Video Games

So video games in my life have been one of the main distractions that gets in the way of my responsibilities. So I decided to make it apart of my assignment to be more productive. Typically I play video games whenever I am stressed, bored, or just flat out not wanting to address my responsibilities. I have enjoy getting outside of myself for awhile and relieve some stress and a lot of times video games is what I do to accomplish that. In the Rediscovering Reality article we read last week I think pertains to this idea of a gaming culture but on the opposite end of the spectrum. I think that in ways in the gaming community we tend to not want to have anything to do with reality or rather create a reality. If reality is "as is" or "just as they are". There are plenty of people that don't want that. Gamers go about reality in different ways than others do. We are able to make a spectacle out of false reality as much as other people make a spectacle of reality tv shows. However, instead of participating in someone else's reality they create a brand new reality. As gamers we tend to want to avoid all the drama so we retreat into our reality.

Assignment 6

For option 2, I did do a close reading on my Dell laptop. I use my laptop for everything, whether it’s for checking emails, online television, video games, music or movies. I use my laptop to do my homework, watch movies, and download music. I also use MSN Messenger or Skype to talk to my family and friends worldwide. The laptop is a very useful machine that has no limits.

Laptops are an improvement of home desktops. Laptops can be carried anywhere and are made to fit in small spaces. Laptops are being made smaller every day, especially Macs. Laptops have changed in size ever since they were created. On a laptop, you can do infinite things. Your laptop is like your gateway to the world. It presents many resources to you through the World Wide Web. The possibilities of the laptop are countless. You are connected to friends through software and programs, such as Skype and Facebook. Owning a laptop is very important because it connects the individual to the world and many other things through the medium. The media is like an object with many signifiers. I believe the idea behind the laptop kind of shares McLuhan's thoughts, especially in his article The Medium Is the Massage. In this article, he emphasized that “the medium is the message” in terms of the electronic age, that a totally new environment has been created. The “content” of this new environment is the old mechanized environment of the industrial age. “

Understanding what you see on the laptop is very different from what you might see on television. By that I mean that for example when you’re on the laptop, there are many things right in front of you that you can engage in. But on the television, you can’t do anything but look at the images and hear the sounds.

Assignment #6: Close Reading into iPod Touch

Well, the item I tend to use daily is my iPod Touch, primarily for music even though it has features such as apps, the internet, timer, an alarm, photos and video carrier, and etc. I have certain parts of my day where I use it, when heading off to classes I can listening to my various music that I have or play some podcasts that I have been meaning to listen to. In this media driven world, an iPod Touch has everything to offer, except for phone usage and texting but that is something it’s counterpart, the iPhone, does. It’s something I would guess most iPod Touch owners would love since it can tap into the major media outlets. The factor it proves to show is it can keep you very much entertained with all it offers. Where we are with this world and how most people function in their everyday life, the iPod Touch touches on many of those basis. People listens to music and go on the internet all the time and that alone is a staple of our everyday lives.

What this touched on from our readings is McLuhan’s Understanding Media and how technology is used as an extension of man. How these items that we have become something we’ve identified ourselves with and turns into a daily function that become a part of us. Another thing is looking at Apple brands in general and how it devise this plan that we have to have it. Klien’s New Branded World, shows us how companies aren’t trying to sell products but they are trying to sell brands. So maybe the fact, that I have this iPod Touch is because I belong in this ready-made group of people who are looking for this new and innovated technology that comes with being a Apple owner. That all of the uses for the iPod Touch come secondary only to the fact that I am a iPod Touch owner, so that makes me better. So what I see here, is two things that our running my everyday life based on this, the media and the brand.

Extra Credit:

Extra Credit Youtube

This was one of my favorite songs/videos i discovered this summer..

Paintbrush

If there is an object that I used most regularly on a day to day basis it would be a paintbrush. I have an entire collection of some old some new, of all sizes, which I use to produce paintings. I do have a favorite in this bunch, an old wood brush with horsehair. It is stained with many colors and the finish is chipping away. When I hold this brush in my hand I am controlled by spontaneity and my mind clears. The brush is an extension of my being. Its role is to aid in the production of “beautiful” images, beauty being subjective of course. It is designed to apply paint in such way that reduces unnecessary effort. Its long handle provides comfort and control. The bristles apply paint in a smooth uniform way. The old, worn, and tattered brush contradicts the “beauty” of the final product.

The paintbrush is a symbol of the artist and the art it is creating. There are many connotations about artist including that they are deranged or have psychological issues, and frequent drug use. Artists also have always been regarded as highly intellectual, such artists as Picasso or Salvador Dali were known to be geniuses. The image of the artist has changed dramatically over time. Art used to be a craft, studied for years and years by strict study under a master. Paintings were limited to only religious images. Now anyone with a couple bucks can wield a brush and paint whatever they choose. I believe it was Mcluhan that stated technology has transformed old craft into what we would now call an art form. For example factories can mass-produce a cup, but when someone hand makes one it is art. Now, our senses have been overloaded with advertising and digital images; it is overwhelming. My paintbrush embodies an old tradition and an anti-digital world; this is why I use it every day.

