Response to "Ha Ha," He said. "Ha ha."

    While reading this article, or any other article like it, I would normally find it funny and very true if it were somebody who I had actually heard of before saying it, perhaps one of the people from friends. But since it isn't and it's just written by some guy who is semi-famous but I haven't ever heard of before, I became offended. I actually had a conversation with my girlfriend a few weeks ago about laugh tracks and how we really started noticing them, but when this guy brings it up the only thing I can think of is "Why don't you just go live in Germany if you like their laughing style better..." I am choosing not only to do my reaction on this article but to do a reaction of the author.

   The author: I find this guy to really get under my skin with the way that he writes. He seems to be one of those guys who has nothing better to do but to bash what people like, and by what people like I mean to say he seems to be one of those guys he mentioned in his own article who picture themselves more knowledgeable than most. He says the word "motherfucker" in his artcile to get a cheap laugh out of the reader, which seems to be just as cheap as having a laugh track because the comment really isn't funny without the swearing that adds nothing to the sentence. Also the whole attack on friends' laugh track, I believe, was probably a rip-off of an old Family Guy episode. ( I can't find a clip but Bryan and Stewie are sitting on the set and Stewie hits the button on the laugh-box. Bryan asks "Hey Stewie, where did you get that?" Stewie replies "I got it off the set of friends." Bryan than says "I'm surprised there is anything left in it!" BUHZING) Also his twitter feed is full of gems like this "As a writer, I will probably never be selected for the Pro Bowl. But if I was, I feel like I could rush for maybe 60 yards." which is very typical of the lines in 1970's sitcoms that weren't even funny with the laugh track.


The Laugh Track: I feel if someone has a problem with laugh tracks then maybe they should try not watching those shows, or maybe go outside if that is the biggest thing you have to gripe about. He also mentions that we need "cry tracks" which is in about every movie ever. Music effects the mood of the watcher, and in the early days of movies there was funny music that made people laugh, but then it was replaced with the laugh track because the music was ridiculous. Sad music is still abundant in basically any movie where something is a little sad, and the scene would be far less sad if the music wasn't playing.


After watching this commercial most people want to cry just from hearing the music. I personally know that people change the channel from this because it's literally too sad for tv. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO9d2PpP7tQ

Bibliography

The article I had to read was about the relationship between abuse and inmates. It explains the ratio of inmates who were abused as a child and then the relationship between inmates and abuse in jail. It talks about other childhood stressors that could be the reason these people have ended up in jail. It also compares the ratios between men and women.


Carlson, Bonnie E., and Michael S. Shafer. "Traumatic Histories and Stressful Life Events of Incarcerated Parents I: Childhood and Adult Trauma Histories." The Prison Journal (2010). Print.

Response to "Your Brain on Computers."

After reading this article I think I feel more offended than anything. Being a person who is constantly around computers and technological devices this kind of thing makes me sick. People like Mr. Cambell who constantly are making poor decisions on priorities are now being said to be affected by the technology around them, but somehow the word procrastination was around long before computers and there has been something being blamed for people's procrastination forever. So this guy overlooks something in his email that was really important, did no one ever overlook anything before technology? Like maybe a note to do something, or someone telling them to do it the day before? According to this article probably not...it must be technologies fault. People are always quick to blame something for their lack of self-control (or should I say the lack of wanting any self-control). Also I basically made this entire blogger account and read the article in between matches of Call of Duty and I think it turned out pretty well, so maybe people need to multitask a little better. I think basically everyone I know does their homework while at the very least watching tv and all these people are in college so that has to count for something.

As for the parts about video game players I am glad that someone is finally getting out some positive facts about video game players. I did a report on the positive and negative effects of video games last year and it was difficult finding good facts, since most of the people doing research on the matter were mainly people doing research kids who were bringing guns to school and such. Which is just another way to blame technology for something that has pretty much always been around, violence. I think my favorite comment that someone left on a page about a school shooter who was found to play video games was "What were those violent video games Hitler used to play again? Oh wait he didn't have any. I wonder what people blamed this on before video games." I played the distraction-rectangle-game and got perfect scores on it and I would say it is definitely a result of playing games like Call of Duty, where you are constantly scanning the screen for movement. Anyway I think that is enough ranting for one post.

About Me

My name is Cory Paar
My hometown is Kittanning, Pa.
I work at WalMart as an electronics associate.
My major at IUP is Criminology.
My hobbies include sports and video games.