Reading and Writing in a Digital Age

Has anyone here read John Green’s popular young adult novel Looking For Alaska? He has many others out as well, but that’s usually the first one that comes to mind. He’s an incredibly talented author, but what I didn’t know while I was reading his books is that he’s also a prominent and delightful Internet personality. He created a youtube channel back in 2007 with his brother, Hank, and with it has come an Internet community known as Nerdfighters. The Green brothers are all about being nerdy and awesome (their youtube “about me” is literally “Raising nerdy to the power of awesome”). Their channel is silly, heartwarming, and even educational (although, they have created spin-off channels to talk about history and science topics that they find fascinating so you’ll find less of that on their main channel, vlogbrothers). John Green has answered fans’ questions while drawing all over his face with sharpie (yeah), but has also posted videos discussing serious political issues (here). What I love most about this channel is that both John and Hank are incredibly educated and intelligent, but still use made-up words and incoherent sentences to get their point across (“you’ll find the link in the doobly-doo” is regularly used). John Green is a firm believer in the fact that being a “nerd” is a good thing: “…because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.” This quote is the essence of the youtube channel (or maybe it’s Sharpie face, I don’t know) and it’s honestly really great. I hope you all check it out! http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers 

Remi Gaillard. He has some other videos on youtube, but this one is my favorite. His creativity in dressing up like a kangaroo and hopping around causing mayhem makes this video so great. Not many people have the guts or lack the brains to do something like this but Remi pulls it off in hilarious fashion. I think that what makes this video so popular (44 million views) is the shock that it gives people. No one expects a man in a kangaroo suit, especially one who messes with cops, and kicks golfers into lakes. The humor in the video is meaner than the humor that dancing babies have, but it still brings much laughter and many views.

When thinking about what kind of Internet thing I wanted to blog about, I remembered hearing from my friends about pro-anorexia websites, where girls could blog about their eating disorders and encourage others to lose weight, and even become anorexic. Originally upon hearing this, I was horrified that people could even form an idea for this. I then found this article, “Can pro-anorexia websites help heal eating disorders?” and the title caught my eye.

This article gave me a new perspective on the pro-anorexia websites. These websites are not merely tools to help push girls into developing eating disorders, but they are actually places where girls who suffer from mental illnesses such as anorexia can come together for support. From a study in the article, only 9% of girls sampled categorizd anorexia as a good, benefitting life choice. Most girls viewed it as a mental illness or coping mechanism. Clearly most of these girls are not brainwashed as I originally thought, but they can think lucidly and clearly see their situations. Most interestingly, I found, that many of the pictures of extremely thin women on the websites, “thinspirations,” actually come from mainstreen fashion magazines and websites, and thus reflect the nature of our media, not the anorexia websites. These websites, also, are not run by professionals, but are just a place for people to blog and post as they wish. I think if these websites did not exist, people could would just congregate and discuss things on their own, which could be an even worse thing, if they are not recorded for reference. Maybe these websites aren’t really as bad as they sound. There could be much worse alternatives.

Here is the link to the article if anyone is interested – http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/28/health/time-anorexia-websites/index.html

There are many highlights to Twitter, that buzzing social network where you can let other people know your business whether they want to know or not – as long as it’s under 140 characters. When one usually thinks of Twitter, it’s about how thousands of celebrities use the site to post pictures of them at fancy parties with Gwyneth Paltrow, or send a quick message to all their fans that they’re working on some new project. Depending on the celebrity in question, you may either be reading tweets that have been sent from their publicist, or you may very well be reading exactly what said celebrity wrote.

One of these celebrities is Cher, and she is literally the most perfect thing that’s ever happened to Twitter. There are a few things everyone should know before deciding to follow Cher on Twitter:

1. She usually types in all capital letters.
2. She’ll make between three to five spelling or gramatical errors per tweet.
3. She often tweets between Midnight and 5 AM.

Now, you may be asking what separates Cher from any other celebrity on Twitter, and why I consider her the best thing on the internet… Simply put, she makes herself vulnerable – and thusly more human – through her messages. I could talk for hours about the way she answers questions from her fans on a whole range of topics, but if you want a better look then you should read a few of her tweets yourself. (She just responded to a few accusations about her ex-husband Sonny Bono, and his political affiliations that prove my point about her vulnerability.)

No, what makes Cher the best thing on the internet is how she uses her power as a well-known celebrity to encourage others to become more active in the political aspects of their lives. She’s made no secret of her dislike of Mitt Romney, but she goes beyond the typical “He’s a terrible person, don’t vote for him!” tweet. In an effort to prove herself knowledgeable about his Mormon affiliations and how they’ve influenced his campaign, she tweeted a number of times about how she started to read a series of books about Mormonism and its relations to Christianity. She asked her followers to tweet her information about Romney’s policies that she may not know about. All in all, she’s presenting herself as a model of how we should define ourselves as citizens, and voters. She admits that she doesn’t know all, and she welcomes opposing arguments to things she posts, but the important factor here is that she wishes to learn, and oppose ignorance.

