Blogging Around--Julia Kahn Critique

Julia Kahn--iMedia: A Mí Me Encanta La Música Extranjera


Julia,

First of all, I think this is a really interesting post and particularly fascinating post to me because I have also found myself thinking about music from many different angles. Like you, I have really begun to analyze music, lyrics in particular (thanks to the analytical skills the Academy has developed for me), and have noticed how shallow they sometimes are. If I were to single out one particular pop artist, then T-Swift would be the most guilty culprit for this, but other artists, not just in the pop genre I don't think, are also to blame. 

Interestingly enough, they only supply what we demand, thus shedding light on a superficial and shallow side of our society. When I choose to be analytical of music, I tend to focus primarily elements of poetic and literary elements discussed in class: how the content is reflected in the form, the beat, the equivalent of line length, and diction to name a few. I think that we would agree with each other if I said that popular music and that which is regarded as "hip" is lagging in some of these categories.
Be that as it may, I think it is also important the music is also something that I turn to to escape analysis that I do 24/7. In that respect, music for so many is a happy-go-lucky, uplifting form of entertainment that people choose to listen to for the very reason that they think they can do it mindlessly, even though it is ironic that people choose to listen to music they pick, and therefore critique, meaning that it can't be as mindless as they think it to be. Anyways, it is important to recognize that our level of analysis of music is very dependent on one's mood and phase in life (at least for me it is) as was the case for your Hannah Montana example. With that being said, music that delves deep into the world's problems or provokes incredibly deep thoughts is often what people, quite deliberately, avoid. 

Ultimately, music is another form of art, thus something that is subject to personal opinion and preference, and and also something that is not worth getting into a heated and often circular argument over. After all, it's all about "what tickles your fancy", as they say. :)

Blogging Around--Andy Han Critique

Andy Han--An Inconvenient Truth: My Dream Might Not Come True

President Han,

As I sit in my kitchen responding to your blog post, I can't help but feel an incredible swell of emotions, thanks to your blog post. You have absolutely touched on a topic that is very moving and relatable to so many kids our age, with bright futures especially, who look at what's to come, and realize that the dream they have decided to pursue, and the tumultuous and turbulent journey to get there, is seemingly insurmountable.

The Format

Not only am I extremely impressed with the drive and determination (that will carry you far) to reach your ultimate dream of attending a very prestigious medical school and seeking out a tough profession, but I am also impressed with your voice as a writer. I don't recall needing to do this for many pieces if literature, blog posts especially, but here it goes: I couldn't read your post--not because I didn't have time or my computer wasn't functioning--but because such strong a voice is something that can't be comprehended with the eyes. That's why I really had to hear what you were saying, not move my eyes over your words. We have talked a lot about a piece of writing's voice, in addition to how form=content (emphasized especially in our poetry unit and beginning our reading of The Tragedy of King Lear). The way you structured this post is so similar to the dynamic nature of your speech that I couldn't help but think to myself while I was reading that this is just...so Andy! You expressed a deeply meaningful message with your sense of humor which made what you had to say resonate even more with someone like me. It was a wonderful demonstration of what kind of skills Mr. Allen looks for in our writing, in my opinion at least.

The Lesson

As I stated earlier, I was really amazed at how well you put your thoughts into words and how relatable it all seemed, even if I don't have much of an interest in attending Northwestern Medical School and later becoming a doctor. In addition, I like how you led us to the end of the post and then threw "That's my life. Passion. Destiny." in our faces (or ears more accurately) to leave us pondering the significance and putting a cap on everything you previously said. 

For the nature if the assignment, I love this post! Nice job!

An Inconvenient Truth: Hardwiring of Our Brains

I think that I might quit analysis of the human psyche and influences of our personalities if the words nature vs. nurture pop into my head next to each other one more time. Whether I like it or not, I am always thinking about it, even if it is in my subconscious, and it drives me so far up the wall that I feel like might crash into the ceiling. While the answer isn't discovered through experience or even by oneself, there has to be something about the question that addicts and maddens people on a vivacious cycle. So, what is it?

