Coming of Age with the Internet

I constantly remind my parents that my generation is 100 times more important and meaningful than theirs. I mean, they may be bankrupting Social Security, but we have controlling stake in the internet. I knew ever since the Napster crisis was found to be orchestrated by a 19 year old, the youth was going to have a very different romance with the internet than its creating generation.

I agreed much with McMillian and Morrison when they kept reiterating how the majority of online personas, relationships, and activity much resemble the offline versions for people. I also believe that the internet is not simply a place where everyone can escape from themselves and create an alter ego. The internet is a place where people can explore alternate forms of expression to further find who they are and more importantly who they want to be.

One of my favorite points these women brought up was the idea that the internet helps expose millions of seldom seen view points. Without this wealth of information at their fingertips they could not even find the points which they may closely relate too. One of my favorite new inventions is something called the StumbleUpon Bar. It allows you to rapidly search through a plethora of websites about any topic imaginable. It offers a wealth of knowledge to anyone, of any race, creed, or lifestyle.

The internet is the closest we have gotten to, to having a great equalizer. It is slowly becoming our one cohesive factor, and I cannot wait to see what it brings to our society in the future.

Raby baby!

Generational gaps are always very fascinating things to study. Two situations could be identical save their time period, and that could change nearly every other faucet. Raby highlights many of the age related disconnects that exist in society. It also goes into detail generalizing the adolescent experience. Aside from simply 'otherizing' teens, the adults in the article assume responsibility as resident teenager expert. When the teenage experience is relived by these women, it seems like a seven year period of angst and anguish. It also seems like something that once went through once, one has all knowing other worldly experience to help anyone they might encountered so afflicted with teenagedom.

I don't understand though, how adults who live in the same society as the younger generation, can be surprised at the way teenagers act. For if they are a product of their environment, it is an environment created by the generation in charge. How do you expect impressionable thirteen and fourteen year olds to act when thirty year olds are singing about 'bitches' and Call Of Duty is desensitizing the masses to mass slaughter.

But there is some hope that both good deeds will be recognized and that the older generation will foster this hope for the younger ones. On the television channel 'TeenNick' there was an award show earlier in the year called the Halo Awards. If anything can give you hope that the teens of this generation want to be understood and want to grow into productive members of society.

Media literacy; does it bind or break us?

I would like to begin this post by saying I am not afraid of technology. I am not afraid of the internet. I believe that technology is not perverting and ruining humans and humanity. Actually I believe the quite opposite. It enables more people than ever before to be informed on nearly infinite subject matter. It allows us to teach ourselves, and, I believe, it aids in removing intellect as a power lauded over the majority by the ruling class minority. Though nothing thus far has been able to connect the entirety of the human race, the internet, and mass media in general, is the only thing thats even come close. That said, deciphering the media and learning to read between the sometimes razor thin lines is a necessary tool in todays world.

I'd like to start off this post with the commentary of a website both, applauded, and abused by teenagers; wikipedia. Wikipedia states that " Media literacy is the process of analyzing, evaluating and creating messages in a wide variety of media modes, genres and forms. Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyze messages to detect propaganda, censorship, and bias." If that is what media literacy is, I believe that that is something that should have been taught for hundreds of years, and should always be taught until the end of time. It is hard, in school, at work, while watching television, or even while listening to a friend, to decipher fact from opinion. Certainly there are things one learns about in school which are proven facts (like how many bones are in the human body). But apart from science, very few disiplines teach us anything that can't be challenged. We have found that from Jesus to Columbus, you can't always believe every piece of 'historical documentation' you read. Everything was written by people (and most things were written by men).

I understand that with a growth of media, comes a greater need for media literacy. However I don't understand why we are just discovering now, the great need to decipher words from their meaning(s). This has always been a vital necessity for humans. The greatest gift is the gift of comunication, but we much understand how to communicate accurately before wasting it entirely.

In regards to the photo I began this post with, I believe that it is an empowering way to look at communication and knowledge rather than a dig at it. We know that we can find a/the answer to almost any question via the greatest invention technology has ever given us, the search engine. I believe that since we have access to so many different thoughts, ideas, and facts it is natural for us to use this. It's not 'the easy way out', its simply 'the easy way'. And I for one am glad that we have found a way so easy, that anyones thirst for knowledge can be momentarily quenched, just at the click of a button.

"Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us"

Linda Christensen talked about a concept I already feel rather passionate about in her article, "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us". She talks about the early corruption of the younger generations by way of cartoons, movies, books, and media in general. A good way to start off a class entitled "Teenagers in/and the media", as it paints a perfect picture of how those teenagers developed as children. Christensen saw the displays of sexism, class ism, and racism and thought of how introducing these concepts into the minds of the youth could be almost a form of brainwashing. She addresses how fiercely independent people these youngsters have become, "no one wants to admit they've been 'handled' by the media" (Christensen page 3).

I thought this article was written fairly straight forwardly and had little to no problem understanding it. The only part that ever became confusing to me was keeping track of all the students she cited! I liked how many different viewpoints she incorporated however. This article was written from one very direct point of view, but her various input from my peers made it seem less opinionated and bias.

I watched this video quite a while ago in a high school sociology class. It takes various clips from Disney movies past and present. I find it entertaining. If you don't mind entertaining your disgust responses.

But I ask, if we all can recognize that these movies are harmful to youth, how are they still unwavering in their popularity? How small is the margin that we fall into?