Guest Post: Tim (1 Hour Video Game Experience)

            Flash games are becoming more prevalent in American culture, whether it be on your smartphone or laptop almost everyone plays them. The games can usually be played for 5 minutes to 5 hours at a time and are presented in a form that is easily accessible to many audiences. As these games become more accepted by society the designers are beginning to create educational games in a format that people enjoy. I recently came across one such game which I found to be enjoyable and even forced me to recall Biology I had not learned in 8 years. The game teaches the functions of the cell in an entertaining format. I suggest you follow the link included and play the game before continuing so that you can form your own experience and opinions.

cell craft

            The questions that occurred to me after playing were abundant and especially after taking this class. First off I was curious why parts spontaneously “spawning” on the game field as if to suggest a creationist theme. This made me wonder who designed the game and their motivation to create it in this fashion. I research both of these questions and I found many people also had the same concerns as myself. The following link is a critical review of the game and the source of its genesis.
cell craft review

            In response to such claims the lead programmer of the game actually responded in a lengthy forum post which can be found on the game’s webpage listed below.

http://www.cellcraftgame.com/Home.html

            The question I pose to the class: Does the video game format (especially the prominent flash and phone formats) makes it easier to hide educational biases or more difficult.

Guest Post: Emily

I think of this video when I think of media shifts although it is a technology shift... but it still reminds me of the new inventions sort of bowing down to the new invention, McLuhan talks about how the new invention will suppress the old one. This week we read about how some countries are testing children on their internet skills. We know that the internet and digital technology is the new invention that is already suppressing reading, but does anyone ever wonder what will be the new invention that over-throws the internet? I personally cannot even begin to think of what this new invention might be.  

 Firsts

Guest Post: Joseph

This reader has many good points that I think everyone should know about. This blogger tells of the effect books have on her life and how she feels about books. At the same time she relates it back to how books are looked at now days. She talks about she writes so she can say what she wants to say, and she shows that book are a connection between readers to share ideas and point of views. However, she kind of fades away from her idea to publish because she says, "why publish when at a click of a button I can make it available on the internet." She makes alot of good points about books and I think it is worth listening too.

 

Life Without Books

Guest Post: Lissy

                        Academic   

                                      vs.

                               Journalistic

                                      Writing Styles

Because our expository writing class focuses on media shifts, I thought I would blog about the differences and challenges of actual media or journalistic writing compared with the academic style we follow as expo students.

I am also taking a writing in the mass media class this semester and I sometimes struggle going back and forth between these two styles of writing.  The journalistic style completely focuses on different aspects than what makes a good quality paper in expo.  In journalism the writing is all about being clear, simple, brief, and accurate.  Brevity is not something an academic writer normally uses unlike a journalist.  Writing papers in expo or any other type of English class usually receives a much better grade when the writer goes into a lot of detail, explains all parts of the argument or claim, and expresses complex ideas.  A paper written like this would never appear in a newspaper as a new story.  People that read novels or academic papers want the detail and the vocabulary while someone reading the news wants a quick, clear, simple, and to the point story.

Future novelist, journalist, or neither, I figured this would be an interesting and ironic topic to blog about since all of our academic writings in this class do relate to the media in some way.  Do you face challenges in these two specific writing styles?  Have you noticed the simplicity of a media story?  How can you separate the two styles?  Are there other formal and informal writing formats that can be confusing?

Guest Post: Devin

I would like to continue the discussion on whether reading makes us unhappy. After much thought on the matter, I have come to the conclusion that reading does not, in fact, make us unhappy. It makes us discontent.

Two questions quickly arise from this assertion. First, what in the world is the difference between unhappiness and discontentment? Second, what if I read a lot and am perfectly content with my life?

Unhappiness is a strong emotion. It is usually overpowering and fleeting. Television, for example, excels at making us unhappy or provoking other strong emotions. A liberal watching an entire hour of Glen Beck is going to be extremely unhappy or angry by the end of the show. However, the liberal in question can easily remedy this emotional state by turning on MSNBC. Discontentment, on the other hand, doesn’t go away this easily and requires thought and contemplation to manifest in a person. Frederick Douglass is a perfect example of this point. The more he read, the more discontent he became with his position in society. Discontentment soon grew to define him, until the only action he could take to relieve his troubled soul was to escape to freedom. Discontentment is subtle, but once it latches to your soul it never lets go.

As for the second question, discontentment arises from reading only when it applies to you. For example, I could read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and only suffer from a small amount of sadness at the end. After all, slavery has long been abolished in the Western World, so the story no longer directly applies to me. However, for someone living under an oppressive regime, this story resonates.

The most compelling example of the unique ability of reading to spark discontentment comes (ironically) from recent events in the Middle East. Despite all the hype about Facebook causing the revolutions, closer analysis shows that it, at most, poured gasoline on an already raging fire. The intellectuals and students who are the first to take to the streets in protest of the regimes have one major commonality: reading. Reading sparks the realization of their condition and causes a discontentment so deep that they are willing to face insurmountable odds and death to achieve liberty. Only reading has this power.

Devin

Guest Post from Victoria

Is it awful that I would rather curl up on my bed and watch a movie instead of reading a book before I go to bed?

It used to be the other way around. Of course now with the advancement of technology I not only have a TV but also a laptop with a plethora of connections to TV shows and videos right at my fingertips. So now it’s easy to just press a button and watch a film instead of opening the book casually lying on top of my desk.

And I am not the only one. I know that most people, especially my age, choose a movie over a book any day. But is this a bad thing? Are we really “losing not just the will to read but even the ability” as Crain feared?

I think not. McLuhan pointed out that new technology changes the old. It will “oppress the older media until it finds new shapes and positions for them.” If this has happened for countless numbers of years, then what is there to fear from change? We must step back and look at this with a fresh approach.

1)      Writing is not obsolete. If anything, the internet has encouraged reading by providing cheaper methods of mass distribution of written works. Arguably, reading something online, anything, involves the same process of analyzing that reading a book or article requires.

2)      Even the entertainment industry must know how to critically read. Certainly, the audience can just lap up the amusing material the entertainment industry produces, but the artists, director, writer, actors, and many others cannot lose their ability to take a script or written piece of work, analyze it, and use their imagination to make it come to life.

3)      Ultimately, you could argue that life and time is a pendulum that swings back and forward. Humans like homeostasis and balance. We tend to drift one direction and once we reach a point of discontent, we drift back the opposite way. I used to love reading every night. Eventually I reached a point where a book couldn’t satisfy me enough to fall asleep. So I switched to movies and television shows. Then I reached a peak where after hours of electronic entertainment, I never found fulfillment. So once again, I have veered back towards books.

Possibly, electronic media is not this gaping black hole for reading that most people fear it is. Perhaps it’s just another change that we must all adapt to.

-Victoria