Initial thoughts? Unfortunately, they are quite cynical, maybe unwarranted to an extent. I never liked the idea of blogs about people. A blog about your life is a replacement for real life interaction. The time spent writing online about your thoughts and opinions would be much better spent by actually talking about those things, face to face. But blog writing for a college course? It’s a bit different. However, I feel like it’s academia's attempt at using technology to grasp kids’ (did I use this apostrophe correctly? I think the rule is it goes after the “s” if it is multiple things being possessed by multiple people…) attentions, and therefore get them to do better work. It doesn’t really make things better than just doing discussion questions for homework, then just sharing with the class the next day. But, people are easily “misled” (not the perfect word for the situation, but I can’t think of a better alternative) by simple things.
For example, I could buy socks from a boutique that are 15 dollars a pair, that are made from re-engineered spider silk (this is a real thing, they put the gene that allows spiders to produce silk into goats, milked them, and somehow extracted the silk from the milk. And this silk is stronger than kevlar, inch to inch. I don’t think this is cost-effective enough to be mass-produced right now, but theoretically, you could have socks made with spider silk in the next 50 years. Science, man...), but my brain is quickly put off on the price. But then I see “cheep-oh” brand socks, with a “limited time, once in a lifetime sale!” offer: 3 pairs for $3.00! I’m like “SCORE!”, and buy “cheep-oh”. But…in the next month, I’ve found that the socks I bought were REALLY itchy, and the last pair got a hole in them yesterday. I buy the “deal” month after month. two years later, I talk to my friend, who bought 2 pairs of spider silk socks, and both pairs are still going strong (and super comfy too). I do some math, and find that over the past two years, I spent 72 dollars on socks. My buddy, he spent 24 dollars 2 years ago, and still has those comfy-ass socks made of spider silk.
(Well, that took longer than I expected. See, remember my first blog post! Told you my writing can get sidetracked!)
the point I was making in the last paragraph was that people can be easily be distracted by things (the irony being that the example explaining how people are easily distracted, was an example of MY writing being distracted). In the example, I got distracted by a so-called “deal”, and didn’t have the foresight to realize that the brand I was buying from was called “cheep-oh”. Now, to tie this in with the prompt, I feel that many people my age can be enticed into things because they deal with technology. People will play a bowling video game “AMF Bowling 2006”, but go actual bowling? Nahh…So, I’m not enamored with technology, but there isn’t much of a difference with me posting blog posts, and just submitting discussion questions on paper.
The bottom line: It doesn’t make much of a difference to me
R\
For example, I could buy socks from a boutique that are 15 dollars a pair, that are made from re-engineered spider silk (this is a real thing, they put the gene that allows spiders to produce silk into goats, milked them, and somehow extracted the silk from the milk. And this silk is stronger than kevlar, inch to inch. I don’t think this is cost-effective enough to be mass-produced right now, but theoretically, you could have socks made with spider silk in the next 50 years. Science, man...), but my brain is quickly put off on the price. But then I see “cheep-oh” brand socks, with a “limited time, once in a lifetime sale!” offer: 3 pairs for $3.00! I’m like “SCORE!”, and buy “cheep-oh”. But…in the next month, I’ve found that the socks I bought were REALLY itchy, and the last pair got a hole in them yesterday. I buy the “deal” month after month. two years later, I talk to my friend, who bought 2 pairs of spider silk socks, and both pairs are still going strong (and super comfy too). I do some math, and find that over the past two years, I spent 72 dollars on socks. My buddy, he spent 24 dollars 2 years ago, and still has those comfy-ass socks made of spider silk.
(Well, that took longer than I expected. See, remember my first blog post! Told you my writing can get sidetracked!)
the point I was making in the last paragraph was that people can be easily be distracted by things (the irony being that the example explaining how people are easily distracted, was an example of MY writing being distracted). In the example, I got distracted by a so-called “deal”, and didn’t have the foresight to realize that the brand I was buying from was called “cheep-oh”. Now, to tie this in with the prompt, I feel that many people my age can be enticed into things because they deal with technology. People will play a bowling video game “AMF Bowling 2006”, but go actual bowling? Nahh…So, I’m not enamored with technology, but there isn’t much of a difference with me posting blog posts, and just submitting discussion questions on paper.
The bottom line: It doesn’t make much of a difference to me
R\