Scholarly Article #4

I think its interesting how Cynthia Selfe discusses an idea of a "third wave" of literature studies. Not only are personal narratives important  for personal revelation, but they also reveal the culture, knowledge, and changes in someone's life.

Digital compilation of language narratives is fascinating. The internet allows us all to connect at anytime and anywhere. The Digital Archives of Literacy Narratives (DALN) provides a way that teachers as well as researchers can find primary information on how people with different backgrounds learned to write and read. In each narrative, factors such as present situations, and the values or influences that mold their language learning are explained. Not only does this provide insight to minority experiences, but also people who just have a hard time. Often, teachers overlook students because they simply can't keep up, but they don't want to hold them back, so the student is passed on until either someone finally realizes the issue or, nothing. With my parents being teachers, my mom an elementary and dad secondary, I've heard some of the issues that come up. And frankly, they just don't know how to approach the issue. But with personal narratives explaining some of the problems that students or immigrants have faced, perhaps some of these issues can be solved through other people's experience.

The ideas of identity formation and transformation are well supported by examples of narratives. And I agree with her assumptions. After writing a memoir in a composition class, I found out that some of the traumatic experiences in my past were still lingering. Though I cannot fix this problem immediately, I was able to reflect on how I thought the experience changed my life and how, in some ways, made me a better person. I know a memoir is a bit different than a personal narrative, but the concept is still there. And the transformation was reflected in my choosing of what details I wanted my audience to know. So in ways, I ignored some of my characteristics of my own personality.

Thus, from personal experience I believe Selfe's ideas to be factual and fairly interesting, in learning our own identities and transformations.

Scholarly Article #3

Kreth’s article seemed to use a lot of fillers and language that was unnecessary. It reminded me a lot of the way article one was written, but at least this one I could understand enough to keep up with what was being said. It helped that the reading was broken into sections with titles to keep the main idea focused.  I think the author brought up several great points about the change of mediums of writing to images on the screen, though I do not agree with all of them.

One of the first concepts he points out is that in writing there is order. “Order is firmly coded: the order of chapters, the order pages, of lines and of the line, and, of course, within lines as language, the order of syntax.” But then he goes on to claim that words are left “open,” so that experience and culture, can be brought in from the reader to create meaning. I agree, that this is what reading is for, allowing the imagination to live and to create something from the words. On screens however, there is not quite so much order, thus the audience can pick and choose what he or she reads first. I do not see anything wrong with this type of medium. Like the video shown last week, I believe we are custom to multitasking, to finding information as quickly as possible, and being able to scan through a screen, allows us to do just that; whereas reading, we can scan, but it’s not as easy to pull things out from a sea of words. We are adjusting to the features of our generation.

And when he points out that we are no longer readers, but visitors, I believe that is also true. We don’t really read a web page or site, we visit it, we scan it, find what we are looking for, but in no way do we read or see everything that the page offers.

And finally one of the last points that is mentioned is the fact that now everyone can be an author. There are a lot of truths behind this article. With the internet being an open publisher, everyone can create something. What they write may not be true. What they write may not even be good. But it is there. And that is where we, as the audience, have to be able to separate the bad and good. Being literate is important. Being well read doesn’t just entertain coffee shop talk, but allows the mind to slow down, digest what is being read, and allows us to think.  Perhaps having screens are doing us a disservice in that we are so impatient for the knowledge that we want, that we are not getting the knowledge that we need.

Scholarly Article #2

I have never given much thought to how much internet has catered to us until reading this. I found it very intriguing that the idea is much like our toddler days, where things are "mine." While reading I found myself realizing the interactions of the internet in my own life as well as our families. As great as internet is, it really does eliminate jobs, as well as social connection. Instead of visiting my family for holidays, instead I can save money and skype with them. Or instead of physically going out to do "Black Friday" or holiday shopping for the experience, I can simply log onto the internet, basically shop from any store I want, and get the item shipped straight to their doorstep-something Ullman called disintermediation. And its a get-away, a privacy. My husband comes home from work and spends his "me" time playing NFL madden or Call of Duty, to escape interaction and just be in his own world for a few minutes, or hours.  :)

We are so fortunate to have something that really can fulfill many desires, but they are not always in our best interest. We are eliminating the association with people around us. Just like Ullman mentioned, with the Sonic game and the womens' first experience with internet, there were really two different experiences. Each person saw things a little bit differently, and its difficult to explain the idea when someone else is thinking of something different, even though they spent a lot of time doing nearly the exact same thing. So it was interesting to hear her argument that the internet is not only a relief from politics, but also from our culture. She used the commercial example of the apocalyptic world and then the house with the computer, and how the media idolized the features of being home with a computer than out in the world. Its sad that the world was represented in such a harsh way. Its where we make friends, can actually live-making mistakes and experiencing all that is out there. But instead, it was seen as "dead," and "dangerous."

My final thoughts on the article are simply that she makes a very good argument. With everything so specialized to us in one object, how are we supposed to learn to get along with one another, making compromises. Our government functions with compromises, businesses compromise, and even between our relationships we must learn to "give a little to get a little." If we are so used to getting everything we want, why would we ever want to discuss or share our experiences? The internet allows us the privacy and satisfaction of getting what each of us wants. But how far can, or will it go? Our society will eventually collapse, and we have begun to see the signs.