Sad Story...

When I read the milblog posts, I wasn’t so sure what to think. I honestly don’t think our guys should be over there fighting as it were, and from the sounds of it, they don’t exactly like it there either. The hardest thing for me to read was the nightmares. Many of the posts were about nightmares they have. One man outright stated he and many others suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and they aren’t getting any help! The U.S. government promised that they would have programs for them to help them with that, but it isn’t happening.
The nightmares and PTSD hit me on a personal level only because I have the same problem. It’s just caused by something else. In that sense I can really relate to what our guys are dealing with, and the fact that they don’t even have help available to them for it is horrifying. They need that counseling, and some even need medication. It’s sad to hear their stories about friends who have been killed and how they have nightmares about it.
It’s also sad in the fact that they can’t live like they used to before the conflict. Many have had relationships go bad because they were gone. They have different personalities and how they live is different than before. The change from soldier to civilian is hard for many of them. Unfortunately, there’s no plan to help them get re-integrated into the civilian lifestyle. They have to do it themselves. I think it’s wrong to send them somewhere, make them hard killers who are put at such stressful levels some kind of damage is always done, and then ship them back to the U.S. and expect them to make friendly again all by themselves.
The whole thing is just wrong.

Blogging is just as Dangerous as Bloggers are Dumb

Those so called “dangers” of blogging online really don’t freak me out. I understand that yes, there are crazy people out there who like to stalk others or want to hurt them. If you set your privacy settings correctly, then you have nothing to fear from unknown scary people. I think the only reason having a blog, posting things, and letting others read or view them is anywhere near dangerous is because too many of the blog users don’t understand how to set privacy and account settings.
When I read that people could use a search engine to find your site or use your site to look up your own personal information, I did get concerned. However, I don’t have anything bad on my sites. Too many times it was stated that possible candidates for job positions weren’t hired because of blog content. This does not concern me and I honestly think those people were idiots to put that stuff up on the web anyway. Of course anyone can view it! I don’t have bad stuff on my site; and, after reading this, I actually went on my web log sites to check on my account and privacy settings.
My first stop was Xanga. I hardly use it anymore, but it was definitely worth checking on. I noticed in privacy settings they actually ask if it is ok that your site be found through search engines and I quickly changed it to “no!” It was also possible for anyone who knew my name, my username, or even my email to find my site. It was completely unprotected! I was amazed at how much was available to other people so they could search and view my site. I immediately went to my other sites and fixed them up too. Now, I definitely don’t have to worry about any unwanted visitors to my sites. Only my friends or people I allow could ever see them. I would never have thought about it if I hadn’t read that it was so easy for an individual to find your site.
Honestly, I think this isn’t a huge issue unless you’re dumb enough to put stupid, illegal, or porn-like stuff on your site. If you don’t have your privacy settings strict, but you don’t have stuff that like on your site then you don’t have as much to worry about. However, if you’re like me and actually checked out what all was available in the privacy settings and fixed them for limited viewing, then you’re worry-free pretty much. It’s only a big deal if you make it that way and leave yourself vulnerable. Huzzah for online safety smarts!

Sosnoski Sounds Like a Sneeze to Me

I’m not going to go on like I understood everything in the Sosnoski article, because I didn’t. However, there were plenty of things I did get out of it. Sosnoski is convinced that reading things electronically will be the predominant form of reading in the future. I disagree, but that is not the point. Much of what he stated in the early part of the reading was a simple use of today’s technology and how it will eventually affect the future’s reading. Sosnoski explain that anything coming across the screen is neutralized into electronic information. This is something I find to be true.
As this electronic information became readily available to us, we more or less concentrated on how easy and fast we could get the information rather than the importance, relevance, or depth of the information. Sosnoski states this as “space portioning out time.” The dangers of this are all too obvious, unfortunately. Because the information is so readily available, and seemingly for free, it is easy for loss of authorship, coherence, meaning, as well as depth and context to occur. It’s sad because, as I read, I reflected on all the times I have looked up information on the web and realized that I had not paid attention to the author, nor cared what it meant to copy and past certain parts or link it to someone else. It is a serious loss of privacy and ownership in that sense. I am guilty of this charge in that I have taken for granted the information available to me and those who provided it. It is sad indeed! One of my favorite quotes Sosnoski used, by Baudrillard, was “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”
One cool thing about reading, so says Sosnoski, is that it is a process of selection. I think there’s truth to it. As he put how much of what we retain is what we mainly choose to retain as importance. Generally, what we remember from any reading is plot summaries, characters, important scenes and themes. It was interesting to read Sosnoski explain how his friend had merely skimmed a book that he (Sosnoski) had taken the time to read and they both ended up remembering much of the same things.
Sosnoski talks about search engines and how a search engine is much like and indexing program a human could do; only it does it faster, more thoroughly, and more systematically. Talk about debasing the humans! It was stated like we were incompetent at indexing things. Of course, I’m sure this article wasn’t even trying to insult anyone. Along with search engines, the fact that we read less of the actual text was discussed. Yes, many people skim or peck at things and only pick up some of the things they believe is important; but, I do not agree with Sosnoski in that the information brought up by a search engine is completely inadequate in comparison to the actual text (then again, I wasn’t sure if I was really getting what he was trying to say). So, I won’t venture into that. Better to be thought stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt, right?
The more hilarious, yet pitiful part of these hypertext readers is that graphics do play what would be considered a more meaningful role than the words. Sad people that we are, much of the information we come to comprehend is more or less shown with graphics along with words. Also, teachers don’t appreciate how much of their students us the web to gain information. So many resources are incorrect and many more may even be misinterpreted or misunderstood. That is another thing I thought was really cool about this article. The fact that how the reader approaches a text is more important than the text content in how the information is received really blows my mind! I never think of these things, and it’s so true! I’m actually glad I read this, even though it was definitely a tough read. It challenged me to think and that’s all I really care about, ha-ha.