This is a very broad subject which encompasses many aspects of life so let me break it down for you my dear followers. In the excerpt of the essay "A plea for the physical" the author's view ranges very much, it starts off with people in North America being cold and unfriendly due to germs, then it transitions into people not wanting to get into "down and dirty" jobs and finally closes off with technology being a sort of cut off for humans and the rest of society. This essay is my least favourite to date due to its messiness and lack of ability to stay on track of the main idea. However, I do enjoy the authors ability to look at one subject and be able to squeeze out many points and various views.
Alright so first off, overall I would consider myself a really physical person. I would prefer to be outside with my friends instead staying at home playing minecraft. That's just the person that I am, I find myself outgoing and someone who loves life. I enjoy thrill seeking things such as adrenaline pumping rides at playland, I love the wind flowing through my hair as I longboard and my dream in the next couple months is to go bungee jumping off a bridge. I feel that all these things are necessary to be human, can you really say you've lived your life as a young person to the fullest if all you've ever done was sit in front of a computer and play games? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that play games is bad, I'm saying that there's more to life than things that you do alone. Homework, online games, texting, reading, there's a lot more to life than all these things and I find that u-hillians often don't see this.
The author's second point is that North Americans are losing their touch with the physical aspect of life due to people choosing indoor office work instead of outdoor hands on trades work. Well I don't agree with this point at all in fact I'm a little offended by it. This was the part of the essay that really rubbed me the wrong way and got me to really dislike it altogether. I aspire to be one of those "people behind a desk", not because I'm a lazy or indoors type of person but because of financial reasons. The people who work inside of the buildings usually make significantly more than the people who build them. It's just a way of life. I feel that the author has mixed two completely different issues together, desiring to work in an office space instead of outside does not signify that you've lost touch with the physical aspect of life...I just find that this point does not reflect well on people and the author is making a judgment she cannot prove with evidence or statistics. Not all lawyers and doctors are brainiac nerds that never see the light of day and not all tradesmen are fit, athletic, muscular macho men that don't notice their bruises and enjoy being out in the blazing sun everyday. You can't stereotype people like that.
The last point the author brings up which frankly, makes me really angry, is the fact that she feels technology is ruining our society and hurting us due to the inability to connect on a face to face level. This is complete bologna, I have friends in Taiwan that I still maintain contact with and the only reason why this is possible is because of modern technology. Without Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites, we wouldn't be able to talk to these people overseas, see what they're doing, how their life is going etc. So what if you can't see them face to face? Being able to talk to them over a computer is a lot better than not talking to them at all isn't it? I feel that the author has missed the point of technology and social media. It's not to replace communication altogether but rather helps to aide it in areas where it's weak. Say for example, skype helps connect you with your relatives in another continent without giving you a sky high phone bill and without needing to travel to that country. It's not realistic that every time you want to talk to your friend you have to go over to their house and have coffee with them. Sure in the past it was good and worked out well but now that we're in the 21st century, a call or a text will probably suffice. She also brings up that technology is replacing classical things like books and writing. Well first of all, she says that computers are just letters on the screen and have no weight. Well books are just letters on a sheet of paper and if you want weight while you're reading something on a screen, carry around a tablet and read off of that. The things that I've read online are some of the most interesting things I've ever seen in my life. The ideas and opinions that people were never able to publish litter the virtual streets of cyberspace. Not everyone is a writer so not everyone can have something published but everyone who has access to a computer can post a comment on a thread or create a post on their Facebook. Technology is all about convenience and making our lives simpler and easier, it seems that the author has missed this.
In conclusion, I really didn't like this essay and I'm sure you can see that. I'm a physical person overall but like everyone else I enjoy things indoors as well and I love technology. Things that the author describes as sedentary I may not necessarily agree with but I see her points and I understand what she's trying to get at, I just don't think she's right. I hope you enjoyed my blog post and have realized that by now the English I'm using is a lot more laid back and relaxed vs an essay type of English that I would hand in to be graded and marked for punctuation and grammar.
-Sam
