Fourth draft
Thanksgiving is supposed to be filled with being thankful for the things in your life that make it meaningful. It’s a day when families get together and spend time with each other over food saying how thankful they are for each other. This is the corporate message that most people follow. Thanksgiving is a day for celebration. Though little remember how we took the Indians food and later killed them all. They feed us and gave us shelter and we repay them by wiping them out and driving them off the lands. There is never any consideration or thought given for the terrible things that were done.
After Thanksgiving is Black Friday. A name given to the day for the many sales that goes on. The stores all have record-breaking deals where everyone can start their holiday shopping. People get up early in the morning and wait on long lines that seem to go on forever for a chance to get in the stores and buy things. During this years Black Friday a man was trampled when a "mob of frenzied people" came into a Wal-Mart. No one cared to help him but instead continued to trample him. 4 others were injured and many employees had to fight the mob to keep from being hurt. When they announced that they had to clear the store cause someone had died many complained about being on line forever and continued to shop. I am sad to hear how people have acted. It seems so many people care only about themselves and what things they can buy cheap then anything else. Though you cant fully blame them. Our culture and corporate media has a hand in this as well. I posed a question which asked has people's morals changed and if so what caused it and Sam K. answered that these people are desperately wanting happiness and so look for outside ways to achieve it. I think this is very interesting and very true. Many people now are relaying on material objects to close the gap in side of themselves. They think that money can buy them happiness and many people might agree with this but I for one do not. Money can only fill the gap for so long until there is a bigger need to get the newer and better stuff. You only keep moving on from thing to thing and only really having the illusion of filling the gap. Corporate media feeds people the desire to shop and fill those needs. Every message is about going out and buying things.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Corporate Message on how to live a good and meaningful life
When looking at Magazines to see what popular culture was saying about how to live a good and meaningful life most of the messages came from ads that companies paid to have people look at. Most of the ads were about having new and nicer things. There were many ads about cars, jewelry and clothes. Ads targeting women were about how they could look younger and be healthier. From these ads we can tell that popular culture says that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to look younger and have many new and materialistic goods.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
How do people see how to live a good and meaningful life?
Third draft
When figuring out what other people think about what’s good and meaningful in their lives, we took to the streets outside our school and started to interview people. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives are there was a couple of people that gave themselves 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Jace said, “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people, when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” Seven out of eleven people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ That something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” Four out of eleven people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful. Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how most people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people. These people that have been described as having meaningless lives are usually people who think/ care about their own lives more then they do others.
Corporate culture plays a big role on how people perceive how to live a good and meaningful life. All you have to do is walk out of your house and your “attacked” with corporate messages. There are all sorts of billboards, TV shows, magazines, books, commercials, movies, and the list goes on and on and each of those things are putting ideas in your head. There are the 3 categories in popular culture and they are corporate culture, folk culture and big subcultures. All of these things have either mainstream messages, marginal messages or prohibited messages. For example in vogue and people magazines they tell women to become beautiful by looking young and healthy. It’s also good to have the hottest fashion and the right accessories. All of these things add up to having a good and meaningful life. All of this is possessing materialistic goods is what makes your life more meaningful.
There is also the message for young kids that teamwork and following your dreams lead to a good and meaningful life. In the movie High School Musical 3 it’s all about working as a team to overcome any obstacle. There is also the part where Troy Bolton the main character goes through a dilemma where he does not know if he should follow his fathers dream or his own. In the end Troy decides to follow his own dream and in doing so makes his life more meaningful. Then there is the corporate message where men are supposed to be dominant over the women and are supposed to be the protectors saving the damsel in distress. In Twilight Bella falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Edward is the protector and dominates in the relationship. Even James makes a comment saying how Edward was keeping Bella weak and he should have changed her to make them equal. Then there is the perception that girls will go for the bad guy. Bella falls into this category by forsaking all others for her love for Edward. She goes for the dangerous guy who at any moment could kill her. Jacob argues that Bella should fall in love with him because he is the safe choice and she would not have to change for him. With all the options she chooses Edward and later becomes a vampire.
