Blog Entry 14

           The natural way to feed animals almost doesn't exist anymore. Now, feeding animals is mechanized. In "The Meatrix," the makers make the characters, Leo and Moopheus, in the film just like "The Matrix." The cow, Moopheus, offers the pig, Leo, to make a choice to find out the truth of the "real world" by choosing blue pill or red pill. Leo takes the red pill and goes into the real world with Moopheus. Leo sees how the real animal world looks like, and he is surprised by how different natural world is. It is true that there are many matters of facts that exist, including how people feed animals to grow faster to meet their needs in this world. The makers of The Meatrix film use The Matrix as the basis for their argument, it is because they try to warn us what the meat we are eating now are not natural; animals grow in the toxic environment.  

Blog Entry 13 The Matrix

            The film of "The Matrix" hits the nail on the head. It wants us to think about our world now and in the future. When we see the incredible technology in the film, we think about the technology in our world. We all notice that technology has changed the way we live. Will future technology be good or bad? Is our current technology good or bad? There are no doubts that technology surrounds people's lives now, and we can't live without it as it can't live without us.
             New technology has given us many advantages in our daily lives. A good example is the computer. we can sit in one place and connect with the whole world with the press of a few buttons. People can get as much information as they need from programs set in computers and the internet. As human beings, our memories are limited. We can't store every piece of information in our brain, but the web can. Also, we can't deny that the high speed of the internet can help us do things much faster. Now, whether we are at work, school or home, we always use the computer and internet because they are such useful tools that people can't get rid of them. For me, I like to use the computer to connect with my family members and friends, to get information, and do my homework. It is helpful, useful, and convenient.
             Back in the film of The Matrix, we can see our world was destroyed by technology. I can't imagine that the "real world" looks like that. I don't want our planet to be a fake world. However, this film sent us a message to consider what our world will be like in the future. Now, we can see we are damaging our world by polluting the air, digging up too much natural resources, and dumping garbage especially the technology's garbage. Our environment has been changed since we don't have much care for our earth. I believe we should care because we don't want to live the world like the "Matrix." We have to find ways to solve the problems in our world.
             The world has developed differently with technology than it would have naturally. And surely technology will continue developing without stopping. In the film, Neo is able to do incredible things like jumping between buildings through programming. I have also heard about how a human could insert a memory chip to identify who he or she will be in the future, although this may not be true. However, anything could happen. I worry about the war between humans and machines that might happen in the future because technology will become weapons so powerful that they will be able to destroy the whole world.
             All in all, there are many advantages and disadvantages with technology. We need technology but we must also have control over our technology.

Blog 12 Reflection and Evaluation

           It has been half a semester and so far I have done 11 blog entries and some catw writing. Looking back at all my writing, I found that blog entry has organized all works that I did in this class. When I looked through all my writing, I could see the progress of my writing; I feel I can write longer essays more easily since I do my practices many times. Blog entry has given me the opportunities to improve both my writing and computer skills. Although I have got progress on the organization of my writing, I still need to work on how to make a good connection between paragraphs, how to come up some good ideas while I write my essay, and grammar and spelling too. Writing a good essay is not easy for me, the most challenges that I face now are the development of writer's ideas, the structure of response and word choice. For example, when I took the catw test of "The Dangers of Reality TV", I felt I didn't develop the writer's idea correctly even though I did come up some relative ideas on my own. I still felt nervous and I made many mistakes by choosing correct words when I took the exam, especially when the time ran out fast. So, I still need to do more practices before I take the real catw test. I will work on the weakness of my writing and I believe I will do better each time.

Blog 11 The Dangers of Reality TV

 In "The Dangers of Reality TV," Sexton shows us how reality TV has influenced people's mind with some dangerous messages. The example of the “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" show tells you life is only a competition. "American Idol" shows you that your image is more looked upon than your abilities. And the most dangerous message is to let you to think that making more money is more important than education. All of those reality TV shows make you believe what they say and change yourself to be what they want you to be. I agree with the author when he views that “reality TV reinforces several unsound messages that are molding the minds of its young fans.”

Today, reality TV is on all day long with news, shows, movies and ads. People like to watch TV every day because media knows how to get people, especially young fans attention with their incredible “message” shows. According to Sexton, one of the ideas is that “life is nothing but a competition that we continually engage in with each other.” This statement reminds me that I have watched many children’s competitive shows from Sino TV. Those shows are like “Who Is Smarter?” “I’m the Champion,” “You Will Not Know if You Don’t Attend the Test,” and “Can you Graduate?” In these shows, judges will score them and reward them. Of course there are some winners, but many of them lose. When I saw that some kids’ eyes were full of tears because they didn’t win the champion, I can see their feelings were hurt. I know those shows that people create have their commercial purposes; however, if these shows engage children to become competitive, their minds will have wrong messages while they are young. Therefore, media somehow has influenced young fans mind in our society.

