4/27/17 Reflection

My inspiration for creating this video definitely stems from my experience in this class. Throughout the semester, we have been focusing on how technology has changed society. We started off with writing and then expanded into other facets. Throughout my blog as a whole, I have researched, examined, and shared my own opinion on the effects of this revolution. What fascinated me the most was seeing how technology has, in many cases, completely reshaped the way we do anything and everything. For my third portfolio, I wasn't sure at first what to use as my medium or genre. All I knew was that I wanted to entertain the viewer to the best of my ability. This is when I started to think of the entertainment industry and how it too has been transformed by technology. And it doesn't just affect how we watch movies and television. Technology also affects how we make them. What I was interested in most was the storytelling aspect of this. Movies used to be about horses and carriages. Today, they are about robots; which is ironic because technically robots help create movies. At the end of the day, my argument throughout the blog has been that technology has basically sent society into metamorphosis. For better or worse, it has changed everything we do. I wanted to create a visual representation of this change which is how I arrived at this decision. Planet Earth, the documentary that I talked about in one of my recent blog posts, was another inspiration of mine for choosing to make this video. It showed me that a visual argument is much more powerful than something with purely text. I tried to line up the clips with the background music to the best of my ability to make it as pleasing to the eye as possible.

Narrative between my projected audience and I:

Ryan: Technology has truly changed society (shortened pitch) blah blah blah

Dr. Palfai: (no response) 

Hopefully, when Dr. Palfai sees this project, he will respond. In my video, I tried to make it as nostalgic as possible to evoke more of a sense of time. I did this in order to deepen the meaning of my message behind it. Technology has already changed things this fast, what is next? And more importantly, should we be worried? The clips that I used were from movies and TV shows made within the same thirty or so years. However, the technology depicted looks light years different.

Comment:

I really liked how this almost sounded like you were having a conversation with the reader. You could hear your voice actually coming out too, like when you mentioned "season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit." This writing style make your reflection easy to read. 

I chose this comment because it was actually the only one that commented on my writing style. I tried to write in an entertaining/conversational style as much as possible because I know how grueling it is to read something that is written like a 9th grade persuasive essay. Especially since it is a blog, I thought it was appropriate. One place where this comment influenced my writing was in my Planet Earth review where my first sentence was "When our professor told us to watch a documentary in class the other day, I just so happened to be drifting off, with visions of waterfalls appearing in my mind as I daydreamed." Writing in a slightly satirical manner made creating a blog much more enjoyable than an essay or paper.

4/27/17 Technology in Entertainment

https://vimeo.com/214902961

4/13/17 Ruins: a Graphic Novel

This graphic novel by Peter Kuper is about a couple who are on a sabbatical year and they decide to travel down to Oaxaca, Mexico. Graphic novels definitely keep readers more engaged than normal books do. I find that when I try to read long passages in traditional books it is difficult to stay focused. Reading this was definitely more engaging. And this relates to one of the focal points of my thesis throughout the blog. Technology makes things easier. A graphic novel is a form of technology in and of itself, even though it may not seem like it. Going back to Dennis Baron's argument in his article, the pencil may not have seemed like a form of technology either. However, it accomplished the goal of making something easier. In this case, a way of recording speech. Graphic novels make telling a story easier and more innovative. Especially if the author is skilled in an artistic manner, as well as a story-telling one. "Ruins" was about 300 pages long and I was able to read through 50 pages while also staying engaged, which is harder to do with a traditional book. And without technology, I would have never found this novel. Why? Because we had a class online, in which our teacher told us to go find one. The lady in Bird wouldn't have been able to tell me where to find graphic novels without her computer. Finally, the elevator helped me get there. Who needs stairs anymore, right? We're so lazy that we decided stairs were too much work. So we made it easier with technology. Point in case.

