Sunday, September 16, 2007
It's a love thing
I love the Internet. I breezed through today’s newspaper and checked out parts of the news on TV, and the main stories are always the same. But the Internet…now there are so many possibilities there. It’s still so new and there are so many sites, that you can always find pieces of news the mainstream media ignores. Now, having enough time to dig those stories up can get tricky.
ACL
Some media will never go out of fashion, and the leader of this list has to be music. I went to Austin City Limits music festival today, and looking around the park amazed me. Thousands of people move from stage to stage, where they stand still and intently or do full out dance moves you never want to see again. If aliens looked in on us today, they would most likely think humans are insane.
Life's too fast for me
In every class today, I saw someone on the computer. People checked E-mail, googled who knows what, or checked the news. We consume so much information all the time. I wonder if we can keep up with such a high paced life forever?
Whoa facebook
When I got to my 8 a.m. class today, multiple people were already checking out Facebook. It was way too early for me to check people out and connect.
School's not healthy
I realized today that when I’m at school and need to relax after class, I turn on the TV and zone out for 30 minutes. During the summer, I don’t watch a lot of TV though. I normally read a book outside or find something else to do. I guess school makes me live a more extreme lifestyle—I use my brain all the way or am completely lazy.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Laughing is great
If anyone needs to bounce out of a bad mood, just come to my apartment. As soon as my sister turns on the TV, she finds something funny to watch and just laughs for 30 minutes every day. I’m talking really loud, truly happy laughing. I love listening to her, even when I can’t watch the show with her.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Kids and Media
I recently babysat a five-year-old named Gabby. We followed a pretty typical routine—she watched her allotted one hour of TV, I gave her dinner, but when I suggested we play a game, she opened my eyes to a new side of childhood. Gabby plopped in front of the computer and proceeded to play some sort of reading game. She grew bored, switched to a different game, and finally left technology behind for a game of evil witch (me) and captured princess (Gabby). When she outmaneuvered my attempt to give her a poisonous potion, she was giddy. I never saw that expression when she played on the computer.
I may be only 22, but I must be getting old fashioned. Kids should be using their imaginations and reading outside instead of spending hours at a computer or TV everyday. They have the rest of their lives to do that, right? Henry Jenkins’ “Why Heather Can Write, Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars” reveals a new media creature that combines both worlds.
The article shows how in the wake of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, kids and teens around the world created fan fiction Web sites, where people write their own stories about Harry Potter’s world at Hogwarts. They take on imaginary roles in this fantasy world, and develop writing, editing, and critiquing skills as a bonus to their fun.
It sounds great—cutting edge changes to society. Kids learn and grow on a virtual playground where people from any and every background can come to the table without judgment. While I don’t deny the positive possibilities of learning in this new environment, the fact is, it’s all fantasy. Kids don’t really meet or play—they’re on a computer…alone. The Web provides an isolation that could limit a kid’s social development. People need to be together to play and laugh and learn in their own worlds.
After watching a PBS documentary about Sesame Street, TV actually seems like a safer medium that virtual realities. Granted, there has been plenty of research on the negative effects TV has on children. Commercials for sugar and toys, violence, objectification of women…the list goes on and on. However, Sesame Street has bucked that trend since its birth in 1969. Globally, its importance outweighs that of the Internet because most homes don’t have computers.
However, Kids in 120 countries watch Sesame Street and learn about local issues. Children in South Africa learn about life from an HIV positive puppet named Kami. Sesame Street is reaching kids and possibly changing prejudices. Instead of getting lost in an imaginary computer world, kids can take what they learn and apply it to their actual lives.
I may be only 22, but I must be getting old fashioned. Kids should be using their imaginations and reading outside instead of spending hours at a computer or TV everyday. They have the rest of their lives to do that, right? Henry Jenkins’ “Why Heather Can Write, Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars” reveals a new media creature that combines both worlds.
The article shows how in the wake of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, kids and teens around the world created fan fiction Web sites, where people write their own stories about Harry Potter’s world at Hogwarts. They take on imaginary roles in this fantasy world, and develop writing, editing, and critiquing skills as a bonus to their fun.
It sounds great—cutting edge changes to society. Kids learn and grow on a virtual playground where people from any and every background can come to the table without judgment. While I don’t deny the positive possibilities of learning in this new environment, the fact is, it’s all fantasy. Kids don’t really meet or play—they’re on a computer…alone. The Web provides an isolation that could limit a kid’s social development. People need to be together to play and laugh and learn in their own worlds.
After watching a PBS documentary about Sesame Street, TV actually seems like a safer medium that virtual realities. Granted, there has been plenty of research on the negative effects TV has on children. Commercials for sugar and toys, violence, objectification of women…the list goes on and on. However, Sesame Street has bucked that trend since its birth in 1969. Globally, its importance outweighs that of the Internet because most homes don’t have computers.
However, Kids in 120 countries watch Sesame Street and learn about local issues. Children in South Africa learn about life from an HIV positive puppet named Kami. Sesame Street is reaching kids and possibly changing prejudices. Instead of getting lost in an imaginary computer world, kids can take what they learn and apply it to their actual lives.
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