Ridling, Zaine. “TABLE OF CONTENTS.” Word Processor Review — DonationCoder.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
Zaine Ridling, a well-versed and educated author of documents on word processors, has written for the Word Processor Roundup and runs the Great Software list. Ridling’s article is more informative than anything and seeks to outline and review the new 2007 Microsoft Word interface. The intended audience of the article is students, educators, researchers, and writers and Ridling gives specific tips to each demographic. Throughout the article Ridling inserts his own view into an overview of Microsoft Word’s features and thus presents a slant towards not using Microsoft Word if you are a student, researcher, scholar, or writer.
The biggest strength of this article was its ability to go over so many of the key features of Word. As someone who is working on creating a new word processor, this is helpful to me because it outlines what features currently exists and where they fall short. I also think that since the article is written in a way that the everyday person can understand, the audience becomes wider and broader. I though the weakness of the article was how it attempted to cover so many different word processors in the same article. Ridling tried to go in depth about many word processors, but in the end the reader was left confused or muddled with a wide array of information. The information in this article is very relevant and helps my research because it presents us with many different features of word processors and goes through the pros and cons.nowman
McAllister, Carole, and Richard Louth. “The Effect of Word Processing on the Quality of Basic Writers’ Revisions.” Jstor. Southeastern Louisiana University, Dec. 1988. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
This article is based on a study across three college professor’s classes of a combined 102 students. The authors, Carole McAllister and Richard Louth, created and executed the study of the students and analyzed the results. The purpose of the study was to test out the hypothesis that a word processor improves a student’s ability to revise his/her paper. In the end the author claimed that the word processor improved a student’s ability to revise his/her work. The author’s intended audience is other researcher’s interested in word processor’s as well as student’s and teacher’s. The article is quite factual and includes many numbers and deviations that support the findings so there is no slant in the article.
The article has a lot of concrete evidence for its findings and supports its claim very well. At the end of the article, the authors qualify their findings in that the word processor might just create a change in mindset of the students rather than actually help with the writing. I viewed this as a strength of the article to know when to step back and explain to the reader the possible faults with your work. The weakness of the article was, as the author’s claimed, that they did not investigate why the word processor led to an increase in effectiveness for student’s revisions. The research in this article greatly helps our thesis because it shows the benefits of a word processor. Therefore, the article is extremely relevant to our paper and I can see us using the statistics and claims from this article in our final paper.
Kunde, Brian. “A Brief History of Word Processing (Through 1986) / by Brian Kunde.” A Brief History of Word Processing (Through 1986) / by Brian Kunde. Stanford University, Dec. 1986. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.
This article was written by a college student at Foothills college in California. Brian Kunde, the author, worked at the Stanford University library for 26 years and is currently a library specialist. The author wrote this article to take the reader through the history of word processing and demonstrate how the need for a word processor arose. From the first moveable type in the middle ages to the typewriter that arose in 1872 to the more advanced word processors of the 60’s and 70s, Kunde demonstrates the evolution of the word processor. In a non-biased article, Kunde demonstrates to the reader, whom I assume is an educated college student, how the word processor has evolved.
The article is well-written and details many different technologies/examples of the word processor. However, the article could include more detail about technologies such as the invention of moveable type. The information in this article helps our research paper in that it takes us through the development of moveable type. However, the material isn’t as pertinent as it could be since the article was written in 1986. The article is a good starting ground for our research, but we will definitely need to do more.
In a day and age where we are confronted with thousands of images, the “attention span” of society is rapidly declining (Hayles 87). With students losing focus in school as a result of outside activities that focus less on comprehension than previously, our nation is in danger of fostering a generation with a sharp decline in productivity. Although we are experiencing a “paradigm shift” to more digital technologies (Hayles 1), our school system is set in its ways and is less willing to adopt new methods. Our nation is changing and we need to change with it.
So how do we address the growing disparity between what students want and what teachers want? I propose an e-reader embed that will engage the students in their reading by prompting them with meta-cognitive questions and generating study tools to further their learning, even outside the classroom. Like the questions below, the goal of them is to focus on improving students’ reading comprehension and analysis skills:
Why is this important?
Are there any key terms or ideas here?
Why is this date significant?
What have I learned about this in the past?
