Writing in the 21st Century

In “Writing in the 21^st Century”, Yancey says, “We thus face three challenges that are also opportunities: developing new models of writing; designing a new curriculum supporting those models; and creating models for teaching that curriculum.” Yancey talks about how people wrote in spite of what different cultures that thought of writing as not important.  She gives the examples of how women or people of color were not allowed to write and how young children were not able to write until they were older.  Yancey’s main argument is to for students to become better writers and to become the next generation writers. Reading has become known as something that can be done with others.  It can be intimate.  Writing has become know as something that is not easy.  This is true in my life as well.  Sitting back and reading a good book is enjoyable, but writing is something I do not enjoy doing.  In the 21^st century we have a new era of literacy. Yancey says this new Age of Composition is, “a period where composers become composers not through direct and formal instruction alone (if at all), but rather through what we might call an extracurricular social co-apprenticeship.” This brings about the idea once again that in the 21^st century literacy is defined through technology.

Brave New World

Thompson talks about social media and our social interactions with each other.  He gives examples of how on Facebook/ Twitter we are able to see what our friends are doing, if they are sick, how work is going, etc.  For example when Zuckerberg first made the News Feed, people were shocked of how much was broadcasted to everyone.  At first people did not like the News Feed, but over time people came to realize it was a great way to connect with their friends.  The article defines “ambient awareness” as incessant online contact.  The example they give of ambient awareness is when the News Feed first came out people didn’t think they wanted to constantly be updated on their other friends lives, but once they actually experienced this constant update, they quickly became interested in what was going on.  When Thompson talks about social media updates being “skimmable” this relates to what we have been talking about in class of how people are constantly skimming information opposed to reading in depth.  Literacy is defined in this article through social media and our interactions with others.

Cognitive Surplus

In this article, Shirky talks about a cognitive surplus.  Cognitive surplus is the free time people have.  Shirky talks about how people waste this time by just watching television or going on the Internet.  Shirky does not believe this is bad, he just thinks we need to take advantage of this cognitive surplus.  This article gives us a new way to look at cognitive surplus and how to use it to benefit our society and ourselves.  He wants us to use television and the Internet to make an impact on others.  At the end of this article Shirky leaves us with the question, “If we carve out a little bit of the cognitive surplus and deploy it here, could we make a good thing happen?” According to Shirky he believes the answer is yes.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

1.    In this article, the author talks about his recent notice of having trouble stay focused when reading and researching for his writing. He believes his use of the Internet has affected the way his brain works causing his research to be harder to focus on for long periods of time.

2.    The Internet does not allow us to really research.  We are only briefly researching ideas opposed to digging deeper into research.

3.    Literacy, in this article, is defined the same as “Socrates Nightmare”. Literacy is being able to read further into something as opposed to briefly looking over something.

4.    The definitions are similar because they are both referring to the same thing.

5.    According to this article, people are now just briefly viewing research opposed to reading in depth to something.  Certain research has shown people to only stay on a website for a few minutes before clicking on another website. This jumping around and not being able to focus on one thing is the mentality people are now doing.

6.    The author gave examples of his own personal experience, Friedrich Neitzsche and the typewriter, and many quotes from researchers.

7.    Yes, the evidence he gives all backs up his theory and gives experiences and scientific evidence proving his theory.

8.    The answer to the so what is the fact that the Internet is making research easy is only hurting our ability to research and grow intellectually.

Topic Proposal

I am going to be analyzing Miley Cyrus’ twitter account.  I chose Miley Cyrus because she is very involved in social media.  I recently watched a documentary on MTV about Miley Cyrus where she spoke of how much she loved twitter and how it was apart of her identity as an artist and person.  Miley has recently been extremely popular and is constantly tweeting and addressing the rumors going around about her.  She also just released and new album and is tweeting her fans about the success her album is already experiencing.  I feel I will have enough to write about on this subject. 

Home

When I first saw Phillip Phillips on American Idol, I immediately became obsessed with him.  His voice is so unique and different, and he has the sweetest personality it is hard not to fall in love with him.  Throughout the season I was constantly pulling for him to win, and when he did I was so excited.  I love how he writes his own music and stays true to who he is.  When I first heard the song, “Home”, on the finale of American Idol, I thought it was such an amazing song.  The lyrics obviously meant a lot to him and it was a song many of us can relate to.  After listening to the song for the first time I thought it was about making someone feel at home in a relationship.  In some sense this is true, but after watching the music video and reading all of the lyrics it is obvious this song is about Phillip Phillips’ new journey he is going on.  He is embracing a new lifestyle and even though it is new and unknown he is not alone and will always have home. This song is played in the commercial for Extreme Home Makeover and the meaning is different.  It is more of the idea of the family coming home to a new house and feeling safe.  In the show the people who get new houses previous homes are unsafe or not healthy for the family.  The song is a perfect fit for the commercial.