It is very difficult to find examples of Big Brother in our modern day society.  I mean there are many people who consider it common knowledge that the government decieves us, even though most the time these people don't know for sure, and have never seen actual e idence that these things take place.  That is the biggest connection I can see between "Big brother" and modern American society.  The government does not want you to know that there are any injustices taking place, because if you don't know you wont complain. 

If you asked a majority of people if they would give up freedoms for security they would be more than willing without realizing what that really means.  Without our freedoms our society would eventually hit a point where we would be in a society similar to the one in 1984, where the government controls everything and manipulates the people to serve their own interests. 

Privacy still exists today just not absolutely everywhere.  People seem to feel like their privacy is being infringed on more and more, however, I feel like it is due to the increase in areas where these privacies can be infringed on.  If you want complete privacy, I suggest that you don't use the internet because there is zero privacy there and everything gets recorded. 

Blog #5

For this blog I chose to make up my own character who didn’t have the feed and this characters name is Ralph.

Once Ralph was born, his parents couldn’t afford to have a child so he was put into an orphanage.  Orphans were only able to get the feed if they were adopted before they were too old to have the feed installed.  Unfortunately with the increases in modern technology most people were creating their own children in labs, and there was virtually no couples that were willing to adopt.  So like statistics proved he was never adopted.  This may seem sad, but Ralph was an Optimistic kid with a twinkle in his eye and a pep in his step. 

One of his favorite things to do is go to public places like the mall and people watch.  He sits down at a bench and watches all of the people wawlk past each other without even noticing anyone walking around them.  Even the people they are with they don’t physically talk to each other they all just m-chat.  So many people run into each other because they are so bombarded with advertisements they don’t even watch where they are walking.  Ralphs favorite thing was sitting and thinking about how different of a place the mall was to people who had the feed.  He wondered about this a lot.  Would he enjoy his life more if he had the feed, if he was more like everybody else?  As he was thinking about these questions, he noticed that he had begun walking out of the mall. 

He thought about this while he was walking.  He wondered if his life would be better if he could have any piece of information he wanted when he wanted it.  Would he be happier if he was attached to everyone 24 hours a day?  He wondered if life would be easier if he had the feed.  Is he better off being farther away from the consumerist ideals of everyone else with the feed, or is his lack of the feed keeping him from being an average member of society?

He continued to walk until he ended up at his favorite spot.  It was a beautiful spot up on top of a giant rock.  It overlooked the last bit of land on the east coast that appeared to be untouched by man.  As he sat down at the very top of the rock, he closed his eyes for a split second.  Everything was silent, he felt the wind blow through hair, the cool breeze felt good.  He opened his eyes every tree in the entire valley waved back and forth as if the forest was breathing.  A bird flew in circles dipping and diving as if it was just enjoying the beautiful day.  The world, for brief second appeared to be at peace.  Then all of a sudden an up-car flew right over top of him and scared the birds away.  At that moment, he knew the answers to his questions. 

Blog #4

This man took Thoreau's idea and ran with it

The thought of breaking away from society and living in the woods goes through my mind everydy.  Imagine a life free of responsibility, deadlines, pressure, just you and good old mother nature.  I love being in the woods,  away from the concrete jungles and the constant buzz of technology in my ear.  Some of the best days of my life have been spent gorge jumping, snowboarding, walking through the creek, or just spending the day in the woods.  I can guarentee if any of you spent a whole day outside in nature, you would go to bed 10x's happier than if you sat behind a computer on facebook or finally finished the tenth prestige in Call of Duty.  With as much as I love being outside in nature, could I give up all of the comforts and conveniences of modern day life? 

In all honesty I think that I could.  I find mself turning my cell phone off somedays just because I don't want to deal with it.  I only really watch tv after midnight and if your in the woods why would you need internet?  I don't have many possessions that I am extremely attached to so I wouldn't really have a problem leaving anyting behind except family and friends.

The fact that Thoreau lived in seclusion would be what I would have a serious issue with.  I am a people person, I need to be able to around someone.  If I was going to live in the woods I would try to get someone to come with me, just to avoid going absolutely nuts.  Being alone with your thoughts for a long period of time could be an almost scary thing, I think I would go crazy.   If I was to venture into the woods alone for a year, I feel like after the time was up I would have a very difficult time re-integrating into society. 

During a year of seclusion, submerged in nature, there is a lot that can be learned about yourself and the world.  Maybe you decide that living without the every day convienences of modern day life is far more fulfilling than waking up to an alarm clock and going to work everyday (sounds better to me).  Maybe you decide that it is stupid to be living in the woods it alldepends on what kind of person you are. 

For me personally, it would be challenging to give up everything i've become accustomed to, however I could see myself enjoying an experience like this.  I definatly think that Thoreau became "more intelligent" during his time in the woods, especially in his writings, art, and thoughts.  I think that I would gain similar knowledge toThoreau if I lived in the woods for an extended period of time.  Nature can be a great form of inspiration and has been in the past for many people throughout history.              

A little something by George Carlin

I was watching George Carlin do stand up and this stuck out to me because it is along the lines of what we have been talking about in class

The Dumbest? I must respectably disagree

“Is our generation the dumbest generation?”  This question seems to be a major point of discussion during recent times, both in class and in the real world.  Bauerlein’s book “The Dumbest Generation,”  claims that our generation is filled with ignorant thoughts and general cluelessness.  While reading the article it mentions multiple slightly random facts.  The one that really sticks out is “47 percent of the grads in 1950 could name the largest lake in North America, compared with 38 percent in 2002.”  Is this a serious problem that actually threatens the future well being of our nation?  I think not!

Even with everything we have been reading and discussing in class. I still have seen no legitimate evidence that proves to me beyond a reasonable doubt that our generation is “dumber” than previous generations.  I think that we are vastly different from previous generations, but what I feel that many of the authors of these pieces of literature fail to notice or mention that the world is a very different place than it was when they were our age.  It’s in my eyes nothing but the “old man” theory, “you have it so much easier than I did, and I’m not happy about it.”  I have even heard my grandparents make that type of statement to my parents and I feel that it is something that happens between all generations. 

Another major theme of these pieces of literature seems to deal with social network sites.  It is made to appear that these sites have no true benefit other than to communicate back and forth through a screen.  I agree with this to some extent, (I do not have a facebook) however it has become such a major thing inside our society that it can be hard, at times, to get along without it. Facebook is not just for social networking and wasting time anymore.  Many businesses, events, gatherings, and places looking for volunteers use Facebook in order to help them reach their goals, collect feedback, or gain support. So while many people use it for just talking back and forth and wasting time it can be used for beneficial reasons and not just something to do out of boredom.