And here's an interesting story about the way we swamp our brains with digital overload.
Take a look at both. You have until 8 p.m. Friday to post a comment on the stories.
For a podcast on the lighter side of the digital debate, go here.
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The first article was interesting, but it leaves (in my opinion) the reader with more questions then answers.
ReplyDeleteThe second article really made me realize how much we really use digital gizmoz. I started to get a headache just by looking at my screen.
ReplyDeleteI love real books! I like to pick them out, look, touch, feel and hold them. I guess I am a throw back to an earlier age, where one had to pick their books from the Library, Shop-co, or a good old fashion yard sale! Books are my friends, and without them, I would not be me...
ReplyDeleteHaving never held a Kindle or an Ipsa in my life, I am a bit sceptical.But Iam kinda facinated by the prospects...10,000 reads at your finger-tips? Awesome conceopt.. May I make a few suggestions? Where the red fern grows, the outsiders, Anna Karina, and the lovely bones.. Good Books, all. Could I read them\ tonite, if I had a Kindle?
Ouch, this article hurt my head! Thanks for the effort, but I already hve enough shit to do tonite. Ms. Bates muti-tasks, way beyond my ability, but I wish her the best of luck...
ReplyDeleteI dont belive that the new kindle will just be the only one made by companies, it will evolve and transform the market for books and publishing houses. May well be the end of book stores eventually in the near future, just as technology's advance so we as humans do in our own brains capasity. Do we eventually have technology inplanted straight to the brain?
ReplyDeleteOnce again technology strikes, taking away from our beutiful world where we are given a chance to reboot in nature. whats next digital nature and suburbian streets everywhere we look? i will take my mountains thankyou.
ReplyDeleteI received an iPod as a gift this spring. I started wearing it when I was jogging on the Rails to Trails path west of town. I started with music, then added podcasts of some of my favorite TV and radios shows (this is an example of both time shifting, and place shifting, two concepts we’ll explore in more detail this semester). Recently, I started leaving the iPod at home. I’m also a writer and I’m working on some non-fiction fly fishing stories I might someday turn into a book. I realized I do some of my best writing when I’m running, if I leave the distractions of “On the Media” and “Pardon the Interruption” at home. Running without distraction allows the mind to relax and suddenly ideas related to my work pop into my head. The trick is to remember them until I get home and can write them out. Maybe I need to bring my iPod, I think it has a recorder function?
ReplyDeleteThat being said, if I’m sitting in my car waiting for one of my teenage daughters for more than a minute (that happens a lot), I’m on my Blackberry checking messages or the Internet. I do the same thing when I’m watching TV, usually while eating too.
I have to say that after reading the second article about our in-tune, if I might add INSANE society, it literally gave me headache myself. I might add that I do understand the pros and cons of our constantly changing technological society. It's pretty self explanatory to say that everything in moderation is a good thing and that's where I stand with it. It seems that our society is caught up with constantly improving everything that's out there and one day I'm sure there will be robots running around. I'm pretty sure almost everyone will be freaked out by that. Or will they?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of books, one of my daughters had to read “Fahrenheit 451” for honors English during the summer. I read it as well to better help her with her assignments. It’s hard not to see similarities between the way we are bombarded with media messages to the world Ray Bradbury and others of the dystopian genre predicted (see “Brave New World” and “1984” or Terry Gilliam’s great 1985 film “Brazil.”)
ReplyDeleteI’d like to think we haven’t slid down the path suggested by these authors, but it does make me worry just a bit.
I felt the author did a good job selling the Kindle, but was fair to the other companies. I also realized I have a lot to learn about the different technologies available.
ReplyDeleteI find myself doing the same thing always checking my email, my cell phone or facebook whenever I have free time. I’ve never really thought about the effect it might have on my brain. Maybe that explains the effect of 5 days at elk camp has on my body. All the hiking, no cell phone or internet service, early bed time, all the quite time to think and reflect on my life. I’m tired when I come home, but so refreshed at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the article on the Kindle, since I've never used one before. I agree with the author, though, when he wonders why we can't pass the books along to our friends after we've finished them. If I paid $13 for every book I owned, I couldn't afford to stop working long enough to read them (let alone buy a Kindle, although the price is appealing.) I was more impressed by the idea of the Nook, where you can enjoy an hour a day of free reading in Barnes and Noble. That sounds more like something I would benefit from, and a limit of an hour a day might help me from wasting a day away. On the other hand, knowing there is an hour of free, limitless reading out there might also help me remember to stop, relax and read!
ReplyDeleteLast month I gave up my Blackberry in lieu of a little old flip phone that my father upgraded out of (yup, that cool). It gets a few laughs, but I can't express how liberating it has been to not be tied to that Blackberry! When I have 'downtime', I have to find something more to do than check my email or read TFLN, and often that solution has been having conversations that I wouldn't have engaged in if I was able to hide behind my phone. And Jessica, I think we already have robots walking around the streets - have you seen the videos of people walking into oncoming traffic while they are texting? I don't know if it's 'robotic', but it's certainly not human.
ReplyDeleteI'm voting for Rebecca's answer: a week in elk camp. That's gotta cure what ails you.
ReplyDeleteThere are times when I'd like to follow Megan's lead and chuck my Blackberry. On the other hand, having my FVCC e-mail forwarded to my Blackberry is what allowed me to help Megan solve a computer problem last night, and I didn't even have to get up off the couch or stop watching the football game I was plugged into.
Whether that's a good or bad thing is a question we'll try to answer this semester.
I absolutely agree with Megan. The idea of spending $13 for an eBook you can't pass along, is a little ridiculous, although the author almost convinced me to buy one at the very end of the article. I just might if the eBooks were a little cheaper.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the second article, I have never been a fan of being distracted while I exercise. I like to focus on my workout, and now I feel I'm ahead of the curb! However, I just bought a blackberry last month and it's sucking me in.
The podcast was cute. I guess it just depends if someone wants just a simple way to read eBooks, without breaking the bank. Maybe it's preferable to spend the money for all the whistles and bells that the iPad offers? I figure personally between my laptop and Blackberry, I would go the frugal route.
ReplyDeletewith what little time of freedom i have i enjoy just relaxing and soaking sun or star gazing, im not the typical modern day person, maybe its nice to have everything on one little organized blackberry or iphone, but really does it have that much for the average person, who cannot make a simple phone opperate? too much technology for me it is handy on the other hand to have the access to school online so that i can fucntion in all worlds, school work kids i do go for that idea....
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ReplyDeleteI like the Kindle and am tempted to buy one myself, but like several other people have said, the $13 fee per book seems a bit high, especially after David Pogue broke down the total cost of publishing and recycling books. As for device overload, I tend to see the similarities between our society and Orwell's 1984 in the bombardment of images and messages, regardless of whether they come from the government or corporations.
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