Four Letter Word Project: OBEY

I used the word obey because it deals with our everyday struggles of whether to conform to what is expected of us, or rebel against accepted norms. The video I made deals with the pressure to obey government, religion, and society (specifically regarding our obsession with our image).

What Nothing Says

Looking at the buddies on my Instant Messenger list, the one user name that always stands out is "SilenceIsMurder". It makes me stop, if only for a millisecond, and think about the power of silence. We're all familiar with the notion that words are the carriers of meaning, and that in order to establish an argument you must first craft a well organized assortment of words. Ironically, as the power of words grew, so did the power of silence. To prove this, I thought about when I used to get in trouble by my parents. When I did something wrong and I got yelled at, I'd be a little upset, but eventually we moved on. However if I did something wrong, and all my mother did was look at me with a livid expression, I would be terrified. I feel that is true with most people. At least if you get yelled at there is a dialogue and an effort to resolve the conflict. However, the dreadful silence and trepidation of whats to come is simply murder. Therefore, the decision to use or omit words in an argument can be a very effective tool. The same is true in our technological world of advertisements and metadata, as Weinberger explains in this latest chapter.

Specifically, Weinberger deals with the difference between the implicit and explicit. He notes that as hard as we try to make meaning and provide information, there is also a great deal of meaning in what we choose not to include. We create a web of implicit relationships and the links between these relationships thus creates meaning. Furthermore, there is an interesting point that Weinberger brings up that should be discussed. He asserts that there is a paradox of the digital order by pointing out that "As we pull the leaves from the trees and make a pile of the miscellaneous, we free the leaves from their implicit context". He means that our nature to tag, and comment, and, be explicit through the technological order, in turn diminishes its implicit context. We are constantly making decisions about what should be said and what should be unsaid, and in turn we are making decisions on how much we trust can be inferred. And to be frank, I feel as though our powers of inference have already suffered because of this. Remember the lady who sued McDonalds because her coffee was too hot? Honestly, the day we need signs on our coffee saying "HOT", which I think is already starting to happen, is the day our society can no longer comprehend 'what nothing says'.

Interview With Lauren

Hofstra Interviews Consensus

In my interviews with Hofstra students, I have found that many people are uncomfortable talking about writing. They answer my questions because I ask them too, but they are really uninterested in talking about writing. I feel the biggest reason for this is that none of them really consider themselves writers, because they tend to consider writing as purely a profession, and that their countless texts, facebook updates, and academic papers, while qualify as pieces of writing, do not qualify them as true writers. There is no personal connection for many students with writing, and it is viewed purely as a tedious, boring, activity that they try to engage in as infrequently as possible. When I ask them what they write, the most common answer are essays and other academic writing. The second most common answer I received was from film majors who said that they write scripts. However, no one told me that they write stories, diaries, poems, or any other creative writing. Although, when I mentioned texting and facebook, they did generally decide that they were pieces of writing, but they weren't important enough to remember without my interjection. Overall, I feel that there is no national conversation on writing, because no one is really talking about their writing, even though they engage in digital writing constantly. I feel as though that digital writing is unconscious; we do not even realize how much we write via texts and facebook until it is brought to our attention.

The Materiality of Writing

Blogging in this class has certainly altered my outlook on writing and how its effected by its medium. When I began blogging, there was such a natural, inert desire to follow the universal standards for writing that are instilled in us from childhood. However, as I have become a more experienced blogger, I have tried to break free from this imprisoning structure, using color, font changes, and other creative touches to help express my ideas.

In academic writing, your words are your only tools. Every paper must be white, every font must be Times New Roman, and every text color must be black. Nothing makes your paper stand out from the other. Therefore, all you have is your word bank and grammar techniques to make you shine. However, as the material of writing changes, so do the way in which we can provide our argument. For example, when we used construction paper and crayons in class, my writing became more creative. The same is true for when I blog. I feel freed from the rules of academic writing, and sometimes experiment with font changes, underlines, and color accents, all of which expanded my arsenal for creating an effective argument.

Social Knowing

Knowledge is not individualistic; its collective. Knowledge is between us, it emerges from public an social thought. Two things that Weinbereger discusses about social knowing in this chapter are blogs and wikipedia, both of which are prime examples of how third order devices expand our collective knowledge.

The Blog

Every week, we write for this class via blog. As a course that examines writing in a digital age, the blog seems an appropriate medium for us to communicate and exchange our ideas. However not everyone believes in the usefulness of blogs. Michael Gorman, the president of the American Library Association wrote in the Library Journal: "A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web". Although Gorman is attacking the act of blogging, we must first assess his bias. He is the President of the American Library Association. The library is overwhelmingly attached to the first and second orders of order, so of course the president is going to find an opposition to a medium that destroys everything his association s built upon. While a library idolizes concrete facts and proper writing, the blog shows an evolution of writing, where creativity if preferred to the standard universal format. Therefore, while I agree that blogging is unfiltered and unedited, I believe these are strengths, not weaknesses.

Wikipedia

"And what is the most important thing Wikipedia teaches us? That Wikipedia is possible. A miscellaneous collection of anonymous and pseudonymous authors can precipitate knowledge (Weinberger 139)". Who hasn't used Wikipedia? We all rely on the ease of use and plethora of knowledge the website has about virtually any topic. However, if someone said twenty years ago that one day people will rely on a source that is entirely composed from unknown, and largely unqualified authors, many of us would have not believed them. This is the magic of wikipedia. It allows us to have control of the distribution and organization of knowledge, letting every individual edit the next, and allowing knowledge to grow rather than being spoon fed into our brains. I strongly support Wikipedia, not only for the information it provides me, but for what it says about our society, and how we can rely on each other, rather than professionals, for information.

Writing New Media

Cynthia Selfe makes an interesting point in the second section of the book. She links the lack of new media in the classroom as not a result of educators not feeling it is appropriate, but because many educators lack the knowledge and familiarity to access new media texts and determine the usability in the classroom. Fortunately, we are indeed living in the midst of a technological revolution, and hopefully soon technology and new media will be implemented more evenly in classrooms. However, as the digital world seeps its way into our schools, we must be conscious of how it affects the ways our instructors teach and our students learn. As faculties learn to embrace technology into their curriculum, they will be rewarded with an enhanced educational program, including wide ranges of effective projects and assignments, and high levels of student participation and student led discussion. However, technology is constantly changing and transforming the way we write, think, and learn. It is of great importance that we continue to monitor the effects of technology in schools and universities in order to maintain the positive effects it has had on our educational system.