Rocking the Foundation

Here is my first draft. It is by no means finished, as you can see by the length. But, it is all i could get out before the writers block set in and i started searching for an outside article that didn't pale in comparison to those we had already read.
If you edit on the document please do so in a differnt color or font. Thanks. 

Personal Growth

The once underestimated web writing has helped me grow as a writer. I have a new found respect for both web reading and writing. I did not understand how difficult it was to write the first thoughts, reactions, and emotions that came to mind until I was placed in the shoes of a blogger. The free form spontaneity is both awe-inspiring and a challenge. I used to not like writing because I thought the process of completing an "academic paper" was arduous. I know find that there is a comfort in the structure of writing for educational purposes and that spontaneous web writing is almost stressful.

I have started to notice that the change of how I read, write, and process information on the computer is actually affecting my everyday reading and writing. I find myself taking notes more frequently and much more carefully then I had in the past. Since having to take notes on articles for our blog posts I have found myself reading other pieces on the internet that I would have ordinarily just skimmed. I am now very much interested in the blogging community, though it is unlikely that I will create a personal blog. Now that I have looked at blogging from a different view point, I admit that I much prefer online information updates as opposed to that of newsprint.

All and all I must say that blogging has positively changed my views of internet reading and writing. While this change is taking some time to get used to I believe that it will help me in the future. The challenge of adapting my writing style to fit that of the fast paced blogging community is worth it, in my opinion.

Stepping Beyond Wikipedia

 I found the article stepping beyond  interesting because it talks, mostly, about how to search the internet through search resources, such as Wikipedia. It also mentions learning new literacy and reading techniques by aquiring the proper knowledge of how to use the internet.

Newsflash

Through his article "Bad Days for Newsrooms" Chris Hedges argues it cannot be inferred that the internet is completely to blame for the decline of newsprint. A major reason for cut back in newsrooms is the lack of "public responsibility". When it comes to uncovering stories and gathering all of the necessary entities to produce and spread news, news staffs have almost become too lazy. When considering all of the expenses it takes to print just one edition of a newspaper it is almost not worth the minimal profit, especially when the staff is not willing to put in the effort to make a sensational newspaper. The rising corporate power houses are also to blame for the decline of print news. The population has become less amused with actual news events and have turned to more entertaining shows such as, TMZ which gathers information about current social events.

The major difference between Hedge's article and Clive Thompson's "Clive Thompson on New Literacy" is that Thompson argues the new forms of communication through internet technology have revolutionized modern writing and language. People of today's generation are beginning to write outside of school, where in previous years writing rarely occurred without a school based reason. Both Thompson and Hedges attempt to show that writing is now done mostly for entertainment. Most of today's society is using internet writing as a means of communication and to spread information quickly and efficiently.

Advances of modern technology have helped to improve language and writing. With proper teaching any student can learn the difference between "text talk" and formal writing language. I personally believe that if there is no reason to write out full words and phrases that short hand is acceptable to make life easier. Why would you make writing and communicating more difficult than necessary?

A Watered Down Culture

At first, the ideas presented in Chris Hedges America the Illiterate brought about feelings of complete shock. The idea that the majority of our modern society, with its complex computers and other technological advances, could be descending to the mindset of a 10 year-old was almost unfathomable. Then I considered the other advaces our society has made, mainly in the genre of entertainment. With the ever updating means of technology comes the capability of spreading entertainment farther at a much faster pace.

 Even with this new view on literacy, the rising statistics of the illiterate remained staggering. It is almost impossible to grasp the concept that about one third of America's population survives day to day on familiar brand names and image filled restaurants alone; most of them capable of serving only fellow illiterates. I would personally be lost if I did not have the ability to help myself with daily tasks such as, paperwork, driving, and being able to determine the dosage for medicine. Presidential candidates have started to "dumb down" their speeches to appeal to the illiterate of our population. 

Americans have traded in their once highly valued knowledge and education for entertainment. As if this fact were not disturbing enough, it is something politicians are preying on. They use the weaknesses of those that cannot serve themselves to get ahead in polls and elections. With user friendly images and slogans they can sway the vote of the illiterates without much effort.   Hedges uses an example that, after doing the math, is quite an eye opener. The election debate between Lincoln and Douglas was presented at an average grade level of 11.6. The 2000 debate between Bush and Gore was only a 7.2 grade level average. I personally would not want a president that presented himself at 4.4 grade levels less than that of previous presidents.

America needs to bring back the valued days of education and use these great technological advances for the betterment of human kind. Educating instead of catering to the needs of the illiterate could completely reshape not only America, but the world as a whole.

Information Overload

The information available on the internet is not making us stupid, necessarily. It actually aids in making human kind more efficient. Now, what you choose to do with all of the extra time gained from not having to spend hours upon hours in a library doing research is completely up to the individual. Sure we have taken hold of this internet and seem to use it as a crutch, but who would turn a gift horse in the mouth if it is going to save you from the Dewey Decimal system.

Computers have, of course, become an integral part in today's society. The fear that they may one day take over the world is completely ridiculous. I do not see the world becoming a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, like Carr mentions in the beginning of his article. Think of it this way, when cars and cell phones and other modern technologies were invented humanity did not live in fear. They, instead, adapted to their presence and do not plan on going back to a world before these conveniences.

