Connection: Lit Circle Books

I read the book Cognitive Surplus and I connected it with the book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. I am responding to Angela's Blog.

Similar to what she wrote, both book are about the internet, but the authors go about them in two different ways. My author, Clay Shirky, likes the internet mostly and all the cool things you can do with it, the gathering of people creates opportunity and change. The Author of the The Shallows does similar, reviews the internet, they both found the internet gets us closer and more frequently interacting with other people. The Shallows simply goes through how different site change and alter your brain, for example living with the internet you have a new schedule and new faster ways of finding things out etc. Our author says its better to be on the internet interacting than by yourself. It is emotional satisfaction as well as being in touch with others, even by watching a movie.

So the difference between the books is one is about all the cool features of different site and what good things have come out of them like charities, friendships, and improved sites and networks, Cognitive Surplus. The shallows is more that people living in this recent time have grown up with internet in their heads, there is not need for dictionaries, encyclopedias or books so the reliance on the internet is major. No need to talk to people in person anymore either because we have Facebook an aim. I am glad I read my book instead of that though, Angela's book seems really dry, I thought ours would be too but the stories inside were really interesting it turns out.

Cognitive Surplus Response

A main topic in my reading was the use of the adjacent possible. Connecting it to the protests in Egypt and all over the world now, the adjacent possible was blogging over the internet, as in the book how Korean teens used a website to organize a protest about the import of American beef. I found it rather funny we are less lonely when watching TV, it is true, and I just did not realize it. The adjacent possible was created through the invention of the internet, phone, media and more.

“This Behavior was readily apparent, but the other researchers had missed it because it didn’t fit the normal way of thinking about either milkshakes or breakfast” (13).

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. New York:

Penguin, 2010. Print.

This quote is a perfect example of challenging the status quo, Gerald Berstell saw what others could not. They were trying to see what could improve their shakes and instead of looking at the product, Gerald looked at the people and the time the shakes were consumed. This to the author was challenging the status quo, going against the norm, to get the answers. The authors says there were two main parts to the Milkshake Mistake, closed minded to the breakfast food options and totally thing it was the milkshakes fault for not selling. Gerald gets crowned with the honor of thinking outside of the box, challenging the status quo and figuring out, in a new way, how to sell more shakes.

Captured Thought: Walking in the Halls

A friend of mine on Facebook wrote a question as their status about "Do people in England walk on the left side of the hallways at school?" or for that matter the sidewalks in town too.

This is not really my original thought or idea but it got me thinking. I personally cannot answer that question because I have never been out of the U.S. So, I looked it up and I found that the norm is to walk on the left side but people walk equally on both. The people also said that it is just walking against the flow when you walk on the right side of the hall or sidewalk. So even though it was not my idea or a mind boggling one at that, it was a question I pondered upon. Of course to the people in the United State we think walking on the right side is the norm and the right way of doing things so to us its weird to walk on the left. But its a bit of thinking outside the box to think about people in another countries and their norms of walking.