Friday, April 15, 2016

Everything Old is New Again.

The World is Too Much with Us

"Touchscreen"


Read the poem "The World is too much with us" and then watch the performance of "Touchscreen".

Connect the older poem to the modern clip.

18 comments:

  1. Both the poem The World Is Too Much With Us and the video clip Touchscreen lover a similar meaning to their audience. It is evident that they are written in different times, but besides that, the presentation is the only thing that contrasts their main message.

    In The World Is Too Much With Us, the speaker dreams of being a pagan who can see nature for how it used to be. People are too busy getting new things and spending money that they cannot fully appriciate nature. Our hearts have been given away to what is new and man made. In Touchscreen, the speaker talks about how we view life through a screen instead of through our eyes. The screen seems to filter out the beauty of reality and everything becomes fake and robotic, as can be depicted through the man's body movements.

    The biggest difference in the two visuals is their mode of presentation. The older poem, although beautiful, won't as exciting as the video clip. Now that I think about it, this probably emphasizes the point being made by the poems. In today's day and age, the video clip is easier to understand, more entertaining, and less time consuming to grasp than the written poem. The poem I had to read was different in that I had to make up my own tone when giving a voice to each word, make up my own picture setting in my imagination, and read it instead of simply listening to someone else. Technology is, in fact, changing the way we view education and learning tools.

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    1. I like what you said about the screens filtering out the beauty of reality. This is so true! We get so caught up with watching YouTube videos of sunsets and we don't even think to experience such wonders with our own eyes. The beauty of the world is all around us everyday and yet we choose to sit inside on our iPads and waste our lives away. I don't know if that means we're all just lazy or we don't realize how blessed we truly are. But I think the lessons from these poems are ones we should all carry with us.

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    2. Grace, you posted a lot of stuff that I hadn't really thought about. We take pictures of beautiful things in life or events we want to remember, and instead of living in the moment we try to capture it on a screen. This is the sad reality that we live in where we can't live life, because the reality of our world exists only inside our virtual screen.

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  2. The poems "The World is Too Much With Us" and "Touchscreen" both explore the concept of wasting one's life, or not appreciating it enough. These two works are tied together in their overall message, as well as in the tone that the speakers possess in their presentation. In 'The World is Too Much With Us," the speaker discusses society's obsession with "getting and spending" and also the disconnect between humanity and nature. Because of their preoccupation with the material aspects of the world, people are incapable of fully experiencing nature. Similarly, the poem "Touchscreen" talks about the way things used to be with regards to nature compared to now. The speaker claims that "we used to sprint to pick and store blackberries, now we run to the Sprint store to pick Blackberries" emphasizing the differences between elements of nature and the plethora of technology that has become so prominent in the lives of humanity. Once again, there is a theme of detachment between humans and nature. Also, both of these poems share a similar tone. Although the tone is more easily distinguishable in "Touchscreen" due to the performance, the tone in the poem "The World is Too Much With Us" can be identified as quite similar. The speakers of both poems are clearly discontented by humanity in the way that we "waste our powers" and turn to material things to fill us rather than the simplistic elements of everyday life.
    One major difference with the two poems is the time period in which they reside. While "The World is Too Much With Us" points to the time of the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, the poem "Touchscreen" is much more relevant to modern day. The references to elements such as iPhones, Facebook, and email all related to our current world. While both poems are applicable to our lives today, but the topics discussed in the two are representative of different time periods.

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    1. Even throughout the lifespan of one individual, it seems as if material items become essential to enjoy life and appreciate beauty. When a person is a child, they see beauty in the brittleness of grass, the movement of bugs , and the potential of a cardboard box. It does not take much to satisfy a child. When that person grows, however, they need more to make them happier. They can no longer find entertainment in simplicity and need materials to fill the spot where their imagination once stayed. It's a terrible thing when it's taken too far.

