Google Gaggle

"As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation."

The quote above from "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr is theorizing that by using the internet often, the way a person thinks is slowly being changed in a way that makes concentrating and contemplating for a time longer than a few minutes to a half hour very hard. The brain no longer wants a lengthy explanation of an event or story, but instead only wants the important snid-bits. Carr says that Google, along with other internet devices, is condensing the function of the mind by providing it with the information it wants in seconds. Hyperlinks allow a person to skip between pages at such a fast speed that a person could get the gist of a topic in a minute or two, and then can go onto another topic.

Sure, this is very possible and it can happen, there is no doubt about that. But my question about this is: If Carr knows this is happening to his mind, why doesn't he turn of the computer for a while, and get out into the world? My biggest problem with the internet is it is becoming its own little world. There are relationships, separate lives, different information, etc. on the internet that detach everyone from the real world. It is very possible that the internet is making humans stupid. So here is a solution, get off the internet! Only use it for the necessities of use. Like checking your bank account or e-mailing your parents in Virginia. People don't need the internet for news, games, relationships, or entertainment. There are news channels and news papers, sports and gyms, friends and family (By the way, phones are good for talking to people in different states too, not just e-mail), and movie theatres and bowling allies. There is no good reason to be on the computer 24/7, people are just lazy. Which is going to destroy us in the end.

It may be possible that we are almost at the end of the world, in my eyes the human race deserves it. If we don't start getting off our computers and helping out our planet we will all perish.

Sorry about going off topic, but anyway. Yes, Google may be making us stupid, but it's our own fault, we can't blame the technology for our use of it.

We are gathered here today for the passing of our dear friend, Postmodernism!

In Dr. Kirby's article, his topic is introduced with "Alan Kirby says postmodernism is dead and buried. In its place comes a new paradigm of authority and knowledge formed under the pressure of new technologies and contemporary social forces." Just this line alone, along with the video "Did You Know?" introduces the idea that a new power and knowledge is blooming that focuses on the use and continuous development of technology. This may very well be true. I hadn't even heard of postmodernism before I started the class, and now this article is saying that it is already over, and "from now on we’re going to believe in critical realism." Power and knowledge increasingly depends on technology. Who has the highest advances in technological warfare weaponry, Who has the best factory technology that has increased productivity, and soon who invents the first supercomputer. One component of "pseudo-modernism" is that it focuses on the recipients: the readers, listeners, users, etc.; not the artist, author, or director. For example, "...dance music is to be danced to... In music, the pseudo-modern superseding of the artist-dominated album as monolithic text by the downloading and mix-and-matching of individual tracks on to an iPod, selected by the listener, was certainly prefigured by the music fan’s creation of compilation tapes a generation ago." This also communicates that pseudo-modernism hasn't just appeared, but has in fact been around for quite some time. Dr. Kirby verifies this by stating, "To a degree, pseudo-modernism is no more than a technologically motivated shift to the cultural centre of something which has always existed." After reading this article I believe that it could be true, maybe we are moving out of a postmodern age because it can't be rejuvenated. Technology has definitely changed the world, and will continuously do so. Humans have started a never ending chain of growth and productivity centered around technological advancements. Very interesting.

Cat's Cradle Chapters 1-7

Salut!

Okay so far I am liking this book. I like how the author writes; it draws me in and entertains me so I'm not bored. This is a good thing, because usually the books we read for school are kind of boring, but this one makes me laugh and keeps me interested. At first I was a little skeptical about how the book related to postmodernism. But, as I read on, the biggest example kind of jump out and said Boo! The biggest example I found was all of the references to religion that were in the first few chapters of the novel. This quote is an example of how the book relates to postmodern ideals: "Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either" This is another way to state that religions are based on narratives. A way to legitimize a religion is to make up a story about that religion: how it came to be, what is says about life, what will happen to believers after they die. Narratives can be true, but many of them are also lies. Religion is useful to put the masses in to groups, and to control those groups. So these religions use narrative laws to be useful. Besides relating this idea to Christianity, the novel also talks about another "religion" called Bokonon. This religion openly states that it is based on lies; in fact, the narrator himself said "I would have been a Bokononist then, if there had been anyone to teach me the bittersweet lies of Bokonon." You would think that people would not want to believe in a religion that openly states it is full of lies. But to some, this could just be a form of an open narrative: it openly states it is made of lies, so people know exactly what they are getting in to. That was the most obvious example of how postmodernism is invested in the novel.