Revelation 1

#1: It's probably necessary to give something up, or rather, it's probably necessary to choose what to get involved with, or not to get involved with.

Throughout the class, we've been introduced to all sorts of new technology, and shown ways to use that technology. Thinking about it, I've realized it's important to choose the things that will be useful personally, and professionally. Part of this, of course, is to recognize what I don't have a use for at all.

Revelation 2

#2: Music, Image, and Emotion in the Limbic Cortex

Again, something I knew, but didn't think about it beyond just knowing it. In hindsight, it makes complete sense. Why can music and images convey such powerful ideas? Because they're wired into the same place that is the home to emotion. Good lyrics in the song? The neocortex gets involved. It's pretty much wonderful.

And - pretty much terrifying the way that a jingle can get worked into the brain and never leave:

Revelation 3

#3: The Seven Principles, and Language in general

I think about language all the time. I like to know the origins of idioms, words, and cultural references. Language and how we interact with it changes our brains, and how we cognitively interact with our reality.

The 7 Principles gives me coherent way to discuss media literacy, and that's important to me; language, more or less, is what I do, both professionally and to a large extent personally. I believe that language truly is power.

"Pay no attention the man behind the curtain."

Revelation 4

#4: The News isn't News, and the Five Filters

I've listened to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, before, and I've realized that TV news is pretty much not newsworthy, but it was nice of her to point out exactly how much the news isn't reporting news. Both nice, and saddening.

If it's pretty much universally agreed that we need a steady diet of news to have a proper democracy, the lack of real information and breadth in the media puts our democracy, in general, in a terrible place. How are people supposed to make informed choices about who runs the government and what that government does with the information? And, if internet media is only feeding us the news stories that it thinks we'll click on, rather something truly informative and perhaps outside our normal proclivities, how are we ever supposed to expand our thoughts beyond our own preferences?

For example, this is not really news:

So why was this produced solely on the internet? Who owns this? What is it selling?

Revelation 5

#5: I really had ads, and I love Vermont for not having billboards.

Since I've begun thinking about advertisements, I've really started to notice how inane they are. I think the first I noticed this was back when my Father questioned this:

And asked, "Now more than ever, what?"

Now I understand that the open ended nature is completely purposeful, allowing the audience to create their own reality around whatever they think they're seeing.

So why is Vitamin Water a Revolution? Am I really supposed to believe that your drink is better because you've replaced the high fructose corn syrup with crystalline fructose? And that it will revive me, make me pretty, help my bones, or cure my cold? I think I'd be better off eating broccoli.

Also, Coca-Cola owns Vitamin Water.

Revelation 6

#6: Google is Skynet.

Here's some scary stuff: Google wants 100% of your data. And, while they're at it, they'd like to show you what they believe you're looking for using a complicated algorithm.

Or maybe not:

Ceding control of what we're seeing to a set of mathematical operations seems unwise. While we can control this to some degree using available filters, what if I want to see something unfiltered? What if I'm looking for something completely different from my own opinions, thoughts, beliefs, etc?

Also, they'd like to build an Artificial Intelligence. This makes me nervous, as I've read far too much science fiction to think that this is a good idea. Well, except for Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

Revelation 7

#7: RSS

Before RSS, I had a bookmark folder that contained bookmarks to all the online comics I read. I used to open it up, go get some coffee, and when I came back, everything had loaded, including all those pages that hadn't been updated. Now with RSS, my wait time simply doesn't exist. Thank you, internet.

Revelation 8

#8: Proof the internet can make you "dumb," or "If it's not in your brain you don't know it."

Carr wrote a whole book about how the internet can make a brain shallow, and part of his argument is that by believing that knowing where information lives is as good as knowing that information. I've always had a problem with this since I first encounter it in an assessment textbook (of all places). Now, thanks to Carr, I have a few definite reason to back up my axiom.

Revelation 9

#9: "The Lizard Hot Spot"

Yes, I knew about the various large division in the brain, and I knew that advertisers seek to exploit the brain by accessing various parts of the brain, but seeing corporations in action in The Persuaders made it all the more real. The swank gathering in upstate New York with the intention of finding the code for "Luxury?" I'm pretty sure I've read that in a William Gibson novel.

Revelation 10

#10: Tools affect the brain.

I'm fascinated by tools and technology more than ever, and I mean tools in the largest possible sense. Whether it's a tool to shoot a nail at high speed into a chunk of wood or a new hard drive, I like tools.

Carr's discussion of how tools can affect the brain has lead me to think beyond his focus of reading and the internet. It was his mention of taxi cab drivers' brains that made me wonder what sorts of modifications happen from different careers. What parts of the brain are affected by teaching? What parts by being a carpenter? A circus clown? A non-euclidean geometer?

Interest in Media

I am interested in media as a omnipresent factor in the lives of my students. I teach Latin, but I've always been interested in aspects of technology and how technology influences how people think and gather information. Since media is now so intertwined in new forms of technology, my curiosity naturally runs into media. Also, I'd just like to be more conscious about media in general. Since it's so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, I'd like to be able to see the fnords.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I'm going to make these interests into a project. Yep.