Blog Post #3

How many questions did Mariah ask along the way?

1. “But by minimizing boredom in my life, could I also be minimizing the reflection and imagination that used to accompany my boredom?”

2. “What happens to a brain that is never allowed to be bored?”

3. “I couldn’t find the answer to why people seemed to dislike thinking and why being bored made them more creative.”

4. “Could this revolutionary antidote for boredom offset the brain’s natural balance of reflection and task-related thought?”

5. “If we don’t give ourselves the chance to let our minds wander outside of the influence of technology, how will we form ideals and values that our truly our own?”

6. “Do we have a healthy relationship with technology, or could we be using it to avoid facing ourselves?”

How did these questions arise for her?

These questions arose organically as Mariah continued her research on the subject. Each source she found led her to ask more questions, especially when her original thesis was debunked.

Did she find answers to all of them--why or why not?

I don’t think that Mariah found answers to all of her questions. While she found facts and evidence to back up her answers for the first five questions, the sixth question was left somewhat open-ended. Although she came to a rational conclusion based on her previous research, More research would have been needed to solidify it. I believe this was intentional; something that would make the audience think after reading the article.

Where is her thesis, and how did you identify it?

“These findings made me realize that it may not be an accident that we are restricting our time to reflect by being on our phones — we’re intentionally using technology to escape being alone with our thoughts.”

I identified this sentence (specifically the last part) as the thesis because it is the claim that Mariah is trying to make. She wrote her paper to try and prove this point. Also, it didn’t hurt that the highlighted portion was also the “top highlight” on the article online.

What are you curious about?

1. Why are fairytales and classic novels being constantly reimagined in the modern world?

2. How and why do the events that occur in fairytales change over time and in different regions?

3. Did music originate in one place, or has it always been universal?

4. What makes a band or musical artist “successful”?

5. How much damage results in downloading music online?

Song of the Day

why do we never get an answer / when we're knocking at the door / with a thousand million questions