[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

My favorite pieces of technological shortcuts area definitely keyboard commands.  Although simple, they make life so much easier! Control-F to find things, Control-C to copy, Control-V to paste and Control-K to hyperlink are probably some of my favorite and most used shortcuts.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I agree that the cover of a book can initially provide information such as genre and target demographic, but I also think this does not mean people should only read books that target their demographic through superficial means.  One thing I’ve seen become popular online is when bookstores will cover up the cover of a book and only provide those shopping with key descriptive words about what the book is about.  I often wondered what kind of success rate these programs have with people being satisfied with their purchase.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

Personally, whenever asked the value of anything as arbitrary as nature, I adopt a “to each his own” attitude.  I think nature in particular is something that some people find deep meaning and solace in, while others find useless and aloof.  I don’t think either view is concretely wrong or right, but it is an interesting question, as nature and technology are often thought of a polar opposites, with technology often trumping nature.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

To give a very straight forward answer to a very deep question, I firmly believe that there has been a net positive force working on the way people read as result of the technological revolution.  I think that reading is more accessible today than it ever has been before, and that alone is reason to view technology in a positive literary light.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I was honestly surprised at the lack of changes between the versions of the address.  Going from Thoreau’s edits of Walden where literally entire paragraphs were taken out and changed over the revisions to Lincoln’s minute changes (with the exception of “under God”) created an interesting juxtaposition.  However, I think one change that stuck out to me was the capitalization of “Liberty,” as many others have pointed out.  I don’t think it would have been as noticeable if the word was capitalized right from the start, but the fact that Lincoln thought to go back and change it, when so many other things were left the same, is quite interesting.  It obviously places a greater emphasis on the word, and it’s meaning in the context of the time period.  As far as the changes in rhythm go, I think Lincoln’s changes in punctuation give the most sense of how he read the address.  I agree with Emily P, that the change from a semi-colon to an em-dash when Lincoln said, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation” has the biggest impact on the rhythm.  I think the punctuation changes can get us as close as we can be to knowing how the address sounded.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

In general, I think our preconceived notions greatly influence the way we interact with people.  We go into almost every conversation with some idea of the type of person we’re talking to, and it almost always comes out in some way during the course of the interaction.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I think during the discussion with Ron Clapper, we got a new interesting perspective on this ongoing debate.  Dr Clapper said that he believes that Thoreau knew how he sounded, and was trying to light a fire underneath people who weren’t happy with their lives, as opposed to an attack on a specific race or background.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I think a big reason photographs can be so influential is because people can find themselves within a photograph.  Photographs don’t have explanations attached, so people can interpret them to be whatever they want.  This most definitely sets photographs apart from other symbols or actions.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

In my opinion, I put youtube videos and wikihow on the same level as reading, in the sense that it’s not experiential learning, but rather observational.  I feel like Thoreau often preaches experiential learning, and I think he would not be thrilled with the current society’s interest in looking something up as opposed to going out and experiencing it.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I agree with Emily, that Thoreau is definitely a “social author,” even just because he knew his book would be read by an audience.  He is preaching his values and describing his chosen way of life in a way that is supposed to be received by others.  I think, to some extent, Thoreau is contradicting his transcendentalist views purely by interacting this much with society, through the publication of Walden.  However, I think Thoreau’s work as a whole is vital to understanding the transcendentalist movement as a whole, and, for lack of a better phrase, had to be done by someone.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

Going off of the education thread that has evolved from this post, through my block 1 education class’ readings and discussion, it seems to me that hands-on interaction is a much more effective way to learn than purely by book reading.  Books are clearly a good place to start, but as far as learning goes, activities are usually more memorable and therefore better teaching methods.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I agree that digital reading is a completely acceptable substation for physical book reading, but I think the idea that reading Tweets or other short online sites can substitute for books is a bit of a stretch.  I think constantly scrolling through Twitter and Facebook has actually made book reading harder for kids and teens as their attention spans are being lessened by the online world, to an extent.

[Kaitlin Pfundstein]

I do not think people like Damien should be taken advantage of, but I do acknowledge that people like Damien are the target audience for commercialized companies like Wake Up Now to take advantage of.  From an economic standpoint, a company like Wake Up Now was established to make money, and they’re going to do that by basically exploiting people like Damien, and his demographic.  From a ethical standpoint, Wake Up Now seems to be immortal in that fact that it’s essentially causing people to quit their jobs and make little to no money through the company.  However, it’s interesting to note that from Wake Up Now’s perspective, they believe they have educated the public about the risks and dangers of investing heavily into the company.

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