As I said in one of my comments on a "milblog", I don't know a lot about what is continually going on in the Middle East. I am not related (by blood or just relationship) to anyone who is serving over there. Even news about the "war"--as we all seem prone to call it--has been hard to come by in recent months.
However, there are always the so-called typical war stories. We have certainly all heard them, and we certainly all feel for the soldiers who are forced to live with that in their heads for the rest of their lives.
But do we really know? I can't say I've ever experienced the brutal killing of a good friend. The comraderie in a group thrown together by chance. Waking up every morning knowing that today could be the last day of life on earth.
I read a post from a soldier who took a trip back to his/her station and reflected on all the things that have changed from serving in the war. I read another about a captain who posted on the lengthy process of shooting practice and it's metaphor to how we are not getting things done in Iraq. I read yet another on the experiences of war, both good and bad.
There are millions of American soldiers over in the Middle East, just like the ones who posted on the "milblog." They don't have to be there. Many of them probably don't even want to be there in the first place. And yet the news continues to produce a vacancy in all reports: a vacancy that the "war" used to fill.
If I could label one thing I learned from reading a "milblog", it would be that I need to continually remember what is taking place not only the Middle East, but in countries all over the world. Men and women are sacrificing everything they hold dear in the name of our country.
I personally find it an outrage that the media finds Michael Jackson more important than the "war." It would not hurt us to be a little grateful.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
A Blog for 17 Million of Your Closest Friends
I’ll admit, I was a little wary of beginning a blog. Naturally, I have a Facebook, multiple e-mail accounts, and several different kinds of software that I use nearly every day. I have a cell phone, a laptop, and an iPod. I’m not exactly infantile in my knowledge of technology.
However, having a blog is a different story. Having a successful blog takes a whole different turn from that, even. Obviously one wants their blog to be read, so he or she has to learn how to construct it in a way that attracts healthy attention.
Healthy being the keyword.
As for teens posting intimate blogs, I cannot say I condone the behavior--I do not think that it attracts the said healthy attention a blogger deserves. Perhaps it is because I have always been a private person, I appreciate keeping my personal life to myself and those close to me. Perhaps it is because I simply find displaying all of your problems online for millions to read is a juvenile way of saying, “Look at me! I love throwing a pity party for myself!”
That being said, I completely understand the need for expression. I also understand that expression is another way of showing the world who you are, or who you are not. For instance, I am a singer and a writer. Nothing soothes me more than screaming out some “Phantom of the Opera” while filling page after page of sometimes incomprehensible poetry. And yet this is not the me I have created on Facebook. On a screen, I can be witty, sarcastic, or even famous. Anyone can be perfect online. That is the point that makes teen blogging so appealing.
There are so many horror stories out there. Teen gets date raped by someone she met online. Teen gets murdered by online predator. But even beyond these, problems from posting everything online can result from employers, parents, and teachers.
I don’t know about all of them, but I think I’ll keep my private life in a spot where it’s most enjoyable: in private.
However, having a blog is a different story. Having a successful blog takes a whole different turn from that, even. Obviously one wants their blog to be read, so he or she has to learn how to construct it in a way that attracts healthy attention.
Healthy being the keyword.
As for teens posting intimate blogs, I cannot say I condone the behavior--I do not think that it attracts the said healthy attention a blogger deserves. Perhaps it is because I have always been a private person, I appreciate keeping my personal life to myself and those close to me. Perhaps it is because I simply find displaying all of your problems online for millions to read is a juvenile way of saying, “Look at me! I love throwing a pity party for myself!”
That being said, I completely understand the need for expression. I also understand that expression is another way of showing the world who you are, or who you are not. For instance, I am a singer and a writer. Nothing soothes me more than screaming out some “Phantom of the Opera” while filling page after page of sometimes incomprehensible poetry. And yet this is not the me I have created on Facebook. On a screen, I can be witty, sarcastic, or even famous. Anyone can be perfect online. That is the point that makes teen blogging so appealing.
There are so many horror stories out there. Teen gets date raped by someone she met online. Teen gets murdered by online predator. But even beyond these, problems from posting everything online can result from employers, parents, and teachers.
I don’t know about all of them, but I think I’ll keep my private life in a spot where it’s most enjoyable: in private.
Ours is the Internet Age: I for one did not know there was so much controversy over “hyper-reading” and “hypertext”--yet the scholarly world seems to have many problems with both of these concepts. The main problem for academics lies in the barely researchable reading that is found in hypertext. As Sosnoski states in his writing, “Because readers characteristically navigate textual landscapes by searching them for key words and thus often omitting passages that do not ‘match,’ hyper-reading will be labeled ‘subjective,’ ‘superficial,’ and ‘de-contextualized’” (Sosnoski 164).
While this is understandable, one must remember that academia is only a small portion of the population that uses computers. The rest of us? I doubt we have much of an excuse to be opposed to hyper-reading, other than the fact that if you spend too much time in front of a computer screen, your eyes will be tired.
I give Sosnoski credit for labeling and explaining the breakdown of hyper-reading: “filtering,” “skimming,” “pecking,” “imposing,” “filming,” “trespassing,” “de-authorizing,” and “fragmenting” (163). As I read the description of each of these items, I found myself silently agreeing: when I am researching topics on the Internet, I automatically wade through the many options and passages that I could read that might be related to my research. I filter, I skim, I impose… Each person, knowingly or not, completes at least one of the actions from this list during hyper-reading. It is a study in human behavior that Sosnoski has nailed solidly.
In the end, Sosnoski was seemingly on the fence about the good side and the bad side of hyper-reading. “[He] believe[s] that phenomenon such as hyper-reading will be perceived by anti-cybernauts as a loss of coherence, substance, and depth” (173). I would say that his belief is perfectly accurate. As we all know, hyper-reading is going to become increasingly common. Again agreeing with Sosnoski, I think that this won’t (and shouldn’t) replace books--the dead-tree kind, as one of my other professors likes to call it.
That doesn’t mean that we all can’t learn to adapt a little with the changing technology.
While this is understandable, one must remember that academia is only a small portion of the population that uses computers. The rest of us? I doubt we have much of an excuse to be opposed to hyper-reading, other than the fact that if you spend too much time in front of a computer screen, your eyes will be tired.
I give Sosnoski credit for labeling and explaining the breakdown of hyper-reading: “filtering,” “skimming,” “pecking,” “imposing,” “filming,” “trespassing,” “de-authorizing,” and “fragmenting” (163). As I read the description of each of these items, I found myself silently agreeing: when I am researching topics on the Internet, I automatically wade through the many options and passages that I could read that might be related to my research. I filter, I skim, I impose… Each person, knowingly or not, completes at least one of the actions from this list during hyper-reading. It is a study in human behavior that Sosnoski has nailed solidly.
In the end, Sosnoski was seemingly on the fence about the good side and the bad side of hyper-reading. “[He] believe[s] that phenomenon such as hyper-reading will be perceived by anti-cybernauts as a loss of coherence, substance, and depth” (173). I would say that his belief is perfectly accurate. As we all know, hyper-reading is going to become increasingly common. Again agreeing with Sosnoski, I think that this won’t (and shouldn’t) replace books--the dead-tree kind, as one of my other professors likes to call it.
That doesn’t mean that we all can’t learn to adapt a little with the changing technology.
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