Finishing up Laurel

"In other words, who we are is the product of both the stories we hear and the stories of our lives." Who we are today has been ifluenced and changed by the stories we have heard from our family, our friends, our culture, and the ever so influencial media that surrounds us. We establish values and morals from stories we have heard from our paresnts about right and wrong. I never really thought about this before I read this quote but it is definitley the truth.

Another quote that directly relates to the first one is, "Change the stories, and you change how people live." Think about that for a second. What if while growing up your parents had told you stories about them stealing or commiting crimes?  Would this make you think it maybe be somewhat acceptable to steal, or at least it is not as bad as what people say?  Now must of us would say that they would still never steal or think that this action is acceptable but maybe that is because we already know what is acceptable. "Change the stories, and you change how people live."

The last quote talks about the media. This quote is an example of what some of us have talked about, the media does not portray the good things but only the bad.

"The news doesn't talk about the fact that your taxes are the bridge that didn't collapse, the kid who didn't rob the 7-11, the person who didn't freeze to death in a doorway. Hard to see, hard to sell, so to speak." The news doesn't comment about things that go according to plan, they only bring to our attention the ways we failed at something. Like video games the media does not talk about the educational games we have looked at so far throughout this class. The media does not talk about how Civilization can help teach a student about the different governments in the world  in a fun easy to learn way. The media will only report about a school shooting that happened because the schooter was playing a shooting video game. The media can portray video games in different lights both good and bad, yet they only choose to report on video games in a negative light.

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL250/2010/01/laurel_59-108/#more