Monday, March 01, 2004
Video Games
The affect that video games has had on our society today is amazing. Being a Halo fanatic I know what it is like to spend a sufficient amount of time playing a single game. The question that arises in my mind is am I wasting my time or am I stimulating my brain. The answer that I come up with is probably a little bit of both. Video games clearly help to develop hand eye coordination and problem solving skills. They also probably distract people from doing other things that they ought to being doing instead (like homework or writing in my blog for this class). While you could probably be doing better things that video games you could probably be doing worse. I think most television shows will "rot" your brain much faster than any video game will.
Online video games create a particularly interesting forum. These games allow you to interact with other people. While many of these games can become particularly addicting (Everquest, Counterstrike, Ultima Online, Quake, etc.), I think that they have positive affects to them. They create their own communities with their own culture where everyone is accepted as long as they follow the rules of the game. The ability to 'fit in' in these communities has allowed some people to shed their outcast label that they have in society while in this online community.
The violence that is in video games receives blame for reasons that society needs to address. While I wholeheartedly agree that there are video games out there that children should not be playing, I believe that the blame that is placed on video games for violence by teens and pre-teens in the real world is wrongplaced. The real blame should be placed on the breakdown of parenting in today's world. There is a true lack of morality and discipline in many households in America today and this is the reason that kids have become more violent in recent years. The burden should be placed on parents to teach kids right from wrong and they are to blame when something goes wrong with their kids, not video games. Kids should be taught that video games are, well, just that, games, and that what happens in most of them should not be repeated in real life.
The affect that video games has had on our society today is amazing. Being a Halo fanatic I know what it is like to spend a sufficient amount of time playing a single game. The question that arises in my mind is am I wasting my time or am I stimulating my brain. The answer that I come up with is probably a little bit of both. Video games clearly help to develop hand eye coordination and problem solving skills. They also probably distract people from doing other things that they ought to being doing instead (like homework or writing in my blog for this class). While you could probably be doing better things that video games you could probably be doing worse. I think most television shows will "rot" your brain much faster than any video game will.
Online video games create a particularly interesting forum. These games allow you to interact with other people. While many of these games can become particularly addicting (Everquest, Counterstrike, Ultima Online, Quake, etc.), I think that they have positive affects to them. They create their own communities with their own culture where everyone is accepted as long as they follow the rules of the game. The ability to 'fit in' in these communities has allowed some people to shed their outcast label that they have in society while in this online community.
The violence that is in video games receives blame for reasons that society needs to address. While I wholeheartedly agree that there are video games out there that children should not be playing, I believe that the blame that is placed on video games for violence by teens and pre-teens in the real world is wrongplaced. The real blame should be placed on the breakdown of parenting in today's world. There is a true lack of morality and discipline in many households in America today and this is the reason that kids have become more violent in recent years. The burden should be placed on parents to teach kids right from wrong and they are to blame when something goes wrong with their kids, not video games. Kids should be taught that video games are, well, just that, games, and that what happens in most of them should not be repeated in real life.
Digital Art
The world of computers has created an entire new array of possibilities in art. Computer animation is particularly amazing to me. I think that this takes true talent. The amount of manipulation that is possible with computer animation leaves the possibilities in this medium with no limits. I also find it particularly interesting that computer art used to be mostly unrealistic and instead create fantasy. Now, however, we are seeing a movement towards realism in the computer animation world. Computer graphics are beginning to look more real with every video game and cartoon movie that comes out.
I thought the conversation that we had about whether or not pornography was art was particularly stimulating. I myself don't believe that it is but it seems to come back to the question of what it art. The human body can be a beautiful thing and when photographed in the right what I think that it can be art. I think that there is a fine line between nude art and pornography. I draw the line with the act of intercourse. I think once this occurs it is no longer art and has become pornography. When someone is photographing the nude body in a tasteful way I think that many things can be expressed that traditional art tries to express.
Some of the things that people question as art I think are ridiculous. Websites of random things that people take with there webcam on their phone are usually not artistic. I think that technology has created new ways for people to combat their boredom and this is often confused with art. I think that photography is really only an art when their is a certain amount of skill involved in the manipulation of the camera to make the picture turn out as the photographer sees fit.
The world of computers has created an entire new array of possibilities in art. Computer animation is particularly amazing to me. I think that this takes true talent. The amount of manipulation that is possible with computer animation leaves the possibilities in this medium with no limits. I also find it particularly interesting that computer art used to be mostly unrealistic and instead create fantasy. Now, however, we are seeing a movement towards realism in the computer animation world. Computer graphics are beginning to look more real with every video game and cartoon movie that comes out.
I thought the conversation that we had about whether or not pornography was art was particularly stimulating. I myself don't believe that it is but it seems to come back to the question of what it art. The human body can be a beautiful thing and when photographed in the right what I think that it can be art. I think that there is a fine line between nude art and pornography. I draw the line with the act of intercourse. I think once this occurs it is no longer art and has become pornography. When someone is photographing the nude body in a tasteful way I think that many things can be expressed that traditional art tries to express.
Some of the things that people question as art I think are ridiculous. Websites of random things that people take with there webcam on their phone are usually not artistic. I think that technology has created new ways for people to combat their boredom and this is often confused with art. I think that photography is really only an art when their is a certain amount of skill involved in the manipulation of the camera to make the picture turn out as the photographer sees fit.
Hypertext
Until I read about this topic I hadn't really thought about the possibilities that the internet gives readers to manipulate what they are reading. Articles and stories with hypertext are kind of like a modern choose your own adventure, allowing the reader's choices to come into play concerning what come next. I think that this ability gives the author the opportunity to be more creative because it allows him to explore all the possible endings and twists to a story and not just one. This type of literature is almost like a game in some instances where people have to try to get the outcome to the story that they want it to have. I think that this creates a new medium that is sort of like a combination of a narrative and a database. While authors can still take the reader where the want them with a story, they also can help them become informed about all aspects of the story through the use of hypertext links within the story that help to explain a certain word or phrase.
Until I read about this topic I hadn't really thought about the possibilities that the internet gives readers to manipulate what they are reading. Articles and stories with hypertext are kind of like a modern choose your own adventure, allowing the reader's choices to come into play concerning what come next. I think that this ability gives the author the opportunity to be more creative because it allows him to explore all the possible endings and twists to a story and not just one. This type of literature is almost like a game in some instances where people have to try to get the outcome to the story that they want it to have. I think that this creates a new medium that is sort of like a combination of a narrative and a database. While authors can still take the reader where the want them with a story, they also can help them become informed about all aspects of the story through the use of hypertext links within the story that help to explain a certain word or phrase.
