The World According to Ellen

     Ellen DeGeneres' article about the annoyances of all the modern day technology was very humorous and hit the nail on the head in many instances. She talks about how technology is supposed to be making things easier and faster for us, but most of the time they are just a hindrance and annoyance to people around us. She talks about cell phones, and how you never get service or you are around someone who is having a loud conversation that you do not particularly care about hearing. This is true, and we have so much to say when other people are doing it, but never realize ourselves when we are the ones having the loud obnoxious conversations in a public area.  I found Ellen's article to be effective because it touched on lighter subjects, and did not try to warn us of the dangers of television and the internet, while still getting the point across that sometimes it's better to just take the extra few minutes to turn the knob on the faucet instead of using the automatic one.

Books Vs Games

     Stephen Johnson's article "Everything Bad is Good for you: Games" really made me think. When I first began reading I was completely against his point of view, I thought putting video games on the same level as reading was so ridiculous. I love reading, and I think video games can be fun but I don't play them very often. I've never felt that I got anything but entertainment out of a video game, while I have felt enormous satisfaction from reading a good book that allows you to think and imagine. However,I found the part where they show a sample of what could be written about books if video games came first to be enlightening. It's true that something that comes after an original is always scrutinized more critically, and things can be said about books that would sway someones opinions towards a video game. I still do not think that video games can really do much to stimulate the brain in a positive way, but the article brought up a lot of good points and showed that you have to look at things from different points of view.