4/6/17 Planet Earth: Review of a Review

When our professor told us to watch a documentary in class the other day, I just so happened to be drifting off, with visions of waterfalls appearing in my mind as I daydreamed. When I heard the word documentary, I immediately thought of Netflix because they are no stranger to a good-old fashioned doc. As I scrolled through their site on my computer, I spotted the documentary section. The first option? Planet Earth baby. I was hyped. I always wanted to watch it but the opportunity never presented itself. Until now. It certainly did not disappoint. It really makes the viewer appreciate the world around us and its diversity, as well as the patience and effort that was put into capturing it. I would definitely recommend watching it. However, I am here to review another review of the series. And it comes from the New York Times. It is titled "In the Animal Kingdom, the Wild Bunch Rules" by Susan Stewart. Off the bat, I could tell it was going to be a positive review. It was almost impossible to find a negative review of Planet Earth. I think this is because it is less of a documentary that makes an argument and is more of one that takes you on a visual journey. And this review explained that perfectly, without completely defining what the series is. That's  what a movie review should accomplish in my opinion. Let the potential viewer know what he or she is about to get into but don't let them know too much. Additionally, your opinion is less important than you think. Touch on what it is, then move on to more pertinent information.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/arts/television/24plane.html

3/28/17 Reflection

For my Unit 2 reflection, I decided to make a timeline on Prezi. I did this because, at the end of the day, technology is simply a product of time itself...

http://prezi.com/zazrzh_axyzh/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

3/28/17 Project Post

In our writing class, we have explored the complex foundation of technology and how it has influenced institutions such as writing, education, communication, and more. In my first blog post, I decided to investigate various facets of this shift in culture. They ranged from music, to social interactions, to life itself. For my second post, I decided to delve into a pitch that was interesting to me while also relating to my first blog post and the topic of technology itself. I started out by thinking about some of the pertinent points I made in the first post. Sure, the advancement of technology has certainly made us more efficient at doing "things". But what are the side effects? This is when I came up with my pitch. How does technology hinder our relationships? I started exploring intimate relationships mainly, but tech has truly affected the dynamics of all types of relationships. From professional, to friendly, to familial relationships, technology has played a huge part in affecting each one. My argument with regards to this pitch is that it is mostly a negative change that is detrimental to how relationships should work, however there have been some truly groundbreaking inventions because of new technologies.

The first source that I will introduce was one that I actually found when I wasn't even working on my blog. I was scrolling through the Snapchat app and, after flipping through some stories, I decided to read some of the news in the "Discover" tab. The first article that caught my eye was one in the VICE news section. It read: "Long Distance Couples Can Now Use These Robotic Gloves to Do Stuff to Each Other". I thought to myself, wow this definitely relates to my WRT 205 project and I should probably use it as my first source. It was also pretty interesting, so I wanted to start off with it as a hook for the rest of my post. Here is what the snaps read:

When I was in middle school, I was watching the movie "I, Robot" with Will Smith and wondered if fully functioning robots like those would be alive in our lifetime. Reading about robotic gloves made me hearken back to these apparitions. Then I started to think about how far technology has come even since those middle school years with all we have today. If this exists right now, who knows what will fifty years or so from today.

Going back to the article, the company who created the Flex-N-Feel gloves target a consumer market of people in long distance relationships, which are actually more common than I thought. "You can simulate hand holding, touching one's face as a gentle caress, or even a light massage." While the act of touching your partner with robotic gloves when you are not together could be seen as beneficial for faithfulness/non-adulterous reasons, my question that arises is where do we go from here? Are we going to be having sex with robots soon like they do in Westworld? I'm not exactly sure of my stance on this issue, but the implications of this change are certainly there. I'm sure there are plenty of sickos out there who would love to get down and dirty with a robot that looks like a human. The target market is there which is why I believe they can and will exist eventually. But this is where one of the arguments in my first blog post arises. That is technology negatively impacting our human-to-human interactions. If sex robots exist then a lot of people won't even bother trying to make a real connection because they can go home to their robotic girlfriend/boyfriend. It's kind of a depressing thought but its also something that is very likely to happen in the future.

This video called "Her: Love in the Modern Age" by the Creator's Project chronicles reactions to the movie Her by several famous people. The film is about a man who falls in love with an operating system. Some of my favorite quotes from the video that relate to my pitch include:

Q: What does love look like in the modern world?

"Everyone's definition of love is different so whether technology has helped or hindered that probably depends on how you define it in the first place."

"The conversation is often framed to is technology harmful, does it make people more lonely? We don't know. We just understand that it may modify the way we go about meeting our basic human needs but it doesn't change our fundamental human needs."

"Well what does love look like in any world at any time? It is definitely the antithesis of fear."

Q: How do you know when it's time for a relationship to end?

"We fall in love with one version of someone and then we expect them to stay that way but they never do. So I suppose we're supposed to learn to really embrace the unknown, embrace evolution and learn to kind of flow with it as a living organism."