Assignment #6

For option #2, I decided to do a close reading on my iPhone 4. I have my iPhone on me at all times no matter what the day, and I use it for everything. I use my iPhone to look at the weather in five different places all around the world, to map out my directions to a new place, and to search for the closest restaurant, gas station, mall, movie theater, etc. I use it to read the latest news stories, take an IQ test, make a shopping list, buy new music, and read quotes from famous philosophers. I play Scrabble with friends, check my Facebook, monitor traffic, look up a word in the dictionary, shop online, and learn sign language. I have my own built-in compass, world clock, unit converter, metronome, and tip calculator. Wait, am I still talking about a phone? Well I guess I forgot to mention that I text and call people using this device as well. My point is that this is beyond a phone. This small device has an incredible capacity, and you can do almost anything on it. All of what I mentioned and more is available to you by touching a few icons. With this phone, there pretty much is no limit.

The iPhone has expanded the expectations of the cell phone immensely. Cell phones today have been completely transformed and improved since they were simple contraptions, and their only abilities were to receive and make calls. Phones have changed very much since they were first invented, and the designers and creators of new, innovative phones have clearly outdone themselves. The iPhone and any other phone that has the ability to download apps has a plethora of options for their users to access almost anything via their phones. The capabilities of the iPhone is astounding, and instead of being used for contacting people, the iPhone has turned into a device of unlimited possibilities and a constant connection to the media.

I think the iPhone can relate to McLuhan's article "The Medium Is the Message." The iPhone can be related to one of McLuhan's main arguments and a concept that has been stressed in class, which is the idea that media is always material. In other words, as we talked about in class, the title of his article says it all: the medium is the message. McLuhan argued that the medium is the most important part of the media because how the media is delivered can affect how the audience sees it. I think this is exactly the case with the iPhone. Because images, messages, and information are displayed on the iPhone, versus seeing the same things on a computer, piece of paper, museum, etc., this affects the way owners interpret these things. The small, savvy, sleek design and display of the iPhone gives owners a different perspective than if they saw the same thing through a different medium. The changing technology in phones has allowed easy access to any information you could possibly dream of, all at your fingertips. This new technology has changed the entire idea of phones forever, and for that iPhones will go down in history.

assignment 6

For assignment #6, I am doing a close reading of my Blackberry phone. McLuhan’s reading portrays media as an extension of man. In my eyes, this is exactly what my Blackberry represents. It, although not as flashy and efficient as the iPhone 4 may be, provides me with all the technological advances I feel I need. I constantly have my phone with me, and am seldom in a place where I am not allowed to bring it with me. It keeps me connected with all university based activities as well as my family and friends.

I am confident that I am one of very few students here that do not have a Facebook account, so email and my Blackberry are virtually the only electronic ways to stay in contact with friends. To me, it’s a part of my everyday outfit. In my opinion it is almost a feeling of freedom when I leave it behind and don’t have to think about checking it to answer family or friends or receiving an email telling me I have to set up an appointment with so and so or fill out this questionnaire or register for this or that.

I have come to feel that I have become attached to my phone, and that quite literally it has become an extension of me. I check my Blackberry constantly and use the cliché excuse of checking the time every 10 minutes when in reality its to check messages on my phone. It is sadly a relief when I don’t have my phone on me. Whenever I need to focus or just want time away from everything, the first thing I change is not where I am, but turn my phone off or put it out of reach and somewhere where I cant see or hear it when it goes off. Regardless of the fact that I do not have Facebook my Blackberry supplements its use, and enables me to feel connected. Sadly enough, I feel like I am partially dependent on my Blackberry and have to often tell myself to put it down or aside and focus more on my work or the people I’m with.

Close Reading: Microwaves

For this assignment, I have chosen to do a close reading of a very important tool to our everyday life: the microwave. Microwaves may seem to be very mundane and unimportant to our culture, but the effects they have on our daily routines is immense. Microwaves are proof of our societies desires to make everything fast-paced and instantaneous, and in turn, artificial. They have changed the way that people prepare food, and even the types of food people eat. Now a days, people often opt out of growing/buying raw materials to make food because it is much easier to buy pre-arranged dishes and toss them in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Microwaves cook food very quickly and are efficient in heating up frozen dinners, making the cooking process of a couple hours shrink down to mere minutes. There are also many settings on modern microwaves that require the touch of a single button to prepare things such as popcorn, meats, vegetables, left overs, frozen entrees... They coincide with an age where fast food restaurants are frequently visited instead of sit-down restaurants. Microwaves use a sort of complex system of waves of energy to cook the food as opposed to applying heat from flames or hot coils; this seems to be an artificial or man-made approach to an everyday task, which shows our devotion to creating appliances/systems to make things easier and faster, but does the use of such appliances somehow adversly affect the way we live and interact with others (such as families, as they traditionally worked together to prepare meals for hours each evening)?