These questions will occur as the student is reading to promote a new engagement with digital text. Although many teacher’s make study sheets with questions to consider, this embed is different because it occurs through a digital medium and the teachers are able to either go with the pre-written set of questions or customize the questions for the students. With a log-in code within the ebook, the teacher can add, delete, or modify questions. Then, the students will be able to login to their previously purchased version of the book and engage with their questions while reading. The embed will then compile the key terms that the student entered or highlighted, generate a graphic organizer of important themes or ideas, and create a student-based outline or notes. With Wifi connectivity, the student will be able to print his/her outline or notes to a printer. Fostering a new relationship between “form and content,” the embed will allow for a new interactivity with text (Kraus 82).
Building on teachers’ outlines, this “reflective design” will allow for a new level of critical thinking that is required in a digital age (Kraus 78). Additionally, this technology creates a new meshing of analytical thinking with the text, as previously created outlines or study guides are separate from the text. Society is ripe for change and the current technological advances demonstrate the need for more productivity, which is exactly what the embed will allow students to do. Although the embed is applicable to students from grades 2 or 3 and up, students with learning disabilities will find that the embed improves their analytical skills without detracting from what the material is saying.
Once Kindle obtains the rights to the licensing then they will be able to contact the author directly and ask if he/she would like to add or create any questions to be embedded within the framework of the novel. Regarding additional settings, there will be an on/off button for teachers to tell their students to press and then the students’ outlines will be sent to the teacher directly. This can be helpful for students that need extra help or attention to make sure they are on the right track. One of the most unique features of the embed is the extensibility that is provided within an sms embed. Students are able to flag parts of the text and create a conversation within the novel. A virtual book club, or twitter-like sphere, the sms feature creates productive and intellectual conversation within a class. The sms feature is aimed to help increase understanding among all students and bridge the gap between those who are having trouble understanding the material and those who are not.
A specific target audience that the embed would appeal to is students with learning disabilities or attention disorders. Since the embed allows for less diversion of attention from the material, children afflicted with ADD or ADHD are more likely to gain deeper appreciation of the material. Students with learning disabilities may find that the material comes easier to them when they are able to read and analyze all at once. On a personal level, I have executive functioning disorder so this embed would improve my reading skills because I wouldn’t have to divert my attention from the text. Sometimes when I am bent on analyzing a specific part of the text, I forget about the whole and what I just read. Therefore, this embed would allow be to think critically about the text in a targeted way that isn’t overwhelming.
In order to manufacture this embed I would need a team of technicians to ensure the embed is compatible with a variety of digital mediums including, but not limited to, the Kindle, iBook, and Nook. First creating a platform where the text is able to be adapted to include questions, the technicians will have to understand the capabilities and specificities of each platform before attempting to change them. Then, the technicians would work with authors, literary historians, and teachers to create important questions for the book. With this, the technicians will compile the information that the student entered into an outline. Ultimately, there would be an algorithm for this, but for our project I would like to do a mock up of what a student entered and what is generated as the outline.
It is my personal belief that it will be best to start with the Kindle, since it has the largest user interface. For my project I would like to create an embed for a Kindle that focuses on one specific book. By doing this we would prototype the interactive book to then show as an example for future books. This would make the project manageable for a group of college freshman. However, once we finish the project we can take it to a team of technicians and get them to write a general algorithm for the process of compiling the information.
In terms of selling our idea, we would sell the copyright to Kindle, iBook, and Nook and they can individually embed the format into their compatible software. Once they purchase the embed we will be able to do joint advertisements that advertise the embed within the framework of a specific company. Consumers will be able to purchase either the regular edition or the special embed edition from within the Kindle framework.
As far as marketing goes, we would target teachers, educators, and students alike in order to get our product out there. A specific logo and slogan I have designed is: Read with us. Achieve with us. (as pictured below).
Another slogan I thought of is the one below:
And finally:
The design of the embed itself “[confronts] the affordances” of digital technology and combines them with critical thinking skills (Kraus 84). Therefore, the logo should inspire society to do better and think better, which both of the previous logos do. Vannevar Bush said that science “has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual” (Bush 1). With the creation of this embed, knowledge will be able to evolve and change based on society’s growing reliance on technology. And isn’t that really what progress is about: the change and evolution of an idea? The book is a seed and this embed is the tree that grew from it.
Works Cited
Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 July 1945. Web. 09 Nov. 2014.
