Reality TV

Long gone are the days of traditional television sitcoms. Today it seems as if everyone is addicted to reality television. I think that the first major reality television movement was when survivor made its debut. Survivor was such a hit, but it quickly got old because it followed the same format every season. I find myself liking shows and then eventually getting tiered of them because you can usually predict what is going to happen.

The problem with reality television is that it is not really reality. Most of the television shows are scripted for television audiences. For example, Flava Flave set out to find love on his reality show Flavor of Love, but he never found love. Flava Flave signed a contract with VH1 to star in three reality shows, which is proof that his love was designed to fail. Many people get caught up in reality TV, although, it is obvious that the shows are not real. After Flavor of Love there has been two reality TV shows modeled after it, I love New York and For the Love of Ray J. I told myself that I would not watch these reality shows because they are full of drama, but I find myself tuning in for every show.

For celebrities reality television has become a way for past stars to revive their careers. For example, Paula Abdul stars as one of the judges on American Idol since the inception of the show. Paula Abdul was a major music icon in the 90s, but now in this generation she is not as popular. By Paula staring on American Idol she has been able to bring fame back to her name. She is known as the caring and empathetic judge that always believes that people perform well. After many seasons American Idol is still going strong.

I think that the main thing that people like about reality TV is the drama. Reality TV ratings will continue to soar as longs as people are provided with juicy gossip and (non)reality.

Twitter

Earlier this semester in media class we discussed how popular Twitter is becoming. Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user's updates known as tweets. Twitter was established in 2006, but it has taken about three years for it to become very popular. When I first learned about the concept of Twitter I was not interested. I told myself that I would just stick to facebook and update my status on there. That is exactly what I did. I continued to facebook and never opened a Twitter account.

I have friends that are on Twitter and they claim that they are chatting with the celebrities, which seems a bit unrealistic. I didn’t understand how you could really tell if you are talking to a real celebrity or to some person that has a fake account. Personally I really wasn’t very interested in following someone else’s thoughts, for I have enough of my own thoughts in my head. I continued to tell myself that I would not get a Twitter because it would be a waste of my time.

Well, a few weeks passed and the buzz about Twitter continued to increase. News stations have started to advertise a news Twitter at the end of news broadcasts. When making the band was coming on P.Diddy told viewers to follow him on Twitter. Then while I was in class one of my classmates was on her cell phone secretly on Twitter while our professor was teaching. When I logged on to my faithful facebook the first thing that I saw was a status update that said, “follow me on Twitter”. I had enough of Twitter, so when I got home I had to log on to Twitter to see what it was about. Once I logged on I found a friend and looked at her Twitter updates. Everything that she wrote about was very random and I really didn’t care that she was having these thoughts. After being on the Twitter website for about five minutes I had this urge to join, and I did.

Although I have a Twitter account I still have not become addicted to the popular social network. Twitter still has not grown on me, but I have an account just in case I would like to join the millions of people that Twitter daily. Twitter seems kind of creepy to me, but it is surely becoming a norm.

Vacation or Not

On May 14th I will be departing from Houston, Texas to Cancun, Mexico. What I thought was going to be a vacation from reality is turning into a trip of uncertainty. Everyday that I turn on my televison I hear something different about the drug wars in Mexico. People are being killed in different cities in Mexico, which is not a great feeling. Now in the last week or so the news has been full of coverage about the Swine Flu, which is beginning to sread rapidly.

The drug wars and the Swine Flu have been in the media everyday. At first I thought that the media was taking these topics overboard, but now I know that they are very serious issues. The Swine Fue has already killed more than 80 people in Mexico City in two weeks. The drug wars didn't really concern me, but this deadly flu is kind of scary when you think about it! People in Mexico city are walking around the city with surgical masks on their faces to prevent chances of catching the Swine Flu. When I planned my trip to Mexico I had intentions of relaxing, having a few beverages (alcoholic), and sitting on the beach all day. Now that there are so many issues in the country I am not sure that my trip will be this relaxing. I am not even sure if I still want to go ont the trip.

I realize that these are serious issues, but I wonder if the media is making these issues bigger than they really are. I am not in the country so all I have to rely on is what I read and see on the televison. Needless to say, I am not very excited about this trip anymore, but it could still be fun.

UPDATE: MY TRAVEL PLANS HAVE CHANGED. I AM NO LONGER GOING TO MEXICO. NOW I AM GOING TO SAN, JUAN PUERTO RICO!

Is print text dying?

Is print text dying? I think that in many ways print text is beginning to disappear, but I don't believe that it will ever disappear completely. Today my grandmother was looking for a phone number for a local business and she asked me if we had a phone book. I looked at her with a puzzled look and thought to myself, "a phone book"? I didn't give her a puzzled look because I didn't know what a phone book was, but because I have not used one in so long. I told her that I was not sure if we had a phone book, but I could still locate the number that she was trying to find. Like so many other times, I went to my laptop and typed in the name of the local business and the phone number, address, and directions appeared. I think that this is a perfect example of how print text may be dying.

