Reader Responce 8

Dibbell took my interest because he starts out the book talking about a video game that he plays. I’m not exactly sure what it is called, but by the way he is talking I would have to believe it may be lizards. He talks himself through the game and enables us to capture the sense of the game and what he is doing. The point of the game was that he was competing against other lizard men to find gold and cash it in for money. He described the feeling he got when he was able to beat out the other men, instead of himself getting destroyed.

“I knew the lizard men were only computer programs, but they had killed me often enough when I was just starting out that I still felt a tiny thrill of revenge watching them die.” Dibbell in this quote shows us how important and competitive these games can become to people. I am not a big video game player, but I could never see myself feeling the way Dibbell does in the quote just presented.

“A window had opened into the magnetic core of the game, and I could see more clearly than ever what kept me and all the other players coming back: It was the same thing, more or less, that kept most of us going to our jobs each day, or going to school. It was desire not to fair to the bottom of the social food chain, a desire to rise through the ranks, to achieve and acquire as a way of marking our status within the massive monkey troop that is human civilization. To own and not be owned.”

I think in that last quote Dibbell makes some great points. These video games give people the chance to press their limits and see how far they can go in a challenge. I believe this is one of the main reasons that people engage in video games. It’s hard to believe that a technology such as video games can consume someone’s life as much as they do. I know many people that easily spend more than six hours a day on video games. I believe that video games have become more than a game in many cases it has become a sport and/or even a career.

“The twenty hours a week I was devoting to the game were no big deal compared to the sixty, seventy, and even eighty hours some players put in.” It is scary to think that people can actually sit and be engaged for something so long. I know that when I was younger and was into SEGA and super Nintendo it was hard to put them down, but for me after a while I got bored of them. I know now in my life, I wouldn’t have time to even play video games for an hour. How do people have the time in their lives, especially with school or work, to be engaged for so long. I found this chapter very interesting and a great introduction to the book. It has left me wanting to read more.

Experiencing Podcast 3

Podcasting is something before this class that I had never before heard of. When we had done the first podcast I didn't think it was really something that I would come to like or enjoy doing. I thought it would be difficult and I would be scared and embarressed doing it with people that I do not know. I am very shy with people I don't know especially while doing a discussion. Doing these podcasts have turned out to be a great experience for me.

We just finished our third podcast and I believe it went really well. I have come to know everyone in my group and we have a great time while doing it. While reading the books you know how you, yourself, feel about it, but you dont get the chance to see how others feel about it. Doing a group podcast gives you this chance. You are able to express your feelings about the class and the book that we are reading and see how others feel about it as well. I greatly enjoy my group because normally we all have different view points, so we get a lot out of our discussion.

Being that this is the third podcast we have done, I know feel more comfortable doing it. I feel prepared in what is expected, as well as, what points I would want to bring about. I think this podcast was also good because we all felt very differently about what parts of the book we liked the most and also arguements for those parts. We are all comfortable discussing these topics with each other as well as just being comfortable with each other in general.

I am also looking forward to the fourth podcast because we will be able to discuss the class from beginning to end and how it influenced us and what we have learned from it. I know myself, I have a lot to say about this course. I truely believe it was a great course by the way it was structured, as well as, the content.

Reader Responce 7

I had always thought of empathy as sympathy, which is feeling bad for someone. Pink describes in his chapter on empathy that this is a common mistake that is false. Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else's position and to intuit what that person is feeling. I believe that empathy is an important quality to have and I believe it is a quality that I, in fact, do possess. Without empathy it would be difficult to understand much of what is going on around you.

With empathy, you may be able to discover things that you would not orignally believe in or believe to be true. Sometimes things that can important or life-saving. Pink shows us an example of this, where empathy acts as "a whole new health care." Two postal workers went to various health care centers with similar symptoms and believing they were infected with anthrax. One patient, was sent home and told to take tylonal because anthrax wasn't a threat to him. The other patient told his dcotor about his anthrax scare and the doctor didn't hesitate to schedule another test. She ordered the patient antibiotics and made him stay in the hospital overnight. This doctors sense of empathyh ad saved this persons life.

Another aspect of empathy that interested me was comparing men and woman in empathy. When I first read the title without reading beyond, I figured that woman were more empathetic and I was right! As Simon Baron-Cohen states in his book The Essential Difference, "The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems." This is most likely why woman are more prone to crying and feeling distressed at another's distress.

I think that Pink points out really good points about the importance and aspects of empathy. It made me see many different ways that empathy can affect us as well as others. I think for someone who may not be as empathic, after reading this chapter, especially "a whole new health care," will be more open to it.

