Artifact #10

The article I chose is Out There in the Dark, All Alone, written by Manohla Dargis.  This article talks about different ways movies are viewed today and how numbers have drastically decreased throughout the years as far as the amount of people who go to the movie theaters to watch movies.  "Comparing the 90 million who went to the movies each week in 1948 with today’s audience, which hovers around 23 million — Matthew Sigman, a self-confessed “big-screen film fan” from New York, wrote in with a quibble." Most people today would rather sit at home and watch movies that they have purchased on DVD or watch them online or through netflix or even on their cable channels.  These ways of watching movies are more comfortable, more convenient, and most importantly, a lot cheaper.  Back in the 40's, movie watchers could only see new movies if they went to the movie theater, and after the movies were in the theater, they disappeared.  Today, if someone likes a movie, they can purchase it and watch it as many times as they want to.  We have the luxury of being able to re watch old movies and new movies as well, but back in the 40's if they wanted to see a new movie, they would have to go to the theater.  


Some terms used in this article:
on-demand era: time period where we can watch movies any time we want through tv channels, online websites or movie companies, for example, netflix
nickelodeons: a movie theater back in the day that charged 5 cents for admission
cinema: the art of making films or movies


Movie prices have become so high that I hate going to movie theaters because it ends up being $20 after you've bought your ticket and maybe a soda and popcorn.  It is absolutely ridiculous, but if I stayed at home I could rent a movie for less than $5 and get a soda and popcorn from home.  Many people are resorting to this and I believe that the decrease of movie goers will continue as more technology is introduced.  Technology makes it too easy to want to go out and spend the money to go to a theater.  Also, like i said before, watching a movie in your own home is more comfortable and more convenient.  You don't have to deal with the other people in the movie theater and if you needed to pause the movie for something, you could, unlike in movie theaters.  More and more people are finding watching movies in their own homes is so much easier and a lot less expensive.  
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/movies/the-24-hour-movie-and-digital-technology.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&emc=eta1

Artifact #9

The article in the New York Times "The Spirit of Sharing" is a article about museums becoming more and more developed and being technologically up to date.  The way these museums have become more and more technological is helping their popularity and their visiting rates.  The stuff that museums like this one have on their website make it very interesting for viewers and it makes the viewers more and more interested. I know that if I got on a museum website and was able to watch a teepee being built, i would for sure want to go there and see it in real life.  The author of this article stated that they are not trying to make their museum website to fit in with the latest fads, but they instead are transforming the websites and even the museums to make them more appealing to the visitor's eyes.  If museums in St. Louis began to go with this idea and make the museums and websites more interesting, more and more tourists may travel to St. Louis to visit these museums.  Also, the younger generation may also become more interested in the museums and would increase the amount of visitors coming through the museums.

Artifact #8

This video was very interesting because searching for health tips online is becoming very popular, but also, according to this video, interactive website to help with health related issues and games to learn about these issues are also pretty popular today.  Turning issues about health into video games for kids to learn about issues they have or need to be informed about is a great idea because, like they said in the video, it makes kids less scared of the "big doctor." I think this is a very good idea and makes learning about health facts fun for kids.

Another topic the video talked about was health tip apps that are available 24/7 on smart phones that are pretty popular today.  These apps are interactive, some you even get feedback from an actual doctor, and all are pretty reliable apps.  These apps are making it easier to find out information that is usually only available by going into a doctor's office.  But one thing I wondered about this is, are people making fewer doctor's appointments because they simply turn to their apps to find out what is wrong with them?  The video was not exactly about that, however, that could soon become the case. More and more useful items become available almost daily, and these two, the apps and the interactive games for children, seem pretty helpful and very educational.

Artifact #7

This article "Professors Use Technology to Fight Student Cheating " talks about the things professors have started doing to prevent so much cheating in their classrooms.  A cheating rate of 50% is a little too large for comfort, in my opinion.  Yes this data was from 2002 and the percentage has dropped a little recently, but I still think that cheating is a serious issue.  I, personally did not see an issue in my high school with cheating by plagiarizing for papers or looking answers up online for tests, but then again we never had online tests, so I guess that was a way for my school to eliminate the problem of cheating in that way before it even started.  But then again I know cheating by copying homework, looking off of other people during tests, etc. does happen, which is still a serious issue.  Noone is benefiting from someone else's work, but that obviously will not be realized until one day they are struggling through their job that they cheated through college to get.  Cracking down on students is a great thing that needs to be done for students to learn their lessons.  It is unbelievable the ideas kids have come up with just to cheat.  If they would spend that time studying or actually doing their homework, they would be a lot more successful in their academics.  

Artifact #6

This video "I am anonymous" was a very interesting video and some interesting information was included with this video. Anonymity is very important and is seen less and less today.  Very rarely can someone post something on a website without having to be a member of the site, which means having a username, which is viewable by anyone who looks at the article or whatever it may be that someone commented on.  Speech is a big part of our freedom and if someone does not want to be known for saying something, they shouldn't have to be.  But also, there are so many people on a website that some people may think, why does it matter if we have to put a username by our posts because it is not like people would know who we were or anything?  But the example of the guy who abused his cat is a great example.  If something is said that could result in serious charges or get someone in big trouble, they can be tracked down and found.  This is scary to think about, but it is also very interesting because it is good to know that people who think by putting stuff online cannot be tracked down actually can be tracked down and hopefully punished for whatever they have done.

This site that the video talked about is a great site because people can say whatever they want, but it can be deleted if it causes any conflict.  People are free to say what they want, in limitation, and it gives people a great feel of having this freedom of speech.  I found this website very interesting and it put some interesting information out there and made me realize a few things about anonymity I had not realized.

Artifact #5

As I listened to the video "Thank Sex for Making the Internet Hot" I was pretty struck by the different facts that were stated.  First, it doesn't surprise me that Facebook and MySpace, social network sites, are the top visited sites on the Internet today, but what did surprise me is before they became the most visited sites, pornography sites were the top viewed sites.  Another thing that surprised me was how online shopping and pornography are sort of related and how one led to the other.  I never thought of these two as being sort of related because, in my opinion, they don't have much in common at all.  Pornography is not commonly heard about except for maybe on the news or something, but it still does exist which is scary because it means people are still watching and viewing it, but most likely keeping it a secret.  I mean, who would want to be out in the open about watching porn, but it is still scary to think about since it still is pretty popular.  Social networks are not pornography sites, but some people do go too far as far as what they are posting on there.  This is unfortunate, too, because social network sites are designed to keep in touch with others, but of course it has to be taken too far and inappropriate things are posted there. It is unfortunate how popular pornography still is today.  Also, it's weird to think that pornography influenced sites like Facebook and MySpace to be created, and that it sort of started online shopping.

Artifact #4: A and B

Between the two videos, I found the first one the most interesting.  At first, I thought the person was just in a daze and like bobbing back and forth or something.  It took me a while to realize it was a robot; it took me until the robot started talking to realize this.  I found it very intriguing that a robot could be that humanistic; it could definitely be mistaken for a human if it just did not talk.  It is very interesting to me that robots are being made like this today, and makes me wonder if shortly there will be robots like this used in every day life. I am actually pretty sure they will become used more often, but to what extent and for what exactly.

And for the second video, I was bored and had to ask myself why someone would make a video about that.  For one, so many people use mechanical pencils today, and for two, who does not know how to sharpen a pencil, but better yet, who would get online and look for a video on how to do this? Also, along with people using mechanical pencils, if someone does use a pencil like this one, they would sharpen it with an electric sharpener.  But I guess this object has developed and become better too like every other form of technology.  So, in a way, this is an example of technology and how it is advancing.