Well to be honest I ended up skimming over all of the provided texts. And I noticed that about 1/2 way through the longest text I began to think about how it connects to everything else. I realised that I was no longer reading but sating and thinking.
At the end of my skimming/thinking/staring I understood like the vexing title of the book that everything bad is good for you. Johnson brought up alot of good points that me being an oblivious teen had never thought of. In the first few pages of the long text, Johnson brought up the argument of timing and placement. Which I thought was clever.
He mentioned that if video games had been introduced centuries before books that we would say that books are bad and cannot be trusted. I felt like that argument in itself was a pun for stupidity. Basically because we have been exposed to it longer then it can be trusted. Which I found as odd and increasingly interesting. Johnson made a point about how when we are learning to read we are focusing on what the plot and what the point of the book is rather than learning.
Johnson mentions a point that Spock made about reading being something that helps us to gain knowledge because we stay focused on something for long periods of time and it is actually us Reading word by word doing all the work. Johnson retorts by saying video games offer the same stimulation.
Personally I like video games and I like reading. I think that it depends both ways. For example if I'm reading something that I am not interested in then most likely I'm not going to gain any knowledge from it and the whole theory of reading to gain knowledge goes down the toilet.
Connecting Feed to this should be interesting.
Feed is saying that digital things are turning the teens of today in to mindless stupid fools who don't feel. Which in many ways could be true. Anderson is basically screaming at the reader to wake up and look around at what we are becoming. To detach from the screens and go outside and feel. So we as the readers go on thinking that digital is bad. Then Johnson comes along saying that actually digital isn't all that bad and tuning in might be in your benefit.
Anderson is talking about a large dependence on digital and here Johnson is talking about a slight comparison and that the screen should not be shunned but it shouldn't be depended on to live either.
There is always going to be a good and a bad side to something like "digital". Personally it doesn't really matter to me anymore. I feel like this has been going on for a long time. People pointing out the problems in the world and then not doing anything about it. I feel like this is only going to make us see both sides of the argument and we are going to go about our lives and keep texting and logging on.
So, what is the point?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i like your last sentence it really wraps up all your ideas and what does this matter if know one really does any thing. also how anderson and johnson are both looking at the same thing but takeing away differnt aspects away from this one event. (i like that you brought up spock)
ReplyDeletei agree with you that there are differnces that anderson is saying wake up look!!!! and johnsons point i think is vaild but can be somed up quickly that internet and computers are tools and can be used to map up the galaxy clusters or draw an ass hole out of pics of poeple you dont like. but i think most of this books and computers is a fight against disembodyment. i dont know how ot spell it but i hope you know what i mean. like reading in the bath room . but i do it to hopefully learn but it turns in to trying to live my body becuase im next to a stinky litter box and in a ever increseing stinky bath room. maybe it is not learning is what im trying to do but it is an option it is a tool and i can choose (i hope) weather to face my shit or read about atoms.
i think that andersons call is like that guy saying the british are coming! i dont think it was really paul revier. but it isa an atment to make people understand. i mean even getting one person to wake up i think is some thing but now his book is being mass produced to teens and they dont see it i can see why you feel it is like why bother.
good you kick ass as always hope to see more!
Jacara,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading all you blog posts, your titles are always very amusing and i can tell your writing is honest, you always straight to the point, you are not afraid to say what you feel (but who should be afraid in Andys class). Home work 14 on your blog is what caught my attention most! you were able to take the most important and fascinating points out of Johnson's reading, however it would have been nice if you expanded your thought a little more. I always find when you ask the reader questions (its kinda like thinking out loud) they are more likely to think harder about that you are writing. I agree that is video games had been introduced before books, books would be considered bad. I think that the difference between books and video game will become less and less apparent, books are already becoming digitalized (amazon kendles and you can even have books read to you from you ipod). He can argue that books and video games are significantly different but how different are they really? Do you not think that they both impose a sense of disembodiment? Do you think that video games are completely worthless or can you see them being good for something? Just a few thoughts of mine that may help you to expand. Really good job on Homework assignments 10-14 good work!
jacara,
ReplyDeletei agree with your last sentence a lot. if, at the end of the day, every lesson is just saying "continue as you were but see both sides of the issue" than education is a waste of time. you could always just skip the learning and head straight to the predictable moral at the end.
what you're really asking for is transformative learning.
but do you really want it?
i would offer a different categorization than "good side bad side". what if we saw the world as complex music and you're trying to figure out how to dance? and the more you accurately hear the music the better your dancing will be (for you and for everyone). at first most people just base their dancing on the disco beat, but then you start to notice bass lines and then you begin to incorporate the melodic emoting, etc.
pretty lucky - between ians and my posts you've got a stinky dance floor with a glowing atomic disco ball.