An experience with "Story"

After reading about the Six Sences, especially about story, in Pinks book I was able to get a better understanding of how much they are involved in society today. I was in my class the other day. My teacher had given the class a commen topic and we broke up into groups and had to discuss and debate on that topic. I came to realize how many different points and stories every individual could come up with. Not only that, but also how competitive it is to know the most out of everyone. When one person would make a point, there would always be someone else there to either make your story more substantial or completely rebut your point. Information and data isn't good anymore unless you can make something out of it. I believe that in some ways this is making our society more competitive, as well as allowing people to better express and expand themselves. This book is allowing me to really understand what is going on around me and understand more of how our society works and how it has changed. Reading this has allowed me to open my eyes, as in this example.

Reader Responce 6

In part two of the book, A Whole New Mind, pink goes on to describe the “six senses,” that have become essential in this new era. These six senses are design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Pink goes on to state how “we will need to complement our L-Directed reasoning by mastering six essential R-Directed aptitudes.” I agree with this statement because now a days, it’s not about facts, it’s about the big picture. We take something simple and make it bigger and more beautiful.

Design is a big part of society today. Almost every product invented today has design or is made by a designer brand. For instance, Pink told us the story of when he went shopping and came out with a designer toilet brush. Products that have design and are beautiful and emotionally engaging are what catch our eye. Most people also use certain product design to show their personalities, and what they are like.

Story is something that I always come into conflict with. Pink explains to us how, now our information date that we have is never enough for an argument because there will always be someone there to top your point. Class is a good example of this. When you are in the classroom and having a discussion about a topic, people could go on forever saying their points and trying to persuade and top the other person’s argument.

I found symphony the hardest sense for me to really associate with and grasp an example, but I still believe it is true. I even find myself now looking at the big picture of things instead of focusing on specific facts. People are more willing to take risks and put themselves out there.

Empathy is also another big factor that I think is tied into today’s society. Logical thought is not the focus of people attention. Although logic is still tied into how people think empathy greatly takes over. As Pink states, “What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow woman or man tick, to forge relationships, and to care for others.”

Play is also another big factor in today’s society. If you look around people are more relaxed and not as serious. I agree with Pink in the fact that yes there are times to be serious, but we all need to play. I am a strong believer in that humor and laughter is what makes us strong and happy in the end. Play is what lets us be relaxed and get over the stress in out lives.

Lastly is meaning. Meaning is an important aspect of our lives. It allows people to be free and let people go from their day-to-day struggles that they may be facing. Meaning is also very important in the spiritual world. It allows people to make sense of the world around them and gives them a sense of ease and comfort.

Reader Responce 5

A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink is an extremely interesting book. Like Smart Mobs, it is a lot of times hard for me to get into books that are very factual, but not this one. In my major, speech pathology we talk a lot about the brain and how it works, but as I noticed most of what we learn is from the left side of the brain. This book opens my eyes to a whole other world of the brain where as Pink and I also believe, is the future.

The right side of the brain is our more artistic side where artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, and big picture thinkers lye. As Pink describes, we are moving from an economy and society built on logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and society built on the inventive, empathic, big picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.

Pink brings up a good point when he talks about Target and how almost everything we come upon today is designer. I agree with him in the sense that the right hemisphere is greatly involved in the make up of society and lifestyle today. I can relate to Pink, in where he states that he had gone into Target and even his toilet brush was designer. Ridiculous and untrue as this may sound, I went into a unfamiliar store the other day and my lips were feeling chapped so I decided to go and get some chapstick and when I found it, I picked it up, and it was all fancy and had some Italian designers name on the case!

I believe that creativity has greatly expanded today and now the focus of the left side of the brain with logic and analysis, is going to shift to the creative and "big picture" side of the brain. As Pink, also describes, in many ways both sides of the brain work together, so it would be impossible to say on side is extremely more imporant than the other, but they are both used different. One may be perticularly dominate in some ways than the other, but in many tasks both sides are used together to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

Proposal for Short Video

As I had seen on the course blog many people in the class had great ideas for the short video such as following technology through history and showing how advanced we have become. Another great idea someone had was to have a student who technology is a huge part of their life and follow them a day without using such technology and see how they react to it. Through these I came up with the idea to follow the individuals in the group and show exactly how much technology affects their lives and how much people are now usually the technology today. I think it would be interesting to see the differences in peoples lives and how they use technology. I know even within my group, we are all different and shared the different types of technology we use with each other. The technologies people use can even show peoples personalities and the type of people they are. That is why I think it would be interesting to show how technology affects all of us individually and how advanced or behind we all may be with them.