A Brave New World

Thompson's main claim throughout this article appears to be that the entire construct of how we as a human race interact and make friends and keep up with what one another is doing is changing rapidly due to the growth of social media. No longer do we have to keep constantly keep asking what people are up to, to keep a conscious link among all of our friends. Social media allows for us to keep tabs on everyone, even those that we don't know that well. It creates a whole new mode of communication and allow for us to even make us feel as though we never really left a person, and can pick things up mid-conversation with people upon meeting them. To break up all of this information brought through the digital age, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook introduced the News Feed. He did this so that people would no longer have to search through everyone pages one at a time, it consolidated all of that information into one main page, allowing for people to see everything in their interests as soon as they log in. I think that this change tells alot about our attention span, in that it is slowly dying off and making us not want to have to search through things to find our interests, we want instant gratification in more aspects of our lives. I would say this hurts our literacy to a degree, as it isn't really communicating but more just reading what is going on around us. It does lead into conversations, though, so it could help it in a sense as well. All of these things lead to a sense of ambient awareness, a name for the constant, overlaying online contact that today's generation keeps on the world around it. I too have become a member in this pool of information, making sure to keep track of the news and what my friends are posting through media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. It does create a paradox, though, in that while we can keep this awareness, it can often work as a way to replace the true, face to face interactions, distancing ourselves from the people we keep tabs on online and weakening the bonds of really talking to someone. Because these ambient updates are skimmable, short and often uninteresting to us based on various factors, this sort of dulls our literacy in that we are not interested to get into any deeper reading or always think deeper on what is actually going on in someones life, reading things at strictly face value. The author describes how this emerging media format is also adding to our "weak ties", people we are not actively friends with but still keep in contact with. These ties can be great for us as people because it keeps us interested in things that aren't necessarily an immediate part of our lives, as well as helping our problem solving through the internet because it gives us people that know us and may know far more than we do on certain topics we need help on. The younger generations feel more connected to this sort of media because of how quickly it is growing and how everyone around them is using it more and more avidly. They are forming more and more digital ties throughout the world, making a more connected world around themselves. This article defines literacy as our ability to make and extend friendships through our digital age and to be able to read peoples thoughts and emotions through the blurbs and comments that we post. We are learning to more quickly understand people and keep ties without actually being right in front of people talking to them and reading their faces, instead reading a digital face to see who people really are, or at least who they are when they are online. This reinforced my idea of how these articles are describing literacy in this new era, changing from our face to face interactions into a much more digital-centric age and shifting how the whole world can see what you are doing in an instant.

Too Much Time, and Finding Things to Do With It.

The article, Gin, Television, and Cognitive Surplus, is about just that, how alcohol, sitcoms, and the theory of cognitive surplus are all linked together and how they have affected the advancement of society throughout time. This article pretty much defines literacy as the ability to do find things to keep our brains occupied and being active as opposed to strictly watching things. This is where cognitive surplus is defined: cognitive surplus is the free time that we have worked into our daily lives and have to choose what to do with it. This article shows a pressing point about the media and how the experience of cognitive surplus is rapidly evolving through time. In the beginning, it was urbanization and the shocking change of urban life that led humanity to drinking. When we all collectively came out from that, we ushered in a new era of major advances to the world. The writer of this article then compares that alcohol to television, as we dump so much time into that a year. He thinks that when we wake up from the common media stupor the same as we did with alcohol so long ago, we will begin to create more than we ever have in the past, and that we have maybe already begun to do this. We are moving away from merely watching and, through the power of the internet, we are beginning to create and share on our own in ways that we could've never imagined 10-15 years ago. It shows us that we need to break the cycle of mindlessly watching what other people are putting in front of us and making things on our own and exercising our minds and our creativity to keep up these things rather than to just get consumed in doing nothing. We need to take advantage of the excess time that we have in our hands to stop from becoming mundane and dull, and to bring in all kinds of new advancements after all of this stagnation, which the author stresses very firmly throughout the article.

A Paper with CoCo

For my Unit 3 paper, I think that I will use Conan O'brien's Twitter feed to analyze. He maintains a pretty steady presence, puts for a sort of comical identity, and I really enjoy him as a comedian. He makes alot of political and social commentary jokes, and he puts himself on as somewhat self-loathing man, often making jokes on himself. I think this is alot like what Twitter was designed for, for this sort of wit and anecdotes, so it should work well for this assignment.

Of Media and Men

If you were to take a glance at my social networks, you would see a car-loving, music-hound guy who occasionally gets out into nature and uses media to ask for help in these areas. I have never posted much, but what is there shows me working on my car and how she looks after a good wash and wax. You'd also see pictures of me out with my friends and girlfriend. And this is pretty accurate of me, I don't do terribly much, but what I do, I'm very proud of it and want to share it with my friends. The more that life goes on and social media goes on the rise, I feel like I should hold more of a presence online. It's become very prominent for teenagers, and even more so for the 20-somethings of America, to host blogs and write about what's on their minds or to be very active in sharing their projects and ideas. We are even being deemed as the Internet generation, and this can put some pressure to hold more space on the web. As far as censorship goes, I just know it's best to be respectful online, as if you were talking to someone you don't know, because all too often this will be the case. I would hate for someone to be looking to hire me, look online and see me at my very worst, I'd lose so many opportunities that way. Just keep it clean, keep it nice, and nobody gets hurt. So far, I've been able to uphold to that, and I hope to keep it that way.

