Books were probably the most revolutionary invention ever. They could keep track of things and teach knowledge of past generations and people to everyone who reads them. However, when books were first invented, they could only be hand-written, and therfore were very rare. Only rich people could afford them during this time. When the printing press came out, it changed all of this. Books could be mass produced and all of this knowledge could be passed around to everyone. History, skills, religions, and overall knowledge, could be transferred to anyone who would read the right book. It encouraged independent thought and led to more than a few revolutions and uprisings.
Children and teens don't want to read anymore, though. They're becoming way too lazy and are taking way too many things for granted. They're too busy moving their thumbs a couple of millimeters on an Xbox controller to care about reading. It's stupid, really. No one wants to learn, anymore, and our leaders are getting older and older. Pretty soon, it's going to be up to us and the only thing we're going to know how to do, is move our thumbs a couple of millimeters. It's scary when you realize that these 10-year old kids are going to be a part of our future, because a lot of them are just complete morons.
I think if parents would just make their kids read and pay more attention to school, instead of just letting them eat junk all day and get fat playing video games, maybe things wouldn't be as scary. Technology can be a great source of entertainment, but when kids spend their entire lives sitting there, it's just plain stupid. I was at least running around outside, when I was little. I might have played my bother's Playstation a lot of the time, too, but I at least read on top of this. All in all, books are the best source of knowledge because they don't require anything except the book itself.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Ch. 9
Magazines are just purely one giant advertisement block. Hardly any magazines ever have anything even remotely educational, besides maybe, National Geographic and Newsweek. Apart from these two, there are just countless fashion magazines with 70% advertisments. I suppose if someone wants to buy perfume, they could look at a random page and have a good chance at finding an ad for it because there are a lot of perfume ads in fashion magazines. Overall, I just don't see magazines as a good source for information.
The only magazine I have ever bought, and will continue to ever buy, I only purchase once a year. I buy the August edition of Sports Illustrated just to get the Fantasy Football player rankings. I won't even look at anything else in the magazine. I like watching sports, not reading about the personal lives of the players. The same thing goes for celebrities - why do people care? I just don't understand how there can be people that need to have every bit of information about celebrities. People that have to follow them on Twitter to see what kind of toothpaste Lady Gaga uses, or something strange like that.
Newspapers and magazines are disappearing and it's probably because of the things mentioned above and the fact that newpapers are too boring. We have television and the Internet, now. A simple, bland piece of paper with color photos and blocks of text on it can't compete with television, where some actually talks to you. This requires no reading and people don't like to read. The Internet is way faster than a newspaper and allows someone to multi-task at the same time, providing better chances for entertainment whil gathering information. Honestly, I don't see the newspaper industry lasting much longer, at least in a physical form. They have newspapers available for the Kindle and Nook, now. That might be the future of newspapers.
The only magazine I have ever bought, and will continue to ever buy, I only purchase once a year. I buy the August edition of Sports Illustrated just to get the Fantasy Football player rankings. I won't even look at anything else in the magazine. I like watching sports, not reading about the personal lives of the players. The same thing goes for celebrities - why do people care? I just don't understand how there can be people that need to have every bit of information about celebrities. People that have to follow them on Twitter to see what kind of toothpaste Lady Gaga uses, or something strange like that.
Newspapers and magazines are disappearing and it's probably because of the things mentioned above and the fact that newpapers are too boring. We have television and the Internet, now. A simple, bland piece of paper with color photos and blocks of text on it can't compete with television, where some actually talks to you. This requires no reading and people don't like to read. The Internet is way faster than a newspaper and allows someone to multi-task at the same time, providing better chances for entertainment whil gathering information. Honestly, I don't see the newspaper industry lasting much longer, at least in a physical form. They have newspapers available for the Kindle and Nook, now. That might be the future of newspapers.
