The Internet

The internet has effected me in good and bad way. The good ways that the internet has effected me by allowing me to communicate with others and letting me do so many other things like school work. Like with this blog, I can express myself and get school work done. The internet has given me opportunities to express myself and communicate and connect with others like my friends and/or with people on a forum and talk about something in common that has brought us together.

The bad ways that the internet has effected me is by as being a huge distraction. Even while trying to write this, I have other tabs open with music playing and frequently going on to those pages while I am in mid paragraph on here. The internet is such a big distraction for me, because I can do so much on it that you can get so lost with being on it. I really hate it but it's hard to break the habit of being on it because that's another negative of the internet, now a days you have to do everything on it, like homework. I hate doing homework on a computer because its so tempting to do something else on it.

"Real" News and "Meaningless" News

When watching the news there is always the stories that are real serious issues. And then there are those stories that are not really important and are just really entertaining. When watching the ABC News, there were "real" news stories and then there was "meaningless" stories.

One of the "real" stories were about how terrorists had gotten into the U.S. and the issue was that they were trained in bombs. The scare and realness was that this showed that our background checks are not always taken serious and fully checked. The terrorists got in because they looked like refugees. This will give people fear, like we talked about earlier in the semester. News make fear.

One of the "meaningless" stores were about Kennedy's plane. The story was very interesting but it wasn't an issue that would strike fear into viewers. The story was about the plane that flew the Kennedys and also flew JFK's body.

Millennials

To think of the Millennials, one major trait was technology. This trait was placed in both a good trait but also a not-so-good trait. The good part of this trait that we have grown up with new technology, so we are able to understand it more and can work more with it through life. But the not-so-good part of this trait is that we have become obsessed with technology. With technology as a trait, one event that can give this generation definition is Apple. Steve Jobs has been recognized as the influence for this generation. He pushed the look on technology and now everyone has something Apple; iPod, iPhone, iPad. With Steve Jobs's death, this had impacted the whole world but I feel that because the Millennials have technology in their life, I feel tht this had effected them more.

Controversy

'Accidental Racist' by Brad Paisley featuring LL Cool J is a country song with a featured rap part with LL Cool J. It is about the south and how we have to look past their past and move on and be equal. Others reacted with shock. It had gotten a lot of bad criticism from critics. The major deal of this song was that it had talked about south's past with slavery and their own unique style and culture. My reaction to the song was that to me the song wasn't very catchy. I didn't really like it. It wasn't because of the message or because it was a country song or for the section of the song was rap. The song just didn't entertain me.

In class we learned that for a country song to be a country song it talks about love, have easy to understand lyrics, relate able, tells a story, and you can know the song by the end. With 'Accidental Racist', it didn't seem to imply love, the lyrics were on the most part understandable though. The song though was not relate able, it also didn't keep with a story. Even though the beginning did, about a man in a coffee shop. For me I wasn't able to know the song by the end.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is mostly just something referencing something else or like a copy. I see it in mostly movies and television. I've seen intertextuality in the movie Watchmen and in the television show Lost. In Watchmen, there is a character names Owlman, he has a strong resemblance to Batman. Their looks look very much the same. Both characters are more isolated from society too.


In Lost, there is a room that brainwashes people. It also looks close to how they would brainwash delinquents in Clockwork Orange. Both brainwash people by strapping them to a chair and making them watch a video that brainwashes you into thinking differently.

Looking Back on the Semester

The one part of the semester that I still think about is how we center ourselves around the thought of love. We always want this fake love. I always see that and that unit stays in my head, also with the ads. There are so many ads that are sexualizing women and making them look like objects and nothing more. I look at ads more now to see how bad they are. I also look back at my favorite movies to see how they have influenced me in how I think about love. With that unit, I have seen where Hollywood has influenced me and where ads have made me have a low self-esteem.

Masculinity and Violence

In our culture boys are raised to be manly. This is done through violence in television. Cartoons for boys show that to be a man is to be very manly, strong, and violent. I see this as a partial negative. To be a man is not fully just being strong and being able to hold your own. The good part is showing that you can protect the people that are important to you. But the bad part of that is showing that to be a man, you can't show emotions. There needs to be showings of how violence doesn't solve everything, it can make things worse.

With the APA, American Psychological Association, they want violence to be limited on television. Wtih the ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, they don't want violence to be limited on television. The APA would be helping with what I am saying. But they would limit too much. I don't want it to be so limited that there is nothing on television that can be categorized as action. But with the ACLU, I don't want little kids to see a mass murder in their cartoons. I don't want violence to be the main attraction to cartoons. I believe there should be a happy medium to violence in cartoons. I want boys to grow up that to be manly is to be open, strong, but sensitive. I want them to be a protector but also with take help from others. I want them to grow up to respect others.