Blog: 7

Thesis:


"Television influences aggressive behavior in children, but does not more likely lead them to committing crime when they get older."


Studies show that there isn't significant research done to see weather or not TV leads to violent behavior. Though I've heard video games tend to have more of an influence than TV, maybe b/c its more interactive.

i.Which towns and cities were first to get TV and What are/were the demographics of these towns? 

ii. What kind of programming existed in the early days and in the ensuing years and How did the programming differ from one place to the other? 

iii. What were the types of role models portrayed in these shows and How do you think that these shows influenced the viewers? 

iiii. How do/did viewers view the world after watching years of TV? 

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1. C. Huston, Aletha, Ed Donnerstein, and Halford Fairchild. "Big world, small screen: the role       of television in American society". Lincoln, Nebraska: 1992. Print.


This book was suggested by Pro. Luke. The authors refer to the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychological Association for statistics on effects of programming on not only children, but women, minorities and the elderly. In the text the authors discuss the role programming for each sub group.


2. "Crime Statistics". US Government, published yearly. Web. 7 Apr 2011. <http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/crimestats>.


This is official FBI statistics of crime rates in America dated back to 1930. This website is useful for graphs and charts. There is an annual Uniform Crimes Report that is published every year by the US Department of Justice. Factors of crime are also listed in these published documents. They never mention TV as a factor.


3. Alexander, Allison. "CHILDREN AND TELEVISION."Museum of Broadcast and Communications. The Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC), 2011. Web. 7 Apr 2011. <http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=childrenand>. Chicago, IL


This website is useful because it has information on the history of broadcasting. The author in this specific web page briefly describes the effects of television violence on children. Though it may not be the best of sources it's interesting to hear what Museums have to say.

The Matrix

(Still working on this)

Have you ever wondered if you really had superpowers? Remember when you were a little kid you could fly or you could move objects across the room using your mind? Or one of my favorite; teleporting. While watching this film called Matrix I couldn't help but look at the desk in front of me and feel like  I could kick it through the walls or manipulate its structure and make it melt into liquid or make it evaporate into a gas. The Matrix is reality's cloak and dagger. This film is jam packed with references to mythology and history.

(This is where I talk a bit about the plot)

What is real to me is only determined by emotional respones which steam from my senses telling my brain what real. If I can feel it, see it, touch it smell it and or taste it, then to me its real and I reject all other truths. Compared to the Allegory of the Cave; sensory played a pivotal role for how the prisoners in the cave connected to the world. Similar to Neo when introduced to the Matrix.


In the film Neo takes a literal leap into the unknown. Trusting and believing in himself to make it across to the other side of a rooftop where Morpheus stood. But sure enough he sold himself short. He solely believed in what he was seeing as oppose to the truth; the other side didn't really exist in the first place. Fear of falling midway became his reality as soon as his let his fear take over. Similar to Allegory of the cave the fear and the pain of reality drove the freed prisoner to run back into the cave before he could comprehend the real world. The idea that we instinctively reject new truths that are presented to us because they obscure what we think we know is what the allegory of the cave and the Matrix puts to test; making us humans question the cognitive sciences; the ability to manipulate our perceptions of reality; the idea that thought equals manifest. You can do anything you set your mind to do all you have to do is believe in yourself. Having the ability and freedom to see passed the "shadows" in our own caves and walk into the light of own realities. And like the Matrix we are one in our consciousness therefore as we get plugged into the world our perceptions of reality vary.

Blog: 6

What is the Prison House of Language?

When thinking about Plato's Allegory of the Cave he talks about people living in the bliss of ignorance, and rejecting any objections against their formed realities. In the Prison house of Language there is a similar undertone. 

Why is it that one is not encouraged to question structure?

Blog: 5

“Allegory of the cave”--

Plato writes a dialoged between two characters, Socrates and Glaucon. In this allorgy according to Socrates, of course, he shares his theory on knowdlged. attempted to spred that knowlege to others. Obstacles he believes one will encounter when he has Glaucon a philosphy on the enlighment of man. Using a hypothetical scenario of prisoners chain into place living in an underground cave with a nothing more then Socrates explains how people in society are prisoners to their own illusion of reality. What they see is what they believe no matter what is presented to them as the truth they will stick to there own interpretation. Plato uses metaphors scuh as a fire being the sun. cave with siliqtes and leave the cave discovering a different truth not nessacaerly omitting their previous one , it is certain he/ she will adapt to this new truth but yet still will have memory of his old habitation therefore want to return to share the new truth with those he/ she grew up with. But because the others living in “the den” are only accustomed to one truth they will more than likely reject this new truth and disown him/her. Socretes believes that in order to let people know your good intensions when sharing knowlgeg one has to remember that reason is a universal perspective.

Blog: 4

“Sun and Moon have filled man with inspiration, admiration and fear.”
For a long time many personified the Sun and the Moon. In ancient Greek for example Apollo was known as the sun god. The Inca culture…

Blog:3

Myths I thought to be true, but sadly I was mistaken:

·      WWF

·      Horror films such as Dracula, Wolf man, Frankenstein exist because they had movies about them

·      Santa Clause and his elves delivering my gifts on Christmas Eve while I slept.  

·      Reindeer

·      Easter bunny

·      Tooth Fairy

·      Witches

·      Monsters in the dark

·      Spirits floating around my house

·      If you say Candy man or Bloody Marie five times in the mirror...well you know what happens

Blog: 2

After reading Allegory of the cave I couldn't help but feeling a bit like the prisoner seeing the light. Socrates states, "And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have pain in his eyes which will make him turn away and take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?"
It's true that in our society people will believe what they have been taught to believe in. They will reject any other "truth" that doesn't match or complement their "own truth" or "own reality". It takes people a while to start believing hypothetical things. Fact is people need facts, and weather or not they believe those facts to be true all depends on what they know. but none the less rejecting something new about the reality we know seems to be a normal process in the way we take in new information.

Oscar wild says- "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."

What do you think?