Week 3 thoughts
September 21, 2018
The main subject matters for Week 3 of class was the book by Carr we had to read called the Shallows, and Idealism vs Realism. Very great conversations that we had, and I enjoyed sitting back and listening to everyone’s views on the subject matter. Well here is my in depth perspective on the subject matter that we’ve discussed in class.
The major aspect of Carr’s book that had me thinking was his assertion that modern people have no attention span, and can’t focus on a particular thing like a book for a long period of time. At first when I looked at his though process of course I felt like dang this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about, but when I thought about his thought process I found myself agreeing to an extent. I agree that we don’t have that great of an attention span cause we as people get easily distracted. Even while writing this I had to check my phone a few times, look up at the football game I have in the background, and thought about other random things that have nothing to do with this blog post. With that said he has a point, but he’s not totally correct in my opinion. I think it depends on what exactly we as people are doing. For example if we’re reading something of interest we’re more prone to pay attention, and keep our attention on that book than if we’re reading something that we really don’t care about, or are assigned to read (cough cough Carr’s book). I do agree with Carr when he talked about the world that we know it would cease to exist without mass literacy. Literacy is very important as we try to understand the world of the past present and future. Without literacy we would still have stories about history and what happened, but the mediums of the stories would be heavily distorted as it would be based on peoples memories rather than what is written. Now that doesn’t mean that people couldn’t remember facts and stories, but without literacy it would be harder to figure out if something actually happened or not, or if a story has any truth to it. Though I say this, that doesn’t mean that each thing written down has some truth to it, but it’s an easier way to keep records when something is written down.
Idealism vs Realism was the other topic of discussion in class. Based off of the discussions in class, I would definitely consider myself an idealist if I had to pick. I am not religious, but I have a genuine relationship with Christ which many people will perceive as religious, but to be a true Christian its never been about a religion, but a honest lifestyle trying to serve Christ, and serve people the best way possible. So in saying all that, yes I definitely have an ideal that I do seek which is Heaven. It can’t be reached on earth because the world is so messed up, and full of sin, but there is hope for better even if it can’t be reached in this life we live on Earth. The realist to me isn’t necessarily bad at all in my opinion, but the thing I don’t agree with of course is that there isn’t an ideal. I don’t like to be a person that boxes myself in because I know for a fact I don’t agree with every idealist, even those who consider themselves Christians, but I couldn’t be a realist by definition. Something about being a realist seems lost, and misguided, but I respect their thought process as they try to figure out things logically. I believe you can think logically, and be an idealist, but apparently you can’t really think that way by the definition of the two words. That’s why I don’t liked to be boxed in into being one or the other. It’s almost like the liberal and conservative views, many would automatically think that I’m a conservative because that’s what people think of when it comes to American Christianity, but that’s not the case because I don’t like a lot of things about the conservative party, same thing with the liberal side, i agree with somethings but disagree with a good amount of things as well, I’m not with either side, though some would probably try to label me more of a liberal which I’m not. That’s how I look at this argument of Idealist, or realist, but I definitely would consider myself more of an idealist than a realist. Does it sound like I contradicted myself, I don’t know that’s for you to decide, but I said what I said. Definitely looking forward to what we have to discuss in the weeks ahead.