In modern day America, as well as many other countries that have adopted the microwave as a main cooking appliance, microwaves have replaced ovens and stove tops in many instances, and are even found in places where food-making was never before considered necessary. For instance, microwaves can now be found in break rooms at nearly all offices, in public places like libraries and coffee shops, in dorm rooms, in hotel rooms, even in people's private bedrooms for convenience. These locations of microwaves not only demonstrate the convenience of this appliance, but also that it allows people to make food on-the-go and while out-and-about doing other tasks such as working, studying, socializing... Microwaves are evidence that our culture has lost value for processes that were once considered necessarily time consuming, by demeaning those processes as wastes of time. However, now that people are able to grab prepackaged meals to take to work, school, wherever... there is even less time spent with the family for making and eating food, and fewer people are even tought how to cook 'real' meals- creating generations of people who rely on the use of microwaves and prepackaged food. Also, the use of microwaves demonstrates the informal nature that eating has taken on (as it is now 'normal' for people to rarely eat at home, but instead out in public or anywhere along our daily routes of work/school/life), as well as the necessity of immediate sources of food to be available so that the time taken for cooking and eating doesn't take away from work, school, and other now-'important' tasks. Back in the times before microwaves, mothers often spent long periods of time with their children (especially daughters) teaching the ways of homemade cooking, but now that time is sacrificed for other tasks like homework, spending time with friends, watching tv, or playing video games, which restricts one's interactions with the family. Of course, microwaves have not single-handedly caused these changes in daily routines, but they have definitely accelerated our ability to make many aspects of life fast-paced and impersonal.

One concept that we have reviewed in class that relates to our common use of microwaves, in leau of ovens/stove tops for home-cooked meals, is encompassed Debord's article, "Comments on the Society of the Spectacle." In this reading, we learned about how society has become a 'spectacle' in which there are specific rules and roles expected from each individual, and much of life has become made up 'pre-packaged' or societally formulated ideas and processes which put pressures on people within the society to meet its standards. There is much that can be said about Debord's article and its truth about modern society, but in relation to the microwave, we can discuss how said appliance allows people to adhere to the spetacle and its demands of production, innovation, and competition. As I have previously discussed, microwaves take away from time spent at home and with one's family, freeing up time for the individual to devote to other processes, especially work. Therefore, the incorportation of microwaves into daily life is important to the way that the spectacle runs, and the ideals of society. To conclude, a passage from Debord's article, I feel, well explains the functions of the spectacle which can be linked to my argument about the significance of the microwave:

"The spectacle has spread itself to the point where it now permeates all reality. It was easy to predict in theory what has been quickly and universally demonstrated by practical experience of economic reason's relentless accomplishments: that the globalisation of the false was also the falsification of the globe. Beyond a legacy of old books and old buildings, still of some significance but destined to continual reduction and, more-over, increasingly highlighted and classified to suit the spectacle's requirements, there remains nothing, in culture or in nature, which has not been transformed, and polluted, according to the means and interests of modern industry." ("Comments on the Society of the Spectacle", section V).

To sum up shortly the connection this passage has with the modern use of microwaves, Debord would say that the microwave is an object that provides evidence that our society forces us to keep up production and devote our time to industry. The process of cooking, and family time spent preparing meals, is one of the many parts of daily life that has been 'transformed' or 'polluted' to meet the needs of modern industry, by supporting the requirements of the spectacle (which is reduced time spent for personal matters, and more time spent at work, school, and doing outside activities that pertain to one or the other).

close reading of laptop

I use my laptop every day, multiple times. Normally the first thing I do in the morning is turn my laptop on and check my email, facebook, and read about the daily news. Throughout the rest of day I use my laptop for many things. First I use it for academics. During class I use my laptop to take notes and to look up assignments. I also check my grades online using my laptop and to actually do my assignments such as writing papers or reading articles. My laptop is used for almost all of my social functions as well. I create events and respond to invitations via Facebook and email, I email and message friends using my laptop, and I video chat on skype with my laptop. For materialistic things, I use my laptop. I online shop for clothes and order products off of websites; I look up ideas for Christmas presents for friends and family with my laptop. I browse various stores websites to find the best deals on clothing, electronics, etc before I actually do go shopping. Often I can find coupons online for stores I wish to use. Other miscellaneous things I use my laptop for are finding directions to places, using the iCalender to plan my week, and organizing pictures. The list of things I need my laptop for are endless. Laptops have also become an important statement of how trendy or sophisticated an individual is. Having the latest model or a laptop with the newest capabilities gives someone a sophisticated vibe. (I remember talking in class one day about how the MacBook Pro is this year's "it" object because of its sleek appearance and user ease). Laptops are pretty much essential for an average college student to function academically, socially, as a consumer, and for much more.

That being said, in the McLuhan reading, McLuhan states that technology and the media have created "a totally new environment." Laptops have definitely done this. They place nearly the entire world at the tip of our fingers. All we have to do is enter something into google and right then and there we can research the entire object, location, place. Also our laptops transport us outside of our daily lives. For example, while sitting in class I can be looking at pictures from my last vacation, thus turning reality upside down. Also in McLuhan's readings, he talks about an experiment done in Chicago where small changes were made to how workers accomplish a task. Each time a change was made, they became more productive because they were more motivated to work with a change in their conditions. This reminds me of doing classwork on my laptop. Sometimes I find taking notes in a notebook to be a lot less effective than typing on a laptop. Perhaps this is due to the fact that taking notes on a laptop seems different and better to me because of the "sophisticated" and "cool" stigmas associated with laptops.