Hayles, Katherine. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.
Kraus, Kari. 2013. Bibliocircuitry and the Design of the Alien Everyday (2013), The New Everyday, Textual Cultures.
I thought that the Dean’s Roundtable with Brian Sirgutz about using digital content to drive social change was interesting because of his diverse background. Starting out managing bands, Sirgutz wanted to own his own record label. However, after many ups and downs, Sirgutz decided that the music industry wasn’t for him. On September 11th, 2001, Brian’s world changed forever. His apartment was near the twin towers and once the wreckage set in, he witnessed the potentiality of people and humanity as society rallied together. Setting up food stations, Brian worked to make a deeper impact in the lives of many. Brian urged society to “take off the mask, your face is glorious” and realize that humanity will be better off if everyone is true to themselves.
On 9/12 Brian realized that he wanted to help people and make a difference. Once the wreckage was cleared, Brian wondered how you continue with the story after the news cycle is over? I think this relates to our class because we are discussing how media can impact society. Therefore, media could spurn further conversation about a news item. This led him to his carrier as Senior Vice President of social impact and social innovation at the Huffington Post and AOL. Reinventing the idea of a journalist to become a citizen journalist, Brian allowed everyone to convey the urgencies of disaster. When he was in Haiti after the earthquake, he saw a news reporter who was recording from her iPhone. This sparked an idea about having a larger team of news reporters who can cover more news. Taking in sponsors, such as Johnson & Johnson, Brian created the Huffinton Post impact section. His one condition for the sponsors was that they couldn’t advertise in the section, but can donate the space to non=profit partners and put their mission statement there. Brian realized that social issues and positive news were shared twice as much as regular news and this sparked his creation of the impact news section. When citizen journalists are blogging about a topic, the world is becoming more engaged in an issue. Even when only using the latest affordances of technology, such as the iPhone, citizen journalists can have a part in the news cycle. Brian Sirgutz revitalized the way that American’s interact with the news cycle and consequentially digital media. With his Gallatin education, Brian merged thought processes that didn’t typically belong together such as music and technology. This led to his new thinking about merging new media and the news cycle. I think that we can learn new ways of thinking from Brian and take his examples of merging new media with news forums to inspire our final projects. This idea of taking new, existing technologies to revolutionize an existing process combines two things that didn’t previously coexist, which is what we are trying to do in our final project. Brian also inspired me to not be so set on one idea or career path and let my path become malleable by society. By giving in to the ebb and flow of society, we can create new technologies and help a greater set of people.
I thought it was interesting how Jimmy longs so much for human contact that he is willing to upset his mother with probing questions just to be able to “[stretch] out his hand” and touch his mother (33). As his mother retreats into her own world, Jimmy becomes so desperate for a connection to humanity he is willing to act out in order to get a reaction. Jimmy’s frustration with the stoic world he lives in is shown through his audacity to pester his mother in order to get a reaction. Snowman’s broken relationship with his parents prevent him from forming future relationships with others. When he interacts with the Crake children he has trouble connecting with them and sometimes snaps at them. Snowman’s deconstructed narrative of his life, jumping from the past to the present, is an extension of the decaying world that he lives in.
Snowman retreats a lot to the past as seen through his memories of his childhood with his family and playing games with Crake. Additionally, the novel reverts a lot to past notions such as when Snowman says, “any reader [I] can possibly imagine is in the past” (41). With this withdrawal from the present into the past, Snowman demonstrates his unhappiness with the present situation in society and desires to return to simpler times when he didn’t understand all of the complexities of life. Snowman believes that ignorance is bliss, which leads me, as the reader to believe, that the present is full of confusion and difficult times. In the present, Snowman has no one to interact with except the Crake children. Therefore, in an attempt to feel his need for a social interaction, he relives his past memories. In the present, Snowman has nothing to do and “has to find more and better ways of occupying his time” (40). With the lack of interaction in his current world, Snowman retreats further and further into his mind.
