No more books.

I've never been not much of a book person, so I don't think that I would miss them that much. I know mostly everyones excuse for not reading is they don't have enough time or they or too busy. But is someone really that busy that they can't take a half hour to hour and just read? I know I'm not that busy and could definitely read for a half hour if I wanted to. Even though I could read I feel like just sitting and reading is not that productive but I guess that goes the same for playing Xbox or watching TV. So i guess I wouldn't miss books that much but I'm sure the people that read everyday would.

I'd imagine a society without books would be like the society in feed. The only people that seemed human were the ones that the ones that didn't have the feed. Everyone else had information spoon fed to them from their feed instead. Today everyone is being fed information as fast as possible by their phone or computer. I think today's life style is beginning to get to fast for books. Everyone just wants to get everything done as fast as possible and get on. This how we metaphorically burn books. Movies are made of the most popular books so we can see the whole story in a matter of hours instead of reading for a few days. Spark notes shorten huge books down to a few pages but still convey all the major points. This is how we're slowly eliminating books from our society.

 

'Hungry' for More

I first heard of The Hunger Games awhile back. My friend Andrew started reading them then over break my other friend John started reading them too. Both of them said it was a great book, So I figured I would probably enjoy it as well. I was correct and after reading through all of it I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was as easy to read as feed but I thought it was more interesting. Just the Idea of kids fighting other kids is already more interesting than a bunch of rich kids with the internet in their head.

I thought the the beginning of the book started slow, but I knew that this was only set up for the games that took up the other half of the book. I didn't really know how the games were played at first. I thought it was just going to be 1 v 1 until there is only one kid left. If the audience wanted constant action that's the way they should of done it. I thought the way the games were actually portrayed in the book was still pretty interesting though. It was more geared towards survival rather than just killing which made it seem like anyone could win.

I thought the games should of ended with Katniss killing Peeta. Yeah, they were working together the whole duration of the games but when the announcer said that the rule stating that if the two tributes from the same district lives they both win was repealed I was ready for them to both try to kill each other. But then the announcer took it back and I felt like I was cheated out of what could of been the greatest scene of the whole book. Not that I wanted to see any of them die but after all they went everything together it would of been a terrible thing to see them fight to the death, but it would of been great.

My connection is to the video game Call of Duty Black ops. More specifically the game type called one in the chamber. This mode pits 6 players against each other and has them fight with a pistol and a knife until there is only one player remaining. At first glance there is not that much in common with hunger games but I found a few similarities. In addition to playing until all other players are killed, the players ages can be age 12 and up. Also before a game the player bets their virtual currency on how well they will do in the game.  Yeah, these similarities are pretty basic but I guess it shows where mind was at while reading the book.

Not So Real

Reality TV has gone completely over the top. I think Daniel Tosh described it the best on one of his comedy specials, "We have a game show in our country called survivor, Thats a game in our country. Where you can win one million dollars for surviving 30 days in a country where people already live. Do you realize what kind of message that sends? I've been here for 60 years can I have some bread? No, were Americans this is a game ...".  Survivor isn't even the worst example. The real housewives shows or cake boss are prime examples. I don't know why anyone would want to watch rich middle age women yell at each other or some guy making cakes.

All of that being said, everyone continues to watch these ridiculous show. The only reality show I watch fairly often is of course, The Jersey Shore. I don't care about any of the relationships or any of their drama. I enjoy the stupid things they do and they're popular phrases ie. The cabs are here, T-shirt time, etc. These are the only things that I like about this show. I don't really think this qualifies as a reality show though. All they do is work at a T-shirt shop and party. Sure it makes for interesting TV but I wouldn't call it reality, more like fantasy. Who wouldn't want to do the least amount of work possible and party every night and get paid wheel barrels full of cash.

The episode I watched was the finale that aired Thursday. It wasn't the most entertaining episode I've seen but it wasn't boring either. The only reason I wanted to watch this episode was because it's the finale and it's usually what we watch every Thursday night unless we're watching sports or something that generates a bit more brain activity. I wasn't really that focused on what was going on during the show but from what I saw it looked like they did everything they would do on a regular show.

Technology has definitely made information more accessible to others, but I don't think that much of our privacy has been lost. If you Google someone's name the odds of it being the exact person you're looking for are extremely high. Obviously more high profile people will be easier to find, but finding a John Smith would take a lot more effort. But Google isn't the only way to find people. Facebook has become the stalkers bread and butter. All you have to to is search a name and look for their picture and if the person isn't too smart they won't change any of their privacy settings. We choose to put what ever we want on the internet and Facebook. If you don't want some corporate viewing a picture of you doing a keg stand then don't put that picture up or change the privacy settings, if you have nothing to hide then it doesn't matter who's looking.

