HW #14

The excerpts I read focused on the affects of TV and video games  on our intelligence. It is often said that watching a lot of TV or playing hours of video games makes you dumber, but this author argues the opposite. The author takes focus off of the criticized content, for example sexuality and graphic violence, and looks at the screens' impact on our cognitive skills. 

Playing video games is interactive. The player makes choices based on what is being presented on the screen. Even though they may be involved in what's going on on the screen, the same part of the brain are being used as they would be in making choices in real life. 

Though watching TV is not an interactive activity, it also uses the cognitive functions of the brain. Watching television shows they have multiple plot lines a complicated stories require the viewer is make inferences and analyze what they are watching. This means even though the body is not physically active, the brain is because it is constantly working out the messages it receives from the screen. 

These readings offered me a different perspective. When discussing the affects of TV and video games, I often focus on the content. Analyzing the images we see only looks at the surface of the relationship between man and screen. I understand the similarities in brain function between reading a book and watching a show like the Sopranos. In shows with many main characters, and unresolved conflicts, one episode does not offer all the answers. This kind of program hold my attention, and stays in my mind once it is over. When trying to figure out what will happen next, I look for evidence in past episodes, which is the same process as making inferences about books in school. 

I was never really into video, but in the few times I have played them I found it very difficult. Not only does it require a lot of hand-eye coordination, but the play must also find strategies to completing the game. It is like a digital puzzle. 

The author of the reading argues that the brain is actually being exercised while watching TV or playing video games. Feed is about how the brain is made practically useless because all the screen stimulation. But the authors are using evidence from two different aspects of digitalization. The author of the reading is not suggesting that TV should be the only means of becoming more intelligent. His argument is much less extreme than the one presented in Feed. Feed also focuses on what the messages do to the viewer, but the reading focus more on us, and how our brains work.

HW #13: Feed B

It is very important that FEED is a book. Every other strong creative aspect of it, such as teenage narrative and symbolic representation of the present would have been lost if was presented a movie or podcast. By telling his story in print, Tobin pries the reader away from the internet, making his message more dramatic, and forcing the reader to prioritize and make their own choices.
FEED is both the mirror and the hammer. It must be the mirror first. If an artist has any hope of shaping the world, they must first understand what they want to change and why. The author also makes it clear to the reader what must be changed. The author's role as the hammer is not so clear because he does not simply state how to fix the problems. I think the message of the book lingers in minds of the readers because there it not a traditional happy ending or a magical solution. By making readers think, the author or artist is influencing the world on a much deeper level than just providing a good story.
Looking at FEED as a work of art, the process of conveying the message and making it relevant is a team effort between the artist and the observer. Without the potential for affect on the reader/ viewer, the piece is irrelevant. While the artist has the job of creating something tangible, the viewer's job of processing, analyzing, and questioning is equally as important. Without both roles actively working, we cannot change and grow as a society.

HW # 12: Feed A

The story of FEED clearly represents the internet age and screen-attached teenage dumb asses that are experiencing it to the fullest. I imagine adults (particularly those born during generation X) reading this and shaking their heads disapprovingly. "Tsk, tsk, these children are supposed to be our future, but instead they are a bunch of YouTube junkies and Tivo heads," they say to themselves, "we are fucked." But are we really? I hope not.
When Andy asked if we would get a "feed" if we could, I wasn't sure how to answer. I didn't want an Iphone at first. The idea of a touch screen scared me, it was too advanced and made things to easy. Using such advance technology to do such frivolous things, such as playing digital beer pong, made me nervous. Now it feels like an extension of me, a part of my brain that I turn off during movies. It is frighteningly close to a "feed" and as much as I would like to think I would hold up without one, I probably wouldn't and would be so excited once I could use it completely hands free.
Being a teenager is confusing because we developing a sense of self while battling raging hormones and our parents. Having all sorts of easily accessible media around telling us what to like, what to believe, and so on makes life easier during such a strange and hard period. This is why teenagers today cling to the internet. Without constantly receiving messages, we are left alone with our own thoughts, which can be really scary. Like drug and alcohol use, technology is an easy way to numb out true feelings and feel part of something without being too exposed. Most people grow out of heavy partying once they have to live in the real world, and I think my generation will have a similar experience with the internet in the future.