Chapter 10--"Is Google Making Us Stupid"

I printed out the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” because I like to read printed matter I can hold rather than trying to read on a computer screen. I find I tend to skim over articles when I read them on the computer, and I think part of the problem with not being able to concentrate on what we are reading when we read something on the computer is the fact that it is on the computer.

What do we generally do when we are on the Internet? We jump from web site to web site searching for information as quickly as we can. At work I have a T-1 connection and can download and jump from web site to web site very quickly. At home, I have a slower connection and become frustrated because the Internet is slower than what I am used to working with all day.

Leisurely reading went hand-in-hand with a more leisurely lifestyle. Today we live in a fast pace society. We rush to drop the kids off at school, then we rush to work, take a quick lunch, rush back to work and at the end of the day rush to pick up kids and hurry home to make dinner. I find myself rushing so much during the week that the few times I don’t have something I have to hurry to do I don’t know how to slow down and not feel stressed about having to do something by a certain time.While the author of the article writes about how much easier the Internet has made his work as a writer, he also blames the Internet for making us unable to concentrate for any length of time reading. His article was written in a weak sense and was one-sided. He only focused on what his opinion and feelings of the downside of using the Internet and not the positive side of being able to access tons of information in minutes that would have taken days if we were doing it the old-fashioned way in a library.

Chapter 9 Blog Assignment—Scientific Looking

Here is a great example of a scientific image from an old Popular Science Monthly magazine that is an article about people being able to “see the unseen” of the human body via a “peep show” that shows how the human body works. What is interesting about this image is that it uses the term “peep show” which as we all knows is reference to the sexually oriented peep shows of the era (this would have been good for Tina’s blog) which appears to be from the late 1950’s.

This image also shows how science and culture go hand-in-hand. They are using sex to sell science and one of the photos shows a man sticking his head into the scientific “peep show”. Perhaps because science may have been boring to most people or that mainly men were interested in science they used the term “peep show” to draw attention to the exhibit.

Chapter 8 Blog--Song Remake

Neil Diamond wrote the song, Red Red Wine and recorded and released it in 1968. It reached number 63 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968. The song is about a man who is heartbroken over losing his girlfriend and drinks wine to try and forget her. Listening to Neil Diamond’s version you can feel his hurt and pain.
The group UB40 recorded their reggae version in 1983 and it was a number 1 hit in the UK and number 34 in the U.S. Their version is light and bouncy. You don’t feel the pain and there is nothing sad about it; a nice bouncy reggae beat.
Neil Diamond’s version is the best hands down. A song about losing someone you love should make you feel the loss, which his version does very well. UB40’s version kills the song and the lyrics. :[

Chapter 8 Blog--Remake 1

An example of a remake of a movie is the movie called Sabrina, which kept the same title with the remake. The original movie was released in 1954 and starred Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The movie is about a young woman whose father is a chauffeur for a wealthy family. She and her father live above the garage on the estate. Her father sends her away to Paris to school and when she returns she is grown up and more sophisticated. She is still in love with the younger of two brothers of the family her father works for. In the end she ends up with the older brother who falls in love with her while trying to keep his younger brother away from her because she is poor and not from a “good” family.
The 1995 remake stars Harrison Ford and Julia Ormand. The movie is the same except for different actors and different time period. I thought the remake was terrible. You can hardly compare Julia Ormand with Audrey Hepburn even though Harrison Ford did play a good Linus (the older brother).

Chapter 7 Blog Ad 3

This ad for a Sony camera shows a well endowed female dressed in sexy lingerie holding the camera. She, like the camera, is perfect, with beautiful hair, skin and breasts. If you buy this camera you will be ready at any moment to take pictures of stunning women who might come your way. Even if you are taking pictures of women that don’t have large breasts, with this camera you will still be able to take a great picture of good looking women.

Even if you don’t have a perfect looking woman in your life if one comes your way you’ll be ready to take her picture and it will be perfect if you have this camera.

This ad will definitely catch the eye of men, but women will find this add offensive, and once again, what does a woman wearing a sexy bra have to do with selecting a camera? In fact, if I was looking for a camera that takes picture perfect photos, and were looking for one that could take pictures of small and large objects I would want to see an ad that showed a photo of a small object (like a ladybug on a flower) and a large object (like a mountain) that had been taken with this camera.

Chapter 7 Blog Ad 2

Everyone recognizes the PC/Mac commercials. The PC computer guy is an old fashioned type of guy who dresses in a proper suit, has a clean-cut haircut, and wears glasses. This is what you would think of as your average middle-aged worker. He is dependable and probably a good worker, but uptight and not very innovative or willing to think outside the box. He has trouble with this new technology and can’t keep up with it. Apple computers want you to think of the older PC computers as being slow and not too with it.

The Mac computer guy is young, dressed comfortably, and relaxed. Like the younger generation he is very with it and knows how to use the quick, versatile Mac computer and all its functions which are faster. This computer is modern and up-to-date and if you buy a Mac computer you will be modern and up-to-date too.

The younger generation will be drawn to the Mac computer and will relate to the differences between the “old” slower PC and the newer and “young” Mac computer. Certain members of the older generation who want to be up-to-date and keep up with modernity and technology will be drawn to a Mac computer. Your older, die-hard PC computer guys will not be convinced that this hip, new Mac computer will perform like the regular PC they are accustomed to.

Chapter 7 Blog Ad 1

This ad for a Penril modem that shows a young, modern (for the era) woman holding a modem. The ad focuses on the fact that even though modems may appear dull they can be considered sexy and cool.

Without a doubt, this ad was targeted towards men and the company wants men to think of their modem as a good female companion that is versatile, dependable, and compatible. It wants to make the “geeky” computer guys feel that computers can be thought of as not only a dependable product, but one that is sexy too.

Women would be turned off by this ad because of the product being touted as “sexy” and will wonder what a woman in hot pants and go go boots have to do with a modem.