Security vs Privacy

In many ways we do not have full privacy like we did when we did not have as advanced technology as we do now. As technology advanced privacy lessened. The government can track everything about everyone. It is not hard at all for someone to find where you live and find out who you are with what the internet has turned into today. There are security cameras everywhere. We have to be careful about what we do in public because many of us know that we are being watched. I do agree with the fact that they have security cameras in public. I think that it prevents a lot of crime from happening, and if they need to catch someone that has done something wrong in the future they can look back on cameras and find the perpetrater. After 9/11 security has really heightened in the United States. The government does not want something like that to happen ever again. I think that security is  a good thing, just not the extent of what it is in 1984. Privacy does exist. We all have the privacy in our own homes.

In 1984 the way that they have security is way too over the top. They have telescreens that watch the people, and the children of the country watch over their parents to find out if they are committing thought crimes. This is a terrible thing to have. By Big Brother having all of these security measures I believe that it shows weakness in him. I think that he is truly scared that the people are going to over run him, that is why he has to always keep watch on everyone. He shows many similarities to Hitler, but if Hitler thought someone was against him he would kill them on the spot.

Advertisements on my Feed

The advertisements that would definitely be in my feed would be Penn State Football, Reeses, Nike, and Applebees. These would show up on my feed because I love all of these different things and they help to describe all of my likes and personality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXP7KUH4cA8
Penn State Football- This ad would would be on my feed because I am all about Penn State football. Ever since I was little I have been a Penn State fan. Believe it or not my first outfit was a nittany lion get up. My whole family loves Penn State. I have been going to at least 3 or 4 games a year all my life. My dream growing up was to become the next great linebacker at "Linebacker U". This dream was going good for me because I was a very good linebacker growing up, but then my sophomore year of high school, during the football season I got my first of six concussions. So my dream was shot. I still love Penn State football and always will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0oDaA-cWZ4
Reeses- A reeses commercial would air on my feed. It would be on my feed because I love to eat reeses. That was always my favorite candy ever since my first Halloween when I ate my first reeses. I love the taste of chocolate and peanut butter put together into one bite.  I would never get sick of reeses. Reeses are without a doubt the best candy there is out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55BZ2gSsSmY
Nike- Nike would be on my feed. Nike would be on my feed because I have tons of nike clothing, and nike shoes are also the shoes that I wear the most. I believe they are the best brand. In every sport that I have played I have always worn their brand of shoe. I wear nike cleats, wrestling shoes, and I have  a nike baseball glove. I have always been happy with all the nike products i have used. Nike would be on my feed not only for shoes, but also for every other product they have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihJqUpS6EaE&feature=related
Applebees- Applebees would be on my feed because it was my all time favorite restaurant to eat at. I love their meals, appetizers and their desserts. It is also the place where I took my girlfriend Kayla on our first date. So every month we go to Applebees to celebrate us being together. It is a wonderful tradition. I have had many great laughs at Applebees. It is in my opinion the best place to go with family and friends. I suggest if any of you are looking for a place to eat with your friends, you should chose Applebees.

The End of the Challenge

So challenge is over. I made it through all seven days of this challenge. My last day was actually friday. It was not a difficult day for me to stay away from the technology because I knew it was the last. My girlfriend and I threw football outside on friday because it was incredibly beautiful outside. Having the nice weather outside was a great distraction from technology. We spent the whole day outside, then we went for a walk and got Shamrock Shakes at McDonald's later that night. After that was over we played the board game called life. This challenge really opened my eyes to how much I do truly rely on technology. It was a very hard challenge at first because I had been in an every day routine that involved some use of technology. It was quite relaxing finding other things to do without the distraction of cell phones or the TV or any of that. When I started using technology again on saturday I didn't find the need to be sitting in front of the TV all day, or texting all the time. I know now in the future when I feel like I need a brake all I need to do is put the technology away for a few days.  

The Challenge Day 6

Well it is the end of day 6 of my challenge. I have been doing a great job with the challenge. I am beginning to hate this challenge though. I was unable to call my grandmothers on their birthdays yesterday. That made me upset. It was really hard for me not to turn on the Duke game this weekend. They are my favorite basketball team. I feel like I am out of the loop in the sports world without being able to watch TV and surf the internet. I hope that I am able to continue this challenge these last two days. The great thing about not using technology is that I am getting a ton of work done. I feel like I am ahead in all of my classes. It is a great feeling. After this is over I hope to be in a routine that allows me to get all my work done, then I can watch TV and do all the other technological stuff. I plan to keep working out every day and read for an hour a day. I will complete this challenge.