Snowman longs to get out of the prison-like world he is trapped within. “Get me out! he hears himself thinking,” but then realizes that “he isn’t locked up, he’s not in prison” (45). Although Snowman is physically free, his mind is trapped within society’s cave. With the opposition between his mind and his body, Snowman exhibits a dichotomy within himself. Trapped within an in-between world, or a purgatory of sorts, Snowman’s mind is in one place, while is body is in another. Although his body is in the present, his mind is in the past to escape the hardships of everyday life. Snowman is not happy with his current life, so he retreats into a purgatory between the past and the present in his mind. Stuck in his own cave, fostered by society, Snowman is unable to get out. Additionally, there is a dichotomy within his own mind as he experiences both scientific views thrust upon him by society, as well as his own thoughts about the world. When the “book in his head” tells him to “ignore minor irritants,” Snowman “feels he has a listener” who is “watching him slyly” (46). The paranoia that Snowman feels within his own head, demonstrates his fractured relationship with the world around him as well as the distrust he has for society. Snowman did not grow up in a typical loving family, so he was never able to create long-lasting relationships. He feels as if the true world is “hidden behind the screen of leaves,” and if he searches deep enough inside his head he can find the world and live happily within it (46). The idea of the world being hidden, exhibits Snowman’s duality within himself in that he is confused about what the world should be like.
In a world where “nothing [Jimmy] could achieve would ever be the right idea, or enough,” Snowman’s personality becomes splintered, as seen through the narrative which switches from the past and the present and from Jimmy to Snowman (50). The past and the present within Jimmy have become so splintered that “Snowman has forgotten everything else about Jimmy’s tenth birthday except the rakunk” (51). Attempting to disassociate himself from the past, Snowman’s memories become splintered, reflecting the destructing world around him. As Jimmy’s father takes on a new job at HelthWyzer, his parents start fighting. As Jimmy is stuck between his parent’s opposing views, his world is further split in two. With a warring world, Jimmy is forced to maintain his only connection to his pet rakunk, Killer. Unable to fit in with the human world, Jimmy forms a bond with animals. Additionally, in order to try to form a human connection, Jimmy acts out in school and uses his hands as puppets to put on a show that is an unsettling mirror image of his life. Jimmy cannot connect to his parents, who are supposed to teach him the basis of how to interact with the world, so he acts out to gain attention and “applause” from other kids (60).
Crake asks “what is reality?” which brings up an important point about society’s blurred lines between the truth and the fabricated (83). Crake uses these blurred lines to bridge his own reality within society. With the sex show on HottTotts, Jimmy observes “three layers of contradictory make believe, one on top of the other” (90). When what we are surrounded by is fabricated, our own lines become obscured. Therefore, Jimmy has trouble recounting the years in between discovering HottTotts and meeting Oryx because during that time he was undergoing the reestablishment and questioning of his reality. Crake probes Jimmy to question his own reality, and once Jimmy begins to do this, he reverts to Snowman, who saves the picture of Oryx for years. Stretching across time, Oryx blurs Jimmy’s reality and bridges the past and the present.
Snowman goes on to explain to the Crakes what pictures are. When the “not real can tell us about real,” we are enabled to create new technologies that can further explain the current world (102). Within Atwood’s fictional novel about the future, the so-called “not real” world of the book can foreshadow the real that our world might become. With this, Atwood warns us about a post-apocalyptic future. One example that comes to mind within our current world is the Bible. Many people rely on the Bible to dictate their life, but we as a society are not sure that all of the stories are true. However, for the believers, the Bible is true insofar as it is their reality. Therefore, the objective “not real” can dictate a person’s reality. Just as the Children of Crake praise the “fabrication” of Crake created by Snowman, their belief in their past is dictated by Snowman’s “not real,” or made up stories (104). In order to maintain some form of human connection, Jimmy is forced to repeat this “dogma” about Crake so that the Children of Crake do not get disinterested and leave. Just as the television show may have put on fake executions to gain viewership, Snowman lies about Crake so that the Children of Crake remain interested. Therefore, the fabrication of reality is intertwined within a relationship to people.
Snowman turns to alcohol to escape his blurred reality. In a world where the reality is so bad that people will use cocaine to escape, Snowman does not deviate from this pattern with his alcohol abuse. With the line “out, out, brief candle,” Atwood draws a parallel to Shakespeare’s Macbeth and demonstrates Snowman’s internal schism, just as Lady Macbeth’s declaration of “out,out, damned spot,” demonstrates her psychological decline.
What do you think the role of beauty is in technology? How do you think beauty interacts with reflective, visceral, and behavioral design orientation? Or rather what is the function of beauty in each one.
