Twelfth Blog Post

I think that only some of the claims that Chuck makes about the media is true for the internet. The claims I think are also true for the internet are Don't Worry About Agendas;Worry About Random Circumstance and Distrust the Proper People. I think there are probably some websites that have writers who publish articles on the internet that they aren't completely confident with because some of the information may be misleading or not entirely true, but they publish it anyway because it's close enough to what they need. For certain articles some writers probably use the same theory as newspaper article writers and they use the information that the first person who calls back gives them just because they can't spare to waste time waiting for other sources to call or get back to them. I could see this being done on websites such as MSN because there are days where I feel like they have the most random articles on the main page and it's because they had nothing better to write about. Just like with newspaper articles, I imagine there are people who get nervous when they read articles on the internet because they don't know what is true and what isn't. The fact that articles on the internet can pretty much be as long as the writer wants them to be makes it easy to assume that some of the information in the article is not necessary or true, but the writer puts it in the article anyways just to fill out the article more. I think major news sources on the internet are examples of the sources that may do this. When there is breaking news about the War on Terror or the economy, I think it makes some people nervous because they are hoping that it is good news, but know it is probably bad considering that's the way it always seems to be. When it comes to restrictions, I think the internet media is a little more lenient considering it is where the majority of people are getting their news and other information the most.

Eleventh Blog Post

The way that Chuck describes coolness is that it is similar to eating sugared cereals; if you eat sugared cereal, you're cool because the characters used to advertise and sell the cereal is "cool". Rather than entertaining the younger children like it is supposed to, the characters used to advertise cereals is mostly only understood by young adults and grown adults.  Chuck also describes coolness as something that comes naturally--"an unspecific, delicious, chocolately paradigm we must pilfer through subterfuge." Coolness is important to people because we are always trying to fit in with other people and be up-to-date on all of the latest things; fashion, news, etc. Chuck says that the desire to be cool is the desire to be rescued. No one wants to be something they're not, but if we allow people to make us that way it is more than likely what we'll turn out to be like. So I think that when Chuck says that the desire to be cool is the desire to be rescued, I think he means that we want to be rescued from being like a copy of another person. We need to be more unique. No one wants to live a life full of repetition, that gets boring. If we don't try to be "cool" then our lives get dull because we aren't striving to make ourselves better. Chuck says"Being cool is mostly ridiculous, and so is sugared cereal. That's why we like it." I somewhat agree with this. I prefer to be silly and a little chaotic rather than quiet and reserved around my friends. I'm that way because it's what I like, even if it means I am labeled as "ridiculous". I'd rather be silly and happy than boring and sad. Something that I think should be the next "cool" thing is to have an "I don't care what people think about me" sort of attitude, but to an extent. I feel like these days so many people do things based off of what other people think of them, even though it isn't what they're comfortable with or want to do. I don't want people to do things that are bad and make poor life choices, but when it comes to a person's individuality, only ourselves should be the ones forming that. It's okay for people to influence our individuality, but when it comes to personal things like style and our interests we shouldn't let people tell us we shouldn't wear that or watch that. Why should other people care? If they aren't the one wearing it then it shouldn't phase them. I understand there are exceptions to this, but for the most part we should make our decisions based off of what makes us happy, not others. Put yourself first for once and do what you need to do for yourself. Too many people are living in a state of insecurity because they worry about what other people think and I feel that more people would be happier if they didn't.