On the basic skill of writing.

[catalina_francisco]

I'm in the same boat. I avoid TV, but can get sucked in by the oddest things. And I love a good commercial. I will sit and watch the Clio Awards and not mind the time wasted.

LOL, see this is when I think it might be good to buy into this avoidance thing where TV is concerned, but I just can't see it as the evil it is painted to be though for those of us who may choose to watch things which are educational and mind expanding. It is especially useful for me these days when reading is a real problem due to my failing eyesight...I can opt to watch or as the case usually is, listen more than watch, something on TV or DVD which takes away the need to strain my eyes and nerves to try and gain the same information through reading a book. F OTOH is happy to watch some of the most mind numbing trash ever made...drives me up the wall. Perhaps his comes from growing up with TV in the house...we didn't get one until I was almost a teenager.

Catalina

 

[jockdom]

LOL, see this is when I think it might be good to buy into this avoidance thing where TV is concerned, but I just can't see it as the evil it is painted to be though for those of us who may choose to watch things which are educational and mind expanding. It is especially useful for me these days when reading is a real problem due to my failing eyesight...I can opt to watch or as the case usually is, listen more than watch, something on TV or DVD which takes away the need to strain my eyes and nerves to try and gain the same information through reading a book. F OTOH is happy to watch some of the most mind numbing trash ever made...drives me up the wall. Perhaps his comes from growing up with TV in the house...we didn't get one until I was almost a teenager.

Catalina

For adults I agree! But for kids I think it can have a negative impact. I remember during the summer we used to get thrown out after breakfast, home for lunch, and then out again till supper. We would go in the woods build huts,read stories/comics, roast food on fires etc. I think a lot of childhood has been lost these days. Maybe I'm getting old?

 

[Breaker_Morant]

Now The tv/Playstation/dvd has taken the place of the parent and the art of story telling is forever lost!

Modern day babysitters.

 

[Breaker_Morant]

Wow. . .

Beautiful. Thank you for posting this.

You're welcome.

When I read the OP, I immediately started looking for it.

I just found the audio clip from Ken Burn's Civil War..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aj7Qh1Uu3w&feature=related

/hijack

 

[jockdom]

You're welcome.

When I read the OP, I immediately started looking for it.

I just found the audio clip from Ken Burn's Civil War..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aj7Qh1Uu3w&feature=related

/hijack

I don't know if he's known in the states but Wilfred Owen wrote some heart wrendering poetry during the first world war. Sadly he was killed one week before its end.

 

[caela]

For adults I agree! But for kids I think it can have a negative impact. I remember during the summer we used to get thrown out after breakfast, home for lunch, and then out again till supper. We would go in the woods build huts,read stories/comics, roast food on fires etc. I think a lot of childhood has been lost these days. Maybe I'm getting old?

My mom did this to. During the summer the only time we were allowed TV during the day was if the weather was too aweful for us to be outside; which usually meant thunder and lightening, light rain didn't count unless it came with a severe drop in temperatures.

I joke with my friends that my daughter is going to grow up highly deprived because I fully intend to monitor and control what she watches on TV and limit her TV time. Video games will be nearly non-existent if I can help it and if anyone in my family buys her one they'll have to do so with the understanding that it'll stay at their house as a special treat for when she visits them lol.

 

[jockdom]

I don't know if he's known in the states but Wilfred Owen wrote some heart wrendering poetry during the first world war. Sadly he was killed one week before its end.

His best known work.
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html

 

[Netzach]

LOL, see this is when I think it might be good to buy into this avoidance thing where TV is concerned, but I just can't see it as the evil it is painted to be though for those of us who may choose to watch things which are educational and mind expanding. It is especially useful for me these days when reading is a real problem due to my failing eyesight...I can opt to watch or as the case usually is, listen more than watch, something on TV or DVD which takes away the need to strain my eyes and nerves to try and gain the same information through reading a book. F OTOH is happy to watch some of the most mind numbing trash ever made...drives me up the wall. Perhaps his comes from growing up with TV in the house...we didn't get one until I was almost a teenager.

Catalina

I watch that stuff too, historical programs, docs, NOVA, all the worthwhile things.

AND the infomercials. All high and low, and no middle.

 

[jockdom]

My mom did this to. During the summer the only time we were allowed TV during the day was if the weather was too aweful for us to be outside; which usually meant thunder and lightening, light rain didn't count unless it came with a severe drop in temperatures.

I joke with my friends that my daughter is going to grow up highly deprived because I fully intend to monitor and control what she watches on TV and limit her TV time. Video games will be nearly non-existent if I can help it and if anyone in my family buys her one they'll have to do so with the understanding that it'll stay at their house as a special treat for when she visits them lol.

There's little imagination in T.V/Playstation! I better get off my moral high horse I'm begining to sound like an old man!

 

[caela]

There's little imagination in T.V/Playstation! I better get off my moral high horse I'm begining to sound like an old man!

Lmao...no worries. I'm only 28 and I agree with you!

 

[graceanne]

Moby-Dick.

That book could not get written today.

THANK GOD!

 

[Breaker_Morant]

His best known work.
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html

Danke'

 

[graceanne]

I miss exchanging letters. I've had up to four pen pals at a time and I loved it. I loved writing them, and I loved getting their responses. I think letters are so much better than emails.

 

[jockdom]

Danke'

Bitte!
All quite on the western front is pretty powerful too.
Love your avatar great film tragic injustice.

