Romanticism in today's society

Most people think romanticism is all about love and marriage. However, romanticism is actually a movement that involves our immersion in nature and beauty in the world around us. Is romanticism alive today? I honestly don't think it is because everyone has forgotten the basic principles behind it. Everything with technology has made the world lose connection with reality. They are all stuck in a bubble that just revolves around what the world with technology sees. Also, with all the new technology nowadays it makes it hard to actually see romanticism in today's society. With people being on their phones all day and not realizing what is around them; they forget the true meaning of beauty and nature. In today's society, all anyone cares about is how many likes a post gets, how many followers they have, all of their snap chat streaks, etc. What everyone sees online is different from the real perspective of beauty and nature so no one knows the right definition of romanticism. Technology stops us from trying to explore more of nature and beauty and the imagination of it all.

Technologies Impact on Romanticism

Romanticism is still alive in today's society in some ways. Although, I believe that Romanticism still exists in the modern world, it comes in very subtle forms that are not extravagant and seen by many. The reason why some may be oblivious to Romanticism is because nowadays it is no longer a big movement like it was in the 1800s. While people may still support the movement, it is not as big as it used to be. I believe that Romanticism has some elements that we see everyday but their are also some elements of Romanticism that our society forbids and view people in different ways if they do them.

Romanticism is seen in today' society in a couple of ways. People that do what they love and are passionate about what they are doing are romantics. A big part of Romanticism is having strong emotions. If you are passionate about something, you are in love with it and emotionally connected to it. To be a true romantic, you do not have to show strong emotion in only poetry and literature, it can expand to anything you do whether that is your job, hobby, etc.  Having strong emotions about things helps our society in a lot of big ways. When people are passionate, they work hard to solve problems and try to do their job the best they can. This helps with solving big problems that need to be answered so that people can survive. If people are not showing strong emotions towards what they do, then bad things will happen.

A part of Romanticism that we do not see that often is people's emphasis on the individual experience. By nature, humans are social creatures and thrive when surrounded by others. When we are in groups, we tend to conform to what others believe and want to do rather than doing what they want to do. People want to hang out, spend time with other people, and build relationships with others. There are always people that love to be alone and spend time with themselves and with nature, but that is only a small percentage of society. We love to spend time with others and that is never going to change.

A big reason why Romanticism has died down a little bit has been because of all the new technology that is taking over the society. Technology has halted two big points in Romanticism in spending time with nature and using your imagination. Now that people have Iphones, video games, and social media people are becoming so obsessed with their phones and that is all they do. We as a society are spending more and more time on our phones and less time outside with nature and seeing where our imagination takes us. Romanticism still exists in today's society but it is becoming more and more irrelevant because of all the new technology that people have at their fingertips

That Land Across The Sea

Edward Said describes Orientalism as the way in which culture makes the east and the west seem like very different areas. To better understand what Said means, he references Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad, by likening his idea of imperialism with the idea of Orientalism. In Conrad's story, Imperialism is a process that makes another part of the world seem frightening and full of mystery, which is very similar to the idea of Orientalism.

Today, I feel that our society is still in many ways disconnected from eastern culture, and where we are disconnected from that culture, the Orientalist mindset begins to creep into our heads as to what we think the east is like. Although recently with the new rise of technology we are now easily connecting with all parts of the world and I believe that this increased connectivity will end Orientalist thinking.

Should You Think Twice About Grabbing That Chromebook?

Thank you all for being so flexible and curious in our piloting of Chromebooks in the classroom this year.

I have noticed many of you -- probably the majority -- are using them for journaling and note-taking in the classroom. I am all for it, but I did want to put the link out there to the article I mentioned in class: "To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand."

The above article refers to a study, "The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking" from the Psychological Science journal. The conclusions, in my mind, do not rule out the possible advantages of using a laptop -- if you are aware of your own notetaking tendencies:

Prior studies have primarily focused on students’ capacity for multitasking and distraction when using laptops. The present research suggests that even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing. In three studies, we found that students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions than students who took notes longhand. We show that whereas taking more notes can be beneficial, laptop note takers’ tendency to transcribe lectures verbatim rather than processing information and reframing it in their own words is detrimental to learning.

 With that in mind, keep checking in with each other and me about how the experiment is proceeding.