iPods vs. CDs: The fight for supremacy

When walking across a busy street, chances are that at least one person, maybe more, have earphones in their ears, listening to their iPod. Many people in the country own MP3 Players, with the iPod being the most popular. While so many people use iPods to listen to music, one has to wonder if these people are listening to music the way it's meant to be listened.
In the current times, it is obvious that an iPod is used to play a variety of music in a way that can surprise you. In the newer generation iPod, if you shake the iPod, the song changes, emitting a "shuffle" type effect. For the most part, people don't listen to CDs straight through anymore. They put a wide variety or music on their iPod and shuffle the songs. The artists make CDs for a reason. They choose the tracklist very carefully for a reason. It's great to change it up once in a while and shuffle the music, but I think it's disrespecting the artists and their work by not listening to their music the way they want it to be listened.
Personally, I love listening to albums straight through. Sure, I have playlists of my favorite music as of now to listen to while I'm on the go, but listening to albums straight through is a completely different, amazing way tto listen to music. What I love especially is concept albums, such as Jay-Z's American Gangster. Listening to the story beyond the album is a surreal feeling and it's on a whole new level of listening to music. I'm as much of a fan of shuffling music as anybody. I need to listen to music that reflects my mood, but I can just as easily enjoy a great album. iPods are great, but that is the one thing it seriously lacks. While you can listen to albums straight through on the iPod, that's not the main purpose.
Apple Inc., the makers ofthe iPod, assume many things about the typical music listener. The shake-n-shuffle option introduced in the 4th-generation iPod nano reflects the fickle personality of our generation, the main target audience of Apple. The iPhone combines the two things people do most when on the go: talk on the phone and listen to music. The newly unveiled iPad will have many exhilirating features that will excite anyone that loves both computers and music.
It's truly amazing how well Apple markets its products and how they know exactly what we want, but I feel the need to go back to my original argument. The iPod is ruining the old-fashioned way of listening to music. We take music for granted. Twenty years ago, people listened to records straight through because, while there was no other way, it made them appreciate the good music that much more. There are people who have never heard a full album in their life. They don't truly appreciate music for what it is: a way to get out of our reality and get in touch with the artist's. With the iPod, iTouch, iPhone and the new iPad, listening to albums straight through is a rarity and, although I don't want it to be like it was in the 60s and 70s where you were forced to listen to albums straight through, I'd like albums to be more appreciated than they are now.
Like I said earlier, I like shuffling as much as the next guy, but I also know how to appreciate an album. It's my hope that more people learn to do the same rather than shuffle songs every few minutes. It's not completely Apple's fault, but they're the main cause of this new shuffling era that I'm dying to get out of.

Is Google Making Us Stupid? (Toulmin Model)

Is Google REALLY making us stupid? That's what Nicholas Carr, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly, says. As sad as it is, I must agree with him, but need to expand on it. It's not just Google. It's the internet as a whole. Although there are many reasons for this, the main reason is time. It's extremely tedious to research using books and the library. In contrast, using the internet can take minutes as opposed to hours. When one uses the internet as a form of research, people skim many readings rather than really taking in the information given in a few readings. It makes you know the basics of more knowledge rather than the depth of that knowledge. It is assumed by Carr that all people have internet.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Google has now been around for years. It's been a great help in many, many areas. People use it for virtually everything. It has become the mecca of all search engines. But, at the same time, many people wonder whether or not it is REALLY helping us. I mean, it could be said that it has so much information, that it is impossible for it not to help, but the means by which the information is gathered might be a bit too easy. In the early days, people spent hours upon hours looking for information that could now be found within minutes. The advancements in technology are amazing, but one must wonder if they are truly helping society as a whole.
Personally, I believe that Google, while being a reputable search engine and a great way to get information, is definitely changing our ways of thinking. It's making us more dependent on the internet. While that could be a good thing, it's obvious that most people that go on the internet for information expect it to be quick and easy, which is not the way to go about learning and researching. Back in the day, it was more often than not that a person truly got something out of the information they looked at, but now it's just people looking between the lines for keywords and just writing a paper after reading articles for about 5 minutes. Instead of reading, people just skim through, which is not all Google's fault, as there are many other places on the internet people can go to do that, but Google is the main source of it. People go on Google to find information, and they find it by searching keywords. Our brains have now started to comprise of a more "dumb-it-down" type mentality, and Google is the main reason. It's not completely our fault, but technology's made things a bit too easy. It's unfair to those of previous generations that we can spend an hour on an assignment that would have taken them a day. It's advancement, but, in reality, it wasn't needed, because now people don't really get anything out of the assignments unless they do them right and don't take a shortcut. So, in conclusion, I do believe that Google has, in fact, made us stupid.