The Plug-In Drug

In the article The Plug-In Drug, Winn argues that television had once a favouruble, beneficial effect on family, which today turned into a dispersing one. She sees Tv as an evil drug, that destroyes the family rituals and harms the children in families. I agree that, TV has a huge control over our lives today. I know people who includes TVGuides while organizing their agendas. This is not just sad, it is also so preposterous. We should never cancel a meeting with friends or a dinner out with the family members because out favourite TV programme is on. But unfortunately, we all do this!

My family always eats out on Saturday evenings with the company of 3 other close family friends of ours. Even thogh I really enjoy spending time with them, I’ve missed some of those dinners because I wanted to stay home and watch TV. It might sound ridiculous but that’s the case how we are addicted to TV programmes and how it destroys the family rituals.

On the other hand I also remember TV in good part memories of mine from the Christmas. When I was little our whole famly used to come together and celebrate the Christmas and I had memories of how we all together watch the Christmas bonus after the specia Christmas shows. It was actually fun and more important, it was a group activity of watching TV.

So, I agree on that TV harms the most familes and tears them apart in some ways but, it is actually a good part of bringing them together if we can use it right.

1 comment November 30, 2008

Enormous Radio

Enormous Radio(1953) is a fantastic short story about how media could effect peoples’ lives in a tragic way. What I really like about this short story is the way John Cheever(the author), represents the radio as a key to access inside their neighbours’ lives. He uses it so well that you’re getting the feeling of participating something indicent with Irene. He also writes in an ironic way which is actually the result of ironic lives of the neighbours. We see this in the dialogue that the maid is being asked to lend $5 for the doorman. The secret feeling of a gossip in the air also makes the story fun to read.

In the story we see that it’s appealing to watch other peoples lives but it also could give us harm. But what I really wonder is, is that the media that makes it so easy or is it us caring too much for other’s lives? I think it’s true that media is a huge factor in our lives, especially today, that effects our realationships. Tv is a replacement with that days radio and it can easily turn into a big pull which tears us apart from our family and friends.

1 comment November 22, 2008

Tiny Smiling Daddy

Tiny Smiling Daddy is an interesting story about the relationships in a family. There are several problems between Kitty and her parents. The most significant one is her being a lesbian. It is an unordinary situation but even she wasn’t so accepted in the family(I don’t understand why) she gets at the thin end of the wedge and tells them she is lesbian! Her father was already distant to her emotionally and this turned her distance into anger. The already existent communication problem is now a big conflict between them. She clearly shows that she needs her parents and their support in life. I think the reason he acts like this; he feels ashamed of her daughter to be a lesbian. He maybe boggles from the reactions that he might get from his friends because when his friend Norm called him to tell about the article he gets nervous abouth what she might have written. The article is a pure evidence of lack of communication between Kitty and her father. She could express her feelings to public but not her father and I think this is really sad. On the other hand we can’t really blame the whole thing on the father, after we learn abouth his father. The main reason is he grew up in a family which he didn’t have enough love and care from his father. This doesn’t make him a bad man but this makes him a bad father which is inable to show his emotions.

1 comment October 26, 2008

The Key To My Father

My relationships with my family had always been close. They were never too strict and never too uninterested either. They pretty much know my friends and they’re usually aware of who I’m with and the places I hang out. I don’t know if they know all my interests and things that I want to do in my life. I mostly wouldn’t bother to share all of these with them unless I asked to do so. It is not possible for them to know everything in my life and I believe this works same for us, too. We can’t really know our parents unless we want them to know us.

Parents are parts of our lives that is need to be there and away at the same time. It’s funny how we don’t want them to poke into our businesses and how we call them right away when we can’t deal with a problem. We might never be interested in their lives or never have time to listen what they’re saying.The reason for this, we know that they were there for us when we need and they will be!

I believe we need to think on this and not just think and also spend some time with them. Even if it’s just for not to be sorry later, it’ll worth to try!

1 comment October 21, 2008

IS MUSIC PIRACY STEALING?

IS MUSIC PIRACY STEALING?

Nowadays copying and sharing files,downloading music from the internet is a big trend.But is this legal or do people really care about this process that is recently called the ‘piracy’? The article we read was discussing the topic ‘music piracy’ by giving some contrast ideas, research results and different examples.

According to researches in the article,we see that the high percentage of people don’t care about whether the files copyrighted or not.This was actually not surprising for me and some are not even aware of whether they are legal or illegal. The writer argues that this actually doesn’t seem like stealing. I agree with him on this because we might all feel quilty if we steal an item right from a store but internet gives us an intengible working space that we can all access just with a click. We have to admit that we like this bacuse it is easy, cheap and doesn’t really seem wrong.

I also think the same about the litigation fascism alienate the consuming public and we do not want this because it will not benefit the music companies at all.

In the article GM seeds seemed like so out of topic to me but I found it interesting how the writer associated them with the copywriting music download. And actually buying the pattent and of these seeds is kind of related with the topic and this example actually makes the topic a little bit more tangible.

I think that private interest of corporations shouldn’t be this much dominant on technology as the writer said.We are all aware of the growing rate of usage of mp3s and I think ıt would have been nice to had legal access to copies especially for personal use.

I know that for some of the countries (like America) piracy is a delicate topic, but I believe that it will go on anyway legal or illegal. So there is no need to limit the information exchange by exaggareting the piracy as a crime.

Add comment October 21, 2008

A RESPOND TO ‘A ROSE FOR EMILY’

5\10\2008

A RESPOND TO ‘A ROSE FOR EMILY’

A Rose For Emily, is a William Faulkner novel abotuh an interesting, strange charecter Emily Grierson, and her actions responding the relationship with her death father. Even though the story is written in 1930 it takes place during the time after the Civil War.In the story, Faulkner uses his charecters as a figure of this era and creates a suspicious, entertainıng story by narrating with a third person, who is around the neighbourhood.

When I started to read my first reaction to this story was realizing the time sequence. The story opens with the death of Miss Grierson and continues by giving us the setting of the house. When you keep on reading, you realize that it actually describes the past 25 years of Miss Emily’s life and how a noble person like her went down exactly like the big white house of hers that became ‘eyesore among eyesores’. What I like about this opening is the detailed description of the house and writer’s ingenious compare of the despair in Emily’s life and the fall she had from the aspect of the town.

From now on we start finding some clues about how it all comes to an end. We see that the traditions plays an important role in Emily’s life, when we meet the charecter Homer Baron, a northener construction worker eho Emily fell in love with. He is also a symbol of the postwar which explains the conflict between Noth and South. It is also not a coincidence for him to be a construction worker and came to South to fix the roads.All these used symbols mekes A Rose For Emily a deep and also a fastmoving story.

I don’t think there is anybody who like the surprise ending. This was my favourite part of the story. I loved that how the writer chose a curious, gossip neighbour from inside the town for to tell us the story. ll the ‘we’s in the story build a suspense and carries us to the end by collecting clues one by one at the same time with the narrator. And we all surprised and also unwind when we finf out she actually killed her lover Homer.

Add comment October 21, 2008