The Internet

This year, as much as any, I have used the Internet to get information instead of other sources like books and magazines. This may not be a good thing, an article published in the July/August issue of the Atlantic titled Is Google Making Us Stupid? argues. It says that because people have gotten used to the quick switching of directions and tasks that the Internet allows, they are not able to read books and longer pieces of literature. I have not noticed this at all, but I've had the Internet at my disposal for as long as I have been able to comprehend the meaning of words. I will never know how I have been adversely affected by the Internet. Perhaps if I had never known of the internet then I would be able to concentrate on longer pieces of literature for a longer time, but even if this is true, would it be worth it? It seems to me that the answer to this question is unequivocally no. The ease with which it is possible to fetch useful information on the web is mindboggling. I have the ability to gain any piece of knowledge at the click of a mouse. I would not give this up in order to be able to read at greater length. But I'll never know if the Internet has cursed me in this way.

The Road

The Road is shaping up to be a great book. I was somewhat dumbfounded and angry when I heard that we were going to be reading a book by an author who doesn't use quotation marks, and as I had heard at the time, used periods sparingly. Dumbfounded because I was sure that a literary work of this description couldn't be considered a literary work at all, and therefore had no place in a language arts program, and angry because I thought that sifting through text rendered meaningless by lack of punctuation would be a waste of my time. Luckily, the rumor of the lacking periods was false (although McCarthy might have been able to pull it off). Surprisingly, I am finding The Road to be quite readable, even one of the most enjoyable books I've read in a very long time.
The lack of appropriate punctuation regarding conversation is something that I am now enjoying. I feel like it forces me to think a lot more while I read, allowing me to gain a deeper understanding of the book, while teaching me something about the variations of writing style. So far, reading The Road has taught me that writing has no limits, and because of this, it can be made your own. It has also taught me not to jump to conclusion about pieces of literature, and to try new and different books that I normally would not read.

The Last One

As the last person on Earth, I would be at a loss to find things to do. I do enjoy many things like reading, practicing saxophone and piano, making and viewing art, biking, as well as various other things, but as the last person on Earth, I would not find any fulfillment in these or other things because I would have nobody to do them or discuss them with. Without anyone to listen to your music, why would you spend time practicing an instrument? With nobody to discuss literature and get perspective on it, why would you read? With nobody to view, discuss, and share art with, why would you spend time learning about it or creating it? With nobody to pay for items or skills, why would you hone your own skills in order to make a profession out of them? Basically, I see almost everything I enjoy doing in life as serving the purpose of bringing me pleasure from making me more able to interact with other people because of skills and hobbies that I develop. An uninhabited world with me as the exception, would demonstrate the hostility of solidarity. Luckily however (or perhaps not....overpopulation is a concern too) the world is filled with people, about 6,740,422,806 acc0rding to www.census.gov. I say luckily because this puts the odds of me being the sole human on earth at 1/6,740,422,806, or about .0000000148358645856% I could keep going but you probably get the point.