Alarm Clock

On a regular basis, I rely on my alarm clock. Without my alarm clock I could not wake up in time for work or class. Not only do I use the alarm clock in the morning but also in the middle of the day when I take naps. The alarm clock sends a message to my brain that tells my body to wake up. The alarm clock also is a way for me to see what time it is and to set the alarm to go off at a certain time. An alarm clock can also be used to notify someone that it is time to do something else. This form of technology is crucial to not only myself but many people in today's society.

Today, people are awakening each morning to the sound of their alarm. The idea that the alarm will startle the sleeper and then the sleeper will get up and ready for their day. The alarm clock can be used by many people for many different reasons. The alarm clock can be seen as a necessary spectacle. Debord states, “The modern society is a society of the spectacle now goes without saying”. The alarm clock is a spectacle in today’s society. Modern culture consists of people working and going to school. People follow daily routines and schedules. For me, my alarm clock is a spectacle.

Assignment 6

Close reading of my car.
I think this may be one of the most overlooked items of technology with the most influence on people's lives. Not only does it provide transportation and shelter, it constitutes a person's image, much more than people tend to think. Of course, minivans might imply a soccer mom or suburban living, and in that sense acts as a logo for middle class living that many strive for, since a car is such a large investment, people tend to chose ones that represent their image they want to convey to the world. For instance, minivans have become the symbol for the american soccer mom precisely because they are efficient at what they do. They hold up to 8 people, sometimes more, and as far as I know get decent gas mileage, but that just as well may be forefit by the consumer just because of the seating it has. That is basically the logical reasoning behind it becoming the soccer mom icon. Then, when people purchase the small, cramped, 2 door, 2 seat cars, they are clearly making a statement as well, one which somewhat forms a counter argument to the minivan, and the lifestyle to which it alludes. The people who tend to buy those types of cars could be called "rich" or "well off", and as such, want to create that image for other people.

What's shocking to me is, when people say a car is a car is a car, and it's only purpose is to get to point A to point B, and there is no reason to spend so much money on one car, when another can do the exact same job, might find it hard to understand the logo, and the lifestyle behind the car choice. First, cars have diverged from a long time ago into many different specifications, and almost in response to this, the sports car was created. What I am sure of, is that the concept of driving stylishly as a need was not around since the beginning of the automobile. Instead, it was created by a certain automobile dealership, and became associated with higher style, class, culture, etc, because they marketed it that way. This relates both to the ideas of Marshal Mcluhan, how the medium is the message; the idea of owning a car to exude to others one's social status, and to the creation and continuation of the brand and logo. Not knowing much about car history hinders me here, but there is no doubt in my mind that the first company, or companies that started the idea of a sportscar, or a car that was "different" from all the other cars on the market, did so by selling the car and the lifestyle it would tell the "neighbors" or just the general public when it was driven around town. This creation of not only the brand and logo, but also the brand loyalty as a biproduct, is what causes cars that are made and sold today to continue to be marketed in 2 poles: their functionality, or as a logo for a desired lifestyle.

Recently, I have noticed with such commercials as "The Swagger Waggon" or pretty much the majority of mainstream car commercials, there is not very much emphasis placed on the car specs anymore in advertisements. I occasionally see it once or twice out of every 10 or so car commercials. All the others, similar to practically every advert I see on television, are playing to people's sensibilities of lifestyle, or more specifically, their desired lifestyle. I find this use of the word "desired" ironic, because it's not the personal desires, instead it is the created desires forced onto the public by media to warrant the need to by their product. As a side note, this effluence of adverts designed in this manner, basically becoming very person-focused, is a major reason I have switched off Tv for the most part. I can't tolerate it.

However, the notion of these created desires relates to what Kellner talks about in his article on the media's influence, and how the desires of the population are in essence, fabrications of the media centered on their products.

Basically, I realize how automobiles are useful in our everyday life and how their existence today is nothing short of a necessity in American society. I also realize, however, that the way they are marketed to the public, takes advantage of this necessity, and assuming their need is public knowledge, has gone far past trying to prove why you need a car, but rather, why you need this type of car, and how that idea relates to ideas of logo creation and brand loyalty.

Close Reading of Laptop Computers (Assignment 6)

Though some few people are still using desktops, laptops obviously have a profound effect on our culture. Soon enough desktops will be non-existent. I'm pretty sure they are not sold in stores anymore. If they are, there certainly are not many of them. Laptops are everywhere. I particularly find it interesting to look at college students' usage of laptops alone. But for the sake of this assignment, I'll mainly talk about the use of laptops among all ages.

Currently, laptops/computers are not just something one uses casually and occasionally, they are one of the main means of entertainment in American society. Today, people have a very strong dependence on laptops and use them for just about everything. Laptops are used professionally in the business world and in schools as a means to get work done in an efficient manner. Laptops are also used in one's free time in a variety of ways; people can watch movies, play games, listen to music, use social networking websites, read the news, create websites, blogs, etc. and so much more using laptops. Laptops are being used for so many various purposes and are as much of a necessity as basic house utilities our culture.

