Side effects of the internet

Nicholas Carr, the author of the book "The Shallows", points out many negative effects the internet has had on us. Such as lack of memory, difficulty reading mass amounts of text, and a shortened attention span. It is ironic considering he is writing about how we don't have enough attention to read a book in his 200 some odd page novel. In the process of writing his book he moved from a suburb in Boston to the mountains of Colorado. He disconnected him self from everything. Disabled his blog, cancelled his facebook and twitter, and cut back of instant messaging and skyping. In a matter of time his writing changed from random out bursts of thoughts to being able to write for a long period. Carr observes, "Although even the initial users of the technology can often sense the changes in their patterns of attention, cognition, and memory as their brains adapt to the new medium, the most profound shifts play out more slowly, over several generations"(199). Even after he altered his life style he has gone back to the technology he was accustomed to, admitting he's not sure if he could live with out it. 

This book has really shown me how much the internet and technology has changed the way we do things and think considering it has taken me about an hour and a half to write this blog because in the mean time I've checked facebook about 6 times played a game or two of tetris and watched Chelsea Lately. There has also been a few times when I didn't have access to a computer or phone and when I didn't have it, it was really nice because I didn't have to talk to people but once I got back I was sucked right back into using it religiously which shows how addictive technology can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUW_8cWG7YA (Under Pressure- David Bowie and Queen)

vs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rog8ou-ZepE (Ice Ice Baby- Vanilla Ice)

Both of these songs are very popular and very much the same. The background beat of "Under Pressure" was stolen by Vanilla Ice. Controversy over the stolen beat still continues to this day. Vanilla Ice claims that his beat is different than Bowies, because his has an extra "do" in it. If you listen very closely you can sort of hear it. But casually listening to it, you would never be able to tell the difference.

In this case I think that Vanilla Ice flat out ripped off David Bowie. In instances like one musician taking the beats or lyrics from one song and blandly putting it in theirs, is wrong. But for "mash ups" and remixes I think it is okay. Because the people making them are typically not trying to pass it as their own work. They are simply combining multiple songs into one. For example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzrwh2Z2hQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL, This song is in no way trying to take credit for all of the songs used, its simple putting all of them together to make a new sound. This song has 34 million views but doesn't make a penny off of it, the song isn't even on Itunes.

In the case of re creating art, I believe the same thing. It is wrong to repaint or recreate another's piece of art, not change anything and try to pass it off as yours. But there's a difference between the work we saw in class today by Picasso, and the re-do of Mona Lisa. They got the idea's from other artists but put their spin on it. In the case of Picasso, he even named it the same, so clearly people will know where he got the idea form.

Over all, I think it is wrong to flat out steal, versus take the idea and make it your own.

Best of the week- First post of 2011!

The best of the week I thought was Once. When you told us we were watching it in class during the final, I was relieved we weren't doing an in class paper or anything, but I thought it was going to be boring and I wasn't too excited. As we were watching the movie, you could tell that they started to like

each other and as the story goes on you want them to end up together. But unfortunately they don't and and that is one way that the movie breaks the status quo, because in every other hollywood produced movie they probably would have ended up together.

I also really liked the music that was in the movie. There were parts in it that made me want to cry. When I was talking to someone in 2nd period they said it was almost like a musical. That kind of made me skeptical because I'm not too big of a musical fan. But I downloaded a few of the songs. I never even heard of the songs before either, even though it won an oscar. Over all I think the movie was really good and it introduced me to new music that I really like.