Other then movies and books music videos are another way in which popular culture spreads its message on how to live a good and meaningful life. Good Life by Kanye West feat. T-Pain is one example. The song basically talks about how to live a good life. Kanye goes on and on about realism instead of just the dreams. He goes on to talk about how having money, fame and girls is achieving a good life. He talks about material objects instead of other values/ aspects of what makes up a good life. He says in his song "Havin' money's the everythin' that havin' it is". He also goes to talk about freedom as an aspect of the good life. "The good life, let's go on a livin' spree- Shit, they say the best things in life are free". The images in the music video are very creative. The people are in black and white while the other images are in color. Some of the images in the video that further explain what's needed to have a good life are cars, money, woman who are wearing very skimpy clothes and where the picture is focused on their butts. Even though money is something he mentions there is a part in the song where he says "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz". There are also like the whole parts where he's going throw your hands up kinda thing like if you agree go ahead and there are images of a bunch of hands being thrown up.
Another music video is Lip Gloss by Lil Mamma. In the video Lil Mamma tells her mom how she thinks no one will like her and so her mom gives her some lip-gloss. As soon as she puts it on she’s the most popular girl in school. Every one wants to be her friend. Henry made very interesting insights into the video. I would have never have thought/ caught how she says how no body even knows her but still like her regardless just because she has nice clothes. I had not caught the line where she says no one knows anything about her but they still like her. When you listen to the song you just pass over that and only hear how her lip-gloss is cool. Though the message was obvious how possessions make you have a good life. Andy’s comments made me notice how in the video during all of the attention she was getting, she was also in control and how everyone followed her. I agree that most people feel like material goods will get them far. Even Lil Mama's mom goes on to say how it was her all along and not the lip-gloss but Lil Mama doesn't listen cause she likes all the attention she's getting. Music videos are also another way to advertise things its not all about the music and words like with L'Oreal paying to put their product in the video, so when people watch it they would want the product.
When figuring out what other people think about what’s good and meaningful in their lives, we took to the streets outside our school and started to interview people. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives are there was a couple of people that gave themselves 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Jace said, “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people, when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” Seven out of eleven people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ That something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” Four out of eleven people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful. Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how most people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people. These people that have been described as having meaningless lives are usually people who think/ care about their own lives more then they do others.
Corporate culture plays a big role on how people perceive how to live a good and meaningful life. All you have to do is walk out of your house and your “attacked” with corporate messages. There are all sorts of billboards, TV shows, magazines, books, commercials, movies, and the list goes on and on and each of those things are putting ideas in your head. There are the 3 categories in popular culture and they are corporate culture, folk culture and big subcultures. All of these things have either mainstream messages, marginal messages or prohibited messages. For example in vogue and people magazines they tell women to become beautiful by looking young and healthy. It’s also good to have the hottest fashion and the right accessories. All of these things add up to having a good and meaningful life. All of this is possessing materialistic goods is what makes your life more meaningful.
There is also the message for young kids that teamwork and following your dreams lead to a good and meaningful life. In the movie High School Musical 3 it’s all about working as a team to overcome any obstacle. There is also the part where Troy Bolton the main character goes through a dilemma where he does not know if he should follow his fathers dream or his own. In the end Troy decides to follow his own dream and in doing so makes his life more meaningful. Then there is the corporate message where men are supposed to be dominant over the women and are supposed to be the protectors saving the damsel in distress. In Twilight Bella falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Edward is the protector and dominates in the relationship. Even James makes a comment saying how Edward was keeping Bella weak and he should have changed her to make them equal. Then there is the perception that girls will go for the bad guy. Bella falls into this category by forsaking all others for her love for Edward. She goes for the dangerous guy who at any moment could kill her. Jacob argues that Bella should fall in love with him because he is the safe choice and she would not have to change for him. With all the options she chooses Edward and later becomes a vampire.