Laptops can easily be traced back to McLuhan's idea of media being an "extension of man" and the idea that "the medium is the message". These concepts are very apparent with laptops. Today, laptops are a very ingrained part of our culture; especially amongst adolescences and young adults. From my own personal experience, I can definitely say that I would be lost without a laptop. My Toshiba laptop is something I do not leave my dorm without. I use my laptop to take notes in all of my classes (if they allow laptops), to keep in touch with my family, to listen to music and (of course) to cure boredom by going on facebook. I know I am not the only one like this, either. This is a clear example of how my laptop is basically an "extension of myself".

The rapid expansion of technology (more specifically, laptops) can also be related to the article "The World is Flat" and the concept of globalization. Because the internet allows for expansion over seas in a matter of seconds, it is making the world smaller. Today, it is easier than ever to be in contact with friends back at home when traveling or with a friend who lives over seas. This technology has reached all regions of the globe and is making the world smaller, but perhaps also more connected.

Assignment #6

For this assignment I'm going to do a close reading of my iPod touch.

Now, I understand that most people love music. I'm sure everyone, or pretty close to everyone listens to music everyday. But, I use my iPod every single day when I go to class. I'm listening to it while I'm on the bus and I am definitely that girl who walks to and from class with her earbuds in. I guess I can't help it but music has always been a soothing thing for me. Music is the place where I drown out all the other noises going on in life and just forget about them. Music is very much an escape for me but I do not think it's as impairing as some people's addiction to televisions like David Foster Wallace points out. However, it does allow me to get some of that "me time" I love to have.

People have been listening to music for centuries, or rather millennia! But now, music is portable and the evolution of music has made it possible to take it with you wherever you decide to go. Portable music is a recently new technology. It has changed dramatically from say, a radio to an iPod. But interestingly, I'm not only limited to just the music with my iPod anymore. Now, if I forget my laptop at home, I can still check my e-mails and even watch videos on my iPod. Technology has evolved so much and I don't even have the iPod touch that allows you to record videos! There has been such a change, now along with your cell phone or your iPod touch you can broadcast yourself to others. In the "Rediscovering Reality" reading, we realize that our reality can be much like another person's reality with just the push of the button. More people are becoming connected than ever before. You could argue whether or not that is a good thing, but my small vehicle for music has turned into something that can allow me to share my life with others. That's great and all, but I still really only use it to listen to my music.

Close Reading of Facebook

If Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth largest country in the world. With over 350 million users and counting, its popularity in culture cannot be denied. I myself go on Facebook at least once a day and has become a tool for not only keeping up with friends and communicating but for procrastinating as well. The ritual of logging onto Facebook, checking for notifications, looking at recent posts from friends, and updating a status has become an everyday routine just like getting dressed or eating breakfast. The importance we all place on this internet community is huge—we have to have the right profile picture, we have to untag unflattering photos, and serious drama unfolds with every de-friending. Facebook has taken normal conversations and interactions and brought them online to the virtual community, and literally our profile pages have become “extensions of ourselves” as McLuhan observed. Facebook has shaped and controlled our everyday interactions outside of the virtual community—drama which unfolds on Facebook shows up in real conversations and vice versa. We literally live two lives that are intertwined by the internet and this social networking site. The social experience has been heightened even further than the cell phone, internet, radio, and television and together all these mediums create a network of instant connections, which is exactly what our culture is focused on. The ‘instant factor’ is very important in our modern day culture, and Facebook provides the perfect opportunity to communicate. We as a culture have become so absorbed in our own lives as well as the lives of others, and no longer look at Facebook as ‘just another website’, but instead view it as a means of communication equal to face-to-face conversation or talking on the phone.

Assignment 6- Internet & Facebook

One thing that I use on a daily basis for long periods at a time would be my laptop, specifically the internet on my laptop. Laptop's are definitely essential for college students to get work done on and papers, but I, as well as many many others, do not use it just for school. Much like Brandon's problem with his iphone, laptops give us access to the internet with endless possibilities of things to do. For me, the first site I go on more often than not is facebook. Facebook is a way to connect to all your friends and get access into their lives, as well as showing others yours. Honestly, facebook can be rather boring if you're not carrying on conversations with a bunch of people and continue to talk on a daily basis. It can get kind of boring, but then you continue to browse through pictures and look at friend's profiles and change your profile picture and status and suddenly you've been on facebook for an hour. Social networks get the user so involved and wrapped up in who's doing what that even when there is nothing to actually do on the site, people can still find something to look at just because they don't want to get off.
I think that facebook is a great example of the spectacle. Facebook creates a space where you can show off your life to all your friends, or people you don't even know, and look into he lives of others. We are able to post statuses on what we're doing through =out our day, and post pictures and videos of us doing it. We can also tag friends to show who we were with and all the people you are close to. You can also post on others walls where your conversation can be seen by all with access to your page. You can add your relationships and family members to your page. You can also view "friendships" where it shows all the similarities and connections between you and that person. All of these factors contribute to the overall spectacle of the page. It makes your life something that others can comment on, contribute to, and be involved in. Like in Andrejevic's reality TV piece, he describes how people have overtime put heir lives out to the public view and how it has become such a big movement among the "normal" people. Facebook is a way for people to put their lives in public's view without being too intrusive. In big brother, the cast's lives were seen nonstop unedited and out of their control. But facebook allows the user to control, for the most part, what part of their lives they choose to show. With all the emerging social networks and different outlets to society it makes the idea of the spectacle more easily attained to all the "normal" members of society as if it is just a part of everyday life.

