Weekly Blog Post 2

It is interesting to see how far the Internet has come. In just over two decades, Internet usage has spread over an estimated quarter of the Earth's population according to Wikipedia. That's over 1,673,007,569 human-beings sharing information, learning, and communicating over the Web. To most, the Internet is considered to be one of the best inventions our world has seen, but does this technology serve us more bad than good?

As shown by the video "The Machine is Us/ing Us", when you connect to the Internet you receive access to millions of websites. One of the most common uses of the Internet is communication. Internet users communicate through many means such as instant messengers, blogs, and on profiles such as Facebook. While these sites serve as a perfect way to express yourself and connect with others, the location of this communication makes it very hard to determine audience. Even with security settings on your profile, it is very easy for someone to "backdoor" your "secure" information. Therefore, anything and everything that you write on the Web is available to any of the 1,673,007,569 users of the Internet today. This makes it very hard to pinpoint who exactly is reading your latest blog or status update. Just last year, the US Department of Defense was forced to prohibit flash drives on military computers due to a worm virus threatening security. Hackers were sending this virus in hopes of retrieving military intelligence through a virus that lived on flash drives. While the Internet serves as a place to communicate with foreign countries and allies, who is to know that there isn't someone else watching as well. Privacy and audience issues are a few of the bad aspects of the Internet.

This is just one of many things that writers need to be aware of when expressing themselves on the Internet. While the video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" makes the Internet look so vast, amazing, and useful, it can also cause problems. As a writer and user of the Internet you have to keep in mind that something so powerful has these downfalls and be prepared for as many as possible. It is very difficult as a writer to know how the medium or context that you use may be perceived. Being careful, while still being ourselves, is how writing over the Internet should be.

Weekly Blog Post 1

"I allow my intuition to lead my path." - Manuel Puig

In a world that is heavily influenced by what society has appraised as right and wrong, it is difficult for someone to truly follow their intuition. Members of society are always looking over your shoulder, judging if what you are wearing is fashionable or if your ideas are interesting or not. This quotation by Manuel Puig really caught my attention because it outlines a point that I try to live by: being yourself. I believe that Mr. Puig is emphasizing the importance of originality in his life. He does not plan on leading a life that is led by what others think or feel, but rather by what his morals, thoughts, and overall, intuition, tell him. I feel that this is very important in developing diversity in the world of art. This is true for all categories of art: if everyone wrote what society expects them to write about, we would have a million novels of similarity. Likewise, if everyone sang like Luciano Pavarotti or painted like da Vinci, sure, we would have some great pieces of music and art to cherish; but, not everyone is like Mr. Pavarotti and would rather be in a band like Guns N' Roses. While there are big differences between Pavarotti and Guns N' Roses, each have their own personality and bring something different to the music world. Letting your intuition lead you leads to originality, and originality is what keeps the world interesting.

In writing, using intuition is very important and can be very helpful. Trying to write this blog entry I sat and tried to develop a good idea of what Josh would want us to write about: trying to fit in parts of the book and use as many of the words he listed as possible. It wasn't until I had a complete writer's block that I realized I wasn't really writing a response to Manuel Puig's quotation, I was just developing what I thought would get me the one point for this assignment. I was too worried about what my audience would be expecting and forgot about my purpose. Sitting back and letting my intuition take control helped me write as an individual and transfer my thoughts about the quotation to this post. Writing intuitively, though, can be somewhat dangerous. You have to think about who you are speaking to and how what you are saying may come across. This is where context comes in. You want to put yourself in your audience's shoes and imagine them reading what you are writing. This will let you experience the reactions and thoughts that they may come across while reading your work.

Overall, I highly agree with Manuel Puig. I plan on letting my intuition, cautiously, lead my writing while still keeping in mind certain aspects such as audience, context and purpose.