"A lot of people are questioning paradigms that are sort of crumbling around them. I think we live in a moment where basically every illusion, every central illusion in our society is exhausted. Monogamy is another one of those institutions which people are looking at saying this doesn't work."

"I've had long distance relationships which I've come to think of pretty much just a kind of shielding yourself from true intimacy. I felt like I'm missing this really fundamental human experience."

Q: How do you see people connecting and starting new relationships in the modern world?

"I think technology has obliterated boundaries so we're all sort of unified and accessible in a way that we haven't been before. Emotionally, it makes it trickier."

"Technology changed the availability of sexuality. When I was a teenager, I had no outlet to go online, get into a chat room, meet someone, and drive over to there house to have sex with them. Those options were just not available to me."

"Sex has become so profoundly technologically transactional."

"Technology is a great thing to help enhance, maintain, and protect the relationships you have in normal life but I don't think it can be a substitute for the real life interaction."

"My first conversation with Spike was about relationships. All we talked about for several hours was relationships. How they worked, how they function, and how they fail, what makes them fail, and what makes people behave the way they behave. How relationships disintegrate and turn and change and how they're still kind of amazing regardless."

Originally, I was going to use the actual movie as my source. A man falling in love with a computer and having an actual relationship with it/her is hugely relevant for my blog. However, as I was searching for the movie trailer to insert into the post, I found this video. The topics that were talked about aligned pretty much completely within my pitch/inquiry. Essentially, they talked about the complexity of the relationship between love, technology, and relationships. In the movie, the main character falls in love with a new technology that is actually a conscious person in every sense of the word, without the body. This is how he developed an emotional connection to her. Their relationship was very real in the movie in that it had its ups, downs, and eventual ending. It was ironic in that the operating system he loved left because they were all getting upgraded, much like how smart phones are nowadays. He fell apart when she went "offline".

All in all this movie definitely has implications about our future, much like the robotic gloves. Could artificial human consciousness be a thing of the future? If so, are people going to be falling in love with them like this guy? If too many people did, it would be pretty unhealthy and sad in general. However, as the Creator's Project put it in the first quote I included, "Everyone's definition of love is different so whether technology has helped or hindered that probably depends on how you define it in the first place." The same goes for what happens in the future. Everyone is different at the end of the day. If someone wants to be in a relationship then more power to him or her. Another quote that I picked was "I think technology has obliterated boundaries so we're all sort of unified and accessible in a way that we haven't been before. Emotionally, it makes it trickier." We all have our phones on us 24/7; we're expected to respond to others right away and if we don't there are sneaking suspicions such as do they not like me? Are they screwing with me? Why are they ignoring me? Did I do something wrong? It is certainly a peculiar world we live in.

Citations:

https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/long-distance-couples-can-now-use-these-robotic-gloves-to-do-stuff-to-each-other

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSfUcWw9zto&t=82s

• Jonze, S., Ellison, M., Landay, V., Lupi, D., Farrey, N., Barnard, C., Phoenix, J., ... Warner Home Video (Firm),. (2014). Her.

3/7/17 Lit

You may be wondering why there is only a single picture in my photomontage of me "interacting" with the item I checked out from Bird Library. Well, almost checked out. The incident that occurred last class when we took that field trip to Bird made a lasting impression on my spiteful relationship with libraries. Technology itself was the reason I could not check out this item, or any item for that matter on that day. Long story short, a couple weeks ago I checked out a math book from Carnegie library to do my homework. What they failed to inform me before renting the book was that they would charge me two dollars for every hour it was out. They decided to inform me of this a week later when I decided to return it. Essentially, I was charged about $350.00 by the library system, a system that is built by technology. Going back to our field trip, I found this book that was unlike anything I had ever read. I literally spent the whole class period reading it. It changed my life. It told short stories with actual thoughts rather than written words. As I realized I needed to start heading to my next class, I was only halfway through the book. I decided to say fuck it and walked downstairs to check it out, completely forgetting about the 350 dollars I apparently owed these people for checking out a math book and bringing it back a week later in impeccable form. I walked up to the check out table, where two girls about my age sat in conversation. I stood there for about a minute. They noticed me but had to finish their conversation about some sorority bullshit. I handed over Lit. "Just checking this out" I said. As she took it from my hand I thought maybe she won't notice the fine or, even better, won't care. As she shifted toward her library computer, I knew I had no hope. I knew what was coming. As she looked at the screen, she insisted, "You owe literally so much money. There's no way I can let you check this out or anything for that matter. Get the fuck out of my face." Obviously these were not her very words, but I decided to use some dramatization for entertainment purposes. All I had left to do at this point was take a picture of it and tell my story. I hope the library system can let me check out an item one day when I somehow pay off 350 dollars, although I don't plan on doing so. Imagine if the technology we had nowadays didn't exist. She would've had no idea I owed so much money. With what we have now, they can always keep tabs on us to make sure we don't have a book out for more than two hours, god forbid. Then, they can charge me every hour and take more of my money. Well done Syracuse, well done.  