Something I find interesting about this question is the way the main purpose of its contemplation and embarking on a mental quest for its answer is also the very reason why the answer is undiscoverable. Exercising mentally on this treadmill is fatiguing, so let's take a break, shall we? Let's think that nature--something poems and literature this year have told us is the all-powerful, infallible last word on all things human--represents the all-powerful, infallible last word on all things human. If we were to let ourselves say this, would we be so far off?

Unfortunately, or at least in my opinion, the answer to which we let ourselves ask is--drumroll please--no. I say "unfortunately" because as much as we like to believe that our surroundings have an equal if not greater influence over us, we can only vary slightly, not typically reverse, natural thoughts and tendencies which were pre-determined. We fancy having freedom and being self-reliant, independent entities and mavericks. I, only being human myself, fall victim to these same patterns. As a matter or fact, I think that thinking these things has a bit of a placebo effect on us and does allow us to change ourselves (however, the degree of that change is blown significantly out of proportion). The inconvenient truth of this inconvenient truth blog post is that we are bound by, governed, and dependent upon the parameters which nature has put in place since the first steps of mankind were taken; that's just how it has been, is, and that's just how it's going to be.

My health teacher likes to say: "egg, sperm, shazam!" She gets me every time! But when I find myself truly considering the idea of conception, I don't think about the visual she so kindly provides. On the contrary, I don't even think about a physical being in the slightest, but I picture a hand, drawing out the roadmaps to our lives based on those related to us in all sorts of ways. So how do we defy fate? Well, it's the wrong turns take at the stoplights that The Hand has placed in our way. Those are the money's we live for and they're what makes us distinguishable from one another. But when all is said and done, I find that our tires find a way back to the sidestreets with no outlet, or the interstates that take you into infinity and purposelessness. I don't like it any more than you do, but too many of us have to admit that it is true.

iMedia: Did You Know 2011-Welcome to the Social Media Revolution
Did You Know 2011 - Welcome To The Social Media Revolution

We don't have a choice on whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it."

              -Erik Qualman

Being a Facebook, Twitter, and hardcore Google and web browser myself, I  consider myself to be a pretty "wired- in” kid. Before I continue, I must let you know that this isn't something I consider a good thing. However, there are people who are older, younger, fatter, skinnier, smarter, less intelligent, Caucasian, and different ethnicities than myself who far exceed my degree of being "wired-in." And they don't even realize what's happening to their minds as a resul (and nor do I mine)t.

As everybody who is dependent on technology and social media, to such an extreme degree that they often don't even realize it's integration into the framework of their minds, is alerted by our peers of the dangers it presents and challenges that even more technologically dependent future generations will face, we barely even understand these statistics, nevertheless consider alternatives and solutions to the technology and social media pandemic which tightens its grip with every tweet, google search, post to Instagram, and Facebook status update. 

However, by comparing apples to apples instead of apples and oranges in this video, I was able to better understand the true volume and effect that technology and social media has on our lives after watching this video. For example, the video presented a chart early on which compared the number of posts on Facebook to the number of Google searches, as opposed to relating number of zfacebook posts to a very big number. This absolutely connected to me because when think about the number of Google searches I make relative to the number of times I post in Facebook or "Like" someone else's status, I can truly understand how these statistics portray themselves in my life and those of people around me, even though I may not even recognize their presence every time I launch my Facebook application. Because I can understand the effect that technology and social media has on my life through comparisons like those in the video instead of  lectures from experts and teachers that go in one ear and out the other, I am sure that it means more to other people too than arbitrary statistics.

By no means will anyone going to relax the tight grip that technology and social media have on our global society in the near future; technological dominance, especially through social media's prevalence is just the "spirit of the age," as one wise author and biographer once said, referring to behavior of people in a certain period of time. On the other hand, if we are able to comprehend to a greater extent, as a society, the control and role that this particular form of media plays in our lives, we might be able to reverse some of the negative effects that it has taken on our social skills, communication abilities, and intellectual strength that we once had. I think the "exponential effects" that the video refers to not only apply to technology and social media dominance in our culture, but also some of its reversal. 

It'll be good for us; it'll be, at last, something that isn't google-able.