Close Reading

“The reason for this sudden, unceremonious dumping [of the garden] was a new love. Baby Kochamma had installed a dish antenna on the roof of the Ayemenem house. She presided over the world in her drawing room on satellite TV. The impossible excitement that this engendered in Baby Kochamma wasn’t hard to understand. It wasn’t something that happened gradually. It happened overnight. Blondes, wars, famines, football, sex, music, coup d’état—the all arrived on the same train. They unpacked together. They stayed in the same hotel... And so, while her ornamental garden wilted and died, Baby Kochamma followed American NBA league games, one-day cricket and all the Grand Slam tennis tournaments” (27).

This passage serves as an alternate interpretation of the Love Laws. Though it relates to Roy's definition of Love Laws as who should be loved and how much, this passage comments on what should be loved and how much in order to ensure that the Love Laws create balance and stability. Their defiance, as exemplified with Baby Kochomma, produces the idea of a “trauma”/life changing event.

The paragraph is tainted with reminders of Baby Kochamma's failed relationship with Father Mulligan to make a commentary on the unnaturalness of Baby Kochamma's new hobby. Roy's description of Baby Kochamma's actions as “sudden, unceremonious” are revealing. First, they conjure images of wedding ceremonies and reinforce the idea that Baby Kochamma's attempt to seduce Father Mulligan by feigning love for God defied the Love Laws. Second, mentioning “sudden” suggests being spontaneous, incautious, unplanned. This relates back to Baby Kochamma's whimsical decision to move into a nunnery--the traumatic event that she continues to be a victim of. Just as Baby Kochamma left her family to live in the nunnery, she now leaves behind her ornamental garden (most likely a common traditional activity in her culture) for the pursuit of satellite cable (a new-aged, foreign passive activity). By doing so she defies the historical value of the Love Laws as reinforcement of societal/cultural norms.

Roy further comments on how Baby Kochamma's interaction with the television is unnatural and unadvised. She has “impossible excitement” while this occurrence “happened overnight.” This description can be easily related to the excited encounter between Ammu and Velutha (167). Both situations are strange and foreign because the Love Laws emphasize stability and order. They are based in historical tradition where love is meant to be a reliant and gradual growth. This makes Baby Kochamma's “new love,” like Ammu and Velutha's interactions, that much more irrational and defiant of cultural tradition. Even the statement of “They unpacked together. They stayed in the same hotel.” produces imagery of an entering uneasiness. Just like how a tourist staying in a hotel is displaced, Kochamma's new love does not belong. The specific description of “blondes, wars, famines, football, sex, music, coup d’état” suggests that the television is foreign on multiple levels. It is alien in every aspect from appearance to political action to cultural identity. Even specifying that Baby Kochamma watched “American NBA league games, one-day crick and all the Grand Slam tennis tournaments” emphasizes just how uncommon and inapplicable these events are to Baby Kochamma's life. They retain no cultural tradition.

The Love Laws are implemented to determine who/what can be loved and how much as a means of prolonging historical traditions and promoting stability. It is why Ammu and Velutha's relationship is defiant of the Love Laws by disregarding the caste system. It is also the reason why Baby Kochamma's love for the television instead of her garden is portrayed as unnatural and harmful. Both create trauma by ignoring the historical tradition that the Love Laws promote.

Assignment 6

"He studied in London Oxford," Mrs. Pillai said. "Will you do your recitation for him?"

Latha complied without hesitation. She planted her feet slightly apart.

"Respected Chairman"–she bowed to Chako–"mydearjudgesand"–she looked around at the imaginary audience crowded into the small, hot room–"beloved friends." She paused theatrically.

"Today I would like to recite to you a poem by Sir Walter Scott entitled 'Lochinvar'." She clasped her hands behind her back. A film fell over her eyes. Her gaze was fixed unseeingly just above Chacko's head. She swayed slightly as she spoke. At first Chacko thought it was a Malayalam translation of "Lochinvar." The words ran into each other. Like in Malayalam, the last syllable of one word attached itself to the first syllable of the next. It was rendered at remarkable speed:

"O, young Lochin varhas scum out of the vest

Through wall the vide Border his teed was the bes

Tand savissgood broadsod heweapon sadnun

Nhe rod all unarmed, and he rod all all lalone..."

The poem was interspersed with grunts from the old lady on the bed, which no one except Chacko seemed to notice.

"Nhe swam the Eske river where ford there was none;

Buttair he alighted at the Netherby Gate,

The bridehad cunsended, the gallantcame late."

I chose the passage on page 257 describing Comrade Pillai's niece, Latha, reciting a poem in English. This passage relates to the theme of Global/Colonial English. Even though the English no longer rule India, their language and culture continues to be valued above Indian language and culture. The passage demonstrates this. Mrs. Pillai calls her daughter to recite the poem in order to show off to Chacko. She treats Chacko as an important guest because, "He studied in London Oxford." Oxford is not in London. Arundhati Roy seems to be trying to show us how Mrs. Pillai is awed by anything English, whether or not she truly understands it.

