Now where did i leave my cell phone...

The millennial as a generation is an interesting idea in theory but does it hold up to the true test? Would I as a tech savvy, caffeine swilling, video game playing, MTV hating, internet devotee be able to last 24 hours without being hooked up to the life blood of my generation? What I learned in my 24 hours in that the peace of the real world comes with it’s own sour grapes. As the sun rose the Saturday after Black Friday I was asleep like any good shopper. In fact sleeping was an important part of my longest day as I used it to get through the times my family wanted to do anything that was media related. I decided to stay in the house to make sure I stayed away from any media that gave me some time to read books and played card games with my cousins who were visiting from New York. While these things took up much of my time I cannot say that I did not wonder what the score was of the football game or what my friends were up to. After a while I felt cut off from the world and even though I had the company of my family there was a part of me that was lonely. This revelation honestly surprised me and I began to wonder if I really was dependent on all my gadgets. Postman believed that we were climbing into our own imprisonment as a society but I believe he had it backwards, when I was disconnected from the media I stepped into an entirely new prison where I lost contact with the people who mattered to me, my friends. I cannot say that as a society we are not being circled by the vultures of Hollywood who broadcast the lives of the rich and infamous but being connected brings other benefits such as instant communication in seconds with only our thumbs. McLuhan never rang more true then when he said that “The Medium is the Message” because AIM and text messaging as mediums have created a new message for the millennials stating loud and clear that we are connected. Being in constant communication does not cheapen our relationships; it makes personal and face to face interaction more meaningful. Being disconnected from the media was a challenge and the entire time I did feel like I could be doing something better but being disconnected helped me understand the importance and how much I came to rely on what I use daily.

So scary I forgot to scream

A shadowy clawed figure comes rising up the stairs with sharp claws. Ellen sees count Orlock and slowly steps back towards her bed. A shadow of a hand rises over her body. The shadow becomes a fist over Ellen’s heart as she feints under the power of the count. The Count bows himself over Ellen’s body. The sun rises we see a rooster caw and simple beams of light strike Nosferatu dies raising his shroud of mystery. The legendary film “Nosferatu” mastered the idea that the unknown causes more fear then anything else possibly could and tried to teach audiences that to fear what they cannot see can be foolish or comical. The use of shadows with the stark contrast of whites and blacks makes the character of Nosferatu frightening because it forces the viewer to fear what might happen next building anticipation, effectively making transition scenes some of the most frightening in the movie. Oddly enough, Nosferatu dies from something simple as sunlight which means the viewer was literally chasing shadows with their mind and this great terror was bested by a simple women letting some light into her room. The film plays with the “fear of the unknown” by making the villagers at the beginning of the film fear the Count but Hutter does not.
Even though the lead of the film is not afraid of what is to come the audience is to begin to feel afraid of what Hutter is going to encounter when he meets the Count. The idea of fear that Nosferatu created has inspired films ever since but even Nosferatu went beyond many modern films by almost making a mockery of the method it used to cause fear.

Written Vs Viewed, Postman Vs. Paglia, (aka Youtube Vs. Blogger.com - Its all Google to me)

The voice of the television generation generations is well carried by Camille Paglia who defends the power of against cultural elitism which has formed “a kind of intellectual denial” towards the television. But in the debate between her and Neil Postman she falters in the battle to give examples and persuade the reader in the battle of the written and the viewed. An example of this is when Paglia brings up the idea that early Judaism stood against imagery because they did not want people idolizing images but Postman takes this argument to the point that they did use written language to conceptualize their God and this allowed for the religion to become more mobile and innovative. This sort of argument strengthens Postman’s case as he uses ideas that Paglia brought up to show the strength of the written word without sounding condescending or rude. Postman later brings up the idea that even though the Catholic church has been using symbolism to support the faith, the changes and revolutionary ideas of the world that we see writing prevail over images. The images of the Catholic Church are over shadowed by the printing press and the protestant reformation which brought the written into the home. While Europe is often viewed as artistic the revolutionary ideas of the United States are forged upon the written words of the Constitution, which sparked a revolution in Europe. Through counter and persuasive arguments, Postman wins the battle of written vs. viewed but has not yet won the war.