 

[Breaker_Morant]

I miss exchanging letters. I've had up to four pen pals at a time and I loved it. I loved writing them, and I loved getting their responses. I think letters are so much better than emails.

meh.. I can see both sides of that - getting something that actually came from the person versus being able to read the words (especially when bad handwriting is involved)

 

[Tyr51]

I'm not so sure I buy into the argument that the younger among are less educated due to them being less articulate. I agree... they are less articulate. But I think one has to take in the big picture of how communication styles have vastly changed over the decades. An illiterate middle class person in the Elizabethan Era had a significantly higher vocabularly for daily use than your modern day Grad student. Speaking, and writing, was an art straight back from Greek and Roman times. This skill is being waylaid by the necessity to convey as much information as you can as quickly as you can. It's a totally different skill set.

Yes, I too weep.

And I too now insert smilies and "lol" into non-official conversation with a regularity that is a little baffling.

So, yes. Some people simply do not know how to write. But we have a higher percentage today who can at least read the back of a cereal box than we did 100 years ago, so I guess that is something.

 

[Breaker_Morant]

But we have a higher percentage today who can at least read the back of a cereal box than we did 100 years ago, so I guess that is something.

But do they comprehend what they are reading?

 

[unfoundiamond]

some posters on Lit suprise me with how passionate and eloquent their posts are...

I have to say I believe it is exactly that, those soldiers where entrust into high stress, very dramaticly gutwrenching passionate cituations and choices... trying to convey with every last emotion and thought, for fear if they didn't, they never could...

That's very diffrent from a high school note between 17 y.o.'s or a post on Lit written quicly to allow a full idea out...

You could attribute it to the fact that generations ago, people used a lot less slang or shorthand...

Also, my parents also talk about how cursive and formal english where stressed in school ciriculums generations ago... the atomic family structure guranteed more of a focus on school and education, unlike now, where children/students learn to print letters and barely capable of writting a essay after highschool (I am talking Joe Average... and yes, its that bad)

There are many factors that contribute...

And the compared documents or examples would have to be of similar context as well... written by people of similar backgrounds with similar competency...

Imo...

I dunno... just my two cents/

 

[HB1965]

Here is a site that documents some heartfelt letters.

http://www.cbn.com/special/WW2letters/index.aspx

July 14, 1861
Camp Clark, Washington

My very dear Sarah:

Beautiful. Listening to the audio on the second, heartbreaking

 

[Breaker_Morant]

Beautiful. Listening to the audio on the second, heartbreaking

That's how I first experienced it, some 15 plus years ago. In and of itself, the letter is powerful. The music, Ashoken Farewell, is a very sad song. Together..

Sorry if I keep on about that clip.. I like it (can you tell?)

 

[intothewoods]

LOL, I sometimes think it is more about him confusing the heck out of some people and their not being able to cope with that...he isn't short of a brain cell or two, and does like deviously exploring the mind, emotions and reactions.

Catalina

Heh, it's not confusing to me. More like..disturbingly methodical...very squirm-worthy...

 

[intothewoods]

For adults I agree! But for kids I think it can have a negative impact. I remember during the summer we used to get thrown out after breakfast, home for lunch, and then out again till supper. We would go in the woods build huts,read stories/comics, roast food on fires etc. I think a lot of childhood has been lost these days. Maybe I'm getting old?

It can have a negative impact, especially lots of exposure to kids under 2. On the other hand, it's not as easy as cutting out tv. Trust me, I have been very strict, and still am, but my kid (and others his age) are just different with technology. He was able to use the computer a little at school, and the way he picked it up really struck me. It's just a different generation - evrything is so immediate and high technology. Even if you didn't have a tv or a computer, there are cell phones, and all sorts of other technologies that are more sophisticated than those that were around when I was a kid (not so long ago, really). Anyway, I think it's less important to dismiss all tv as evil, and more important to spend time reading and using your imagination and playing, really playing. If you do that, a little tv won't be the death of you.

 

[HB1965]

That's how I first experienced it, some 15 plus years ago. In and of itself, the letter is powerful. The music, Ashoken Farewell, is a very sad song. Together..

Sorry if I keep on about that clip.. I like it (can you tell?)

Not at all. The entire series is a beautiful piece of work. I enjoy the music as well. My favorite part is when Sam Waterston reads the Gettysburg Address as Lincoln. It brings on a flood of tears

 

[Netzach]

It can have a negative impact, especially lots of exposure to kids under 2. On the other hand, it's not as easy as cutting out tv. Trust me, I have been very strict, and still am, but my kid (and others his age) are just different with technology. He was able to use the computer a little at school, and the way he picked it up really struck me. It's just a different generation - evrything is so immediate and high technology. Even if you didn't have a tv or a computer, there are cell phones, and all sorts of other technologies that are more sophisticated than those that were around when I was a kid (not so long ago, really). Anyway, I think it's less important to dismiss all tv as evil, and more important to spend time reading and using your imagination and playing, really playing. If you do that, a little tv won't be the death of you.

I don't know how I got there - I think I was researching queer cowboy stuff maybe, but I wound up reading this amazing academic article on video games, marketing and gender. They talked about the fact that realistically, in a suburban/urban area, it's not as safe or as feasible to send your kids off into the woods or whatever, so the virtual space of the video game becomes a way for boys to retain that exploratory space, the "adventure" space...

 

[Netzach]

I'm also not sure if only the pace and formality of bygone eras is going to produce amazingness - I think that speech, writing, visualization - they're all changing to suit the world and it's not all bad changes. I mean, I can't text-message. This IS a new lingua franca, and do I think it's stupid purely because I'm shut out?

I mean, watch a TV show or film from the seventies and it's almost painfully simple, even the good ones. Now there are plot threads, simultaneity, A B and even C storylines in one episode - multiplicity is really a good development if you're traditionally someone who isn't going to be counted.