Analysis and Jumping

Before I start, I have decided to change my song and video to analyze to "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers and how it was used in the movie The Holiday. This song is alot closer to me and actually have a clip that I can put it to.

This song is about a man who has a suspicion that his girlfriend is cheating on him with another man, and eventually finds her doing what he had a fear of. "I'm coming out of my cage/and I've been doing just fine/gotta gotta be down/because I want it all. It started out with a kiss/it was only a kiss/it was only a kiss" It all starts out happy and in love, with him being completely unaware of what pain will befall him. The story in the song describes his situation like this: "Now I'm falling asleep/and she's calling a cab/while he's having a smoke/and she's taking a drag." He feels as though when he is going to sleep, or even just not aware of what is going on, that something is going on behind his back. He feels as though something is wrong, like he can't trust the woman that he is with and that she may be sneaking away with another lover. In his mind, he can see the scenario going down, and it is plaguing him beyond belief. "Now they're going to bed/and my stomach is sick/and it's all in my head/but she's touching his chest now./He takes off her dress now./ Let me go. I just can't look/it's killing me/and taking control." The sense comes over him and engulfs his life, he can't think of anything but this, and he can't help it, he wants to escape this mental torture but he can't find a way out of it. He finds himself trapped by his own feelings of love and his fear of finding her with another man. The next verse, "Jealousy, turning saints into the sea/swimming through sick lullabies/choking on your alibis. But it's just the price I pay/ Destiny is calling me./ Open up my eager eyes/ 'Cause I'm Mister Brightside." This line shows that his girlfriend is lying to him, giving him all matters of fake sentiments and words of love, and that he has to wade through it as though it were a churning ocean, constantly pushing and pulling on his heartstrings. He tries to see the brighter side of it all, to see better in her and to trust her, but he can't do it and wants someone to open his eyes to all that is going on.

This can be found mirrored in the plot of The Holiday. In the scene in which this song plays, one of the leading ladies has just arrived to a home in which she is vacationing to get away from her hectic life in the city and escape exactly what this song portrays: a relationship in which one party is unfaithful. Prior to her vacation she had been rather unsure about him, but the truth had finally come out now and she sings puts this song on and sings it as a lament for what she's gone through. She sings it with a look of anger and frustration upon her face, letting out all of the hurt that she has been through.

From Flappers to Rappers

I think that the directors of "The Great Gatsby" chose the music that they did to make ties from that world into the world that we live in today. Gatsby's world is full of glitz and glam, parties and fun, and at the same time, corruption and violence. The music for the movies pays homage to the jazz age, as it would have been a travesty to leave that out entirely, it embodies the mindset of the movie. But on top of all of this, they blend a new, hip music that makes the movie relatable not just to the crowds of today but also as a sign of the times. The times now in the rich and popular society are very much like the times that Gatsby was in: full of drinking and massive, extravagant parties. It creates a metaphorical tie between generations, and it does it so beautifully. It sets the mood for the movie for every event. There are times when it is almost haunting, slow and sad undertones that make the movie to be truly emotional and caring. They use songs such as "Back to Black" to get across the complex and intermingled love story that goes throughout the story. Other times, it makes for an exciting and jubilant time. They are able to use these songs to tell the story of Gatsby and his lover, and all the pain and corruption that he has endure throughout his life. But no matter what mood the music is trying to convey, everything is all tied back into the storyline and even deeper into the play on the times. They do this spin on this music by using recent and popular musicians and changing some of the instrumentation to modern day synthesizers as well as all of the classic jazz instruments that were essential to shaping the times. The directors had these artists change the styles of old songs or write new material into more of hip-hop and rap genres, but with a classic feel to it to match the era of the movie. Had it been strictly jazz music, alot of the relatable feel that the movie gives off would have been utterly lost, and while it is likely that it still could've made for a good movie, the added factor took in to a whole new level. This choice of music made the movie truly remarkable in my eyes, and a truly memorable experience that was very well praised for the ties that it created.

Process and Product

This process always works pretty well for me. Sometimes my laziness tries to make me just do a single draft, still revising a few times but not near as much as I should. Having mandatory drafts breaks this often vicious cycle for me. I am able to write down my initial ideas, almost like a sketch of what is on my mind and what I am trying top portray to the readers. From there, I am able to break down what I want to say and use that to better a second draft, which is often what I will take and polish to be my final paper. It also stops my from not starting it until later. I've found that when I don't have to do anything prior to turning the final paper, I will almost always wait until the last minute and have to rush through to get the paper done in time. This way I get to really explore the creative process, slow everything down and complete a truly better paper from the ashes of my initial drafts.