Class Archive

As I was looking through some of the previous blog posts, and remembering others throughout the year, one thing I noticed, and realized a few others also noticed, was the great variety of topics that we as a class have covered.  Blog posts have ranged from Egyptian funerary practices to sports technology to digital aspirin.  With our class wrapping up, and all of us exploring incredibly diverse topics for our final papers, I wanted to look back on one of the first topics we were all charged to write about—artifact politics—, and analyze how we all took a very different perspective on how to write about this topic.  I also wanted to look at one of the topics a classmate has chosen for his/her final paper—cinema.

Earlier in the year, we discussed how an artifact can have a certain political dimension after reading the work by Langdon Winner, and tasked with choosing an artifact and writing about its political dimensions.  I remember that I chose a gun, partly because I felt that it could have both democratic and authoritarian aspects when put into specific hands.  When going through all of the other posts about artifact politics, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the astounding diversity of topics we as a class chose.  Two posts that specifically interested me were about GPS and the pen.  The post about GPS really interested me because I had never fully realized all of the information wireless service providers, and even the government, had on us, which I believe to be an invasion of privacy.  The post about the pen also interested me because I never really thought about how influential, yet simple, an object a pen is.  I guess the saying “the pen is mightier than the sword” really is true.

Now to talk about one specific topic, which is cinema.  One student is choosing to write about cinema for his/her final paper, and this caught my eye because I have always had a special interest in movies.  I even considered writing about movies for my final paper, but ultimately  I have always been fascinated by the fact that two hours of film has the ability to change a person’s life.  Take The Wolf of Wall Street for example, a movie about a big-time executive on Wall Street during the 1980’s named Jordan Belfort.  After this movie hit theaters, many teenagers and college kids decided they wanted to major in business or finance so they could live the wild lifestyle shown in the movie.  One thing I enjoyed about this student’s post was how he/she evaluated the history of cinema, starting with a photograph and now today having CGI effects.  We discussed cinema in my communications class, and this student was basically spot-on when describing the history of movies.  I also like how the student described the evolution of film as an art form, from realism to surrealism.  One thing I would have liked for this student to include in his/her post is an analysis on the social impact cinema has had on society, particularly the United States.

In conclusion, I believe that we as a class have really developed a great blog site that analyzes various technologies and their different functions.  I hope that students in the future will look at this site and perhaps use it as a resource, or simply inspiration, for their own work.

Our Class Archive of Essays

As I began looking through the different blog posts, I saw a post about nuclear weapons that was of particular interest to me because nuclear weapons, at least for me, is not an advancement that I often think of in today’s society. When the student began their personal reflection of the topic, it was mentioned that the lecture on the apocalypse triggered this topic; I too, have been writing on an apocalyptic theme, so I comprehended the interest in this topic already.

The student talked about freedom from nuclear fear in the sense that the location of the student is not as threatened, politically, by a nuclear attack. I find this evaluation to be true, because if you think of Ohio, it does not pose threat toward persecution; in contrast, places like New York where highly populated areas are threatened by terrorist attacks or political reform can be at a higher level of risk.

This country is very lucky to be so free; no one has to worry about be persecuted religiously. In fact, people flee to this country to escape this persecution. The streets are not armed with military holding guns, men in uniform, or the constant fear that we could be falsely accused of something, resulting in a beheading. It’s important to realize how lucky we are to live in such a great country that lets us live our lives the way we see fit. However, it is also important to realize the dangers that we are at risk to. We are at risk to terrorism, but we mitigate that risk when we migrate to places that are less populated and less politically evident. Thus, Ohioans are great examples of those who are in between, so there is less likely of a terrorist attack here. Like the student mentioned, places like NY and D.C. are more apt to have riskier consequences being in that area.

I like how the student was able to tie in their own beliefs into the reflection because it’s important to know where the author stands on the issue at hand. Those values and beliefs are what make a person. When analyzing nuclear weaponry, it would be good to understand that even though the world may end the way you think it will, think about the effects of what nuclear weaponry can bring in general, not only that it could lead to an apocalypse. I am sure there is a lot to go off of with this topic, and obviously I am not doing this particular project, but keep in mind the fact that weapons may not “end” the world, but that it could dramatically effect it.

The world can be a dangerous place, but here in America, we are so lucky to have the freedom to walk the streets unarmed and unafraid of being accused of a specific religion and being persecuted for that belief system. Overall, this was a great personal reflection of the topic, and I see similarities with myself about this topic. It really reminds me of how thankful we all should be to have the opportunity to live here and express our freedom in whatever way we choose. Great essay!