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    2. I don't know that I agree with your assertation that "The World is Too Much With Us" is not as relevant as "Touchscreen" in today's society. Yes it is true that people are absorbed in their smartphones all the time. But that does not mean that their material possessions do not get in the way of experiencing nature. So I would like to submit an argument saying that they are both equally relevant in today's society.

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  3. Both Wadsworth's poem and the video covey the message of how the world has become absorbed in technology. Even though they were written in different times, their message and teaching can be easily compared. They both hold the similar truth about our distraction from nature at the hands of our own entertainment.

    In The World is Too Much With Us, the speaker longs to go back to a time when am individual could be involved with nature. Instead, he is surrounded by individuals who are too caught up with the material things around them such as money and possessions that their cannot appreciate the natural beauty around them. He wishes that he could live his life like the world was before, where nature was both appreciated and cared for instead of being ignored for the material things in life. This is the same for the Touchscreen in which the speaker conveys his dismay at the reality around him that is made up of those things we see in social media. He makes the point that instead of living for the world around us, we live our lives for the world that exists inside our smartphones and devices. We makes the argument that the world was a better place when there was both human and natural interaction.

    The tone of the two pieces is drastically different. Wadsworth's poem had a more classical style of diction which is a reflection of the time in which he wrote it. His mellifluous diction gives the piece a more pretty quality. The Touchscreen video is presented in a more modern type of way. The speaker's emotion is able to be felt which have the piece a more powerful feeling and allowed the message of the poem to be shown a little more clearly. The listener feels a more powerful message from listening to the Touchscreen video, but feels the true sense of nature's beauty by reading Wadsworth's poem.

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    1. Abbey, I also thought that the tone of these pieces was strikingly different. I think that it helps each speaker convey their message and reflects the speakers themselves. The emotional nature of "Touchscreen" reflects the youth of the speaker. He is impassioned and vivid in his description of the problem. The other poem is calmer and more deliberate. This reflects the age of the speaker. He is dignified and precise.

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    2. Abbey, I agree that humans have trouble seeing the natural world. Not only do materials ruin the way human's see the natural world, but there is also the issue of substances. Just yesteday I saw a high school senior tweet how drinking is not just okay, it is just a method of having fun and making memories. Many people today cannot appreciate the nature around them and feel as if they need substances to appreciate their time.

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  4. Even though the two poems are displayed differently, I think that they both share a similar tone of disgust and anger. I think it is more evident in touchscreen because poetry that is only written, like in the other poem, is hard to decipher at times, but nevertheless, I believe they both say the same thing in the same tone.

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  5. "The World is Too Much With Us" and "Touchscreen" both deal with the concept of things getting in the way of enjoying life. The speaker in "The World is Too Much With Us" dreams of being a peasant so that they can enjoy the simpler things in life. The speaker remarks that they are out of toon with nature. The only remedy to this is to become a poor pagan so that objects and riches can't interfere with someone discovering nature. Now this poem was written a very long time ago, 214 years ago to be exact. But it's message is just as true today as it was 214 years ago. This is what the poem "Touchscreen" deals with. "Touchscreen" deals with the phenomenon that has plagued our generation. That is, we are more content to text people than we are to actually talk to people face to face. We have over three hundred friends on social media, but we only actually know who five or six of them actually are. The speaker in the poem again alleges that the only way to fix this problem is to put down the smartphone and actually talk to people. A novel idea, I know. But maybe he's onto something here. Either way, it is evident that the speakers in both poems are upset with the direction humanity is moving as it relates to our obsession with objects. Having things is great. Having a smartphone is great. Having social media is great. We live in the best of times, but we also live in the worst of times. With our technology just getting better and better, less people are dying of preventable diseases, people are happier, and we live in a globalized and connected society. But with this, people are so absorbed in their social media and phones that they forget to go outside and smell the roses. The solution to this problem 214 years ago was to put all your stuff down and go outside. The solution is still the same today.