This passage also draws a contrast between the image of the civilized English that the Pillai family worships and their actual day-to-day life. Latha makes her introduction to "the imaginary audience crowded into the small, hot room," and Chacko is the only one to notice that "the poem was interspersed with grunts from the old lady on the bed." Arundhati Roy interrupts the fantasy of her characters with doses of reality to remind us how far they really are from England. To an American audience, this passage is comedic, but Roy seems almost to be scolding her fellow Indians for making fools of themselves.

Roy plays with the language of the poem to show that Latha is not speaking in English in the sense that she actually understands what she is saying and can successfully communicate. Roy takes a famous poem and makes it foreign to us by changing the language to reflect Latha's accent.

The particular poem that Roy chose for this passage is also important. Here is a link to the original poem, without Roy's editing. Many people reading the novel would have memorized "Lochinvar" in their childhood and would recognize the words. The poem seems to relate to the love between Ammu and Velutha and the theme of the Love Laws. It is a story about a knight who kidnaps his lover right before she is to be married to another man. The knight and his lover break the Love Laws just like Ammu and Velutha.

Close Reading of my iPhone

This close reading is inspired by John Berger's "Ways of Seeing". (OK, maybe it's not a reading, but it was an assignment.) Berger observed the ways in which the meaning of medieval paintings changed with the advent of the camera. Judging by his shirt and his haircut, I would say that the advent of the cell phone was a looong way into the future, and the effects of the internet, much less the pocket version, would produce unpredictable changes in the way that we use media.

These days the thought of an image coming to you is (as opposed to you going to the image) is so unremarkable that it's hard to even understand what Berger is so worked up about. The image come to me? Everything comes to me! I can sit on the bus and do my CSCL readings while IM'ing with my friend in Afghanistan, get the number for a pizza place, order a pizza and get home just in time to meet the pizza guy at my door as I read the NYT, delivered right to my pocket everyday. Having so many tools rolled into one is great, but in the same way that certain details of a painting are lost when one zooms in and looks at a painting close up, something can be lost.


Just click it! It's actually only the last thirty seconds!

I never have to face the terrifying prospect of talking to someone anymore. Instead of saying "hi" I can just devote that time to staring at my phone. Half the time I'm not even doing anything on it, I'm just looking for things to do on it. Besides the unacceptable amount of time that I spend futzing with my phone that I don't spend talking to people on the bus (bus people are people too!), I am pretty sure that it's draining my ability to think gud. When all of the information in the world is at my fingertips, why do I need to remember anything? My attention span has shrunk down to about 15 seconds max and I definitely believe that the phone has a lot to do with that. Who knows what else I'm losing because of this thing?

I don't care, I still love it.

YouTube video

Video

Extra Credit- GI Joe PSA "Cookies"

Extra Credit

I know we go to Minnesota, But it's still a good song :)

Assignment 6: "Close reading" of a mirror

I am doing option number 2 for a close reading of an everyday object.

One thing that I am sure all of us use at least once, if not many times a day is a mirror. Mirrors are everywhere, in the bathrooms, in your room, on cars, inside purses and at clothing departments, etc. While we use the mirror to see if an outfit matches together or to simply see if we have anything stuck in our teeth before a date, we do not think that a mirror is an important object that we use everyday, from the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep. It is just there waiting to be looked at. We use the mirror to evaluate ourselves, to see if we are "okay" enough not to be laughed at and to make sure that we do not embarrass ourselves with something stuck on the back of our pants. We also use it to see if we are fit or skinny enough. Like in Susan Bordo's of women and their body image, a lot of what we see in the mirror tells us what we need to do. If we look ourselves in the mirror and see ourselves as being a little overweight, we would try to fix it. But many times, those who often see themselves as being overweight might become bulimic or anorexic. In their eyes and in the mirrors, they see themselves as fat and that image staring back at them may cause them to do harmful things to themselves. We do not really think and process the things that a mirror may influence us to do but it does. One would want to present themselves in a fashionably manner and a mirror just might be the object that all of us maybe cannot be without for a day because what we see in the mirror is how we think others will see us as. And so, the mirror is an everyday object that we see as small but makes a big difference in how we and others see ourselves.

Assignment #6: Television Reading

For assignment #6 I will be doing option number two, and my topic is a Television.

Imagine walking into a friends house for the first time, you enter through the garage, the hallway leads into either a kitchen up ahead, the living room to the left or a bedroom to the right. You look right, and see a 46” hanging on the wall at the foot of the bed. You look ahead, and see a small 17” flat-screen below the kitchen cupboards. You look left and see an 82” projection screen that has dropped down from the ceiling. This is only in your first minutes within this friends’ home; this sight might be a little exaggerated, but at the same time it isn’t all that uncommon. Televisions are taking over, and it is strange to walk into a home that has less than 3 TVs.

According to USA Today, the average home has more television set’s than people living there. There are 2.73 TV sets to every 2.55 people per home, that’s only a small amount more.

I don’t think I can walk into a house, apartment, hotel, or anything else without having a television is one of the first things I see. It’ll either be HUGE and the focal point of the room, or there will be a countless amount of TVs around the house. I know for myself, whenever I get home, one of the first things that I do is turn on the television; usually I’m home alone so it’s nice to have noise on. I like to watch the news, but there’s usually a couple hours before the 5 o’clock news when I get home so the mindless television sucks me in. Which I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Television as a form of media reminds me on McLuhan’s reading of ‘media is an extension of man’, and how people are so hooked on media, and the need for such things. Media is taking over, but at the same time, culture is changing to incorporate these changes and include media in our daily lives and in our culture itself.