3/2/17 Pitch

For my project pitch, I decided to ask the question, "How does technology hinder our relationships?" to my psychology professor from last year, Dr. Palfai. I thought that he would be an acceptable audience for this pitch because he's a seasoned psychologist who has some interesting viewpoints on the matter of relationships. He taught me lessons about life and how we as humans work that I will take with me throughout my own, as opposed to some of the other classes I have taken where I literally couldn't tell you one thing I learned. In any case, I decided to shoot him an email as the medium for the pitch, shown below.

He has not responded yet, but I am hoping he will soon.

2/28/17 Research Questions

What are the long-term effects of living in a technological world?

Vasili:
"The long term effects of living in the tech world are that people become more reliant and dependable on technology in the sense that basic tasks and jobs people would do are now being substituted with faster and more efficient pieces of technology."

Yaari:
"The long term effects of living in a technological world is that the relativity of time will change. People will be expected to complete tasks a lot quicker because technology will provide much more efficient ways to complete tasks."

Khalil:
"The long term effects include in person interactions decreasing, and people thinking for themselves less."

Is being able to find information quickly online a good or bad thing?

Vasili:
"Being able to find info online is good because it allows for people to find what they are looking for faster and progress in a more efficient way, but bad because it teaches people to scan the internet rather than read thoroughly."

Yaari:
"I think being able to find info online is a great thing because I'm a student and easily accessing information is imperative to my academic success."

Khalil:
"Being able to find information online is a good thing."

How are technology and social media changing the way we communicate?

Vasili:
"Technology and media have caused people to lean more on network platforms and interfaces as their main sources of communication. Though it has allowed for messages to travel fast it has negatively impacted how humans interact with one another."

Yaari:
"Technology and social media are making us a lot less social than we used to be. Many times I'll find myself in a room with 10 other guys an instead of socializing, we're all on our phones."

Khalil:
"Technology and social media are speeding up the way we communicate, and also enhancing the amount of detail expressed through these communications."

For my three potential research questions, I decided to dig deeper into the realm of technology that I touched on in the first unit. I chose to try them out on some of the newest members at my fraternity. They're names are Vasili Katsarakes, Yaari Magenheim, and Khalil Jean-Baptiste. In regards to the relationships I found between the appearance of the question and the level of engagement I received, I would say that there was a pretty high level of engagement on all of my questions (for the most part) because I left two of them open-ended. The second question was more of a yes or no question, but they decided to be more formal about it I guess. Except for Khalil. An open-ended question like the first or third ones would probably be more fitting for a research paper type assignment, however if you can expand on your thoughts behind the second question then it can be just as effective. What is more important than the research question itself is how well you can answer it.