Other then movies and books music videos are another way in which popular culture spreads its message on how to live a good and meaningful life. Good Life by Kanye West feat. T-Pain is one example. The song basically talks about how to live a good life. Kanye goes on and on about realism instead of just the dreams. He goes on to talk about how having money, fame and girls is achieving a good life. He talks about material objects instead of other values/ aspects of what makes up a good life. He says in his song "Havin' money's the everythin' that havin' it is". He also goes to talk about freedom as an aspect of the good life. "The good life, let's go on a livin' spree- Shit, they say the best things in life are free". The images in the music video are very creative. The people are in black and white while the other images are in color. Some of the images in the video that further explain what's needed to have a good life are cars, money, woman who are wearing very skimpy clothes and where the picture is focused on their butts. Even though money is something he mentions there is a part in the song where he says "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz". There are also like the whole parts where he's going throw your hands up kinda thing like if you agree go ahead and there are images of a bunch of hands being thrown up.
Another music video is Lip Gloss by Lil Mamma. In the video Lil Mamma tells her mom how she thinks no one will like her and so her mom gives her some lip-gloss. As soon as she puts it on she’s the most popular girl in school. Every one wants to be her friend. Henry made very interesting insights into the video. I would have never have thought/ caught how she says how no body even knows her but still like her regardless just because she has nice clothes. I had not caught the line where she says no one knows anything about her but they still like her. When you listen to the song you just pass over that and only hear how her lip-gloss is cool. Though the message was obvious how possessions make you have a good life. Andy’s comments made me notice how in the video during all of the attention she was getting, she was also in control and how everyone followed her. I agree that most people feel like material goods will get them far. Even Lil Mama's mom goes on to say how it was her all along and not the lip-gloss but Lil Mama doesn't listen cause she likes all the attention she's getting. Music videos are also another way to advertise things its not all about the music and words like with L'Oreal paying to put their product in the video, so when people watch it they would want the product.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Destruction during Black Friday
During Black Friday a man was trampled when "mob of frenzied people" came into a Wal-Mart. No one cared to help him but instead continued to trample him. 4 others were injured and many employees had to fight the mob to keep from being hurt. When they announced that they had to clear the store cause someone had died many complained about being on line forever and continued to shop. I am sad to hear how people have acted. It seems so many people care only about themselves and what things they can buy cheap then anything else. Though you cant fully blame them. Our culture and corporate media has a hand in this as well. Some questions I had when reading one article were How will this effect next years Black Friday?. Another question is do you think any of the shoppers look back now hearing the news and feel bad or remorseful for what happened? I posed a question which asked has people's morals changed and if so what caused it and Sam K. answered that these people are desperately wanting happiness and so look for outside ways to achieve it. I think this is very interesting and very true. Many people now are relaying on material objects to close the gap in side of themselves. They think that money can buy them happiness and many people might agree with this but I for one do not. Money can only fill the gap for so long until there is a bigger need to get the newer and better stuff. You only keep moving on from thing to thing and only really having the illusion of filling the gap.
Thanksgiving and Black Friday
Thanksgiving is supposed to be filled with being thankful for the things in your life that make it meaningful. For my family Thanksgiving is about spending time together. Though when my mom tells everyone to come at 1 we know by now to expect them by maybe 2. Though when they finally arrive all annoyance is gone. We settle down and eat and we each share a memory that is meaningful to us. Though the younger generation as soon as their done get up and leave and look for something to do. They don't understand that the dinner is not just about eating but being able to spend time together. It seems as the years have passed Thanksgiving traditions have faded and in their place are sort of a restfulness. These changes make me notice and miss what's important to me. My family is important to me and I hardly get to see them so i always look forward to the holidays when I can get to see them. We always have fun. Usually after dinner we play games and have dessert. I guess in a way traditions are also meaningful to me because I have grown up with them and they have been with us since I was a kid.
Black Friday is when the stores bring out their biggest sales for the season. Everyone goes out early in the morning and waits in big lines to be able to get the things they want. I can not really remember if me or my mom ever really participated in this event. I think we always usually shopped Saturday when the mass of people were less.
Black Friday is when the stores bring out their biggest sales for the season. Everyone goes out early in the morning and waits in big lines to be able to get the things they want. I can not really remember if me or my mom ever really participated in this event. I think we always usually shopped Saturday when the mass of people were less.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How do people see how to live a good and meaningful life?