As a class we seem to have this idea of adaptation under complete control. Of course each individual has their list of frequently visited sites, but in most cases we are using the internet for the same basic reasons. Some just prefer different search engines, for example. But the fact is we all have a need to, at one time or another,  scour the infinite resources of the internet.

So, the internet and computers in general are not designed to take over our lives and make us mindless robots or anything. The intention is to make it easier to gain access to information at the drop of a hat in hopes of making life just a little less chaotic and complex.

Reading and Writing Harris Style

Harris' attempts to convey that reading and writing are open for interpretation according to the comfort levels of the current 'reviser'. To Harris writing exists in the form of rewriting, in the form of both personal revision and interpretations of past literary works. His main focus, when it comes to writing, is to embed the idea of writing as a social practice with action, and dynamics, instead of the all-to-common summarization. A  writer should feel free to respond, not necessarily to the original author, but to those who may receive the rewritten work. Before grasping the basic concept of how to read, Harris first helps us to understand what it is we are reading and interpreting. Harris defines this as a text, or any physical artifact with personal meaning. With this in mind Harris suggests we read with the author and then from different perspectives to gain a complete understanding of the passage as a whole. Harris outlines three guidelines to consider while reading which I find could be very helpful: define the purpose of the author's project, note keywords, and determine limits and uses.
The term project is used to convey that not all literary works are constructed around a single simple main idea, some include complex thoughts. Finding where the author is coming from and where they received their information can help easily determine the meaning behind the textual piece. When responding to a written work quotes can be your "best friend". Through the multiple types of available quotes a writer can efficiently display the way in which they interpreted the original text.
This all ties in to Andrew Sullivan's ideas of writing being more unstructured and in the moment. The formalities of academic writing hinder the creative and personal flow. Both Sullivan and Harris come from the idea that writing should be expressed in a way that suites the writer.

So What Did You Do Today?

Whatever happened to those good old days, the ones where you had to have an actual conversation with a person before you could say you honestly knew them? It was not until I looked back on the internet usage of my fellow classmates that I realized everything you truly needed to know about them was right in the sites they visited. I quite honestly assumed that, although we would never have all the same sites listed in each individual blog, one site would be visited almost religiously by at least a great majority of our class. That site is Facebook. Every blog I skimmed in order to prep for this post referenced the networking site of networking sites at least once, if not several times.
Because we have a fairly diverse list of hometowns in our class it was to be expected that there would be sites visited that some of us maybe had not heard of before. These differences were seen mostly through local news sites and even some local blogs. It seems that we used the internet for more of a reading, information gathering, and networking opportunity than anything else. Unless you got online to update a blog, or send an email there was not much writing occurring.
Though it always feels, at least to me, just a little awkward to peer into the personal lives of others, I believe the "research" aspect of this post taught me a few things. I think the most important thing I was able to gather was an insight into the personality and background of several of my fellow students. Seeing the sites most visited by them allowed me to realize that though you may not talk to someone because they sit across the room from you, you may have more in common with them then you ever thought possible. I also realized that today's generation has a need to be constantly included in the loop, and everyone has their own form of gossip mill.

Where in the World Wide Web

Surprisingly enough, I did not use the internet as much as i would have expected this weekend. Due to the holiday and a rather hectic work schedule there was not much time for it.

Saturday:
8:00-8:20am checked and updated Facebook.
6:00-7:00pm had Facebook up while working on homework and cleaning my room
6:00-7:00pm listened to music on Pandora radio
10:00-11:00pm on Facebook catching up with out of town friends

Sunday:
8:00-10:30 listening to Pandora while getting ready for church
1:30-2:40 read articles online for Modes of Inquiry paper
1:00-1:30 Facebook to work out plans for the rest of the weekend

Mr. Sullivan, Why Do You Blog?

Patience is a virtue rarely seen in today's fast paced society. Without bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan, most of the population would be at a loss. Consider a world before the constant current event update. If Andrew Sullivan had never discovered the then underground spread of news, chaos would continue to plague the unorganized news highlights of typical webpages. Sullivan accidentally stumbled upon the new reverse rolodex of the digital community.

For Sullivan, the idea of spreading current news throughout the world in a matter of moments after its occurence did not come until after he concurred his fear of technology and began with past works of art and research. Once he discovered this free-form public diary, there was no turning back. He found blogging as a way to relieve the stresses of journalistic office work. It gave him, and other previously voiceless individuals, the ability to show creativity and personal opinion not available in structured informative news writing.

The most interesting quote to catch my eye was Sullivan's true boiled down opinion of the blogging world, "There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannnot be rivaled by print".  This can be considered the most quintessential purpose of blogging. Generally, by the time a story is printed in the paper the entire country has heard it, and misconstrued it, to an almost fabricated rumor. With real time blog updates the news has less opportunity to morph into the thoughts and ideas of others. It has a way of trademarking itself due to its semi-permanent appearance. Some may accuse blogging of consuming the need for a traditional pen and paper method, but bloggers, such as Sullivan, realize the boundaries where "matter dictates medium".