html
This article said that some people's addiction to technology such as Blackberries is equal to a persons addiction to drugs or alcohol. It also shows different tests done in various years to show how people are addicted to this and what people think about this subject. It is a good article.
2. http://www.physorg.com/news171819640.html
This article is from a British newspaper saying how a study conducted in teenagers showed how technology has ruined teenagers learning especially written work because they are so used to using text speak and abbreviations and hardly spend any time doing actual home work that writing and grades have gone way down. Also, plagarism has gone up because teens and people in general can get so much info by looking something up online. This is also a good article.
3. http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/07/01/la.tech.addictions/index.html
4. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-bootcamp/200907/techno-addicts
This article talks about the actual things going on in one's body when they use technology. (Endorphins etc.) its a great article also. For example, for the V.M.A.s on MTV and there was a scandal with Kanye West and Taylor Swift and what happened was that Taylor won an award and was in the middle of giving her speech when Kanye jumped onto the stage unexpectedly and said "i'm sorry, Taylor, but I think Beyonce has the best video." Taylor was left speechless and in tears. The second that happened, Facebook friends statuses exploded with things on how big a jerk Kanye is and their opinions on it and when they showed Lady Gaga and her performance, statuses were all about her and how she looked. People were both watching TV and were on their computers or phones talking about it. This alone shows how obsessed people like myself are when it comes to electronics. This shows how everything is quicker with the media.
The message of digital media is represented a lot in movies and songs. In Wall-E, for instance, the people are shown sitting on a couch watching TV, getting fat, and eating a lot. There's also one scene where a robotic like voice says "red is the new blue" and the people, with just one lick of a button, change their red clothing to blue and everything around them is all technology because the people buy into what the advertisements tell them to do. And the people in the advertisements speak in a robotic voice, which could represent how all of society is robots when they listen to what the media tells them what to do and what is the latest technological thing that is out, and so on. The band, Bad Religion made a song called "21st Century Digital Boy" which is about how digitalized the kids of our generation are today and another song of theirs, "I Love My Computer" is a song that sounds like the character is talking about the computer in a way that a person would talk to a fellow human being. In "Digital Boy", he chorus says "See I'm a 21st century digital boy I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual Ain't life a mystery?" These lyrics are saying that in this generation, people use technology more than doing other more productive things such as reading. In "Computer", one of the lyrics are: "I love my computer for all you give to me: predictable errors and no identity And it's never been quite so easy I've never been quite so happy All I need to do is click on you and we'll be joined in the most soul-less way And we'll never ruin each other's day 'cuz when I'm through I just click and you just go away." These lyrics are saying that the character in this song is saying that he loves his computer because the computer never makes him mad and that when he has a bad day, the computer will make him feel better and it is easier to use the computer than talk to a person because a person can talk back to you and piss you off but the worst thing a computer can do to him is have an error and it won't talk back to him, which is why he likes it so much. In both Wall-E and the Bad Religion songs, the common theme is that they are both kind of making fun of the media way of life. The same goes for the book, Feed which describes how the characters go into an outer space like world and try to avoid doing things having to do with technology but that they still can't do it because everywhere they look it is something digital. Movies, music, and books are big influences in teaching and showing the public about this digital world we live in.
In my opinion, technology and digital things in general are good things when they are not used in excess. I think that things like phones help us out tremendously in contacting people who don't live close by and for spreading information. The experiment I did is not using my internet or Aim for about 1 week so far. This is not my choice but I own a Sidekick which had and is still having a massive, nationwide data outtage. I haven't had good, working service since last Thursday and most my friends who own Sidekicks have full service back but me. I have mostly only been able to text and call on my Sidekick so it feels like I'm owning one of those phones from the 90's that only had calling or texting on it. I only recently got Aim back but still no internet, which is what I want the most. Because I had a messed up phone all last weekend, I was in a pissy mood and most of my time was devoted to trying to fix it. I've called T-mobile numerous times over the past week because I need my phone to be in perfect working order soon. This outtage really has shown me how addicted to my phone and digital media I am. I could barely function on anything but my phone which is a sign of how much I need my technology. I do so much on my phone already so it was as if I was having a withdrawl. I also do some homework on my phone which was also a problem. I think if I wasn't so obsessed with my phone, this technical problem would have been easier for me to deal with and it wouldn't have taken up so much of my mental energy. I am definitly trying to cut back on my electronic time because it also distracts me from doing homework which of course, isn't good. Since I can barely do anything on my phone now, I actually feel more productive and hopefully, this continues even when my full service is restored. I also think it is useless for people to keep upgrading their technological devices every couple of months because most of the time, there aren't drastic changes being done to the gadget and people just want to have the newest item to seem more up to trend with the latest thing. As you can see from this essay, this new digital media life we live in really influences how we behave in our everyday life.

Hw 16 Paper Outline

Paragraph 1: intro to this unit

Paragraph 2: interviews with people on digital technology and insights

Paragraph 3: how digital media shows up in society/media and insights

Paragraph 4: examples on digital media from movies, music etc. and insights

Paragraph 5: personal idea in general on digital media.

Paragraph 6: conclusion