Extra Credit: Techno Jeep

Extra Credit: Christmas Laser Beam Cats

WTF Blanket

I hate Snuggies, so I thought this was funny.

Minnesota Girls

HAHAHA Apple Users....

I suppose it's ironic that I own an iPhone...

Extra Credit - Revamp of a Popular Song

I thought this was interesting because it was a parody made by 20 some year olds, they took 2 popular medias, the Harry Potter movie and "Like a G6" and combined them!

Extra Credit: Word Disassociation

Extra Credit Assignment: Hook on Fonik

EXTRA CREDIT

Only 1 point of it, but this will take you less than two minutes. It is simply to create a post that embeds your favorite user-created youtube video (in other words, something made through "amateur" means...not Lady Gaga, or commercials). Thursday, along with Andrejevic, we will look through a few of these and discuss.

For example,

Assignment #6

You will have one of two options for this blog assignment (due Sunday Dec. 7):

1. Find a passage in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things of no more than 2 paragraphs, and write a close reading of it. This is practically the same assignment as the book report for Mao II--you want to elucidate the themes and questions that emerge from the passage and relate it to one of the following topics that we've discussed in class with regard the novel: (1) Global/Colonial English, (2) The Love Laws, (3) History, and (4) The God of Small Things

But make sure to be as detailed as possible, drawing our attention to the use of figurative language, capitalization, "foreign" sounding words, images, dialogue, repetition, etc. Please paste the passage that you intend to analyze.

As a refresher, the following links explain the idea of close reading:
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/reading_lit.html
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html


2. Pick an object from everyday life, something that you use regularly, and write a "close reading" of it, identifying its role in rituals of everyday life, and relating it back to at least one concept that we have covered in this course. This is a relatively open assignment, but make sure to apply the rules of close reading on this object.

Globalization

The World Is Flat

“No one ever gave me directions like this on a golf course before: “Aim at either Microsoft or IBM.” I was standing on the first tee at the KGA Golf Club in downtown Bangalore, in southern India, when my playing partner pointed at two shiny glass-and-steel buildings off in the distance, just behind the first green. The Goldman Sachs building wasn’t done yet; otherwise he could have pointed that out as well and made it a threesome. HP and Texas Instruments had their offices on the back nine, along the tenth hold. That wasn’t all. The tee markers were from Epson, the printer company, and one of our caddies was wearing a hat from 3M. Outside, some of the traffic signs were also sponsored by Texas Instruments, and the Pizza Hut billboard on the way over showed a steaming pizza, under the headline “Gigabites of Taste!” No, this definitely wasn’t Kansas. It didn’t even seem like India. Was this the New World, the Old World, or the New World?”

A Small Place

“You are looking out the window (because you want to get your money’s worth); you notice that all the cars you see are brand-new, or almost brand-new, and that they are all Japanese –made. ..You continue to look at the cars and you say to yourself, Why, they look brand-new but they have an awful sound, like an old car—a very old, dilapidated car. How to account for that? Well possibly it’s because they use leaded gasoline in these brand-new cars whose engines were built to use non-leaded gasoline…”

In The World Is Flat, Friedman employs very obvious markers of globalization through the astonishing ten different brands/company names placed in one single paragraph of the starting passage in his novel. Right away, Friedman explicitly emphasizes the overbearing presence of the brands in Bangalore, India, which is interesting to note because the headquarters of these companies are located in the United States. Friedman takes on a very American perspective of globalization throughout the rest of the passage, leaving out other voices and perspectives. The continuous string of brand names and companies originated in America but present in India suggests that ‘the world is flat’ and the playing field has been leveled in terms of the economy. No longer does only the United States have a booming economy, product placement, and a continuous bombardment of advertising—now the same can be found across the globe. This world experienced by Kincaid has no limits or boundaries to the possibilities of expansion as seen through the almost dozen well-known brands in the passage which act as signifiers of globalization.

In A Small Place, the markers of globalization employed by Kincaid are slightly less obvious than Friedman, but nonetheless still prevalent. While Friedman incorporated brand and company names into the story, Kincaid chooses to add a little extra explanation about the Japanese made cars that are too expensive for the people who are driving them. When I read this passage, what stuck out to me was the seemingly unneeded description about which cars used which gasoline, etc. Then, upon further analysis, I realized this addition functioned as a marker of globalization. The cars themselves obviously convey the idea that globalization has spread to this small area where it sticks out like a sore thumb. Kincaid points out through this signifier that although beneficial (the cars are nice and expensive and luxurious), globalization has underlying faults and problems that are not necessarily addressed. The shiny, appealing outside of the car represents the ‘progress’ and ‘improved quality of life’ brought to areas in need by the spreading out of business and economy; however, these cars were not built for ‘leaded gasoline’, or globalization, and they will not function properly once installed. Kincaid points out through the signifier of the fancy Japanese car that invading other countries with progress and ‘good intentions’ may not necessarily be in that areas best interest.