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    1. It seems that the more caught up one gets with materialism, the less capable they are of enjoying life. The people with the most with regards to material items always seem to have less when it comes to contentment. On the contrary, those who live simplistic lives always seem to have an abundance of joy and contentment. It reminds me of a song called "I'm Alright" by Jake Miller which contrasts the life of a poor man who is perfectly happy and an extremely rich man who battles depression due to his life's lack of substance. I think we all need to be a little more mindful of that and live our lives a little simpler.

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    2. Giz, I agree that materialism seems to impede happiness. As people accumulate possessions, they seem to grow more and more unhappy. It almost seems as though the more objects on has, the less meaning life has. These people will usually try to find substance in more things. In order to break this cycle, people need to take a break from their possessions. They need to return to the simpler way of life that have forgotten in order to realize what is truly valuble.

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    3. Giz, I think this is a great point that you make about happiness and technology. I know myself that if I spend too much time on technology, I just find my head swimming and have a huge headache. It's hard to have happiness for ourselves if we are on social media worrying about what other people are doing and what they are posting.

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    4. I agree, Giz, materials can definitely put an obstacle to the path of happiness. I don't believe materials necessarily prevent it, but they can make people lose sight of what true happiness is. I know I'm guilty of being in malls and thinking "oh if I buy this I will be happy and never need anything again!" But that happiness is superficial and does not last. Happiness must come from a place deeper than that of material items.

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  6. The poems "The World Is Too Much With Us" and "Touchscreen" each use an array of literary devices to convey the same theme. The purpose of both is to convey a sense of disgust with the way technology separates people from reality. In "The World Is Too Much With Us," the speaker laments how people have become separated from nature. He feels "forlorn" because of how people are "getting and spending" everything they have. They have become separated from the natural world as they become more powerful. He wishes he could "be a pagan" if that meant he would become closer to nature. In "Touchscreen" the speaker contemplates how the digital world has replaced the physical world. He notes how people "used to sprint to pick and store blackberries," but today people "run to the Sprint Store to pick BlackBerries." The way technology has replaced the natural world scares the speaker. He is afraid of the way it is taking over his whole world. In the end, he wonders if it will ever reverse, and people will return to their true humanity. The major difference in these two poems is their style. Wordsworth's poem is very structured and articulate. It is almost as though he has thought about his position for a long time, and thought about how he wants to convey his feelings about his dilemma. The other poem is much more loose. The speaker is pouring forth raw emotion. He seems to have some complex emotions that have built up, and he is just letting it out. Each poem articulates the deep concern the speaker has about how technology is changing the world.

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  7. The speaker in the video "Touchscreen" is able to put a modern twist on an old idea presented in "The World Is Too Much With Us." The speaker of "Touchscreen" presents the problem of a distracted world by speaking of the problem in the witty way rappers often rap. He used a lot of plays on words of popular social media and phone capabilities. His tone was literally robotic. I believe he purposely made himself sound like a robot in order to show how humans are basically programmed today to care about their social media. This is actually a huge problem in society that I can relate to. I wish I could say I'm not guilty of it, but every time I am with my friends doing something interesting, I always have to put it on snapchat or Instagram. The speaker in "The World is Too Much With Us" deals with the same problem only with different circumstances. It is possible to forsake the people around you without ignoring them by blocking them out behind a phone screen. The speaker faces a dilemma of having his fellow human beings so caught up in the material world that they are forgetting about a deeper and greater world. While they worship their coveted goods, they are forsaking the original world. This speaker's tone was more genuine and concerned. His diction is much more sophisticated and defiantly not one I would relate to a rapper. Ignoring the natural world has been a habit for centuries, but technology is making it easier and easier with every new advance.

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    1. I like how you pointed out the difference in tone from poem to poem. I think that really highlights the difference in the times that these poems were written. When the first poem was written, sounding stern and sophisticated was all the rage. But the second poem had an almost robotic tone, which I wouldn't say is the popular thing to do, but it really drove the point home. Heck, when the first poem was written, people were just beginning to think about steam engines. Nobody was thinking about robots. It just goes to show how far society has come, but yet we still suffer from the same problems.

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