I don't think that giving up minor freedoms for increased security would be bad, but giving away all our freedom for complete security is a terrible Idea. It's like what we were discussing in class on Thursday. Whenever a population has no freedom, what is there to protect. I don't mind getting patted down or being scanned with an x  -ray machine at an air port. It goes back to what I said before, if you have nothing to hide then who cares what they check. I'd rather them scan everyone so we can catch people before something bad happens then have them mosey on through and something terrible happen. I don't think that it takes completely sacrificing a societies freedom to achieve a reasonable amount of security. 

Day 7: 1 Hours to Gooooo!!!!

At last, the end of this challenge is near and what a challenge it was. In the beginning I knew this assignment would be a difficult one but I didn't realize how difficult until these last few days. It wasn't hard finding thing to do  over the last week, I got done all the work I was assigned for this week and managed to read another book on top of feed. I guess this week made me realize how much work I should be doing, wasting time on Facebook and my phone has really taken it's toll. It's not that I didn't do any of the work that was assigned to me but I just tried to complete it as fast as possible. Without all the technological distraction I was able to take my time and produce some quality work.


With all the good that came from having no technology pinging me every five seconds there was also some bad. I  hated being completely out of the loop. Something as simple as where to meet for dinner turns into one of the harder things to do in a day. I love being able to look up information extremely fast, such as: GPS directions, movie times and product availability etc. these are just a few of the things that make us for effective with our time. If I can figure something out in advance then it would give me more free time to do other things (It would probably just be consumed by Facebook though).

This has been one hell of an assignment. Going without technology for a week has proved  been an entertaining task and one that I will not soon forget. Although this week technological abandonment has let me see the amount  of wasted time on my phone and Facebook, I still can't wait to get back on my phone and text until my thumbs fall off.

Day 4....

Another two days gone by without technology. I feel as though the hard part is mostly over. This weekend has gone by pretty fast so far even though I've just been reading most of the time. I've gotten into a pattern of reading for a few hours then cleaning my apartment. Which my roommates have been enjoying because a little bit too much My roommates and I started p90x a few weeks ago and this is the first time I was actually looking forward to do it since it's the only thing I've done this week besides reading and school work.

After these 4 days I've realized I could go without Facebook. When I first started I wasn't really sure but now I don't really miss all the people complaining about their schedules or why no one likes them. I really only liked Facebook for the chat because no matter what even if people weren't answering their phone they would probably be on Facebook. I've only been watching netflix recently so the lack of TV hasn't  bothered me, there's too many commercials anyway. Probably the worst thing for me is no Xbox. It was the easiest way for me to burn some time. Play a few matches of Halo or Call of duty then Boom, it's dinner time.

All of those activities have been replaced. I've started reading the watchmen again, I got half way through it freshmen year but never got around to finishing it. So yesterday I started from the beginning and now I'm about three quarters of the way through and enjoying every page of it. I've also been playing a bunch of risk lately as it is the longest board game ever and it's also pretty fun.

The only crazy thing that happened recently happened when I was waking up. I woke up then fell back asleep then had a dream that I had my phone in my hand and the notification light was going off, then I woke up and was kind of disappointed. I guess having no technology has affected me more than I thought but I've already made it 4 days there's no point in stopping now.

Day 2.

Today is the second day without my cell phone, Facebook, TV, music, etc. So far it hasn't been too bad. With all the time not wasted on TV/video games and such, I was able to read all of feed before our quiz today. even though I read it in such a short amount of time, I don't feel as though I missed any important concept or part of the plot. That's pretty much all I did yesterday besides clean my room and count up a cup full of change.

I thought that classes would go slower with nothing to look at or respond to every five minutes but they go the same speed no matter what. I just don't like the fact that I don't know what anyone is doing. If I meet someone for lunch now it's by pure coincidence. With the weekend coming up I have no idea where to go "socialize" at. Aside from being completely out of the loop I haven't been that bored, I feel like I've been more productive in these two days then I have been in the first few weeks of the semester. I guess it show's how much time I waste with technology. 

That's pretty much all that has gone on so far. I'm not looking forward to the weekend I'm nearing completion of all the work that's been assigned to me so I don't know what i'm going to do. These first two days have been interesting though. It's a little weird going anywhere alone because at that point no one know's where you are until you meet up with someone you know. Despite it being weird it's also kind of cool. I think of it as  being technologically invisible. All things considered though, I'm enjoying having no technology more than I thought I would.

Here's an interesting story. It literally shows how "attached" people are to their technology. The article is from 2006 so I don't know how credible is but it's semi entertaining http://gizmodo.com/#!155708/car-crash-victims-arm-found-cellphone-intact