Kevin Kelly cites beauty as something technology wants, but it is also something that society desires. How do you think our notion of what is beautiful is formed? Additionally do you think we can manipulate this perception?
While form dictates meaning, how do you think society’s class structure brings meaning to the way in which we perceive our relationships to others?
Through social media and public efforts, Invisible Children raised global awareness about Ugandan dictator, Joseph Kony. Invisible Children was founded in 2003 by three college students who went to Uganda to find and film a story. Instead of finding just a story, they found Joseph Kony’s movement. The three filmmakers realized that there was a war going on for over 20 years, led by warlord Joseph Kony and his rebel army. Befriending an escaped child soldier named Jacob, the trio learned his gut-wrenching story. Jacob and his brother were captured by the army and forced to fight for Kony against their will. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) murdered Jacob’s brother, and scared for his life, Jacob ran away from the LRA. The three filmmakers promised Jacob that they would stop Kony and end the war. Prior to Kony 2012, Invisible Children had already produced 11 films about the war in Uganda and gained a loyal following, which set them up for Kony 2012 to become one of the fastest spreading Internet sensations of all time. The campaign to find Joseph Kony was created to pressure the Ugandan government and United States advisers to find Joseph Kony. Young and in touch with society’s desires, the three filmmakers recognized that social media has the power to illuminate specific political injustices and catalyze global efforts. Through Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter, the Stop Kony movement gained millions of worldwide followers in just a matter of days. Invisible Children’s use of social media to convey their point led to increasing worldwide awareness about Kony and even affected policy. Kony 2012 transformed my view and the world’s view about the power of social media and consequentially led to a global social media movement that eventually led to other campaigns such as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
With the release of Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 video, the power of social media prevailed with the video reaching 100 million views in six days-the fastest campaign yet. As the founder of Invisible Children, Jason Russell, says in the video, “the game has new rules. But in order for it to work, you have to pay attention” (Kony 2012). Through Youtube and Vimeo, the video created it’s own rules and shattered all previous records for 100 million views. Once it gained recognition within the United States and other European nations, Invisible Children tweeted:
In order to increase their worldwide following, Invisible Children utilized the power of communication and translated their message so millions more people could understand the importance of Kony 2012 movement.
Following the release of the Kony 2012 video, there were millions of shares on Facebook and Twitter. As Russell proclaimed, “our goal is to change the conversation of our culture, and get people to ask ‘Who is Joseph Kony?’” (Kony 2012). Revolutionizing charity campaigns, Invisible Children aimed to raise global awareness about Joseph Kony. By sharing and liking the Kony 2012 video, more and more people become aware of the brutal reality that Joseph Kony is a part of.
Cutting their message down to 140 characters, Invisible Children capitalized on their young following by creating engaging tweets, such as the one below.
By creating engaging hashtags and provocative points, Invisible Children appealed to their massive fan base and propelled their campaign further than ever before. With young people using social media as the primary means of communication, Twitter was ripe with conversation about Kony. Isaac Hepworth, who works for Twitter, released a graph showing the amount of times Kony was mentioned on Twitter since the beginning of the month. There are nearly 10 million mentions during the month of March 2012.
In a public call to action, Invisible Children relied on some of the nation’s celebrities with a large base of followers to share the video and get the word out. Celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ryan Seacrest, and Kim Kardashian all tweeted about Kony.
Through the viral movement, people could sign up to receive “action kits” with Joseph Kony posters, stickers, and buttons to participate in “Cover the Night” events on April 20th. Facebook groups were made and then created specific meeting places where groups where go into their town at night and cover it with Kony posters, such as the one shown below.
Invisible Children started Kony 2012 as a social media campaign, but it transformed into a global movement. Eventually the Kony 2012 campaign became such a massive force that the United Nations was forced to confront it. Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, thought that the Kony 2012 campaign would have been better off if it had focused its efforts on reintegration of the child soldiers rather than the capturing of Kony (Les Roopanarine). Creating a conversation about the way to handle Joseph Kony, Invisible Children’s social media campaign had launched a full-scale international debate.