The environmental standards that people are living by may also be causing traditional print text to die. For example, many people follow the standards of the go green campaign, which causes them to make environmentally conscious decisions regarding print text. Many universities are now placing a lot of information online, which is causing a cut back of print text. At Lamar University there is a limited number of course guides that are printed. Students are forced to go to the Internet to search for courses or they can opt to purchase a print version of the catalog. Also at the college level, many professors are uploading portions of their course content online. The virtual classroom can be very interesting because students are engaged in a virtual classroom speaking to people that they have never met. Usually in a virtual classroom students don't have to ever engage in print text, for most of their writing is submitted online or to discussion boards. Although environmental standards have eliminated print text I don't believe that print text will completely disappear due to environmental standards.

The loss of print text usually demands that we turn to the virtual world, but what happens to those that don't have a computer? Every night before I go to bed I read USA Today and The Houston Chronicle online, but individuals that don't have computer or Internet can not do the same. I find that it is much easier and I don't have to buy a newspaper to read the internet online. I believe that one day everyone will have a computer in his or her home, but until then print text will remain alive. Even after computers are in every home I believe that text will not die, but I guess only time will tell.

Teaching Literature

Since I have been interning I have found that many students do not enjoy reading old literature. So, is old literature still relevant in today's classroom? Of course literature is very important in the English classroom! There are some many genres of Literature, which helps us to understand the world around us. Through literature, we explore the human mind and analyze how and why people engage in some of their actions. Literature enables us to think critically about what an author was trying to say and it promotes an open mind. Thorough literature we are able to see the world from different perspectives of many writers and their culture. Without literature, we lack all of these great qualities in the English classroom. Therefore, it is my personal opinion that literature should still be taught in the classroom.

How would I teach literature? Well, everyone has his or her own teaching style, but for me I would teach lit by using technology and hands on activities. In media class we discussed a few inovative activities that can be used in the English classroom. The activity that sticks in my mind is the Facebook activity, which involves students creating Facebook accounts for characters. I really like this activity because it can be adapted to so many different social networks. For example, instead of using Facebook students may be asked to create an account for a character on myspace. I believe that students would really get into an assignment like this because it is in their comfort zone. I think that it is a great idea to bring something into the curriculum that most students utilize on a daily basis. Other examples of teaching literature through media would be blogging and discussion post. Blogging would allow students to go away from the traditional journal writing to putting their thoughts online. Because literature can be so complex, discussion post would allow students to share their opinions about different text. Both blogging and discussion post could help students to better understand text.

Can literature be taught in a fun and engaging way? Yes, I believe that literature can be manipulated in a way that students are comfortable reading the text. There are many students that still enjoy old literature, but then there are the few that don't enjoy lit. To accomodate both groups of students I think that technology and hands on experiences are the perfect answers. Students will become more engaged in lessons when they are in their comfort zone, and for many students technology is comfort!

Shower Music

Today when I got up to get ready for school I took my shower as I usually would. While I was in the shower I was listening to my itunes from my laptop. On the latest version of itunes there is a feature called genius, which allows the user to hear similar artist based on the current track that is playing. When I selected the genius option on my computer I happened to be listening to a song by T.I, a rapper, so all of the following tracks should have been similar to T.I. At first all of the tracks that played after the original song were about right, but then a gospel track started to play about two songs into my shower. I thought that it was very strange that my computer chose to play the selection of songs that it did. At one point I was listening to rap music and then the next music I was listening to one of my favorite gospel songs. I was not opposed to hearing gospel, but I like to keep it separate from my music that contains PROFANITY!

The point that I am trying to make goes much deeper than me being disturbed by my computer's lack of ability to play like songs, but that computers are not ready to lead. In class we have had discussion about computers taking over some of the responsibilities that teachers now possess. My computers inability to play the correct mixture of songs makes me wonder if computers are ready to lead our youth. Can computers teacher our children? I don't believe that teachers can be replaced by computers simply because of all of the knowledge and reason that humans possess. In my opinion, computers are great resources and should only be used as resources. There may be a time when computers are able to lead humans, but I don't think that technology has reached that point.

Automated Voices

In multimedia class the topic of automated voices was discussed. Prior to discussing automated voices in class I never really thought how surrounded I am by the voices. I think that most people actually accept the voices as people because they are so life like. The voices speak to us as if they have feelings, emotions, and empathy, but since the automated machines are not human they don't posses any of those qualities. Although the voices are accepted people are being cheated out of having personal interactions with other humans.

When I worked at Six Flags Astroworld automated voices were all around me, but I just accepted the voices as if they were coming from people. Periodically throughout the day voices would speak over the park wide intercom, the rides had automated voices to give instructions, and the front gate had voices to greet people. The automated phrase that I remember the most is probably from the ride Ultra Twister. Every 10 seconds the speaker in the station would repeat the phrase, "moving conveyor, please watch your step." Because I heard the voice and the message so much, I learned to tune the phrase out.

I think that automated voices are sort of strange because they are accepted as people. When we call places an automated voice may answer the phone while you wait to speak with a real customer service representative. I believe that many customer services departments are failing around the world because they are decreasing the amount of personal contact that customers receive. Sometimes I find it very annoying when I call a business and I can't get any human contact. Although, the voices are usually very polite I usually hang up on them.

I know with the evolution of technology more automated voices will appear, but I am not ready to accept this change. I believe that human contact is essential to every human being. The kind words that machines speak are taking the place of human contact, which I don't believe is good. Why can't we have elevator operators to greet people? Why can't we have humans greet us when we call customer services lines? I know that many companies resort to the use of automated voices because it is cheaper, but not necessarily good for business.