Moreover, if reality TV tries to send us messages that “educations completely unnecessary to fulfill the American dream,” it will be the dangerous single to our society. Only those who “eat bugs, and walk away with a bucket of money,” I believe there is no shortcut to succeed without effort in people’s lives. We all know that education is very important to all of us, especially to younger generations. The reason is not only to make more money in the future; it is also because we can gain knowledge from what we learn in school. I remember in my communication course, my professor let us to talk about news and think about “is news always true?” In our society, news comes out every day. News reporters and analysts always talk about news with their viewpoints and opinions. We have used to listen and most of us believe what they say. We might not think if it’s true or not. There might be some control behind the scene. I believe that the author is right when he states, “in fact, they aren’t replicating society as it is, but rather as those in power want people to believe it is.” Therefore, without education you wouldn’t have knowledge to analyze the world, to discover the truth while you go into the reality world.

Reality TV has used its power to confuse young fans’ mind by sending some dangerous messages. We should fully recognize the true value of ourselves instead of following what they try to “mold” for us.

       

Blog Entry 10 Claim, Reason, Evidence

Claim: I believe the Matrix is the film that shows us how reality is going to change in the future.
Reason: Technology has changed the way we live now and will develop fast from now on to the future.
Evidence: In the film, Neo becomes the man who can do incredible things such as jumping between buildings by inserting program chips. In our reality, computers and its programs are taking place in people's lives. Now we know computer can do so much things at the same time that human beings can't. All because we create those programs that can work much much faster than our brain. That's how technology will change our world without stopping.

Blog 9 Telecommute Report-out

           From the telecommute, I can see how well students engage in the discussion of  "The Matrix." I think the questions are helpful for us interact with each other. The question "what is the Matrix?" was hard for me since I was confused about which was the real world or the fake world. Through the discussion, now I think I understand that the Matrix is the fake world created by the machines, and the real world is where Mopheus' spaceship is, where he brought Neo to. In the movie, our world which is the fake world, had been destroyed. I can't imagine our world to look like that in the future where human beings would be controlled by machines. Also, I feel people are so brave because most of them chose the red pill instead of the blue pill. I believe they made the right choice with their decision. I like all the opinions they make in this discussion.

Blog 8 Responding to a significant topic in The Truman Show

          "The Truman Show" is a "perfect world" that was created by Cristoff for Truman. Truman lived in his world without any problems because everything was a set. People enjoyed watching Truman's life day after day and Truman didn't realize. When he felt something was wrong about his life since the same situations happened every day, he tried to figure out what was going on. All his efforts didn't work because no one would answer his questions; not even his best friend. So, he took a risk of chance to escape from the island by sailing a boat. At that moment, he was so happy about being free. But a big storm followed him and he fought until he failed. He was surprised that he end up in a place without the sky and ocean. Then he found out the truth that he was in a set and his world was not the real world. Cristoff asked him if he could stay in this world to live "happily ever after," he walked away without any question because finally he knew the truth.
           Truman chose to leave because he didn't want to be controlled any more. He wanted to be free and to made his own choices by himself. Same as Truman, I would not choose to live in Cristoff's world because his world is too perfect to believe; even Truman doubted it. Everyone there acts happy to make Truman happy. For example, Truman's wife always smiles when she faces to him and talks to him, but when she turns around her face changes. Those acts are such big lies. In fact, there is no such thing as a human being who is 100% perfect. In our society, problems will always exist, such as fighting, arguing, poverty and crimes. I believe Cristoff tried to avoid all the problems that exist in our reality, and that's why he created a "perfect" world for Truman. Truman was controlled without the right to know the truth or to make his own decisions since his birth. A good example would be when he tried to go to Figi many times, but failed because everyone there stopped him. In my opinion, in Cristoff's world, there is nothing good for Truman except the act of a peaceful island. 
          Before Truman walked through the door to leave Cristoff's world, Cristoff asked him to say something. And he said good morning, good afternoon, and good evening with the smile he always made. Everyone loved his innocent smile. When he goes to the real world he will face a lot of problems that he'd never had before. Perhaps he has to find a job to make a living, people might not nice to him anymore, and a thief might hit him, grab his cell, and run away one day. Any problems that might happen in our normal lives will happen in his life too. He needs to solve all the problems and face all the challenges on his own. Although it will be difficult for him, I still believe he had made a good choice to leave the fake world.