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Show Because there's no T in 'Web 2.0' MahaAtal Brown Daily Herald (Brown U.) 11272007 (U-WIR- E) PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Last week, I at- tended a lecture by writer and academic Scott Russell Sanders 67 sponsored by the English departments Non-fictiWriting Program. Sanders spoke about the ethical responsibility of the nonfiction writer and responded specifically to the debates that have arisen since James Freys fabricated memoir, A Million Little Pieces, hit Oprahs book club in 2005. In particular, Sanders emphasized the role of modesty in fueling honesty. The ability to play down the I, the individual story, in favor of engaging with broader social, political or historical narratives enables writers to see more clearly these macro realities instead of molding the world to their personal biases. For most of Sanders hour-lon- g talk, I bought his arBut towards end the his of gument. speech, he tied the of the and resultant lack of truthfulness spread egotism in contemporary nonfiction to virtual worlds and reality television. With Second Life and the Real World, he suggested, its grown acceptable to sell fiction as truth. In the question-and-answ- er session, many Brown English professors appeared to agree, asking how they could teach students to detach themselves from the egomania of contemporary virtual media, As a believer in the positive impact of new technologies on our culture, I cringed. Sanders was displaying the most common misconception older generations seem to harbor about Web 2.0 and its Generation Y consumers. Certainly, technology makes it possible to lie, and online stalkers pretending to be 16 are a valid concern. But they are a Web 1.0 phenomenon: The old Internet was about doing things just because you could, faking it just because the technology allowed you to be fake. In Web 2.0, possibility and permission are not the same thing: Just because we can engage in endless role on ing play doesnt mean we want to. Indeed, most consumer insight surveys, marketing experts and social media watchdogs tell us that Web 2.0 is obsessed with authenticity, that Generation Y consumers are more attracted to politicians, pop stars or memoirists who keep it real. Young readers, after all, turned against Frey as soon as his lies were revealed. They support Barack Obama behis cause romantic idealism strikes them as coming from the heart. Moreover, if dishonesty is the result of egotism, Web 2.0 is likely to Bring a turn in a more truthfiil direction. While the Internet enables anyone and everyone to become a minor celebrity with a Flickr page or YouTube video, Web 2.0 does not reward the egomaniacs who try to achieve prima donna status on these content-sharin- g sites. No problem with procrastination Matt Maxso The Rebel YeU(UNLV) 12032007 LAS VEGAS - Im not one to discourage procrastination. In fact, this article was written an hour before deadline. With that established, the entire sense of urgency on University of Nevada at Las Vegas campus for tests, papers and other (U-WIR- E) academic affairs is completely unnecessary. If something is worth doing, its worth doing quickly and if it needs to get done, it will get done, somehow. For the past four years I have managed to get all my assignments into my professors and instructors For much ofhistory, pop cultural figures have achieved on time despite usually being finished a couple hours success by asserting their difference, trying to separate or minutes before class. When I explain this to my their unique perspective from the current mainstream friends or family, it is usually followed by their sentiand to create a new mainstream behind their own movement that I need to be more organized. That means I ry ments. Modernists made it by separating from get a weekly planner for Christmas. became the mainstream of the early realists, then But telling a procrastinator to plan better is like 20th century. Nirvana made it by critiquing early 1990s telling an anorexic to order a double-doubl- e. I have then broke above culture, they ground to make grunge no desire to change my studying habits, or lack the new norm. thereof, and most people who procrastinate and sucIn todays decentralized world, that binary of culture ceed share my outlook. and counter-cultu- re has largely collapsed. But more imte In my career of cramming, I have alless consumers are concerned portantly, todays young ways given myself enough time to get the task done with finding artists, politicians or writers who can prove at the cost of intense short-ter- m strain. If a paper themselves adequately cut off from the mainstream. is due on Wednesday, Ill be in the library from 7 Even those who begin acquiring fame as outsiders a.m. until midnight with almost no