School makes you think…
I come to you almost with what feels like a heavy heart. I’m struggling after class tonight. Recently we’ve been discussing different theories on how to analyze literature. The first week we covered New Criticism. I didn’t care for that although it was interesting, especially after we put it to use and actually saw how it works.
The next theory we discussed was Psychoanalytical theory. This is pretty crazy. It focuses on the writer and what they were going through basically. It was interesting as well.
So tonight we started Reader-Response Criticism. But at the end of the hour we revisited Psychoanalytical Theory.
When we did Dr. Carlson talked about a study that she read. The study basically said that people aren’t forming intimate relationships anymore or we’re getting away from it more and more. And no I’m not talking intimate as in sex, just being able to sit in a room and actually talk with each other. The study I guess said something about put 2 people of the youth generation in a room together and they can’t speak to each other, but they can text to each other.
They don’t like that lack of control. In texting you can turn it off or decide not to answer someone when they talk to you. Then we decided that our class, the oldest is probably 40, then a 35 and everyone else is probably 30 or younger (just guessing although I’m 31, I didn’t say that…) but we kind were the first group to grow up texting and the youth generation don’t know any different.
That makes me sad. I like to sit down and talk to people but I’ve noticed and I’m guilty of it too, but I’ve noticed that when I’m talking to people, if they get a text they’ll read/answer it while I’m trying to talk to them. It drives me nuts. And like I said, I’m guilty of it too so I’m not bad mouthing anyone because if I was I’d be either a) bad mouthing myself or b) being a hypocrite. Maybe I’m both… who knows.
Then we were talking about how the youth won’t form those intimate relationships. Also we discussed that when little kids come up and try to get your attention, parents have a tendency to stay glued to their phone and tell the kid in a minute or go away or whatever. And that shuts kids down after a while if that always happens to them. They think why put out the effort, it’s not going to get me anywhere anyway.
Now Dr. Carlson did clarify that her generation was just as bad just by different means. Then we picked on her because of something she said earlier in the evening. (she said put cocaine in their neck… we have no idea what that means and neither did she. She laughed…)
And… then we got off on talking about how people aren’t afraid to say something behind a computer screen that they may not actually have the guts to say to your face. Sometimes people say things and you can’t really tell the tone behind their message.
When you’re analyzing text, literary texts generally have a lot of details that help paint a picture and usually you can decide eventually if someone is being heart felt or snarky… but on facebook and in text messages you don’t always get that context of what they are saying. I know that’s caused a lot of hurt feelings and fights in my life because my message is missing those details on how I really feel.
Then I found out that if people text and use punctuation that is basically like them yelling at you. Wait, what? I like punctuation. I like words spelled correctly versus the n for in or and I’d prefer to spell out and or use the &. But that’s just me.
Anyway it’s 11:30 and I really should go to bed because baby girl will have me up at some random ridiculous hour but like I said, school makes you think.