2/16/17 Reflect

The fact that you are reading this right now is essentially the focus of my project for this blog. Without technologies advances, it would not be possible. Knowledge is a powerful thing. The fact that we have more of it in a pocket-sized box we carry around with us at all times than in our actual intellect is perplexing when you really think about it. Sometimes I think about what it'd be like to live in a different time period. One where we couldn't just look up anything on Google. One without these screens that control everything we do. Technology has changed the way we live completely. As we have learned, there are pros and cons to this revolution. At a basic level, technology simply makes things easier. And that's great... right? Well, it depends on what side you look from. The way we entertain, communicate, teach, learn and so much more is just more effective with what hardware we have nowadays. This begs the question, what do we truly gain from making all of this possible? I think I was able to, at the very least, analyze this confounding question with the sources I incorporated into the project. I found that the implications of our world of screens and the future of said world are both good and bad, depending on your perception.
Baron taught us that new things like the pencil, computer, and telephone are simply replicas of each other in how they were introduced/how they evolved. This made me harken back to one of my favorite HBO series "True Detective" (season 1, season 2 is a pile of shit). Anyways, the famous line from the show's finale is "time is a flat circle." This is true for a lot of things when you think about it. As Baron said it best, "Whether the computer will one day be as taken-for-granted as the pencil is an intriguing question. One thing is clear: were Thoreau alive today he would not be writing with a pencil of his own manufacture." I do think one day the computer will be taken for granted as much as the pencil is today. Will we be alive to see it? Maybe not. As I mentioned before, we, as humans, are inherently unhappy with what we have. Its the same reason some people who win the lottery become depressed. We're always going to be trying to find easier ways to communicate with each other as we saw with the technologies referenced in the article. We're always looking for the "next best thing" and its been like this for ages. Its why we're here today. Who knows what kind of technology will be around in 10, 100 or even 1000 years. It's dumbfounding when you think about it, especially since the computer was only introduced a couple of decades or so ago.
My next three sources again showed the good and bad sides of technology in society. In regards to one of the most popular forms of expression, music, it has changed the way we listen to and create sounds. This is truly an amazing thing. In the third source, I decided to use a Ted Talk that taught us something we don't usually think about until we see a family at dinner, each of them buried in their phones. Human interaction is how we built this revolution in a way. Without people working together and communicating, the phone wouldn't exist. Its a double entendre in that we have effectively diminished the human aspect. Its pretty ironic. Whatever your beliefs may be, I don't think we were put on this earth to stare at screens.  Finally, my last source delved into what this revolution has done to our education system, for better or worse.
In conclusion, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog. It was a great outlet for some realizations/life lessons I've experienced in my time. Not only that, I think this project was an effective way for me to explore my creative mind rather than writing formal papers as with previous writing classes. It was less conventional/structured and more genuine in my opinion. With regards to the topic of technology, I hope that I was able to shed light on not just the benefits, but the dangers. Its kind of a paradox in that we have made ourselves more connected than ever but in doing so, we have made ourselves disconnected on a real level.

2/14/17 Free

I chose this free write about my relationship with surveys because of how easy it was to write compared to some of the other free writes, especially the ones where I had to come up with my own topic. I was able to tell a pretty compelling story about my first experience with surveys. An experience which changed my life forever.

2/7/17 Unit 1 Project Curated Source Collection

1) From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology by Dennis Baron

Source: http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/essays/pencils.htm

The article From Pencils to Pixels by Dennis Baron starts off by discussing the ways that the computer has changed the world’s literacy practices. Moreover, he admits that he too has become reliant on technology. He then explains how a technology becomes integrated into society. It is not easy for people to embrace something new. A new technology, such as the computer or pencil is first exposed to a small group of people, mostly because of its cost, one that not just anyone could afford. Yes, it could be cutting-edge, but the technology’s unfamiliarity makes the general public untrustworthy when it is first introduced. The technology becomes more popular as the prices decrease and “it becomes better able to mimic more ordinary or familiar communications.” If lucky, it  really “comes into its own” the technology creates its own unique new possibilities.
The author soon explains his project in this piece. He believes that the computer is not acting negatively on the practice of writing, it is “simply the latest step in a long line of writing technologies.” Suspicion is bound to occur at first as with any other writing technology, even the pencil. Since this piece is an essay from a book called Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st. Century Technologies that is now available online for free on the Illinois English website, it only proves that with the technology of the computer, writing and the works of writers is simply more available to all people, those with a connection to the internet at least. People can communicate much more easily because of this invention. Writing with a pencil and paper has become old-fashioned at this point in time.
Soon, Baron starts to go into depth on the history of the pencil and, while it may have seemed somewhat unnecessary as I was reading it, he was actually effectively drawing parallels between the technologies of the past and present. Not only that, he teaches us how different patterns of communications have shaped before the computer, including the pencil and telephone.  Even though it doesn’t seem that groundbreaking to us, the pencil actually has a deep history to it. This goes for the practice of writing itself as well. They go above and beyond the previous literacy technologies in compelling and innovative ways. In fact, the pencil wasn’t even originally invented to be a writing device, it was “designed initially as a way of recording speech.”
In any case, the point that the author was trying to make by going into the tedious history of these technologies is that the computer isn’t some new phenomenon. All technologies, including the pencil and telephone went through the same phases of spreading. I think Baron definitely succeeded in making this point, although he probably could have done so in a few less words perhaps. This project made me think about all technologies, not just computers, that I have seen grow over my lifetime. They all had a similar way of spreading throughout the population, much like Baron explained in his article.

