Personal Experience vs. Poetry
    Pagnucci goes back and forth between academic and personal genres in "Narrative Life". He uses his personal experiences with comic books and super heroes to connect his points on "living the narrative life." He uses bold headings for each section and within each section he references his own experiences and academic information, so the reader knows what to expect within each section. The personal stories are linear and progress throughout his life. His tone remains mostly informal throughout.
    Ondaatje uses poetry and imagery in "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid". He begins with a poem and a picture which set the tone for the rest of the piece and aids in the reader's ability to picture what the narrator is describing. Ondaatje uses italics for the poem and leaves a lot of white space in the body of the piece. The story of how the narrator feels and what he sees is told in a very descriptive tone. This piece seems to be grounded in the setting.

    Because there are so many ways to communicate, I have begun to take any delay in response as an intentional snub. Easy communication gives the illusion that the world revolves around me. If someone isn't answering they must be mad at me, think I'm not important or didn't like what I had to say. I mean who doesn't have their phone on them at all times? What could they possibly be doing that is keeping them from answering me right away? I've gone as far as to make up scenarios as to what their thought process was when they got my unanswered call, text, Facebook post or email. And it doesn't stop there, because if I thought up the scenario it must be true, right? So then I get mad at the offender preemptively in case my imagined reason is accurate.  Then in the continued spirit of narcissism, if I think I know why someone is calling or texting me and deem it unworthy of my attention at that time, I ignore it. After all, my time is limited and important.
 
  A few short years ago I refused to join any social networking sites. I didn't want people to know all of my business and felt like it was a waste of time. Once I joined, I was immediately converted and needed to know as much as I could about everyone. Once the shock of being inundated with so much information at once wore off, I shifted focus to the deterioration of grammar that take place on sites such as those. While much of my world view has been impacted by multiple modes of communication, I would like to say that I will not compromise my quality of writing.  It works to my disadvantage to have this mindset since my status updates are sometimes too long and sending texts takes longer for me than others. But who knows what the future holds? I was sure that I'd never join Facebook...

Yes and no.

Yes because people use it at inappropriate times and in inappropriate ways. You could argue that this is not caused by technology and it is people who are distracting or easily distracted, but to that I say technology is by nature distracting. Social networking and video-sharing sites, games, television shows and movies are made available on electronic devices and are designed to draw the attention of the user so that they will spend long periods of time using them. Since it has become so easy to communicate with large numbers of people at once, people tend to feel that they are out of the loop when they are engaged in a single activity with only a few individuals. I cannot count how many times I've picked up my phone to look at the time only to spend several minutes looking at Facebook status updates.

No because when used appropriately technology can be used to complete productive tasks in an efficient way. Papers, for example, take much less time than they did when they had to be handwritten or typed on a typewriter. Research can be done from anywhere and is not limited by library hours. Also, easy exposure to more people from more places can be a very enriching experience. Personal and business communications that used to take hours or days can now be completed in a matter of seconds. Many tasks can be accomplished at once. I have been able to take several classes online which would have otherwise conflicted with my schedule.

I believe that the pros outweigh the cons, but I also believe that the more efficient technology becomes, the more potential there will be for distractions.

Although I don't like to admit it, I am not a digital native. I not only expect step by step instructions, I find comfort in the monotony of textbooks. I have become accustomed to and enjoy the speed at which technology provides communication and information, but there are certain settings, like the classroom, which cause me to feel uncomfortable with its use. When I am challenged to complete tasks using only digital technology, it requires much more of my time and effort and it makes me extremely nervous to think that I will have to teach things in any way other than the way I am accustomed to being taught. While I used to be proud to be a digital immigrant, I now realize that this is not necessarily the best thing, especially for a future teacher.