Second draft:
Through the ages people consider themselves to be living good and meaningful lives. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on living a good and meaningful life are being influenced by the things in our culture. But there are also those that do not follow the social norm and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. This paper will go into how others and myself define what’s meaningful to them and if in fact our interpretations are indeed effected by our culture’s message on how to live a good and meaningful life.
Andy Snyder said “Sometimes the way we determine the meaning of something is based on the function it serves in our lives”. I find this very true in my interpretation on what’s good and meaningful in my life. My family and friends play a big role in my life. I spend half my time with my friends and the other half with my family. The most meaningful people in my life are my friends and family. They are with me through out my life and will be there for me when I need help. As I grow older and my circle of friends may expand or shrink, I know that my family will always be there. And even when I’m away from my friends and family I can still chat with them over the phone or with instant messenger. My cats are also meaningful to me. They are a part of my family and have been with me since I was 5 years old.
The meaningful things in my life have to bring me happiness and have to have a good purpose. The meaningless things in my life are things that wont help me in the future and hurt me. Though most of the time our lives are filled with both the meaningful and non-meaningful things. And we accept the meaningless things cause with out having some meaningless stuff we couldn't appreciate all the meaningful things in life. To me material possessions are things that don’t make my life meaningful. Wealth is important and you see that in corporate messages yet those things are expendable. They are just face value. They don’t last like friends and family. I also believe that no one else can tell you what’s meaningful in your life. Only you can say what makes you happy.
Through the ages people consider themselves to be living good and meaningful lives. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on living a good and meaningful life are being influenced by the things in our culture. But there are also those that do not follow the social norm and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. This paper will go into how others and myself define what’s meaningful to them and if in fact our interpretations are indeed effected by our culture’s message on how to live a good and meaningful life.
Andy Snyder said “Sometimes the way we determine the meaning of something is based on the function it serves in our lives”. I find this very true in my interpretation on what’s good and meaningful in my life. My family and friends play a big role in my life. I spend half my time with my friends and the other half with my family. The most meaningful people in my life are my friends and family. They are with me through out my life and will be there for me when I need help. As I grow older and my circle of friends may expand or shrink, I know that my family will always be there. And even when I’m away from my friends and family I can still chat with them over the phone or with instant messenger. My cats are also meaningful to me. They are a part of my family and have been with me since I was 5 years old.
The meaningful things in my life have to bring me happiness and have to have a good purpose. The meaningless things in my life are things that wont help me in the future and hurt me. Though most of the time our lives are filled with both the meaningful and non-meaningful things. And we accept the meaningless things cause with out having some meaningless stuff we couldn't appreciate all the meaningful things in life. To me material possessions are things that don’t make my life meaningful. Wealth is important and you see that in corporate messages yet those things are expendable. They are just face value. They don’t last like friends and family. I also believe that no one else can tell you what’s meaningful in your life. Only you can say what makes you happy.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Obama Won!!
Congratulations to Barack Obama for winning the presidential election. I have to say that I am glad people choose to make a change in the world. Not only American citizens were celebrating Obama’s win but everyone around the country. Once the news came out that he won, people screamed in excitement and hosted many parties. People from Europe and Asia were also sharing in our excitement. Ever since Bush won the election our foreign relations have been estranged. But now with Barack Obama, we have a chance to re-write our relations with foreign countries and start anew. Perhaps America won’t be separated from the rest of the world anymore but a willing participant in all of the world’s issues.
I didn’t get to see his whole speech, but for the most part I liked it. He was very well spoken and put together when confronting the people who had not voted for him. Though I also noticed that his speech was very much like that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “ I have Dream”. He spoke of change and hope. And he also addressed how their are many obstacles and how it will take a good amount of time before all of it is solved. He admits how he wont be able to change things in a blink if an eye. But most people will still expect it of him. He is held at very high standards.