break. If I have soon find that inside and outside are no longer neat cata test on Thursday, I will take the textbook out of its egories. Think of Stephen Colbert: Hes made a name as shrink-wra- p on Wednesday. And if I have to give a a media outsider, even talking at media events about presentation, Ill throw it together just minutes prior, how morally bankrupt and asinine the mainstream mehoping to wow the professor with my ability to add dia has become. That counter-cultur- al transitions and builds to any PowerPoint for a glamcritique has catahim close the ballot. to eerily pulted orous effect. presidential But last month, when Colbert wanted to promote his It would be a little pretentious of me to say that I electoral run, he did so by writing a guest column in that have perfected the art of procrastination. But wearbastion of mainstream media, the New York Times. Beting a sweater vest, smoking a pipe and wearing my ter still, he did so as a writing novelty crown, Ive come to terms with being pretena guest passage to appear in an article by Maureen Dowd tious. Mock Oct. Columnist, 14). Amok, For those of you less apt in this art, I have two (A Reading Colberts piece gives the impression that the words: Stop worrying. Buckle down and do the asjoke is on the old media: he laughs at Dowd for needsignment in front of you. him to write her column for her. Reading Dowds Las Vegas was designed for your inner procrasing introduction, however, I am inclined to tell Colbert that tinator. ut is open until 1 a.m., Starbucks is the joke is on him: She points out that in order to make open 24 hours and for that late-nig- ht sugar fix Krispy a counter-cultur- al had to step inside the Kreme serves donuts all night long. I am not a doccritique, hes culture and admit that hes linked to it. Dowds point tor, but studies have found that procrastinators lack is a testament to the Timess ability to adapt as an old general Therefore, you should not do media publication to the new media age by inviting the your te project at the Freakin Frog. Thats inside its content just asking for trouble. critique pages, allowing to flourish on its own blogs. Procrastinators also work better in pairs, so the The key insight is that in the age of Web 2.0, links class before your project is due, find your better half are capital, and being connected to others in pop culthe other highly perspiring students among sitting ture or electoral politics is a plus. Bloggers routinely beside you. If you missed days in class, that person link their work to the work of others, pointing out as may have your missing notes and if you dont underevidence of their own relevancy the fact that others are stand the motif of your assigned novel, he or she may saying the same thing. The more they do so, the more know how to find it on the Internet. hits their posts get, the higher their own blogs rise on However, if you find that you are continuously searches. Google turning in papers late or not at all, you may want to Fame, in the Web 2.0 age, is shockingly devoid of take a few steps back from this. Like I said earlier, both the I and the mass mainstream: its about producmake sure to give yourself enough time. If 10 hours ers who deny allegiance to counter-cultur- al ideological before class isn t enough, try 24. Everyone loves an movements, but who link themselves to others on an individual level. Which means that the young people And remember, never half-as-s it while goofing raised on virtual media and taking nonfiction off. If youre going to put off your work, do it in style writing classes today might well grow up into the modest truth-telle- rs and make sure that time wasted is not time lost. of tomorrow. Ed Kaczynski contributed to this opinion ... at the Theres no I in Maha Atal 08. last minute. 19th-centu- last-minu- column-within-a-colu- HThe Forum - Weitnv $!w Cnhege Ap Oty Utah Staff, Fall 2007 In-N-O- Editor: Staff Writers: Tiauna Anderson Daniel Iverson Production Manager: Nick Parker Business Manager: TiffenyTam Adviser: Kim Zarkin Emily Bennion Jonny Bonner Chelsea DiFrancesco Shanene Foster Joey Hellrung Manda Jacobs Alexandra Jamison Wesley Jarman Macey Matthews Kate Reed The Forum is published every other Tuesday. Its circulation is 1,200 newspapers. The first copy is free of charge; additional copies may be purchased for 50 cents. We encourage students, faculty, staff and other readers all letters to Daniel Iverson to provide feedback. at forumwestminstercollege.edu. Only signed letters will be accepted. The Forum reserves the right to edit all submissions. Views expressed are those of the writers and are not to be considered those of The Forum, ASWC, the E-m- ail faculty, staff or administration. I VOLUME XLI: ISSUE 8 self-regulati- on. last-minu- user-generat- ed all-nigh- ter. 4 |