Blog 10

To me, the overall theme of this class was to challenge the students to think about where the culture and media are taking us as a nation, world, and era, and to evaluate how the technological advancements of the past will construct our furture, either positively or negatively.  I think that as a whole, it was a class that would benefit many students by forcing us to really understand what's going on in the world around us, and to step out of the fantasy worlds that we've created for ourselves, whether they be in online gaming, social networks, or simply our advanced (or devolved?) way of communication that is texting. Another sub-theme was the degeneration of intellectual thinking and general knowledge, and how we can and should stop that downward spiral.  Feed and Fahrenheit 451 were the books that supported this theme to me, because it showed what happens in a world where critical thinking and deep communication were frowned upon and even prohibited. 

This class showed me more than anything that I am nothing like the majority of the people in my generation.  I was often unable to understand the conflicts that were discussed in class because they never felt important to me as a person.  I enjoyed watching and listening to those people who finally understood what Thoreau and Emerson wanted us to do for ourselves - to seek environments that support our emotional and intellectual development and distance ourselves from the chaos which is our everyday lives.  But, I again didn't feel a personal connection to that topic because I didn't share the same interests in Facebook and texting and whatever else draws my generation into their world of technological living. 
The last discussion that we had about the ideas presented in Fahrenheit 451 was especially irritating to me because we were challenged to think about why we throw books to the side and opt to retrieve the ideas in literature from blogs, movies, and magazines.  I can't answer that question, because I read the books that people toss, I have used cliff notes maybe twice in my life, and I seeing a movie before I read the book that inspired it.