I didn’t get to see his whole speech, but for the most part I liked it. He was very well spoken and put together when confronting the people who had not voted for him. Though I also noticed that his speech was very much like that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “ I have Dream”. He spoke of change and hope. And he also addressed how their are many obstacles and how it will take a good amount of time before all of it is solved. He admits how he wont be able to change things in a blink if an eye. But most people will still expect it of him. He is held at very high standards.
Draft of introduction:
Through the ages people consider themselves to be living good and meaningful lives. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on living a good and meaningful life are being influenced by the things in our culture. But there are also those that do not follow the social norm and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. As a class we have been looking into the corporate world as much as folk culture and big subculture.
Through the ages people consider themselves to be living good and meaningful lives. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on living a good and meaningful life are being influenced by the things in our culture. But there are also those that do not follow the social norm and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. As a class we have been looking into the corporate world as much as folk culture and big subculture.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Henry- I would have never have thought/ caught how she says how no body even knows her but like her regardless just because she has nice clothes. I had not caught the line where she says no one knows anything about her but they still like her. When you listen to the song you just pass over that and only hear how her lip gloss is cool. Though the message was obvious how possessions make you have a good life.
Andy- I didn't notice how in the video during all of the attention she was getting, she was also in control and how everyone followed her. I agree that most people feel like material goods will get them far. Even Lil Mama's mom goes on to say how it was her all along and not the lip gloss but Lil Mama doesn't listen cause she likes all the attention she's getting. Music videos are also another way to advertise things its not all about the music and words like with L'Oreal paying to put their product in the video, so when people watch it they would want the product.
Jace- I agree with you that the video is saying how people need to have good looks to have a good life. I also believe that its not only good looks but the things that help you to achieve it. SIne she only got "good looking" and popular after the lip gloss. Also its all about your outside looks, not the things that are deeper than that. Thats why she says in the song "you don't know about me" Though i disagree with the ugly part because there was the nerd that wasn't good looking until she blew her lip gloss stuff on him.
Andy- I didn't notice how in the video during all of the attention she was getting, she was also in control and how everyone followed her. I agree that most people feel like material goods will get them far. Even Lil Mama's mom goes on to say how it was her all along and not the lip gloss but Lil Mama doesn't listen cause she likes all the attention she's getting. Music videos are also another way to advertise things its not all about the music and words like with L'Oreal paying to put their product in the video, so when people watch it they would want the product.
Jace- I agree with you that the video is saying how people need to have good looks to have a good life. I also believe that its not only good looks but the things that help you to achieve it. SIne she only got "good looking" and popular after the lip gloss. Also its all about your outside looks, not the things that are deeper than that. Thats why she says in the song "you don't know about me" Though i disagree with the ugly part because there was the nerd that wasn't good looking until she blew her lip gloss stuff on him.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Popular Culture
The video i choose was Good Life by Kanye West feat. T-Pain. The song is basically talking about how to live a good life. Kanye goes on and on about realism instead of just the dreams. He goes on to talk about how having money, fame and girls is achieving a good life. He talks about material objects instead of other values/ aspects of what makes up a good life. He says in his song "Havin' money's the everythin' that havin' it is". He also goes to talk about freedom as an aspect of the good life. "The good life, let's go on a livin' spree- Shit, they say the best things in life are free". The images in the music video are very creative. The people are in black and white while the other images are in color. Some of the images in the video that further explain what's needed to have a good life are cars, money, woman who are wearing very skimpy clothes and where the picture is focused on their butts. Even though money is something he mentions there is a part in the song where he says "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz". There are also like the whole parts where he's going throw your hands up kinda thing like if you agree go ahead and there are images of a bunch of hands being thrown up.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Figuring out what other people have to say on how meaningful their lives are.
Taking history a step farther from the classroom and the usual suspects, we decided to go outside and interview random strangers on wisdom and the different aspects of meaningful and meaningless. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. One such question was what they thought wisdom is. One man said, “It’s the ability to confront the unknown based on knowledge”. This is similar to the majority’s response of experience. Four out of seven people said wisdom comes with experience and is also about instinct. The other three people said that wisdom along with experience is knowing that you are going to be wrong sometimes. When I asked Yu-Xi she said, “wisdom is knowing that to an extent you wont know everything”. When asked if they thought they were wise, half said yes and half said no. One seventh grader could not define what wisdom was but when asked if he was wise, he said yes, though he couldn’t explain why.
