Crawford - Blog Post #5

The article includes that Christine Rosen is the senior editor of The New Atlantis and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center meaning that she is credible and has had a decent amount of experience in writing. The only problem is that the article is from 2007 so it is not quite up to date so some of the topics she talks about, such as MySpace, are not necessarily true now although it most likely was then. She includes all of the aspects for an analysis for that date in time. A lot of the facts about MySpace and Facebook are true except that Facebook has become the main source of social networking. As the article has become more out of date, so has MySpace. In the article, Rosen talks about how social networking in general affects how we act outside in the physical world. For example, most people don’t consider a relationship “official” until it has been changed on Facebook. It could also affect how long relationships last especially for couples that are constantly in and out of a relationship with each other. It is so easy to just change their status the moment it happens because they could not just tell everyone who cares themselves.

For the most part I agree with Rosen’s point in the article about how social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, whether they be old or brand new, impact our decisions both on and outside of the Internet. They affect the way we think and act as well as how we react with each other and talk.

Crawford - Blog Post #4

http://www.visiblemeasures.com/search?query=legacy+-+levi
 

There is very limited text during this collage of video clips, but the enticing background vocals tie the scenes together smoothly.  The narrator’s voice draws the attention of someone so if a person was just passing by and heard the voice, he or she would turn their attention to the deep, soothing voice from the commercial and watch it to the end.  The voice is not annoying or silly which would draw in a different type of audience, such as people who enjoy the funnier commercials rather than the more serious ones, but this specific voice would draw in more than one type of person.  It is made to appeal to a wider range of viewers - not just teenagers or just adults, but both.  The images in the ad show a diverse group of young adults doing things they enjoy and actually experiencing their world. A man is shown standing in a large crowd of people with a look on his face as if he has just realized he is not living his life to the fullest and that he may be one person in a hundred right then, but he can stand out and find himself.  Other clips show people swimming together, playing music, playing in leaves in the fall, and even riding a boat made from an upside-down table – basically people enjoying their lives however they feel like it.  The advertisement encourages us to go out and live our lives our way, to be ourselves, and to see the beauty in and enjoy the world around us.   

The narrator stirs viewers’ emotions and makes us feel empowered to know who we really are and to be unafraid to show it which is the use of pathos.  The statement “The gods wait to delight in you” tells the viewers that we have our own unique qualities that make us who we are and that we should not try to hide those qualities but instead flaunt them.  The whole video in general just give a feeling of escape.

The audience for this advertisement would most appeal to young adults, but it can appeal to a wider range than that but it most likely does not include children and elderly people. The advertisement assumes that the audience knows what it is like to get bored going through their daily routines. With the advertisement being a video, that helps it appeal to the audience they had planned on trying to capture the attention of because that age range of people includes the people most likely to see the ad.

These videos of real life experiences give the impression that the people come from different cultures, environments, and both urban and rural settings and therefore can appeal to a much larger group of viewers.  Since they are wearing Levi’s while living these everyday adventures, it appears to imply that the jeans are available and affordable to people everywhere.  Other implications are that Levi’s Jeans are durable, versatile, sexy, comfortable, and thus allow us to do anything we want.  The people in the video are participating in activities that require jeans that are all of these things and that would make us as viewers want the product.

In Class Writing Number 4 - Crawford

There are pictures of the campus that make you feel like the campus is as beautiful as it is so it is as if you are there. There are 3 pictures that are rotating through that highlight certain aspects of the college such as impact, innovation, and achievement and that there’s a wide array of There are also pictures of people working together on some sort of landscaping project, which shows teamwork. The two main colors are maroon and orange but there are neutral colors to balance them out. The pictures on the sides of the webpage make it interesting and it draws you in and pictures in the middle capture your attention so that you will read more about specific students that are having an impact on campus. At the top of the page, there is the symbol on the left that ties in how old the campus is which all of the new technology that is used now. In the upper right corner, the ribbon represents the hardships that the campus endured. Overall, the website shows how great the college really is.  

Crawford - Blog Post #3

I typed my name into Google and the first website was a Facebook profile of a girl with the same name as me, but not me. The second was the Facebook profile of another girl with half of my name and the third was a website called Linkedin that is used to build a professional profile for yourself for business. I was with my mom when I searched me in Google so I just asked her to look me up as well. Her first result was the same as my first result. The second result she got was the same as my third result which was the Linkedin website. The third person she found just happened to be an actress with my name. I thought that was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, the filter bubble did not do a very good job at finding me, even though I use Facebook on a daily basis and I am obviously logging in as myself. It probably does exist in its own creepy kind of way, but it can only work well to an extent. The information it gave me when I typed in my name was irrelevant really. The first two choices it gave me were similar in being two different people on Facebook, but the third really has nothing to do either. It was just a list of names of people who have created professional profiles of themselves, all having similar names to mine. The websites my mom got were similar to mine but yet still irrelevant.

Personalized search engines have both advantages and disadvantages. It just really depends on what it is someone is searching for and for what purpose. If a persuasive essay were to be written, the filter bubble could persuade whoever is writing it to be biased because it would be more difficult to find the information from the other side of the argument. It the purpose were just because someone was bored, then he or she is more likely to find what he or she wants to see. It’s all a matter of opinion.

In Class Writing Number 3 - Crawford

There is a man speaking to a woman and they both have on the same uniform. They appear to be on their lunch break. The “V” in the background could represent “Victory”. A man-size job in the text pointed out that woman did not typically have the job.

The purpose would be to point out that women are stronger than they appear and are capable of doing a man’s job.  I believe this because in the picture, they both seem dirty and

The audience could be for both men and women. For men, it could be saying that women are now working the same jobs as men and they are rising up in society and deserve more respect. If they didn’t have a job and had to fight in the war, they have woman back home to work in manufacturing companies. For women, it could be thought of as an encouragement to them to go out and get a job and that they are just as good as men are at them.

The author uses Ethos by the tone of the text and Pathos by speaking in a friendly tone through the text on the advertisement.

Crawford - Blog Post #2

First of all, I’d like to point out that the SOL’s were not intended at first to be so vital for a student to pass a class. Their original purpose was to measure how well the students had learned the material the teachers taught them throughout the school year. They are updated every year so they are up-to-date for the most part. If it were up to me, I would not remove them completely, but change their purpose back to the way it was when they were first used. I feel like they would be much more useful that way. With the constant changing of technology, schools should incorporate the newer digital and analog technologies in the way they teach to better prepare the students for their future. In Virginia Heffernan’s article she speaks about a specific woman named Cathy Davidson who stated that the better question about today’s education was whether the way of learning of students now is current enough to prepare them for the ever-changing future. I feel as though the way of learning needs to change rather than what they are learning.

As for the Internet, Nicholas Carr stated that first it became easier to use the more you used it and was convenient when he needed to research for the articles he wrote, but later in his article he claimed that search engines such as Google were making us stupid although they are as convenient as they are. I completely disagree with the search engines making us not so smart. I believe that they actually help us grow smarter because that is what people are dependent on in this day and age. For example, a student might have a question about his or her homework that cannot be easily answered because he or she is not at school or a library. That student could simply go on Google and search for the answer and move on with his or her homework. The Internet is fast, easy to use, and convenient.