Academic Blogging
Blogs are about personal thoughts, views and opinions - self expression, really. The great thing about them is that that they are not like letters: you don’t have to wait a week or a month to get a reply from a loved one overseas, or worse, three years for the government (a true story from yours truly). You can read what others have to say and their response on your thoughts faster than you can grab a snack from the kitchen, and all in the comfort of your own home (or where ever you happen to be). Most people have personal blogs detailing their adventures in life. I thought blogging was so cool, I decided to make my own in junior high. It was great getting a piece of others’ thoughts on things that, if it weren’t for blogging, would never come up. Unfortunately, being a slow writer (and slow in everything else) I found no time to keep it up.
This time, however, I have to keep going at it. Until, at least, first-year is over. Rehumanizing the World, as you see it, is my academic blog being marked for university. I don’t know how well it will turn out, as I’m not too good at writing (anyone willing to point out grammar mistakes, please do!), nor am I good at putting my thoughts down in a straight line.
I chose this title, Rehumanzing the World, because to me, the more I watch movies, television, and hear the people around me, I feel like the world is becoming increasingly desensitized and cold-hearted. Some of my friends watch so many horror movies that they get used to them and don’t even get scared or grossed out.
To make this entry more like the popular ‘personal’ blog, here is my story of this one incident that made me finally snap, and feel so strongly about the desensitizing effect of media and the need to 'rehumanize':
I watched the movie Gamer two months ago. What made me snap was the serious overdo of unnecessary killing and "inappropriate flaunting" (I'm trying to be nice and toning it down extremely) of bodies. I was so livid with anger I refused to watch most of the movie, ranting the entire way through, and continued to rant long after the movie ended. It didn't help knowing that the rating for Gamer was only 14A. I’m pretty sure most fourteen year olds won't really understand or remember the brief moral at the end (That moral is the only good credit I'm giving it). Of course, not all fourteen year olds will be ignorant like that. Maybe I’m just still bitter from the time my father forbade me from watching The Matrix sequels, simply because the radio announced that some kid shot someone after watching it. The child was expecting the poor guy to jump right back up again like Agent Smith. Sadly, after that I don’t really expect anyone under fifteen to understand much more than the surface.
Medium is the message, right (Playboy)? Well, content plays a role too, and we get influenced by what we choose to watch, read, listen, or do (refer to the idiot killing someone after watching the Matrix). We're using media as the vehicle to communicate violence, hostility and indifference to the masses. With all the killing, hurting and lack of compassion, I think we need to REHUMANIZE THE WORLD. Yes, by now you’ve probably realized that I made that word up and you won’t find it in the dictionary. However, I think it sums up the idea very well.
Humanize: to (make something) more humane and civilized. (New Oxford American Dictionary)
REHUMANIZING: returning human and civilized characteristics to a society and culture that has lost it.
Whoever agrees that the world needs 'rehumanizing' say, "Aye!"
Whoever doesn't agree, tell me why! =]
Works Cited
Works Cited
Playboy. “The Playboy Interview: Marshall McLuhan.” Playboy Magazine. March 1969.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York. HarperCollins. 1994
