Be Happy Anyway

Be Happy Anyway
From Brave Girls Club

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Why I Love the Internet

A while back an article was written by Nicolas Carr in the Atlantic that suggested that Google is making us stupid. (By the way, I had to Google who wrote it and found it on the research teacher's dreaded Wikipedia.)

I suppose there is some validity to his premise. I used to read an article or hear a story on the news and subconsciously must have known that I needed to remember it because it would have been difficult to find that information again without going to a library and digging through the Periodicals Index. As Google came along, if I heard or read something, I soon learned that I could just find it on the internet somewhere. In fact, my coworkers would often turn to me when they couldn't remember something, and I would use the right turn of phrase to get what they wanted. Then I found this "useful" site through an online friend that I could refer coworkers to when they had deep unsolvable questions. It is a valuable research tool. Check it out. I will wait.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Okay, so why does this come up today?? I was sitting at the computer this morning when a song started running through my head. It was a song that I hadn't heard in a very long time. I don't know if I learned it in school or if my brother learned it and came home singing it. It had an oriental tune and very simply said, "Chii chii papa, chii papa." There were words about teaching little birds to sing in spring. I wondered what would happen if I put in chichi papa and lo and behold I found what I was looking for. Well, sort of. I found a blog about a Japanese children's song. After reading that post, knew what to further look for and hoped to find a tune which I did here. It even included an English translation which had almost nothing to do with the words I learned as a child, but the tune was very similar. So I decided that this internet hunt can be deemed a success. Now I am looking for a playlist version, but in the meantime you can listen to the Nate Henricks tune that is on the playlist. (Oh, and Peggy's Playlist to the right has a group of children singing it at a school assembly. Not bad for a youtube video.)

Has the internet made me dumber? I don't know, I still hold a lot of information in my head, it is a lot of old information. I think I am going to have to beef up my brain with some real reading soon.

No art to post for today. I have a project running through my head for The Sketchbook Project . It is due by the end of January 2012 and I have some really fun ideas. Today, I plan on heading out to the craft store to pick up some heavy paper, but happily, now that the movers came I can go out to my garage and find some long awaited materials. I will share with you the some of the project when I am done.

3 comments:

Cozyflier said...

I don't think the internet is making us dumber, I think it has made information more readily available, just like you pointed out! AJ reads Wiki-pedia all the time about Star Wars, and my husband reads it ALL the TIME!

Have a great week!
Carrie

MJ said...

I'm not sure if the internet has made us more stupid but I am convinced that texting has made us illiterate and that smartphones/cellphones have made us unable to focus our attention and interact with the moment and the people who are in our presence.

Just a minute, I just got a text...

Sarah said...

I have just found your blog via the team announcement on the Featuring website - congratulations on making the team :)

Good to find someone else who is doing the Sketchbook Project. I have to get back to working on mine soon, I am so behind schedule on my book and Jan 31st will be here sooner than you think!

Sarah

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