Blog Post 2: Web 2.0 Video

After viewing this video, I was driven towards some realizations. Although everyone would admit that the internet has taken over, Michael Welsch proved it and showed some reasons why that is the case.

One of the first things to catch my attention while viewing the clip was the music. I think it was properly fit with the context. It was a fast moving, updated choice that flowed with the movement of writing being expressed. When thinking to relate this clip to our text, Compose Design Advocate, the word purpose comes up. I feel like this video reiterated what we already knew but took it to an intellectual level. Speaking for others through myself, I obviously am aware that internet, computers, and technology have taken over our paper and pencil lives, but I scratched down a lot of different thoughts while watching this video thinking about why its done that and how. That is how the video affected me, being the audience while I viewed it. One thing I have realized from facebook and texting, is that we have become impatient people. Teens especially get antsy waiting for a reply or a response from anything. We are used to people texting us back or getting instant chats back, that when we have to wait for something, it's difficult! 16.7 hours a week is the average amount of time a teenager is on the internet. In some cases, the internet becomes a reason for procrastination. Many students, including myself, will find themselves at their computers to start a paper and end up on facebook for awhile instead of starting. Good news though is that we are skilled at typing fast which helps when rushing to finish the paper.

A major topic we've been discussing with our blogging and in class discussions after reading the text is the worry that our personality will be lost from this form of communication. But in the video clip, there was a scene that showed the words: Blogging...Hello World! Also the video displayed, "We are the web.". We, the people, are the ones creating the internet and the web through our blogs and other sites. We can make it what we want and it will represent us. Same with our blogging. The words I'm choosing to type and the items I'm choosing to link, represent me.

Another quote from the clip that stuck out to me was, "Doesn't define the form, defines the content." I'm not sure in the clip what it was referring to, but I think of it as WE don't define the form, because everyone is typing in the same blog format and about the same thing, but we define the content. We pick which direction we want to take our responses and we say what we want to represent our thinking.

Internet has obviously changed our world in many ways, but I feel that we are headed in the right direction and it has and will continue to change things for the better!

Blog Post 1: Quotation on Writing

"I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden." -Frances Hodgson Burnett

I thought this quote by Frances Hodgson Burnett was a meaningful quote on the subject of writing. I also saw a connection with it to our readings from our text.

I see this quote as having two different directions you could look at it. The first being from the advising perspective of Burnett. She is telling the reader, the reader being a potential writer, to really dig in to what they are writing. The quote is expressing the importance of not just going half way and scooting around the outside, but to instead write from the inside. It could also be saying that you should chose to write about things you can relate to or have experienced so that the writing is firsthand and in turn more wholesome and realistic. It is not limiting to exclusively writing about familiar topics though. The quote advises you to put yourself in the place of the writing while doing so. This quote is similar to the quote "Put yourself in someone elses shoes."

The second approach this quote portrays is the act of practicing. Frances Hodgson Burnett then practices what she preached and does a good job of writing to the audience. In this case, I see the audience as the garden. In terms of argument, the only place I could see it occurring is with the fact that you sometimes have to write about things that you have not experienced or have any knowledge on. Then the question might come up, how do I write as if I were in that situation? You then should think of the purpose of the quote. It is simply about advising and practicing.

In our text, we read that "sometimes the strangest characteristics bring out the best strategies." Some might find an analogy of a garden as a strange example, but it is a general thing that everyone is aware of and can put their minds in that place. Therefore, I think this quote really can get across to the audience.

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