There are countless celebrities who will sign up to make a PSA telling you to vote, and there will be others who voice support for a candidate simply because they know no better, but how many of them take it so passionately that they go on for four of five posts asking people to do research and find a better understanding of what a candidate really stands for?

Politics aside, Cher is still the best thing on the internet. Just look at her tweets, she has no idea how to use Twitter properly, and sometimes you’re surprised that she even knows how to turn on a computer – which is all the more hilarious because she’s conscious of her lack of technological experience. She’s the closest you’d get to having an embarssing aunt on Twitter, without having to actually be embarrassed.

That, and she drops little hints about her upcoming album every not and then. You’d be crazy to not think that’s the best thing on the internet.

Tweets by cher

The internet is full of information, we all know this. When you stumble upon something that is not only meaningful, but also thought-provoking and powerful, it feels like finding a piece of buried treasure. That is exactly how I felt when I found The Venus Project while I was browsing reddit.

To make a long story short, the Venus Project is a concept for the future of the world. It emphasizes that current economic systems have already begun to break down, and we cannot continue to live while certain areas wastefully live in vast excess and others are startlingly impoverished. In the Venus Project, our notion of currency is not existent, food is evenly distributed to new cities that will be constructed, and everyone will have food, water, and shelter available without worry.

That’s only a brief snippet of the ideas present in the project. I watched a 45-minute video that thoroughly details what the project’s ideas are. It fascinates me because it does something that we all do, which is criticize the current state of affairs, and then provides a solution that solves many of the problems at once. It dares people to think radically and look outside the box of current world structure to find a solution to the many problems we face. Using the Internet to attack problems like the ones presented in the Venus Project makes it much easier to garner support and recognition amongst the masses.

Questioning tradition is often a taboo that government likes to brush under the rug. It is not exactly censorship like we see in China or North Korea, where many sites are banned from even being viewed and used. But an idea like this, which I happen to think is brilliant and a viable long-term solution, will never make the headway it needs to. It needs government and media recognition, which will be hard to come by. Mainstream media is forever focused on the following of celebrities- athletes, artists, actors, etc.-as well as politicians. And the politicians in government are always bickering and disagreeing on issues, and they spend too much time fighting each other to help the people of the U.S. and the world in solving the problems of the 21st century. Ideas like the Venus project exist in the annals of the Internet, it takes a lot of searching (or, in my case, a half hour of reddit browsing) to find diamonds in the rough. But the dig is often worth the effort.

Venus Project website: http://www.thevenusproject.com/

YouTube video (45 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KphWsnhZ4Ag

*If you’ve got time, I really urge watching the video, it’s truly thought-provoking, whether you agree with it or not*

-Ben

This has got to be one of the cutest things I’ve seen online lately. Come on, what can top dancing babies? I’ve read some other people’s posts, and they all seem to be pretty doom and gloom, so I thought you could all use a little cheering up. Please notice how the twins look at a each other as if to say, “You ready?” before beginning their synchronized head bobbing. If the combination of twin babies, guitar music, and dancing doesn’t brighten up your day, please ask your cardiologist to check that you’ve still got a heart.

Unlike the first three posts under Blog Post #2, I haven’t seen anything extraordinarily great or terrible this week. I tend not to spend my time browsing through random things on the internet. However, I did come across something interesting. Astronomers had recently discovered simple sugar molecules (Glycoaldehyde) in the gases floating around a star 400 light-years away. This was not the first discovery of sugar in space, but it is the first time a star with sugar molecules is so close to a “sunlike star.” Scientists believe that the simple sugar molecule composed of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen is a fundamental component of an organism’s RNA (which is part of the DNA). It is evidence that life can exist elsewhere in the universe, even if the fact has not been confirmed.

I was fascinated by this, mainly because I had recently watched a series (fiction) that questioned our firmly held belief that the things we have no evidence of or that we cannot see cannot exist simply because there is nothing to back them up. For example, if a person yells out “Aliens exist!” in the middle of the street, everyone would think that he is either brain damaged or just another lunatic roaming the streets. Why do we restrain ourselves from believing in extraterrestrial beings? Because we have no solid evidence that they exist. But for those who simply speak the truth, those who are Aliens themselves, there is no need to fervently seek proof to accept that extraterrestrial beings exist.

