Is Google Really Making Us Stupid?

Nicholas Carr's article Is Google Making Us Stupid?, he addresses the fact that we're not using our brains to complete our thoughts, we're using computers. Although I love using these tools, it makes sense. Who needs to learn how to spell when we have auto-correct? There's no use in learning cursive, because eventually we wont write with pen and paper. When we want to know something all we have to do is type it in the computer and Google or some other search  engine will find the answer for us. Carr mentions in the article the fact that some people don't have the patience or don't take the time to read a full article or some other form of literature, skimming is used, I'm one of those people. Although I read this entire article, I can't say I do it all the time, I skim and find the key points and information that is useful. He also talks about distractions, I couldn't read this article without getting sidetracked from the ads and other media located on the right side of the page as I was was reading, it was hard to concentrate. Everything we do or need is so readily available to us that our brains don't retain the information, we just remember it long enough for what we need it for, and then we dump it out of memory. Many things are right there at just a click of a button that we're not strengthening our intelligence, we don't take the time and the effort to find the information we need, and in the end we don't learn anything. As mentioned in the article, the quote from Nietzsche’s friend makes sense, at least to me, when he says that thoughts are better formed when written with pen and paper, I also find this to be true, that is why I do not compose most papers solely on the computer, I write it down on paper first. I've found that my thoughts turn out clearer if I write them down then type, if I don't I end up with what was supposed to be long paragraphs, as only a few sentences, then I can't remember what I typed or if I already mentioned something. When I write something down, I seem to retain it better and am less likely to repeat myself.

Want to know how text messaging and short hand has changed my style of communicating? Well most people use the abbreviations that society has come up with. I can't say that I never use the abbreviations, but most of the time I do not. When communicating with some of my close friends, we use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, because that is just how we were taught. and it gets on our nerves if someone doesn't use that. I blame it mostly on our high school English teacher, she was worse about things than some of the professors at Limestone, everything had to be perfect, so I guess we just got use to having everything in the correct form, if you didn't do it correctly you had no chance of passing the class, because she graded so harshly, in comparison to our other teachers.

I don't think "Google is making us stupid", I think it just makes it harder for us to challenge our minds and learn new things.

Life is a Moving Picture Show. . . . Follow the Screens

After reading Becoming Screen Literate by Kevin Kelly, published in the New York Times Magazine, reality suddenly hits you in the face, makes you think a little bit. Everywhere we go, whether it be like he said gas stations, or grocery stores, videos are streaming. It's kind of frightening at first, or can catch you off guard when you're walking down the aisle of a grocery store and out of the blue this loud male or female voice starts advertising a product. Most of these ads now are motion-censored, so the ad will start playing when you walk by or grab something off a nearby shelf. None the less, these types of ads are everywhere. Just a few years ago, coupon dispensers would spit out coupons at you, now we get demonstration, it's crazy how things have changed. We  must become "screen literate" as mentioned in the article because everything we do, and everywhere we go, there is bound to be a video; whether it be an advertisement, or a homemade movie full of priceless memories.

As he talks about the easiness of making videos, that's something I can agree with, there are so many programs that will let you do your own video editing and moving slideshows. I personally have Windows 7 OS, and my laptop came loaded with Window  Live Movie Maker, I have made a total of three workable videos with this program. As I mentioned in class my senior year of high school my friends and I decided to enjoy a little fun after English with Dr. Richardson, so we created "Adventure Time". Many times we took pictures and videos at the  part and various other locations in Gaffney. The video below is one of the first I created with Windows Live Movie Maker. I also used this program to create a video presentation after a mission trip to South Africa this summer. I love the layout of this program, and it makes it fun to create these types of "movies". Hope you enjoy.

Adventure Time - music by Taylor Swift "Never Grow Up"

 

 

You never know who might be watching.....And think before you speak

It's a pretty scary thought that I can type in my address on maps.google.com or www.thewildernessdowntown.com and see intricate details of my home and surrounding areas. At the same time it's pretty neat because I can use maps.google.com to map out and view my final destination when I'm traveling, that way I know what I'm looking for and where I'm going. As was mentioned in class, the song by arcade five talks about how fast our world is changing. We use to write letters and write what was truly on our hearts and wait for a response. Now we just send an email, tweet, text, etc. and sometimes we don't think about what we're saying. When we didn't have all of this social networking and such, relationships were much better and more sincere than now. Now we say something and expect a reply back in just moments. It's causing everyone to be impatient, but it helps us stay connected.

An afternoon at the museum.....well at least a few minutes.

Visited the new museum yesterday, it was interesting to see how everything has evolved all right there in front of my face. And it's pretty cool how we can now use QR codes to link different things and find out information. The writing table really made the reality of people using print over cursive. I personally still write in cursive because I can write so much faster and it held especially when I'm taking notes on something. Cursive is almost an artistic form of writing, and it's said to know that it is hardly used or taught. For instance, I have a younger sibling, who is now an eighth grader in middle school. When we got passports fora a cruise we went on a few years ago, and he had to get an I.D. made, for neither forms of identification could he barely sign his name on the signature section because he was never taught and could only print. My mother worked with him to be able to sign his name, but that's about it. Kids these days are taught only print, and "write" most things on the computer, and most will make grammatical or spelling mistakes unknowingly because of such programs, or features as auto-correct. It's pretty sad, although it helps our society do things faster, it's also hurting us because we're not learning from it, we're just getting by without any recognition of a mistake. On another not the other things in the museum were interesting, I saw toys and different things that brought back childhood memories. We've come so far, and we're never moving backward, only forward, to newer and better things.

A look into the future and memories of the past. . . (DL #1)

Never once did I imagine we would have all we have now, especially with technology. I never would have thought that for instance a surgery would be able to be performed by a robot with more precision and accuracy than the naked eye. It's pretty amazing, but there is also a downside, its decreasing our jobs, and so many people are out of work because of it. But it's interesting to see how far it's come, when I was little my parents had cell phones and beepers and I would always play with the cell phone, this big flip phone that would have never fit in your pocket, now we have phones, mini-computers such as; iPads, iPods and Smartphones just to name a few, that are ultra-portable and can be taken virtually anywhere. I also think that in the next 25-35 years the idea of cars being able to fly will become reality, that's the only thing I can think of that we haven't gotten to, but have come pretty close. I can't even imagine what the future holds,it's amazing just to see how far we've come in this present-day  and how fast everything seems to be evolving.