Burkitt Chapter 8

This was a great way to end the book. This book has helped me understand the different theories and concepts about the self. From this chapter I really enjoyed this quote, “As individuals we are born into a world of social relations that have been made by previous generations, and, even though we can work to change these, nevertheless we can work only with the materials and tools we have at hand” (Burkitt, p.187).We are born into social relations that our parents know and when we get old enough, we have the decision to stay down that path or to find a way to break free and become someone else. This book helped me find who I am as a person and I have learned to stand by my beliefs 100%. You have to always stay true to yourself and do what makes you happy.

World Wide Web

The internet has completely evolved since the early 90’s. This article was written the year I was born and it’s interesting to read about how the internet got started and how it was on its way to evolve into something great. We got our first computer when I was seven years old. I never used the internet; I only used the computer to play games. It wasn’t until middle school when I started to use the computer more for completing homework assignments. Projects and essays were to be turned in typed, not hand written. It’s crazy to think the internet has transformed into what it is today and I was a part of that. Younger generations today grew up with the internet being accessible and more evolved than ever. The end of the article talked about the future improvements of the internet. It seems like today there’s nothing else to be done to improve the internet, but back then it was just being created and evolving.

Attention

I really enjoyed reading this article. It focused on how media uses certain tools in order to get us to pay attention to their programming. The part about Sesame Street was interesting. I recently took a child development class last semester and one of our topics covered how Sesame Street uses certain techniques to get children’s attention. Sesame Street is broadcasted all over the world and it was interesting to know that they adapt and change their characters to fit specific cultures. They don’t just want their show to be entertaining for children; they also want children to learn from it. It was fascinating to learn that they use friendly, likeable characters to get children’s attention, but these characters are the ones that teach the children life lessons. There’s so much work that goes into trying to figure out how to get viewers attention. People need to know what people want to watch and have to execute it in a way that it keeps bringing them back to watch more.