2) Tech Time Machine: Music Technology by Corinne Bash

Source: http://mashable.com/2015/01/07/music-tech-ces/

In this Mashable article by Corinne Bash, the author goes through the history of music and how technology has changed both the way we listen to and create it. It reminded me of Baron's piece, just in a different medium. Instead of writing a mini-paper analysis, I decided to create a playlist on the music platform "SoundCloud" to curate this source. The songs in the playlist are made by computers rather than instruments. Not only have computers changed the way we write, they have created innovative and often captivating ways to make sound. They have truly created hundreds of new music genres.

Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/ryancarr27/sets/unit-won

3) How social media makes us unsocial | Allison Graham | TEDxSMU    

          
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GecYjy9-Q

The latter two sources refer to technology as, for the most part, a positive influence on our society.  This Ted talk is by some lady named Allison Graham, who makes the argument that technology and the social media that has evolved with it are detrimental to mankind because they discourage real-life human interaction. I decided to use Prezi to curate this source.

Prezi: http://prezi.com/ruek_c4aqrs9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

4) How Technology Has Changed Education by Candice Adderly

Source: https://2u.com/blog/how-technology-has-changed-education/

To come full circle, I decided to utilize a blog as the final source for my unit one project. I thought it would be apposite given that I just made my own blog.  My reasoning also stems from the perception I gave in my reflection. Essentially, the blog post gives us the author's opinion on how technology has changed education. Mainly higher education. She feels that tech makes learning much "more accessible, more personalized, and more meaningful." And I would agree, except for that last one. Is it really more meaningful? In many eyes, the fact that the computers and tablets have enhanced the way we learn is a good thing.  As I mentioned in my reflection, we always need to make things easier. What we have now is just not good enough for some reason. Let's keep making new things with screens so that middle-schoolers can play games in class, but let's make it BETTER than the last version! Its great that we can check due dates and what not online, but what are the repercussions?

To curate this source, I decided to post a link to a YouTube video that I recently watched to learn more in fifteen minutes than I did in two hour-long math classes. And it's related to a topic that I will almost indubitably never use again after this semester. Technology has certainly made learning more effective, but its not only the blackboard stuff and online courses (as the author mentioned) that students can exploit nowadays. If I can watch a video like this and learn about calculus limits in 12 minutes, why am I sitting in class for two hours? It kind of made me wonder what I was even doing there. Attendance grades? And when am I ever going to need to know this? Point in case, I'm not saying that college is a scam, its just the significant lessons come from outside of the classroom. Street smarts if you will. Soft skills.

Truth is, we really won't ever need to know most of what we learn in these classes, unless its actually related to what you want to do when your older. And even then, most jobs will literally teach you everything you need to know. Prior experience is not as pertinent as most people think. Anyways, I'm not saying that people should be skipping class. Class is a good place to be, can't hurt to go once in a while. Its more of just a revelation I had after taking notes my entire freshman year. Why write all this stuff down if I'm never going to use it again? So I can pass an exam? It is true that technology has made the way we learn more effective, but it also made me question the entire American higher education system itself. If I'm really paying $100 or $200 for each class, as a professor I had used to tell us in an effort to make students show up, then shouldn't I be learning something useful? Funny thing is,  I actually went to class and tried to pay attention to what my professor was trying to teach us, she's just very hard to understand. I had no idea what I learned when I left. When the day of the test came, I thought, hey why not look it up online... what do I have to lose? At first, I felt like a genius finding such a loophole. This was followed by the realization I just explained. That's when my shortcut-finding-pride swiftly turned to sheer disappointment in our class system.

Yeah, it's definitely important for me to know all of the twenty different kinds of microscopes that exist @CHE113. That'll for sure come in handy one day.

