The Story of How I Suck

I like to think I’m a good person.  By being optimistic daily and contributing in small ways that I can, I can go to bed at night knowing that I am doing some sort of good.  The Story of Stuff changed that whole perception, so excuse me as I go crawl into a ball in a dark hole somewhere and weep.

This movement reminds me of my high school junior year chemistry teacher, a lady who was super smart (she taught chemistry), played rugby (and kicked ass), and was an environmentally active  individual.  She’s the Story of Stuff in a nutshell, and thanks to her I changed my habits of living to better society and the environment.  However, thanks to endless nights in the iMedia lab, those habits are smashed at the bottom of my endless, and mostly ignored, to-do list.  After watching “Stuff” I feel I must revitalize my efforts.

At least Annie Leonard put a positive spin on her tale mixed with stellar cartoon graphics to make the video enjoyable to watch while throwing salt in the wound.  Also, the simplistic level of her 5-part linear graphic is so fundamental that anyone can follow it and get the gist.  Her weatherman techniques were on par, pointing to the correct area that was spoken, while mingling with new images popping up beside her.

Also, I thoroughly enjoy the website.  I was always get bashed for liking a white website color pallet.  Too bland, too boring, blah blah blah so is your personality.  Any visitor to this site can appreciate its clean and organized qualities, rather than the billion button site navigation.

But back to the convergence.  The graphics are the selling point, but I think the originality of converging data and action script by just talking about it have a profound persuasive dialogue that is lost when abusing too many technologies at once.  There is still a huge digital divide today, from education, age, ethnicity, geographic location, it’s hard to express and advertise to so many different groups with one reel.  However, I feel the videos that accompany the website and the organization have discovered how to best utilize today’s communication technology and are able to receive responses from anyone.

It goes back to the student-teacher relationship.  Sadly, its an unharmonious one with no prospects of ever getting better, but technology has helped.  Instead of stuffing information down my throat, using videos, graphics, images, what have you is a fresh drink of water to decrease choking and broken ribs from the heimlich.  Should this be used in the classroom?  Definitely, although I’m still not going to pay attention when you start talking physics, we just aren’t friends.  The same holds true with this and other non-profit organizations.  Not everyone is going to care, respond, or pay it forward, but they are going to learn whether it’s a tiny statistic or the entire message.  And by utilizing so many platforms, one tiny statistic turns into ten statistics.  The word, eventually, gets out, and a public group is born to, hopefully, make a difference.

Though this video made me feel bad about myself, I can at least enjoy watching “Bottled Water” while drinking out of my Camelbak (that’s a BPA free water bottle in case ya don’t know).