Nationally, the Kony 2012 movement gained attention from Congress and the House of Representatives even made a resolution supporting the mission to disband Kony and the LRA (Jim McGovern). Demonstrating the power of a social media movement, Kony 2012 captured the world’s attention and created policy changes, an amazing feat for an internet sensation. One of the first of it’s kind, Kony 2012 was unique in that it became an issue that millions of people cared about and thus Congress and the UN were forced to address it. Going forward, this is what I will use to create campaigns. You want everyone to care about the issue so it has to be addressed because Congress cannot ignore its constituents or the members will not be reelected.
Kony 2012 was successful in that it created an international dialogue about Joseph Kony. However, the Internet led to the collapse of the Kony 2012 movement when Invisible Children was scrutinized for its questionable spending practices. A 19-year-old college student looked into Invisible Children’s spending and found that it only spent 32% of the 8 million raised in 2011 on direct efforts (Chris Roper). Invisible Children still maintains these claims are false, but it does not undo the damage done to their reputation. Millions of people read about the controversy and the nation’s spark to catch Kony diminished with the questioning of Invisible Children. Another downfall of the Kony 2012 campaign was Invisible Children’s oversimplified message to capture Kony. Invisible Children chose to stand by their belief that capturing Kony would stabilize northern Uganda. Once Kony was gone, Invisible Children believed, or rather conveyed to the mass public, that the children soldiers would have no one to follow and then would disband. However, this ignores the engrained, fighting attitude that these children grew up with. You can disband an army, but you cannot undo the mental tendencies towards fighting that these child soldiers learned from such a young age. Joseph Kony is just one person that these children could follow. Who is to say that another Kony could not just come along and use these child soldiers for another war? Additionally, Invisible Children offered support to the Ugandan dictator, Museveni, in order to catch Kony. This tunnel vision of capturing Kony could have ended up strengthening Museveni and creating other problems with an empowered dictator like Museveni. Finally, Invisible Children ignored the fact that Joseph Kony was not in Uganda, nor had he been for six years (Anthony Kosner). His army was dwindling in numbers, and although the LRA was still causing suffering, millions of misinformed people are not able to help with such an engrained and complicated situation. Invisible Children’s oversimplified message was devised to engage people over social media, a platform where one only has 140 characters or a post to convey a point.
Although Invisible Children’s message was oversimplified, the idea of using social media to bring about change is a brilliant one. Sharing a video is simple and many viewers were happy to be helping just by spreading the information. As Allison Fine, a social media and activism writer, said, “[Invisible Children] [is] deputizing all of us to click this guy away” (David J. Goodman). Invisible Children struck a chord with viewers and allowed them to feel like they were making a difference by sharing the video. The success of Kony 2012 was that the campaign utilized social media as a means to present a global issue in a way that the average person can relate to.
As one who does social media for many companies, I found Kony intriguing because it demonstrated the power of social media. Kony proved to the world that the world can listen. Both Kony 2012 and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge represent the ways in which an organization used social media to generate revenue.Going forward, I can use the techniques that Kony 2012 taught me, such as raising mass awareness, which then generates profit, to grow companies into huge entities. I heard you Kony 2012 and I am listening.
Works Cited:
Goodman, J. David, and Jennifer Preston. “How the Kony Video Went Viral.”The Lede How the Kony Video Went Viral Comments. New York Times, 09 Mar. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
Khan, Belal. Digital image. Leechon. N.p., 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
Kosner, Anthony. “12 Lessons from KONY 2012 from Social Media Power Users.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 09 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
McGovern, Jim. H. RES. Ll (n.d.): 1-7. United States House of Representatives. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
“Our Story | Invisible Children.” Invisible Children Our Story. Invisible Children, 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
Roopanarine, Les. “Kony2012 Funds Would Be Best Spent on Former Child Soldiers, Says UN Official.” The Guardian. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.
Roper, Chris. “Kony 2012: Taking A Closer Look At The Social Media Sensation.” Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. N.p., 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.
I have always loved the concept of a scavenger hunt so I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon a book by Albert Mordell from the 1800s that contained an inscription by the author. After going through copious amounts of books-nearly 100-I landed on the Mordell book and to my surprise found it hand-inscribed by the author, Mordell, to his editor. I thought this was really interesting because it shows how the author communicated with his staff and how the book was created with the help of many.
In addition to the inscription by the author, I found an inscription by a friend/family member.