The Challenge, Day 1

Today was the day that I began my 7 day journey without technology. (Other than having to use my computer to blog and do other homework). Thursday night I gave my cell phone to my roommate to hold while I am doing the challenge. He had to have it so I wasn’t tempted to use it, and incase my parents or my boss calls me. It was weird waking up today without looking at my phone to see what kind of texts I had gotten from ESPN. I have an account with ESPN that lets me get text messages about my favorite teams and the latest news and sports. Every morning I get up before class and check my emails while having ESPN on, but not today. I felt like I was forgetting something as I left for class. As the day has been going on it has been getting easier, other than when my roommate tells me that I have thirty five unread messages. But I think the rest of today will be a success. I plan on going to play pool and ping pong later so that should keep me busy. I also have a few books that I got from my father that I could read. The books titles are 90 Minutes in Heaven and The Shack. I love to play all sorts of board games too. My roommate and I play backgammon. We might play some monopoly this weekend with both of our girlfriends, so that should be fun. It should also keep us occupied for a few hours. This challenge is going to be really hard for me this coming week because I am an avid Duke fan and I also watch Minute to Win it on Wednesday and Supernatural every Friday. Hopefully I can get through it without breaking the challenge.

Living in the wild

I could definitely not live in a one room cabin for an extended period of time. I could in fact live there for a day because I love to go camping during the spring or the fall. I would not be able to live there for a long time because I love my technology too much. I love waking up in the morning and watching sports center on Espn and I also love texting and keeping up with Facebook and things.  I really don’t think I could go live in solitude for a year without all of my worldly possessions. If I was able to do so, I think I would find out a lot about what my personality truly is. It would be a great advantage to be out there without the media or anyone influencing your every move. You would not have the TV or commercials telling you what is or is not popular. Living by yourself without any outside influence would be a great thing for your body. There are so many different chemicals and other ingredients put into foods these days. They are put in there so that we can get them faster, and they can be preserved longer. If you lived in the wild you could only eat all natural foods, and your body would be a lot healthier. The quote that is stated in our readings from the other day about how we are starved before we are even hungry is a very true statement. We always need to eat before our stomach even tells us that we are hungry. We move so fast and have set times that we eat and most of the time we aren't even hungry at that time. Our lives go by so fast, that we don't even realize what is happening. By taking a break and living away from all the crap that distracts us would be a wonderful thing for all of us to do. Finding other things to do other than Facebook and playing video games would be a great cleansing experiment for all of us to do.

The so called dumbest generation really isn't that dumb

So are we really the dumbest generation? I don’t think the older generation has any right in pointing out that we are the dumbest generation. They cannot say this because at one point they too were considered as the dumbest generation.  The statistics that were used to back this were very interesting. Yes we may not know who was on the axis or the ally powers, but I am sure that if the older generation was asked this question they would not know that the Soviet Union was the United States ally not the Germans, Japanese, or Italy. The fact that stated that the literacy rate has gotten worse for our generation is a good stat to back their point, but wouldn’t that also mean that during their generation their literacy rate was also falling. Bauerlein needs not to generalize so much and take a step back and realize that there are many similarities between his generation and ours. Our generation has become a generation that is very specialized in different fields. We go to school not only to help ourselves, but to help others. When the generation above us gets old who is going to take care of them? We will. So if this older generation wants to be well taken care of when they get too old to take care of themselves, they better treat this generation better. We will be the ones going to college to learn how to cure their illnesses and other problems that come along with getting old. Our generation is technologically smart. We may not be book smart, but books can only go so far. By developing technology we can find new ways to cure cancer and better sources of fuel so that we don’t have to rely on other countries for our oil.  I believe that we do need to know facts about history, science, and math because if we have a better general knowledge of these things we can begin to piece things together in our different fields of study better. It will also help us to learn things better and maybe put more facts into long term memory. I know that I don’t read that much, but I believe if I start to read more and start to want to ask questions about the history, the science of the world  it will help me to become a more well rounded human being. With the knowledge that is out there we should pause from the social networking for a minute and figure out how a complex thing like facebook got created. Many people would be baffled by the smarts that it takes to create a powerful thing like facebook. Bauerlein does have some merit in what he says, but not all people of this generation are the way he says. We are not all dumb. There are many smart people in our generation out there.