Helen Keller?

I was browsing Freakonomics, and I came across this article about Helen Keller. Apparently schools don't think it is necessary to teach about Helen Keller anymore.

What?!?

Granted, as the article points out, she was a socialist...but that doesn't seem to stop schools from teaching about other socialists.

Whatever her opinion and philosophy, I still think it is important for children to study her. After all, she was both blind and deaf, and overcame many obstacles to acquire a degree and become a speaker and author. The story of Helen Keller teaches kids about perseverance through overwhelming obstacles. I'm not quite sure what "earth day" teaches them, other than to recycle...which they already know about...

Justin Bieber...and nail polish?

I have successfully avoided blogging about "the bieb" but this latest news I've read tells me I should attempt to help expose the incredibly idiotic craze that is surrounding this kid!

1) As I was passing through Barnes and Noble's game section, much to my surprise, I saw this:



Apparently it's a game--the sole object of which is to give kisses to Justin Bieber.... sick....

2) More recently, Bieber has come out with a line of (you won't believe this) nail polish--and has already sold over one million bottles.

Yes, you read that correctly. Nail polish. As an article in Time put it "The beauty expert teen girls trust? A 16-year-old boy."

The names of the different colors, of course, are references to Bieber songs--though at least one of them, in my opinion, borders on blasphemy. In some respects, you can hardly blame the kid--after all, he's being treated like a god, and acts like one too.



This video might bring some relief to those who do not look so kindly on Bieber. I thought it was funny.

But let's be serious for a moment. One of the interesting things we can learn about the Justin Bieber craze comes from the fact that it is being helped by the internet (as many other fandoms are these days). Think about it--video posting, mp3 music files, twitter, etc...

If Justin Bieber was not being helped by the internet, do you think he would be a success? I'm not so sure.

Cheers!

Clementines and Media

I was eating a clementine--great snack--and as I was attempting to peel it, I happened to notice the sticker that was on the peel. It said "Make a video starring you! Cutiescitrus.com" Being the avid media student that I am, I checked it out.

The site was very similar to the Cheetos website that we viewed in class, except that it seemed more oriented towards parents, rather than kids. Parents could create incredibly cheesy videos to send to their kids (sort of a morale-booster e-card).

Ok, I totally get the advertising side of this whole thing--however, I do have a problem with trying to get kids to be online for more things. It crossed my mind that the real reason that parents are giving their kids clementines are to keep them healthier, right? So why is a company that is supporting children's health and well-being giving kids more reasons to stay online longer when they should instead be outside playing?

Almost seems like a double-standard to me....

My first impression of the internet...

As I wrote my last post, I remembered what my first impressions of the internet--and so, as a (perhaps odd) member of "generation digital" I thought I would post those thoughts here.

When I was growing up, Google didn't exist. Fact. The library that I went to as a child didn't even have a sophisticated "online" book catalog. To order a book from the system, you had to type into an ancient-looking computer, and then write out by hand an order form for that book to give to the librarian.

For me, the internet always seemed like this ominous creature (one that could potentially swallow little children who played with it too long--apparently adults were immune!) There was internet access at the library, but you had to be a certain age to use it. Furthermore, it was only my father who seemed to know what the internet was and how to use it--during the course of my siblings and my studies, we would ask him questions that weren't in the encyclopedia, and so my father would (presumably) go to this foreign and dangerous place and bring back the desired answers.

Finally, when I was about 8 or 9 (or perhaps I was 10?), the internet came to our house.

I remember sending my first email, and my first exposure to this ominous wonderland of knowledge.

"Googling-it", wasn't a term people used back then.

To the common person (like me), words like "blog," "link," and "youtube" were foreign. Social networking sites, other than chatrooms, were unheard of in my house (to be quite frank, when I first started using the internet, Mark Zuckerburg hadn't even invented facebook yet...in fact, I'm not sure if he had even graduated from highschool yet...).

So, am I from the dark ages or what?

Nope! I was born in the early 1990s--on the proverbial "cusp" of the digital generation!

The people who are just a few years younger than me can't even recall a time when they didn't have the internet. I count myself among one of the lucky few who can :)

Cheers!