Ch. 8
Apparently, the first colonists under British rule to come to the east coast of America, didn't have their own newspapers for something like 20 years. I'm just wondering whether the British just forbidded them from making their own, or if the colonists just didn't think they were necessary. Understandably, in the early stages, colonists really didn't pay attention to anything except their own local communities. Anyway, I remember from middle school doing a project on something called, "Common Sense." It was one of the first colonial newspapers that tried convincing the colonists to revolt against English rule. It actually ended up rallying a lot of colonists and made them more aware of what was happening in the other colonies.
Really, newspapers have the same function that they did back then. Newspapers are here to provide information to the common citizen. Newspapers are probably the least biased form of information out there, in a world where most of the news stations are obviously Republican-oriented. FOX, for example, cannot go a single minute without bashing the president for something, or just shows Glenn Beck putting a Hitler moustache on something. All in all, newspapers might not be as fast as television news or the internet, but it provides the most unbiased information.
Personally, I don't read the newspaper. I might look at it during elections or to play Sudoku, but it just isn't worth my time. It may be informative and unbiased, but it's not nearly as fast as the internet. It's really boring, too. I don't see a way in making the newpaper more fun to read, but maybe when I get older, I'll start to read it more. Right now, I need entertainment, and the newspaper just is not a good source.
Really, newspapers have the same function that they did back then. Newspapers are here to provide information to the common citizen. Newspapers are probably the least biased form of information out there, in a world where most of the news stations are obviously Republican-oriented. FOX, for example, cannot go a single minute without bashing the president for something, or just shows Glenn Beck putting a Hitler moustache on something. All in all, newspapers might not be as fast as television news or the internet, but it provides the most unbiased information.
Personally, I don't read the newspaper. I might look at it during elections or to play Sudoku, but it just isn't worth my time. It may be informative and unbiased, but it's not nearly as fast as the internet. It's really boring, too. I don't see a way in making the newpaper more fun to read, but maybe when I get older, I'll start to read it more. Right now, I need entertainment, and the newspaper just is not a good source.
Ch. 7
I would never watch a silent movie. I wouldn't even watch a black and white film. I understand that without these eras, we wouldn't have the movies we have today, but today's films are just so much cooler. Now, we have all these special effects that can enable directors to do nearly anything they can imagine. I doubt Avatar could have been made way back then. I just find those old movies boring.
The type of movies that I like are action films. I want to see special effects and explosions when I pay something around $8.00 to see a movie. In my opinion, if something doesn't blow up or there's no fight scenes, it's not worth watching. As far as reading reviews, I might do this occasionally. I'll only look at these if I'm really unsure whether I want to go see someting, though.
One thing I was really surprised at, was the amount of advertising and sponsorship that goes into some films. In films, the main source of advertising would probably be through actual product placement. In movies, you'll see products all the time and not even think about it. I guess we're just so used to seeing these things, we don't even notice them, half of the time. The only thing I don't like about this, is when the dialogue will blantantly be changed around just to mention a product name. I forget which movie it was, but sometime last year, whenever this type of car would show up, one of the guys in it would make a quick statement about the horsepower or top speed. That kind of stuff just interferes with the movie.
The type of movies that I like are action films. I want to see special effects and explosions when I pay something around $8.00 to see a movie. In my opinion, if something doesn't blow up or there's no fight scenes, it's not worth watching. As far as reading reviews, I might do this occasionally. I'll only look at these if I'm really unsure whether I want to go see someting, though.
One thing I was really surprised at, was the amount of advertising and sponsorship that goes into some films. In films, the main source of advertising would probably be through actual product placement. In movies, you'll see products all the time and not even think about it. I guess we're just so used to seeing these things, we don't even notice them, half of the time. The only thing I don't like about this, is when the dialogue will blantantly be changed around just to mention a product name. I forget which movie it was, but sometime last year, whenever this type of car would show up, one of the guys in it would make a quick statement about the horsepower or top speed. That kind of stuff just interferes with the movie.
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