Little Brother NY Times/ - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Little Brother

NY Times/

1984Slide2

Step 1: Read the following article

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/magazine/17FOB-WWLN-t.html?_r=0Slide3

Step 2: Answer the following questions in short answers (1-3 sentences) on

Edmodo

a. What similarities exist among the books about which parents are complaining to the American Library Association?

b

. Why might there be concerns about introducing a book like “Silence of the Lambs” to children but not about introducing a play like “

Medea

”

?

c

. Do you think that the Cumberland County Public Library made a wise decision in “raising the age at which teen-agers may borrow general circulation books to 16 from 13 and by issuing special library cards that allow access only to juvenile books”? Why or why not?

d

. What does Ms. Krug mean when she says, “I’ve been here before. It’s just that the subject changes and today it’s violence and yesterday it was sex and tomorrow it’s going to be hate”?

e

. What is the relevance of the Scholastic reading and buying patterns survey discussed in the article?

f

. Do you agree that “there is a crucial difference between reading about violence and watching movie mayhem”? What are the differences as argued in the article?

g

. Do you agree with Christopher Gray when he says that “it’s kind of funny that anybody thinks that the violence in books is going to play a role in someone’s life”? Would the statement have different meaning if the words “movies,” “television shows,” “music” or “video games” were substituted for “books”? Slide4

STUDENT RESPONSES

Pulled directly from our class

Edmodo

site

No names are included, and some responses have been shortened from the original post. Slide5

What does Mr.

Kirn

mean when he says that the invasion of privacy has been “democratized”?

When Mr.

Kirn

says that the invasion of privacy has been democratized, he means that anyone can now look at what you have been posting or looking at. We have the knowledge to hack computers, databases, and firewalls. Now it isn’t just the government who can “snoop”, but regular people can also.

By “democratized” Mr.

Kirn

means that the invasion is not being done by a totalitarian government, but rather by other equal citizens.

It is possible to record things and to put them out on the internet on social media websites without the consent of the person who is in the videos and pictures. Anyone anywhere in the world can access what is put on the internet and then everyone can know a certain person’s business.

It pretty much just means that everyone everywhere has about a thousand different ways to spy on everybody else; the means to invade one’s privacy are equally accessible to all.

When

Kirn

says that invasion of privacy has been democratized, he is saying it has turned into a social normality. We are so used to having everything put out there that we don’t see anything wrong with it until it causes problems. Slide6

How are today’s communication technologies and communicators different from those Orwell imagined in “1984”?

Today’s technology is more focused on the invasion of people’s personal life and searching for things that entertain us or curious, whereas the technology in “1984” seems to focus more on maintaining order and preventing rebellions. The technology that Orwell thought of back then was government controlling, and today, people take videos and post them online. Orwell called it Big Brother, where the government can see everyone in this

telescreens

, but today, we’re more like Little Brothers, snooping and seeing everything for ourselves.

In the novel, Big Brother watches each individual through

telescreens

, but every citizen knows this. Today, people’s privacy is being invaded and spread through the internet without them knowing it. In Orwell’s novel the invasion of privacy can only mean bad news if the person is misbehaving, but today we don’t know whether a video would be harmful or glorifying.

George Orwell would have never imagined the social media and technology that we have today.

The difference in our monitoring systems that we have access to today and those in “1984” is their accessibility and their discreet size. They can be sold to anyone and their size makes them easy to hide from the monitored person.

We use technology to communicate with each other rather than just for spying like in

1984

. Today we use technology to voice our opinions (even if others do not want to hear it), to communicate, and to find out information.

Basically, we put more of ourselves out there than the

telescreens

did in “

1984”

.

Slide7

Do you agree or disagree with Mr.

Kirn

that the actions of Tyler

Clementi’s

roommate are “more disturbing” than those of Orwell’s Big Brother?

Also, Big Brother does not have the intentions of making peoples’ lives miserable.

I disagree with Walter

Kirn

when he says this. While the boy’s suicide is very disheartening and I do sympathize with him, the mind control of an entire population is much more disturbing.

The fact that someone would record someone else doing something like that without their knowledge and then show the videos to others, making the object of the video so embarrassed and miserable that he should choose to end his own life is more disturbing than a government watching its people in order to control their every move with the citizens’ knowledge. Slide8

In what way, according to Mr.

Kirn

, can the actions of “Little Brother” benefit society?

“Little Brother” also helps by “watching the watchers” so to speak, as videos of people being tortured arose. Had it not been for Little Brother, there would not have been any knowledge of such torture that needed to be dealt with

.

Little Brother’s actions can benefit society by improving morals. By being able to see what is happening around the world, we can put our reaction out there and adjust how later events will work out.

When very stupid people post illegal things that they do it is easier to catch them in the act, and have decent evidence. Slide9

How has today’s technology blurred the lines between what’s public and what’s private?

Also, people do not have an idea of what they should keep to themselves. There are people who will post absolutely every little detail about their private lives on social media sites and that makes it very easy for others to get into their business.

Many of the videos you find on the internet are filmed without the persons consent, some things are more harmful than others, but it is still wrong.

The technology today has stolen images, ‘sometimes as consumers and sometimes as producers, adds up to a story without a plot.’ Meaning that our country has taken images of people that may have not even done something wrong or weren’t even doing anything at all. The consumers add their own little plot into it taking away of what really happened to that person.

We don’t know when it’s too much so we just treat private and public matters as if they were the same. Slide10

When Mr.

Kirn

says that modern technology contributes to the fragmentation of modern society, he means that with the technology that we have today, you can’t hide your thoughts, words, or posts anywhere. It can always be traced back to the source, no matter how many times you press the delete button.

Under Big Brother, surveillance is a concrete idea in society; everyone knows what parts of their lives are being viewed and have come to accept it. The invasion of privacy was done by a government separate from the people, so it did not hurt their reputation among their peers. Today, surveillance and destruction of reputations comes from within the people rather than outside. In other words, as easy as it is for you to aim a camera at someone, there is always someone else to aim a camera at you. This is a vicious cycle that has changed the way our society views each other and people around the world.

people are more antisocial because they rely solely on social media for communication.

Ultimately, with more technology comes more freedom and ways to express oneself. Because of this technology, society ultimately becomes less-hearted to what is put out by the type of technology we have today.

It means that technology has shaped our society into what it is today. Every commercial you see the product has a

Facebook

or Twitter account where can access things about your favorite product of some sorts Slide11

STEP THREE: Choose ONE of the following questions to answer in a 50-100 word paragraph

. 

A. Do you think that violence in the mass media, such as movies, television shows and music, cause violent behavior, particularly in children?

B

. Why do you think movies and television shows are often targeted as a cause of violence committed by children?

C

. Why do you think video games are often targeted as a cause of violence committed by children?

D

. Do you think that books with violent imagery should be regulated as movies and television shows are, by indicating an appropriate age level for those who want to read the book?

E

. Is violence in movies different, by nature, than violence in books?

F

. What do you think are the causes of violent behavior by children, and how can this violent behavior be curbed? Slide12

Additional Info

Final response: 20 points, according to standard rubric

Do your best quality work, as you will be sharing your answers with your partner tomorrow.

From partner work, we will move directly into discussion groups based on

these questions.