Jace said, “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people, when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” Seven out of eleven people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ That something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” Four out of eleven people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful.
Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how must people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people. These people that have been described as having meaningless lives are usually people who think/ care about their own lives more then they do others.
When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives there was a couple of people that gave themselves 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Taking history a step farther from the classroom and the usual suspects, we decided to go outside and interview random strangers on wisdom and the different aspects of meaningful and meaningless. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. One such question was what they thought wisdom is. One man said, “It’s the ability to confront the unknown based on knowledge”. This is similar to the majority’s response of experience. Four out of seven people said wisdom comes with experience and is also about instinct. The other three people said that wisdom along with experience is knowing that you are going to be wrong sometimes. When I asked Yu-Xi she said, “wisdom is knowing that to an extent you wont know everything”. When asked if they thought they were wise, half said yes and half said no. One seventh grader could not define what wisdom was but when asked if he was wise, he said yes, though he couldn’t explain why.
Jace said, “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people, when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” Seven out of eleven people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ That something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” Four out of eleven people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful.
Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how must people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people. These people that have been described as having meaningless lives are usually people who think/ care about their own lives more then they do others.
When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives there was a couple of people that gave themselves 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Rough draft
Taking history a step farther from the classroom and the usual suspects, we decided to go outside and interview random strangers on wisdom and the different aspects of meaningful and meaningless. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. One such question was what they thought wisdom is. One man said, “It’s the ability to confront the unknown based on knowledge”. This is similar to the majority’s response of experience. 4 out of seven people said wisdom comes with experience and is also about instinct. The other three people said that wisdom along with experience is knowing that you are going to be wrong sometimes. When asked Yu-Xi said, “knowing that to an extent you wont know everything”. When asked if they thought they were wise, half said yes and half said no. One seventh grader could not define what wisdom was but when asked if he was wise he said yes though he couldn’t explain why.
Jace said “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” 7 out of11 people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ that something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” 4/11 people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful.
Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how must people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people.
When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives were many people were lower than 8. Though there was a couple that said they were 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Taking history a step farther from the classroom and the usual suspects, we decided to go outside and interview random strangers on wisdom and the different aspects of meaningful and meaningless. Most people let us interview them when we asked. They seemed interested in our project and they stopped and thought deeply about the questions we asked. One such question was what they thought wisdom is. One man said, “It’s the ability to confront the unknown based on knowledge”. This is similar to the majority’s response of experience. 4 out of seven people said wisdom comes with experience and is also about instinct. The other three people said that wisdom along with experience is knowing that you are going to be wrong sometimes. When asked Yu-Xi said, “knowing that to an extent you wont know everything”. When asked if they thought they were wise, half said yes and half said no. One seventh grader could not define what wisdom was but when asked if he was wise he said yes though he couldn’t explain why.
Jace said “ We make our own lives meaningful”. But other people when asked what makes their lives meaningful responded with a quick and strong answer, family and friends. One man said, “ Family is most meaningful because of everything we do together and support each other.” 7 out of11 people gave almost the same response where family was the most meaningful to them. The same guy also said, “ that something is meaningful if it keeps you going from day to day.” 4/11 people agreed that the things that are meaningful in your life are the things that are important and make you happy and you care about. Two of the people also said that love was meaningful.
Family and friends are meaningful and so we then asked them what were the meaningless things in their lives. One lady said “ Catty people” when asked what’s meaningless in life. Catty people are people that like to judge others. Most of the answers were negative aspects on how our culture is represented. One man said, “ Shallow people have meaningless lives” while another man, said, “ Material objects like money are meaningless”. Someone else said human dramas. All these things add up to how must people live their lives cause its human nature to obsess over material objects and to judge other people.