If we ever have the proofs that alien existence, I imagine many people would be confused and frightened because the natural order of their world would be shattered – a world build upon the foundations of previous generations where we are the only living creatures in this galaxy. I can’t wait for that to happen. What better way is there to remove ourselves from this ridiculous global economic struggle, where every country is in debt to every other country, than to focus that attention in outer space programs?

Here’s the link to the article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/08/120829-sugar-space-planets-science-life/

Thankfully I can’t post the link to one of the most horrific things I’ve seen in a very long time because it was reported and blocked on Facebook. This Friday, on his way to a sweet sixteen a young man was involved in an accident that cost him his life. His friends and family resorted to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking cites to express their grief and sorrow, support and hope to overcome this tragedy. Reading through all these posts I could almost feel the pain that all these people were experiencing.  However, in the midst of all this positivity I stumbled upon maybe one of the meanest pages I’ve ever seen.

There on Facebook, for the whole world to see, grieving family, friends, strangers, appeared a hate page. A page dedicated to mocking this young man, expressing their distaste for his attitude, the way he treated certain people and almost implying that he deserved what he got. I am very well aware that most not everyone is going to like you out there. You might be a really nice person but sometimes, for some reason, you might rub someone the wrong way and they won’t be your biggest fans. I think its normal, it happens, and in most cases, there’s nothing gravely wrong with it. However, there is no way that these things should be expressed after someone has passed away. If they couldn’t say these things when he was alive, there is no reason that they should say it after he died. If they didn’t like him, fine. Be civil. Be respectful. Follow the age old “If you have nothing nice to say don’t say it at all.”

I have no idea why anyone would ever even think of creating such a page. Let alone write the things that they did. Do people no longer have respect for the dead? Bullying kids over the Internet to the point of suicide in some cases isn’t enough for the adolescence of today so they resort to poking fun at someone who isn’t here with us anymore? They couldn’t say these things to him while he was still amongst us but for some reason it’s suddenly okay to say them when he’s dead? Before I got angry, I felt so sorry for his friends and family. Here they are in the midst of horrible loss and now they have to face hundreds of negative comments regarding their loved one. I was speechless to say the least. To this moment I can’t fathom how or why this page was created to begin with. I can’t believe how many people actually went on it to comment and add fuel to the fire. (This is when I started getting angry) It was heartless, rude, disgusting, mean and many other things.

Dozens of people, strangers in many cases responded to this page and expressed my same opinions regarding the situation through Tweets and status updates acquiring 40, 50, 60 likes, favorites, retweets. That was probably the only positive thing that came from this page. Seeing the existence of the page made me just about lose hope for our youth completely but seeing the backlash of strangers raised my spirits a little. I was glad to see that not all of us are heartless, disrespectful idiots hiding behind computer screens magnifying the grief of already distraught i

This cartoon is a poignant example of how we are becoming increasingly desensitized to violence. Almost every day we are hounded by one national or international violent incident after another: “Rocket and mortar attacks on Israel continue,” “Empire State shooting victim hit 5 times in the head,”Alleged Massacre by Government outside Damascus,”Mass Shooting at Colorado Theater.” The list goes on and on. It is almost impossible to read a newspaper, flip through a magazine, or listen to a news radio station without exposing yourself to constant violence and tragedy. The psychological definition of desensitization is” the diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus after repeated exposure to it.” In this case, the negative or aversive stimulus is the violence we are
repeatedly to exposed to via mass media. We become desensitized not only because of quantity- the amount of violence we see- but also because of quality- the way we see it. The media generally focuses more on capturing audience’s attention than on the content of the
story. The media’s quest to grab headlines often camouflages the calamity being reported, leaving the audience with an indifferent attitude towards the story. Slowly but surely, the audience will develop a hardened attitude of objectivity and detachment towards violence. “Oh, it’s just another shooting by some crazy guy in some state,” will soon become a common response to tragedy and violence. This cartoon expresses that attitude; a tragedy is portrayed as a form of entertainment and the audience is left desensitized.
http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/7/c/4/Batman-Shooting.jpg

http://indigoemptied.blogspot.com/

This is the worst thing I have seen on the internet lately. This girl is so sick, and she is just one of thousands suffering from such a crazy disease. She is willingly harming her body, and she has so many supporters. It sickens me to think of how much pain she must be in to inflict such a horrible disease upon herself.

She doesnt realize that she will never be good enough for herself, her waist will never be small enough. She will starve herself into unconsciousness, maybe even death. She will continue to hate herself, and she will be disgusted every time she looks in the mirror and every time she “binges” on a piece of lettuce.

In truth, my heart goes out to Indigo, who will forever be trapped in her mind and blinded to the reality of what a human being has the capacity to be, aside from skinny.