Language

While I see our language changing everyday and see that our conversational style is becoming much less formal, I had never really thought about the idea of it.  We are adopting less and more simple words. Our new media of Facebook and online chat and even texting has us using shortened words instead of full ideas. Multiple people may use the word “lol” in a conversation but before this shortened word, those multiple people could have all expressed the same comment in different unique ways. This shortened language takes away our individuality, slowly at first while we aren’t realizing it.

It’s important to realize the importance of expressing our thoughts in unique ways. By using generic shortened phrases we are cheating ourselves of original ideas.

There is more on this at http://brittanyneisenmann.blogspot.com/2012/05/destruction-of-words.html

The Internet's Role in Politics

As I pulled up my Internet browser today, the main page of Yahoo.com came up along with the numerous news stories that appear on the page front and center.

Usually there is one story, if not more, that interests me and I read that and typically I see another story on the side that leads me to read that one too. Today as I pulled it up there were two news stories about the upcoming elections.

            I clicked on the first story, which brought up a large picture first of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and then continued to the short article below. Looking to the side of the article there are four more stories related to politics in various subjects. Below the article are 3 more stories. Also below the article is a link to Yahoo’s “Destination 2012: Complete Election Coverage” which brings you to yet another page with multiple articles about every topic you could think of concerning the election and a profile of each of the candidates.

            Each candidate has their own webpage with easy to access information about their positions and opinions on any issue. You can sign up to volunteer from their website or even donate money to their campaign all from online. They also use Facebook to reach more people. It's a free way to access millions of people. Facebook keeps people up to date in real time about what each candidate is doing. It connects them to the people. By liking their page you feel like you have a closer connection to the candidate even if that isn't necessarily true. 

            I also realize that without the Internet to read these things I would be almost completely ignorant of what is happening in politics and other news right now. There is no television in my dorm and I don’t read any paper. I’ve noticed before that many of my friend’s homepages are also Yahoo, which means every time they open their browser they are seeing the news stories just like I am.  I think the majority of young people are reading the news from their computers. It’s faster and more efficient than having to sit through an hour long news show. In an article it can link you to other related pieces by just clicking on words in the article to find out more about a topic discussed in it. An article also can have videos right on the page to watch the 2 minute news clip, instead of the hour long show, you get the information you were interested in in the first place.

            So I wonder that as the young people of today, our generation, grows up will our reliance on the internet for news grow? As for politics and future campaigning, will the internet get more involved? Maybe one day we will be voting for our president from our home computer. Perhaps this large shift in news from the television to the Internet is a positive because the younger generation is now more involved than ever.

Media, Youth, and Democracy

How the country is run is important to our lives and future generations. We all want a better life for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren. So it goes without saying that knowing how our democracy works and how it affects us, is extremely important. The question is how do we educate children to understand and be prepared for when they are adults and able to vote and be involved. 

As we read the article by Henry Jenkins his discussion of Alphaville was interesting and relevant to educating kids about politics. Kid’s live today are filled with games.  When I was in grade school, I learned to type from computer games with funny little characters.  Boys are constantly glued to their video games even up to a college age.  People pull up games on the computer to play or even on their phone to pass the time. Kids are brought up on games today, they learn in school from them and they get entertainment from them. So it makes sense that to educate about our democracy a game would be the best thing to do it.

Alphaville was an online community that simulated a real life society with a government and elections. Many of the players were younger people that while just playing a game they liked, were able to learn about the voting process and how an election works. Alphaville had an election for president and the two candidates that ran were a young middle-school-age girl and a twenty-one-year-old man. In real life the girl wouldn’t even be able to vote in an election let alone run. The election caused large media attention, and when the girl lost she claimed it was foul play coming up with statistics of people who weren’t able to vote. This real life simulation media could be the ideal way to get kids involved and understanding what a democracy really is.  Using the new media available to us allows us to get a deeper understanding and learning of a subject.

Politics isn’t a subject kids care much about but if you make it into some kind of game it instantly has a much better appeal to them. If they are entertained by the game they are playing then they will be learning from it too. Even if it’s an educational game that’s teaching them about our democracy, if they get involved in it, they will begin to understand it also. Kids have always used games as a form of learning such a nursery rhymes or songs to remember things. With new media it gives a whole new dimension to games and education. It gives kids an interactive aspect that is even more effective.  With the Internet, there is that interactive aspect but also a connection between other players. It can connect kids to the world.  Tomorrow’s post will discuss further the role of the new media Internet in our democracy.

Jenkins, Henry. "Photoshop for Democracy." Convergence Culture. New York: New York 

            UP, 2006.