When asked to rank themselves between 1-10 on how meaningful their lives were many people were lower than 8. Though there was a couple that said they were 10’s. One man said “I hope I’m a 10, I haven’t done enough in life, want to get through everything before my life is meaningless”. We interviewed the school nurse and she said “ I would give myself a 10 because I am helping people in my line of work and I feel like I am making a difference”. One woman said, “I would give myself an 8, a 10 if I won the lottery”. The people that gave themselves a 10 seem to think that their lives are just bursting with importance and meaning. There are so many ways to define what’s meaningful and meaningless. It all depends on the person you ask. People’s answers differ but once you look at them as a whole you can see the small similarities. To show us we are not as much different from each other as we think.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Second Assignment, Looking at other people's work:
John Li: I liked the way you went from color to black and white. I thought it made your video even better.
Reiko Omae: I liked your video. It was different from the ones I've seen where everything is family and friends but you added something you liked to do which was photography. I loved your pictures especially the crane at night with the blue background. That was so pretty.
Rachel J: I liked all the effects your slideshow had. It was really cool. I also agree with Maxiel, both songs were great.
Yu-Xi: I really liked your video. I can tell you love family. I also liked that you put words in your video to help explain things that were meaningful.
Julie: I liked your video because you had both video and pictures. I also liked your song. You can see how important your friends are to you.
Insight:
One insight I got from watching all the videos was that friends and family were very important to everyone. I also noticed that all the videos i watched were about the meaningful things in their lives. No one choose to show the non-meaningful aspects of their lives. I thought that was pretty interesting. You can tell that people wanted to focus on the positive things in their lives.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
meaningful video
this is a video of the people i think are meaningful in my life
1) What have you included in this video?
This video has everything that is most important and meaningful to me in my life. The most meaningful people in my life are my friends and family. They are the people that will be with me through the rough and good times.
2) Which parts of the video related to relatively meaningful aspects of your life? Which parts related to relatively meaningless aspects of your life?
When I made this slideshow I decided that I would only put the meaningful stuff in my life in it. All the people and pets in the slideshow are meaningful and important in my life.
3) What would you have liked to have included but weren't able?
I would have liked to add more things in my life that are meaningful. I would have added nature and stuff that I like to do like read and draw. Its not so much as I wasn't able to include it but that I had not thought of all of that while I was putting it together.
4) What seems to be some of the main criteria you use (emotionally/ mentally) to assess how meaningful an aspect of your life is?
While I was thinking of what to do for this project I first decided to do only things that were meaningful. I then started thinking about the things in life i cared about and gave me some purpose to live. The first two things that come to mind were my family and friends because they are a big part of my life.
5) Is there a pattern in what you find meaningful or meaningless? What are some of the elements in that pattern?
The meaningful things in my life have to bring me happiness and have to have a good purpose. The meaningless things in my life are things that wont help me in the future and hurt me. Though most of the time our lives are filled with both the meaningful and non-meaningful things. And we accept the meaningless things cause with out having some meaningless stuff we couldn't appreciate all the meaningful things in life.
6) Looking at the video as a whole- is it fairly honest/accurate depiction of your life? Does it make you seem interesting/special/exciting?
For me the video is accurate. Most of my life I am either surrounded by my friends and family. And the pictures captured exactly how things go on to a day to day basis. Except for the fact that i am mostly participating instead of being behind the camera documenting everyone else. I don't think the video makes me seem anymore interesting or
special then I have been.
7) Does your life seem meaningful from an outside perspective? Is it from an inside perspective? Why?
I think it could seem meaningful from an outside perspective. Though on the outside my life might seem a little out of sorts. I may not have tons of friends but the ones that I do have are the best and they care about me. I also grew up as an only child and with one parent so it might seem to people that I missed out on a "real family" but I think that's stupid cause with just the two of us, me and my mom are even closer then most kids are with their parents. From an inside perspective it defiantly seems meaningful. There are so many things in my life that are meaningful if you just take the time to see them.
8) What questions do you have about living a meaningful life at this point?
A question I have is there such a thing as a totally meaningful Life? How can someone tell if what they do is meaningful? Can you ever really know, or is it always going to be an assumption since no two people will have the same meaningful things in their life.
most awsome song ever! :3
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