every time i am with everyone, we always end up talking about or referencing all the horrible texts that are put up on people's horrible blogs on the horrible internet (horrible because it lets this inefficiency happen) and about how this is a waste of time and space et cetera. i was thinking about that while driving on highway 75 back to the the hotel to drop off a load of people and luggage... this problem is similar to what truckers experience while driving down such and such interstate and being slowed down by berrypickers or ignorant/drug-addled teenagers or other members of the general public who are using the road for non-business purposes. so, they (horrible blogs) are specific symptoms of a general problem.
people being the general problem.
people are inefficient and thoughtless and self-centered. we waste a lot of time.
last spring, a prof was talking to our pedagogy class about student behavior. we were discussing socializing the the classroom. "how do you begin a class? why do students rustle around and talk a bit before you begin?" he asked.
"because they are people," i said and laughed. what a simple question. but it had seriously confounded some of the other students in my class.
when i was a gymnast, i felt i had a good coach because he did not treat us like machines. i read books about horse-training and understood how some riders wanted "push-button" horses that would react without thinking. some coaches wanted the same kind of gymnasts; some teachers in my schools wanted the same kind of students.
it is possible to condition people. but what kind of teacher you are and what kind of student you are depends on how you view that kind of conditioning. aligning with the chaotic good (thanks, m), i resent authority--having it or being under it--and that informs my stance as a student and teacher. i have certain values (honor, loyalty, honesty, etc.) and expect people to meet certain standards (delineated by myself or by the institution/system i work within) in the classroom, yet i also know that people learn by example.
this means i will fail to teach certain kinds of students at certain times in their lives. but it is possible to be influenced by people retroactively. your memories of someone's actions/behavior can influence your present actions/behaviors. and i see this as success, as well. this is definitely not a teaching ideology that the no child left behind act would approve of (how heartbroken i am over that). mostly, it's just my way of dealing with negative reactions to my teaching style.
i am a person, too.
back to blogs.
people use the internet. and there will continue to be an unending supply of new bloggers with the same old ones and zeroes wasting text and images. INCLUDING ME. AWESOME. yes, it would be helpful if there were a different domain for social users... but until that slow lane is developed and used correctly (so likely), bloggers will not stop causing drama and using horrificly distorted, badly-re-sized images.
my view of the world is pretty much bleakly hopeful or hopefully bleak.