Talkin' 'Bout My Generation

I'd first like to start off by saying that I had never really thought of my generation before and how we look to other generations of people. When I really think about it, I could see people calling us "The Laziest Generation", "The Fattest Generation", or even "The Most Egotistical" generation. I hope we all can agree that, statistically, our generation fits all of these categories. We shop online, have food delivered, and even now have Netflix so we can watch whatever movie we want without leaving our couch. Nowadays we can buy a shirt, get chinese food, and watch "Saving Private Ryan", all without ever putting on pants. I think this proves that our generation is a pretty lazy one. Statistically, more people are overweight now than have ever been before. Finally, we have our cell phones hooked up to our laptops, which are always signed into our Facebooks, just in case John wants to poke you or send you a bumper sticker telling you how many bumper stickers he looked through to find the best one for you, because that just can't wait until you get home from work.

So while I do believe that our generation does have its downfalls, I do not think that "dumbest" belongs on that list. One reason that Mark Bauerlein, I'm going to call him Mark from here on out for sake of typing Bauerlein one more time, states that we are the dumbest generation is because, and I'm paraphrasing from the movie, "Digital culture doesn't open teenagers up to the rest of the world, it opens them up to other teenagers." I am going to have to disagree with this statement, to a point. Yes, it allows us to communicate with other people our age, but it also allows us to communicate with other people from across the county. It also includes more information than would ever be found in a book, including Mark's book. If I want to find a quote saying why people under 30 are dumb, I don't have to by Mark's book; I'll Google it. That doesn't make it "dumb". I believe it makes me "efficient". Also, digital culture, such as the internet, opens teenagers up to anything they want to know. The Smithsonian, many history websites, everything is at our fingertips. Now, Mark said that teenagers don't go to the more educational websites. I'd like to see some data on this point. I want to know how he knows for a fact that teenagers do not use those websites. I know that I have used some of these site to check on things that sparked my interest. How's that for dumb?

My next point comes from the group discussion that we had in class. On my drive home from class, I was thinking about the point that was brought up that our generation should know classical music. I was thinking about this, and what came to my mind is this: What makes classical music more important than any other type of music? Just because Mozart or Chopin directed a certain piece of music doesn't mean that it is more important or more noteworthy than any type of music. I know the music I like isn't the best either, but I also won't expect anyone 100 years from now to be able to recognize "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne. Music is not that important. Just because I don't know a song does not make me "dumb".

What in the world... of warcraft

The video Second Skin was really eye opening to me and quite shocking. I play a lot of video games, but I wouldn't call myself addicted to any of them. I never really thought people could get addicted to video games until I told one of my friends about the movie. He told me that he was addicted to World of Warcraft for about three or four months. He said he would come home from school and play straight through until about midnight. He finally stopped playing because his girlfriend didn't want him to anymore. I found this interesting because he seems to me like a "normal kid". It may be wrong, but when I think of people that are addicted to video games, I think of people that don't play sports or do many social things except for the game. My friend played soccer in high school and is involved in other things. This just showed me that stereotypes aren't always right.

The part that really shocked me was when the man in the movie that was having twins ran an electric cord from the bathroom when that was the only electric working up to his computer just so he could play WOW. If that isn't a sure sign of addiction, I don't know what is. The part that really got me was that he didn't seem to see any problem with it. I would hope he would find his twins more important than a video game.

I really enjoyed the readings in Culture Jam. It's really opening my eyes up to how messed up our generation is. The chapter Your Corporate Connection really shocked me. I didn't realize how the technology we are surrounded by today effects people's lives. If it wasn't for magazines and the internet, Matt and Sarah (from the book) would probably still be together. The sad part is, most people probably really couldn't even imagine life without magazines and the internet. Where would we get information? How would we communicate with each other? The answer, to me, is the way our parents, grandparents, and everyone else before about 1975 did. They listened to the radio. They traveled to actually meet with their friends and family. Although some people would say it was more difficult, I think a life without, as Kalle Lasn calls it, background noise, would be a much more enjoyable one.

Introduction

My name is Justin Sell and I am a junior Elementary Education major here at Ship. In my spare time here I like to play video games, watch tv, listen to music, and hang out with my friends. I play mostly sports games on my ps3 such as Madden and MLB 2k11, but I just started playing Call of Duty this year when Black Ops came out. I like to watch comedy movies. My favorites are Anchorman and Get Him to the Greek. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but rap and hip-hop are my favorites. Two summers ago I saw Lil Wayne with my girlfriend and it was awesome. We were four rows from the stage! I took interest in this class for two connected reasons. I am a reading minor, and also I eventually want to switch to teaching high school English. I enjoy reading and writing, and I think showing teens the joys of reading would be a valuable thing to do. I like to read comedy books, mainly biographies and other books written by comedians, but I also read novels. The last book I read was Russell Brand's biography called My Booky Wook. I am currently reading his second book. I would define literature as anything written for a purpose of being read by others in a professional manner that has style and form. This includes books and magazines, but excludes things like blogs and facebook posts.