Blog #4 Podcasts and Brainstorming

Blog #4

The first podcast was called “Summer Camp.”  Of course the title is giving away most of what the podcast explains.  The point of this podcast is to explain how “camp” is differentiated from normal life.  Everything seems to be better when they are at camp.  No one understands the gap between camp and normal life.  The kids would go home and describe how much fun they had, and would tell stories of their experiences at camp.  When they went home, no one would understand what was so cool or why they thought it was amusing.  The “so what” of this, as described by the narrator, is what is the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  Or in terms of this story: Camp versus world.  Older campers continued to tell their stories as well in the podcast.  This also affirms the question of fiction versus nonfiction. “the stories you tell at camp are so funny but once you go home, they give you a look.. like that’s stupid….when you describe the story.”  This perfectly describes how camp can  be its own world which no one else understands.

            The podcast about “Becoming Batman” was formed like a profile because it focuses on a single subject just like we are going to do for our second project.  The point of this podcast was to look into the life of a single person or thing and describe the actions of it.  The summer camp podcast was organized chronologically by talking about the camp at the beginning and then interviewing people about the subject.  Batman was about a man and a mouse whose stories were also told chronologically.  The subjects were introduced and then described vividly. Throughout the podcasts we hear background music which help us to put ourselves in the shoes of the storyteller to be in that scene with them.

My critical question entails ‘How has the use of technology, particularly cell phones, affected the way we interact and communicate?’  I have a few ideas about who I am going to interview and what I want to observe.  I might study a group of teenagers in general and see how they interact in a social setting.  I would possibly observe their phone use to see how often they take out there phone instead of simply talking, or if things get awkward.  Another group I might study would be people at the Union.  I want to watch them eat lunch and interact.  This could be while they study, or eat, or just make small talk.  All of these things were very hard for me to do without a phone so that is why I am interested.  I am still not for sure on who I would interview.  A girl I met just lost her phone so I have an idea of interviewing her to see how her life has changed in the past few days.  All of these things connect to my critical question because phone distractions cause us to change our personable characteristics.  I discussed this idea with a writing consultant and she thought that this would connect with my first project.  She also suggested interviewing a librarian from the Union who sells phones and technology related merchandise.