Overflowing of the Brain

There is so much to look at and think about when looking at this picture. The first thing that catches my eye is how there is a circular incision that removes the whole top section of his cranium. The artist is trying to portray the fact that there is such a mass amount of items in his head that he can not even fit it all in. There is no relationship between any of the items either; they all seem to be inserted where ever they can fit. The artist obviously wants his upper cranium and the items overflowing out of it to be the center of a viewers focus due to the central lighting in the picture. I find it very interested how the apple seems to just be sitting away from everything else. Food is a necessity to life, but it seems that these days people are too busy overloading themselves with information to even get the proper nutrition or rest; both points are well depicted in this picture. 

This artist is trying to show his opinion of the average American. The photo does a great job of showing how we just constantly take in more and more information and take on even more responsibilities without even taking time to realize it. We need to spend more time enjoying life and treating our bodies the way they should be treated instead of just continuing to let ourselves be consumed in meaningless things. 

Do you think we as a nation need to look at the emphasis we put on our information knowledge and importance, or do you think this picture is too dramatic and that we just live in a society that knowing "everything" is required? These two questions can really cause you to self-evaluate oneself and the society we live in today.

TMI

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I think William Van Winkle says it best, Americans are "ingesting information constantly to the point of choking on it. " Everyday we take in so much information and most of the time only retain a very small percentage of it. If this idea of actually how much information we are comprehending is common knowledge among most all americans, they why do we constantly seek to find additional information knowing that we will most likely forget it? Some might say that it is the medias' fault that we are exposed to mounds of information, particularly false accusations of the "rich and famous"; however, why does the media keeps supplying and falsifying news?

This question is easily answered with the quote from Mr. Winkle himself. Americans love "knowing everything", for lack of better terms. If it was not for us repeatedly buying and talking about all this news, then the media would no longer have a market for it. To go along with the words of Mr. Winkle, the media supplys us with the "food" and we choose to continually over eat it to the point of "choking" ourselves. Getting TMI (too much information) can even have proven side effects such as overconfidence and weakened vision.

 I think people in the U.S.A. really need to evaluate themselves to see if the information they are bringing in is really necessary. Obviously there is some information that you are unwilling going to hear, but there is also a lot of news that we could steer away from. This small act could keep us from voluntarily "choking" ourselves daily.

Living in a Digital World

As I began to look at the different inquiry areas, one particular area seemed to stand out the most: "Information Overload, Information Quality, and Learning." This area caught my attention due to the rapid increase of the use of technology in educational setting. The use of things such as computers and projectors is now almost a "must-have" in the classrooms. Another sub-topic that interested me was how Americans now are so consumed with knowing everything and what everyone is doing at every moment. We are,  as the topic points out, overloaded with information daily. In my opinion, the majority of this information is not of good quality either. However; people take whatever information they can get and use it in
every day conversion. Now, we are not only getting information through the television and radio, but among a handful of other places also. It is not uncommon for someone to be watching television while surfing the web on their computer and texting a friend. This may be teaching people how to multi-task,  but I think it is also causing people to miss out on other aspects of life. There are obviously many topics that can be discussed under this inquiry area. Many of them will be discussed in later blogs such as the incline of technology use in general, using technology to education, getting false information from technology, or even getting your personal information exposed to the world through technology. I am very interested in learning more about this topic and sharing the information gained with my fellow bloggers.