Burkitt: Conclusion

I found this book to be a very challenging read, but very gratifying as well. This chapter in particular really drives home the point that the essence of ourselves is not solely something internal, but it is made up of the social constructions we live and communicate in. I feel we learn more about ourselves through our communication and interactions with others much like Mead and Bakhtin illustrate: "in these interrelationships that we come to identify our self through the image of some of the selves around us" (p.188).
I enjoyed how this book took into consideration many of the different philosophies and ideologies regarding the self. It presents a clear picture of many different perspectives on the self, and how we learn to find "the self". I also like the idea that it is possible to be both a social being as well as an individual. The balance between these two conflicting identities can be hard to manage at times, but as we mature we learn to find a balance, and ultimately find ourselves.

Discourses of Attention response

This was by far my favorite article from this course. I think this was only article I read that kept my attention throughout its entirety, wink wink. All jokes aside, I found it very interesting reading about the  effects of television on our attention span, and how over the years, ideas regarding the public's attention span have changed. I loved the quote from Kate Moody regarding television's effect on the mind: "Television habituates the mind to short takes, not to the continuity of thought required by reading"(588). I couldn't have summarized how I believe television effects us more eloquently. This is something my parents have been telling me for years, and I have agreed on, yet can't fully bring myself to turn the TV off, and pick up a book more often. I think it assumed by most that our generation doesn't read as often as previous ones, but it also seems true that even feature length movies our too involved for our attention spans. TV is becoming much more popular than movies, and even the movies that are popular are ginormous-budget action flicks with as little dialogue as possible. As much as this article saddened me, it motivated me to put down the remote and pick up a book.