One of my favorite things while combing through the books was looking at the notes in the margin because they showed a lot about the reader and his/her thought process while reading. This enables me to get a glimpse of how people in the 1800s reacted to certain ideas/literature. The marginalia possess a rare ability to transport me back in time, right into the thoughts of the readers, and in the case of the inscription by Mordell, right into the thoughts of the author.
As for the event itself, I thoroughly enjoyed the hunt for the “prized” books and thought that it was organized very well. I think that these results/data should be used to show how readers in the 1800s interacted with literature. Then those results could be compared with how we interact with literature today. It would be interesting to extrapolate those results and see if we could pinpoint any events or rise of new technologies that might have affected the way readers interact with literature.
I think that these books are valuable and should be preserved in specific library sections. However, I do not think it is realistic, in this day and age, for people to keep them on the shelves in the place of newer, more relevant books. Therefore, I believe that there should be separate libraries for these books that the public can access readily. This way the older books wouldn’t be forced out into storage or thrown out.
I thought it was really interesting how Kelly stated, even though he dissented later, that “we operate under some kind of spell,” “hypnotized by glitter,” (214). From his description is seems that we are all pawns to technology, mindlessly being controlled by a being that we created. The self-hypnotization is from an inability to be self-aware or self-critical, where humans become so “addicted” to technology that they just crave more instead of thinking about the consequences of their dependence (213). I see how this is a valid assumption about society, but it does not take into consideration humanity’s greatest gift: the ability to self-evaluate and think. Not merely “bewitched,” Kelly goes on to explain how we “chose to embrace [technology]” and “willingly choose technology, with its great defects and obvious detriments” because the benefits outweigh the downside (215). The idea of us as a society doing a “risk-benefit analysis” shows the inquisitive nature of humanity (217). However if we have existed for so many years without all these new technologies they aren’t essential to our survival and then if they aren’t essential couldn’t the costs outweigh the non-neccesary benefits? Humanity is trapped in a continuous cycle of needing more technology to illuminate the truth, such as “the downsides of technology,” while also wanting to minimize the detrimental effects of technology (216). While I agree with the point about the cyclical nature of technology that Kelly gets at, one point that Kelly does not get at is the importance of technology to our identity as a society. When something forms the core of our identity and makes up who we are, it is hard to question it. When you question someones fundamental being or beliefs, they can react negatively and revolt. Like Plato suggested, you have to lead the prisoners into the light, not force them out because otherwise they will mutiny. So this begs the question how do we break the technological cycle that we are complicit in? Is it even possible? Don’t we as humans have a say in the matter?
Following my above questions, Kelly says that “technologies can be postponed, but not stopped,” (243). I agree with this point because a force as strong as technology is one that can last for centuries and maybe forever. The pliability of technology, in that it transforms from a first invention into society “steers the technology toward a marginal unexpected use,” also speaks to its long-lasting power in that it keeps transforming to fit society’s needs (244). With an ever-adapting power, technology will never be eliminated because it can always serve a function. One idea of Kelly’s that I disagree with is the idea that “projecting what harm may come from a technology before it ‘is’ is almost impossible,” (244). Or that it is hard to predict what a technology will become. I disagree because I think some inventors created certain technologies for specific needs such as the iPod for listening to music, the internet for searching and accessibility, and even the car for transportation. While Kelly states that “the automobile today” is a “different technology form the Ford Model T of 100 years ago,” the basic purpose of the technology is the same. I think that Kelly is getting bogged down in the details and specific technologies in the car, such as navigation systems. Whereas another way to look at technology is by examining the greater purpose, or the end goal. Technology is going to change that is a fact, so it is pointless to become overwhelmed by the unpredictability of technology in its minute details. The purposes of technology do not change as much as the smaller details. Transportation, whether by air, sea, or road, all has the same goal: to get people from point A to point B. While faster jets, more energy-efficient cars, and nicer boats are new technologies, they all accomplish the same goal of transporting people. As a society, we have to become okay with the inability to predict the future and what technologies will be created or do harm, not embrace the “Precautionary Principle,” that is so embedded into the anxiety-ridden America (247). We cannot have a crystal ball to tell us what technologies we should eradicate and what technologies we shouldn’t. Humanity as a whole likes to have all the answers, this again comes from dependence on technology to do so, and the idea of not knowing the power of technology makes us uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to revel in this discomfort and accept it.
NYU Gallatin First-Year Writing Seminar, Fall 2014
