The Internet and History

I've been thinking about how our understanding of what's going on in the world is presented through and shaped by the internet. I read a chapter about "New Historical Analysis" for one of my classes, and the basic premise was that history is not objective reality, but actually a story told by those who lived it which must be interpreted and analyzed as a text. With the internet today, we have an unprecedented capacity to hear multitudes of viewpoints on any event; much of the early insider accounts of the Mumbai attacks came from people sending tweets from the city. One account I read was actually from someone trapped in their room at the Taj.

Of course, everything we read is necessarily viewed with some suspicion; without hard evidence or the supposed hard evidence of "publication" or "criticism", it is up to us, the average reader, to determine the veracity of anything we read online. We all become our own interpreters of history, perhaps leaning on our own biases and pre-conceived ideas about the truth as we see it. I believe that we do all have an opportunity to look past our own ideas and gain a true multi-dimensional view of any topic we're researching, but for the most part, its easier to believe that which speaks to what we already claim to know.

I guess I'm wondering what kinds of artifacts we are leaving behind for future generations. While the internet has opened this wide view of history with many voices, how much of this will be able to be understood or valued in the future? We're creating more than ever, but how much will actually be saved? How much is even worth saving, and who decides?

Dog Run

We went to a dog run a little while ago. The area reminded me of Vassar Farm; an enormous flat field with a winding path, a road, and small parking lots, surrounded by rolling hills. Tellulah and Willie ran and sniffed some butts while Ella and I went to the jungle gym. She and a five-year-old boy named...I forget!...spun around the tire swing while I pushed them. The boy asked Ella for her number. She said she didn't know what it was. The boy's mom said in the future he should wipe the snot off his nose before asking a girl for her number.

Also, she definitely knows her number.

Fake News

Had anyone else heard that someone on CNN's IReport site posted that Steve Jobs had a heart attack in October?
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/10/03/steve-jobs-heart-tech-personal-cx_bc_1003jobs.html
Apparently Apple stocks lost $8 billion before someone from the company was able to refute the information.
Is that really all it takes to send the economy into a freefall? Why aren't terrorists using the internet more?

Cincinnati

Yesterday, we went to the Northside, which is considered one of the hip parts of town. It has everything you'd find in Williamsburg but in smaller doses. One great record store. One independent video store. One bar where paint peels on the door and people still drink Pabst Blue Ribbon (another up the road has a line of Harleys parked out front. They serve delicious burritos and have a photo booth in the back). There are still holdovers from a pre-hip era; a typesetting business on a prominent corner, White Castle and Taco Bell/KFC across from the record store, a seedy pawn/jewelry shop that has a two-stories high "DIAMONDS" sign. And then there's the rotted out warehouse that looms from a distance. You see it peeking out at every intersection, chipped white walls and red trim. Floors gutted and useless. How long would it have taken Williamsburg to turn this into loft condos? A week? The site remains unchanged from my first trip to Northside, over four years ago. My dad says Cincinnati is ten years behind. As young people flee for the coasts and the recession settles in, I wonder if it will ever catch up.

My work station

Cincinnati, Ohio

I tried to take a picture of the terra cotta roof and the street, but it came out all pixelated. 

Spellcheck says that's not a word.

New Blog

I'm starting yet another blog because I want to force myself to write regularly, and I know that if  I just type and save things on my computer, they'll sit there forever and I won't look at them. Also, I know how much everyone cares about what I have to say.

Some. They/you care some. Otherwise you would have stopped reading by now.

Sucker.

As I become an English teacher, I feel that it would be hypocritical of me to demand that my students do all this writing while I walk around the room and smack them with a ruler if they don't cooperate. I should be writing too. So here I am, in a room overlooking a terra cotta roof in Cincinnati, Ohio, writing. A young guy just walked by outside, jeans, matching brown jacket and boots, possibly suede. White iPod headphones.

Does this count as writing?

Oh, also, the background is black because someone told me that's more energy efficient - the screen doesn't have to use as much power making my blog look bright and shiny.