brainstorming

List of things that make me who I am:

-family

-pets
-music
-sunshine
-soccer
-piano sheet music
-headphones
-ipod
-christina aguilera
-(blink 182, relient k, mayday, secondhand serenade, panic, FOB, eminem)
-stage
-musicals logos (chicago, seussical, wizard of oz, phantom of the opera)
-drama masks
-SNL
-sushi
-beach
-tampa (UT)
-soave
-st. marys
-farnham common
-Cape Cod (NOB trip)
-sebago lake
-old Tahanto
-badminton
-kickball
-cleates
-running shoes
-bayshore
-biking
-volleyball
-softball
-gymnastics
-darts
-harry potter
-writing
-laughter
-positivity
-fruit
-smoothies
-cards

Letters to a Young Contrarian

          So far, this book is a lot to take in but still very interesting. With all the advanced syntax and the references to other artists I had a little troubling following what was going on, but I think I understood the main ideas. Hitchens talks about society and its relationship to our complex language. A passage that stood out to me is "society, like a benign family, tolerates and even admires eccentricity". I agree with this statement, and there is proof in our world today. If you think about all the great people in history, you will find that many of them were ridiculed at some point and called crazy. Galileo, Christopher Columbus, Gregor Mendel, Jean Jacques Rousseau; all of these famous historical figures were considered "eccentric" for their ideas, but that is what makes people respect them. Also in more modern times, many people think artists like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus are too over the top and eccentric, but they are still all over the news. Society loves eccentricity, and its the people that stand out that gain the most recognition.
          The quote "the ceaseless requirements of the entertainment industry also threaten to deprive us of other forms of critical style, and the means of appreciating them" seems to provide a different perspective from the quote I mentioned above, which makes sense since a theme of this book is conflict. I think Hitchens is describing how although eccentric people can be admired, many who chose to branch out and make statement are degraded because they aren't the norm. This shows a different viewpoint that some people in society have, where they look at anything eccentric with a negative perspective. I think these quotes show two different points of view that are common in humanity, and I'm excited to see what other ideas the book mentions.

American Psychosis

          This article freaked me out, primarily because everything Chris Hedges wrote is true. The article pointed out some of our country's biggest flaws, most of them generated from technology like television and social media. Speaking in terms of television, people in todays world get so obsessed with celebrities and their personal lives because they are broadcasted all the time, causing us to forget about our own lives. Television also promotes some strange morals. I am familiar with America's Next Top Model, and how the pictures of contestants that are eliminated disappear at the end of the episode. Hedges writes, "Those who lose deserve to be erased", which fits in with the messages that many tv shows send. If you're not talented or beautiful enough, you're not worthy of attention. This idea also influences social media, and websites like Instagram. People are obsessed with getting "likes" on their pictures, and if they don't get a lot of likes they consider themselves unworthy or ugly. I think social media is definitely a contributor to the social problems of today's world. Think of the times before social media. Before I hit middle school, I had never posted a photo online. I had never taken a selfie, never liked a photo or blogged images. My image of myself was defined by the people around me and who I was as a person. But most people today define themselves by their online images. The "Cult of Self" sums this up. Instead of creating an image of yourself based on the things that actually matter, like your family and your interests and your talents and your goals, your idea of "self" is composed by what thoughts, photos, and videos you post online.

Google

          At first I was shocked when I googled myself in class. There were pictures I wasn't surprised to see some pictures of myself that I had posted on twitter and facebook, but there were some images that caught me off guard. I saw pictures of that my friends and family had posted, some of them I wasn't even in. I saw screenshots from some of my youtube videos. I saw images that I had downloaded from the internet, and pictures that I had posted on my Art and Technology blog last semester. There were pictures of me that my dad had posted, and pictures of my dad's girlfriend that had nothing to do with me. 
          Google's ability to hunt down pieces of your life that are displayed online is a little bit scary, but then again, if you post things on the internet you are putting them out there for anyone to see. So finding images that I have posted isn't that abnormal, since I searched my own name. What I don't think is acceptable is how google searched through people I communicate with and displayed other people's images on the search. What if one of my friends set her settings to private and doesn't want to be found, but people can still find her images under my name? It scared me that there were images of my friends that I wasn't even in, and I don't think it's right that they should be displayed under a name search that isn't theirs.

iPhone

          Out of all of my friends, I was one of the last to enjoy the priviledge of having an iPhone. I was never one of those people to stay up-to-date with new technology releases and wait in line for hours to buy the newest products. My non-smartphone was very reliable and I never really saw the need to upgrade until about two years ago. My old phone crashed, and my mom convinced me to join the iPhone family.
          Once I did get an iPhone, I can't say that a lot has changed. I mainly use my phone for the purpose of a phone; I text my friends and make phone calls. The amount of texts I send didn't increase at all once I got a smartphone, although I do type faster on the touch screen. I also didn't make use of the built in iPod for a while, since I have a separate iPod that has more memory, and I always use the iPod to listen to music rather than go through the trouble of transferring my 1,903 songs onto my phone.
          Probably the best part about having an iPhone is the camera and all the benefits that come with it. On my old phone, I would take pictures and then have to email them so myself from the phone, and then download them from my email onto my computer, and finally upload them to twitter or facebook. It is extremely easy to take photo and post it to social media right from my iPhone, which is my favorite part of having a smartphone. I love taking pictures and videos, so I often use instagram to share pictures. I also love the apps called "whitagram" and "picstitch" because I can edit pictures and turn them into photo collages on my phone. The other apps I use are twitter and facebook, which I honestly check more on my actual computer than I do on my phone, and Vine, where I spend more time watching other people's hilarious videos than actually posting my own. I did have certain games like "ruzzle" and "4 pics 1 word" that I played for a while, but I found myself playing them all the time so I deleted them to avoid being one of those people that doesn't interact with other humans but sits alone playing on their iPhone all day.

Introduction

          My name is Gabby Boucher, and I am so excited for Digital Citizenship! I didn't know that we are the first group of students to take this class, so I'm eager to know what is to come. I am a very artistic person; I love singing, dancing, playing piano, performing in musicals, making music videos with my friends, making scrapbooks, and all sorts of creative projects. This class seems to be a good fit for me since there will be a lot of projects and I will get to explore my creativity and hopefully improve my artistic ability. I am hoping that using different cameras and recorders and softwares will enhance my video taping and editing skills, because I know there are many jobs out there that require knowledge of different softwares. I think this class will definitely be useful to me in the future, and I am excited to learn a lot as a communications major.