Thinking About Your Thinking

Answer this not-so-simple question: How does extensive Internet/media/technology use change the way you think? Focus on your memory, your ability to concentrate, your sense of time and priorities, and the subjects/topics that interest you most. If you find "thinking about your thinking" difficult to assess, try the following strategies: compare yourself with older people who did most of their formal learning before smart phones and 2.0 existed; compare yourself with contemporaries who don't use those tools much today; read up on what education leaders and thinkers have to say about generational differences in thinking (and remember to cite your sources). When what we need becomes accessible at the tip of a finger. We begin to loose our ability to learn for ourselves. Granted the fact that we even get out in the world and look for new things is concluded as the process of learning. Most of the things we search have already been pre-decided for us. That is through an unknown entity that follows and tracks us during our online activities. Then from that determines what we most be interested in and pushes that to the top of the list of our searches. Yet how does it know what we want? How does it find such an answer? It makes me think about what I am thinking. What exactly have I researched on this computer that allows it to make (what almost seems as if conscious) choices for me? Why am I trapped in the filter bubble of this society? And yes we know more now then we ever thought possible through technology. But it's what we don't know...or are not allowed to know that leaves me curious. How do I think about thinking when I do not have the full access to what I want to think of? (Well, online that is.)

Lit Analysis: 2

Catcher in the Rye 1. The Catcher in the Rye starts off in the present day with Holden Caulfield explaining his state of being. He’s in a mental hospital at the moment, but doesn’t give any information on how he ended up there. The rest of the book is Holden narrating the events that led up to the mental hospital. He starts off by telling us the school he was enrolled at and how he hated it there. To him it was just another prep school that his parents shipped him off to so they wouldn’t have to deal with him. Holden is a bright boy, but doesn’t have the ambition or desire to excel in his studies. Because of this, he is failing in almost all of his classes. Holden knows he is going to be expelled for this and so he decides to take an earlier winter vacation in New York City. He takes all his belongings and hits the town. He jumps from place to place, depression seeming to follow him everywhere he goes. You can see that he wants to have a good time, he wants to forget, but everything just seems to be gloomy no matter where or what he does. (sucks) Various events such as hiring a prostitute, talking with an old classmate and hates and seeing his younger sister still aren’t enough for Holden to feel like he has a place in this world. Throughout the entire novel, Holden ask questions about everything that vary from serious issues such as his life to childish curiosity ones such as where the ducks go in the winter. He eventually falls ill from walking around the below freezing temperature of the city. This then leads us back to when Holden is talking about his current situation in the mental facility. 2. The theme Salinger was trying to convey was that isolation/alienation can truly drive a person insane. Holden was shunned everywhere he went and while some of it was due to his cynical, blunt characteristics, his family, the very people you expect to love and cherish you, weren’t there for him. Due to this, he built a wall around him where is defense is to criticize the people around him and no one wants to be around that. Hence his loneliness and his inability to form relationships with anyone. 3. The tone of the novel was cynical and pessimistic. Holden sees life as “the glass half empty” and so his words and action reflect such attitude. · Take most people, they're crazy about cars. They worry if they get a little scratch on them, and they're always talking about how many miles they get to a gallon, and if they get a brand-new car already they start thinking about trading it in for one that's even newer. I don't even like old cars. I mean they don't even interest me. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake. · Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic bomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll volunteer for it, I swear to God I will. · Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody. 4. Symbolism – Salinger uses many symbols that represent things to Holden. The red hunting cap was Holden security blanket whenever he felt uncomfortable; it was the only things in his life that stayed the same. Foreshadowing – From the start, we know that he was institutionalized in a mental hospital; this leads a hand into what events will play out. Syntax – Salinger uses pretty easy, colloquial language. The text is mostly about Holden’s inner thoughts and his opinions about things. It’s descriptive without being difficult to understand. Metaphors – The title of the book is a metaphor of Holden’s life. He explains in one of the last chapters why he feels like he is a catcher in the rye and how this has brought about a sense of purpose to him. · "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." · "This fall I think you're riding for - it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started." · "Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them - if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

Fact Of The Day

Pandiculation is the simultaneous act of stretching and yawning.

To Facebook Or Not To Facebook?

Facebook has become such an influential part of our everyday society. "It gives us the impression that we are out of the deep blue of school" As stated by Dr. David Preston. Yet in all honesty, Facebook has become a way of life. An emotional and mental release. For it is not without technology that a lot of things wished to be said would be said. It seems to be, that the fear that runs through our minds, looses its strength when we are hidden behind a screen. Why is it that we no longer find the ability to confront our emotions when placed in a realistic situation ? I wonder how different our lives might be , had we said everything in truth rather then in a online conversion. Would we be better off with our minds spoken out , or would we fall short of the respectable approach decided by humanity?That is to say, would we be condemned for doing what most ask of us (To say what we are thinking)? Although it does make me wonder. Is Facebook dangerous? Are we relying too fully on a screen to get our messages across? Why are we slowly decaying in the aspect of true human contact? Just because you are given this tool as a way to connect to others. That does not mean you should be able to abuse its power. We have now taken it upon ourselves to deny responsibility for our actions through this almost pathetic mannerism. For society has developed a bad habit of finding shortcuts and Facebook is of no exception. It is a shortcut to facing the world. One in which leads to a weak sense of being. Take my advice, try to leave the addicting aspect of Facebook for a week. See what you did with those hours once spent with your face shoved in the glowing light of a screen. See where your emotions and thoughts end up if not on a post. See what new things you can accomplish without being involved with the dramatic aspect of the surfaced web. Please comment to this blog with your adventurous findings. Best of luck!

Dear Ophelia

Oh my, I've heard so much about what has been going on lately. It must be tearing you apart, I must say I would be quite outrageous and would be planning to rebel, but you are too sweet Ophelia. You have always been so obedient and caring. You would never do such a thing to dishonor nor embarass your father. But from what I see, this situation is entirely unfair! Where's the chivalry? Who has given your father and your brother to bind you away from true love? I just cannot understand the reason for using you as a decoy to bring Hamlet down, when he could be a normal man wanting a normal future. You must not panic, don't make quick assumptions or conclusions. Is this so called love fantasy? A dream? Most certainly both of us don't want it to be reality. Well, hang in there dear Ophelia, we will talk again soon. Love, Karianne

Who was Shakespeare?

I did a quick search to find out who William Shakespeare was. First, I went on duckduckgo.com. Then I entered William Shakespeare. I found this website. It does a great job with Shakespeare's biography. Click to learn more. http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323 Students percieve Shakespeare's writing to be this horrible hard to read literature. This all changes when they begin to read and break it down. Students begin to learn new strategies on how to better their own writing and they also learn that shakespeare can be interpreted in many different ways. The name "Shakespeare" alone evokes strong feelings. It is amazing as to how even after centuries his writing is still able to effect you the way it does. At some point in our young lives we have all read Shakespeare . It might have been a stripped down less complicated version but it was still his writing. And now as we get older, we begin to read a more abstract version that is hard to understand. You will not completely understand an act after reading it once. It will take lots of practice.

Vocab Midterm Reflection

The first two sections went amazingly well for me. The last two sections were iffy Actually a lot of content has been sticking with me. I have been using this vocabulary more often then I had thought. And next time I will not procrastinate on studying. I am going to be making an everyday calendar to help.