Article 1 Response

The idea that how a person gathers information will affect how they think is a valid theory. This article was based on the traits that seem to change in a person's reading style and writing style when they use computers rather than books. This is surprising, but I don't believe that the medium people use to read with changes a person's reading style. It is more of the fact that people want to finish reading quickly and make a habit of doing so by skimming the information they read on the web. I believe this because most of my reading is done online, but for pleasure rather than for researching using articles. That may be pleasurable for some, but most people do not read information from historical articles for fun, they do so for work, school, or to find proof of an idea.
"As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." This may be true in the aspect of if the media is visual, auditory  or physical, but not in whether it is technological or not. I only am taking this stance because I read novels easily, and yet most of my time is spent reading online. How a person chooses to read, and whether their method of learning is one of the previous aspects, is what truly shapes a person's brain.

Reading Response 4: Dark Parties Spoiler Alert!

Dark Parties is about a futuristic world. Neva is a teenager who lives in this washed out and inbred sphere. She, and others, do not like how the government forces the people to stay in the sphere. There are rumors that the sphere is slowly killing everyone inside. All items, other than perhaps food, are recycled in the sphere. All citizens in the sphere look the same unless they get an identification mark, a tattoo. Neva does whatever she can to oppose the government and discover the truth.

Braydon was just Sanna's boyfriend in the beginning. Then he became a cheater by kissing Neva. He continued to bounce back and forth between the two girls, causing a tension to form. Ironically enough, he turned out to be working for the government. He was the snitch about the dark party, and he was the one to turn in Neva's friends. Braydon worked for the government, but he ended up loving Neva. This is known because the last thing he said to her was, "I love you, Neva. No matter what happens, never doubt that." He put his life in jeopardy by lying to let her escape to the outside in the end! He should be pitied: he loves Neva, is stuck with dating Sanna, and might never see Neva again. He reminds me of Loki, the Norse god of mischief and lies, because he does not mean to hurt anyone, yet started so many lies.This is why I chose to use Loki's symbol. He was just doing his job, until he let her escape to freedom and safety that is.

This book was interesting, but left me wanting to know what happened after Neva escaped. When I found out that Braydon was the traitor I remembered my last book, The Hunt of the Unicorn. That is because a main character, who also happened to be male, betrayed the heroine. This was really ironic to me at the time since I had not meant to pick up another book that had betrayal in the story. I would recommend this book to conspiracy theorists since this dabble quite bit in that aspect.

Reading Response 3: Dark Parties

Dark Parties is about a girl named Neva and how she is resisting the government. The government is not innocent, and she continues to find evidence proving her belief. There is also a love triangle type of thing going on with Sanna, Braydon, and Neva. Braydon is Sanna's boyfriend, but he seems to like Neva. Neva reciprocates,but does not want to hurt Sanna. Sanna is unaware of this love happening between her boyfriend and best friend. The world they live in is severely inbred, so everyone looks alike unless they obtain identity marks. These marks are frowned on by the government.

Neva is strange. She has all this proof of the government getting rid of people, yet she never did anything about it until Sanna brought it up. Her own grandmother was taken away from the government when she was a girl, yet she only thinks to save something to remember her by. She remembers saving the necklace that her grandma gave her by sticking it in her mouth. The government removed all traces that they could find of her as if she never existed. Later on, Neva betrays Sanna when she and Braydon interact. "With one move, his lips are on mine." She resisted but hormones were just too strong for this duo. This is important because that is when Sanna finds out and Neva's life goes from mostly sunshine to ominous clouds and thunder. This is also why the picture is a sun being covered by storm clouds.

This is a heavy conspiracy theorist type of book. It centers around the government wanting an increase in population by reproduction, yet is killing society with a protectosphere. As inbred people, I guess they just can't reproduce as well. If blaming the government for all the problems in the world is something a person enjoys doing, then this is the book for them.

Discrimination

I expected the stories of discrimination from the older people on the face-to-face site, but not for the video about the children. I don't really understand why, but the video shocked me with how the children could think nothing of being mean to one another. I am also surprised that the children didn't take advantage of the fact that the teacher was "lesser" than them on one of the days. The children probably could have asked that they teach the class. I guess the kids weren't as cruel as they could be, but they didn't act the same as they would normally act either. 

Starting and Finishing Quotes

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink." I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
This quote is from a book about a girl who lived in poverty in England. This story was so well written that in 2003 a movie was made for it.

"Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out." Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
This quote is from a book about manners and is a satirical novel. The two main characters are female and the setting is a time period where women are less valued than men.

I personally have not read either of these novels, but they are now on my to do list.