Talking Points

Mike Wesch

Taking Points

Ok, so I am doing this based off the video of Mike Wesch. In the video he starts off talking about his college class of students and how they look like they are not connected to the real world. Not connected in the sense of not trying that hard in class, they don’t look like they are paying that much attention or they don’t even look like they are interested in knowing what is going on in front of the class. Judging by the size of the class I can see why some of the students don’t have a long attention span towards learning or at least paying attention at that present moment. Based on my experience with large lecture rooms I know that only about 25% of the class is actually paying attention. I know this because around the first couple weeks of class I would sit in the back of the class and would be able to see everything other students are doing on their lap tops such as playing games, or going on one of the many social media websites. Then there are a scattered few, who for a while will start to take notes but are easily tempted into wandering off in all the electronics. Then really the only people who are taking notes are the people in the front row because they have no other choice with the teacher standing just feet from them. I’m sorry to turn this into such a long story but it kind of helps prove my point of how students aren’t that much connected to the class room setting but then they all would participate in something like the “American Idol” as shown in the video.

                Technology is taking over, and everyone is doing everything on a computer or device with internet access. Wesch talks about the media saying that the media is not just a tool for use of entertainment, some people do actually use the media to communicate, Such as the social media, or even the ‘Mother who made the video on YouTube about the “Pickles” because her baby was a little person. She used the internet to connect with others in order to help change a label on a pickle jar. Before social media online, the only time we would communicate would be while watching TV in the same area. The only down side he said about the TV was that they only talked during the commercial which wasn’t that much time, but I don’t see it as a bad thing because it’s still some type of human contact. Another example that he used was the maps and how he used it to help people. Then he finishes off by saying media is not just a one way conversation, people are out there watching and looking at stuff posted on the internet, like the Free Hugs video. It’s like exponential growth, you tell 3 people then they tell 3 more people and so on.  It’s really easy to connect, but really hard to connect with people. If only people could connect with other people as well as they do online.

Connect, Organize, Share

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us

                In the unlearning the myths that bind us by Linda Christensen, Christensen discusses different ways in which all your favorite childhood cartoon stories, movies, and TV shows have been in my in my own words “the root to all evil” not in a literal sense. But in a way in which it has brain washed all children in believing that all the racist, sexist, and stereotypical ideologies in cartoons are normal. what I mean by saying they are brainwashed to thinking some of these horrible ideas are normal is, cartoons/ movies for years have been imprinting messages in subtle ways to teach kids “how to act, how to live, how to dream,…”. It makes children accept the differences between people as one being Dominate over the other.

              

  Christensen starts off her essay by telling a story about a girl who grew up like every other little girl playing childish games and waiting for her prince charming to come rescue her, her father didn't own much land. The girl didn't have a perfect figure and according to novels she have read her “thick ankles have doomed her” to being a working girl while the pretty girls that resemble the ones in novels or magazines get all handsome men. I sit here and think whats the point to this little segment compared to the rest of the reading. This little paragraph is what girls in real life are doing, I would think. They sit as children playing games and watching cartoons of how the beautiful princesses always become happy by getting the man of their dream. Then as the girl gets older an realizes she doesn't look like the girl in books and movies that’s when problems begin to start. The problems begin to start with the Cinderella myth, the myth to happiness is getting married to the man of your dreams and getting rid of old clothes and getting new ones. I thought this was funny because every female I know pretty much does this without realizing it, maybe not the man of dreams part but getting new clothes is a definite  and there excuse is “well I have to look good”. Then back to what Christensen says about the Cinderella myth, once you have your man you are fighting to keep him from your sisters and all the other single girls in the city. This must be why woman need such a wide range of new clothes to keep the man interested.

                

This is how things go back to what Christensen talks about with being brainwashed. People are now doing and saying things without being aware of even doing it. But do people really want to be aware of all the racism, sexism, and being stereotypical. Does anyone really want to analyze everything in everyday life such as the sexism of getting your daughter a stove and kitchen set or your son a tool set for Christmas. How can you go to the store and ask for a toy that isn't looked at as sexism for a child. It comes down to the point where they are looking at something if it’s to masculine or feminine. Some of Christensen’s students chose to be ignorant and happy instead of over thinking everything in sight.

                Society has been messed up from the beginning. Cartoons were the stepping stones to sending children down the wrong path. 



Question.
Im still kinda curious as to why some of her students after being taught to analyze things took everything to the extreme like going to the store and asking for a toy that isnt sexist or they cant watch their favorite tv show without seeing something wrong with it. why do the students feel as if they cant turn it off? when really after about a week or so they might be back to doing it all over again because its everywhere you cant hide from it.