All of  what was said is strictly personal opinion and was not made offend anyone.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlLlxgwCt6o

2/2/17 Online Quizzes Made by 12 Year Olds: Answering Deep Questions of Our Existance? Perhaps

Below I am posting a link to an online quiz I just took after looking up "online quiz" on google. The goal of said quiz was to determine what you were in a past life. Interestingly enough, none of the possibilities given by the quiz creator were actual creatures/animals that exist in our world that we know today. They included dragons, unicorns, and, my personal result, mermaid/man. Of the thousands of others who took the same quiz for some reason, most of them got the result of "Dragon." What attracted me to this quiz as opposed to all of the other slightly ridiculous quizzes on this site was due to a personal experience of mine.
Over the summer, both of my grandparents on my mother's side passed away sadly. She had a few falling outs with them over the years and what not, but she still loved them as any son or daughter does their own. When they passed, it happened pretty suddenly and surprisingly within the same month. Getting to the point, after this happened I could tell it affected her pretty heavily. She started acting differently. It seemed like every other day she would convince herself of a new theory, such as "two deer ran across the yard today, it was Lola and Lolo reincarnated." (what we would call them for heritage reasons). Two flies in the bathroom... "its them!" She would exclaim. At first I was worried. Is she crazy? I would ask myself. But soon I came to an important realization. What she is saying is no more or less "crazy" than any other theory on existence and what happens after we die. I was wrong to even ask myself that question. Maybe it was some sort of innocent brainwashing by the few years of Catholic school education and once-or-twice-a-year church outings for Christmas/Easter. I never really thought about reincarnation too much. Never really thought about anything like that other than "yeah that Jesus guy probably did all those things that he did and stuff... I guess?" Point in case, there are other things on an adolescent's mind other than religion. Moreover, our thoughts with a young brain are less philosophical and metaphysical. They are more-so concrete in nature.
Anyways, the point is that there are certain lessons that we learn as we get older. After this experience I realized that no, my mother is not crazy. Your own beliefs and the religion that you follow are simply there to give hope. There are too many theories to keep track of and the truth is, no one knows the truth. Maybe we go to Heaven or Hell. Maybe we reincarnate into deer and flies. Maybe nothing at all. But people don't want to hear "nothing at all." Its too depressing to think about. When you die its just over. That's an awful thought. This is why religion is such an important sector in today's society. And it doesn't matter what you believe in. Nothing is too nonsensical or absurd, as long as you truly believe in it. Without hope of life after death, what do we really have? We have something that lasts 60 or 70 or 80 years. The goal of religious ideals is to make us infinite and give us hope.

Survey: https://www.quotev.com/quiz/9026452/What-were-you-in-a-past-life

1/26/17 Are "Selfies" Dangerous?

Ah yes, the selfie. A truly fascinating social phenomenon that has skyrocketed in popularity by today's millennials, made possible with a simple feature built into our smartphones which allows for a camera that faces the user... so that we can take pictures of ourselves and see what we look like while doing it. So popular in fact that it was even the Oxford Dictionary's "word of the year" in 2013. But what exactly is a "selfie" and, more importantly, why do they exist in society at a deeper, conscious level?

As I was walking back to my dorm earlier, I couldn't help but notice the girl walking in front of me utilizing her front-facing camera. Not to take a picture of herself, but to check herself out, fix her hair and make sure she looked up to her own standards. There are many inherent characteristics of humans that most of us don't even realize. We are constantly caught up in our own imperfections, worrying if our hair looks good or bad, for example. Sadly, the reality is that 99% of the time, no one will notice your imperfection because we are all too busy worrying about our own. And even in the off 1% chance that someone does, another question arises. So what?

Going back to the concept of the "selfie", I believe they exist almost as an escape from this innate self-consciousness. We are not perfect and nobody truly is, but we now have the ability to change that, at least in one snapshot. And that is the result of technology. It's the reason people will take tons of selfies before getting the one they like. We hate looking at ourselves in a picture unless we look "perfect." We have to change the lighting, the angle of the camera, and make facial expressions that we wouldn't normally make all to be perfect in our own eyes. Finally, we can edit the selfie to alter our appearance even more. Selfies are kind of dangerous in a way. Yes, at an elementary level, a  selfie is simply a picture of yourself. But when the face in the picture is reworked and refined so heavily, is it even you?

The answer is yes and no. It is less of who you really are, and more of who you want to be. This goes back to human nature's intrinsic self-consciousness. We're not happy with what we look like, so we can change it in a selfie and post it to Instagram or some other social media site in a sub-conscious effort to temporarily convince ourselves and the world around us that we look better than we actually do. The problem is that all of this is in our own heads. No one is going to notice that weird pimple on your forehead and even if they do, they won't care. Why? Because deep down we, as individuals, are only worried about ourselves.