Week:6 "Extreme Parenting"

The article talks about some common beliefs by a large number of populations. The author, Alissa Quart, describes a "Mozart Effect" study done by Gordan Shaw and Frances Rauscher. To sum up, the study concludes classic music can enhance "a paper-folding-and-cutting test." Somehow over the course of past ten years, this turned into a belief that classic music can nurture babies and create prodigies. I see this as the baby products industry's strategy to sell their products. In one way, the whole process of educating children is for parents to satisfy their own prides. Since the children do not ask their parents to educate them while entertained, the parents are just doing it for sake themselves. Oh babies’ job is to just live the days as they are. We do not have to worry about them being bored or entertained. The babies can find things that can entertain themselves; and often what entertains them is the process of looking for entertainments.
I, personally, think music does not (or unconsciously) affect me when I am focusing on doing something. For example, when I read books, I recognize any music is just a disturbance. When I produce something, I cannot hear anything. The difference is if I am inputting or outputting. When I am writing or outputting my ideas, I just shut down everything other than my outputting function. However, when I am learning something, I receive inputs from my senses so shutting down my ears is a bit harder. In this sense, listening to classic music could be something to stimulate babies’ brain so they can learn to multitask double inputting (reading and listening) or inputting/outputting (writing and listening.)

Week 5: "Poll of Popular Technology Usage"

I believe this Research paper is a very formal and professionally written. The paper describes everything very clearly. Everything from head to detail. I really like the paper because a reader can understand the research well. However, some explanations can be a bit repetitive in the beginning. For example, in Methodology and Sample Characteristics section, the survey methodology for both adults and students re described. I understand that the fundamental ways of reaching out for the population is the same but having 2 paragraphs was a bit boring.
The other good part of this paper is that the experimenter analyzes each question in detail. Almost all the numbers are described and rezoned in one way or the other to get to a small conclusion for each question. I can learn from this paper the fact that when analyzing the numbers, I have to write down all the numbers.
However, I personally think I will have hard time analyzing this paper because I simply can not collect that many answers. Another thing I noticed about the paper is it does not have a review of literature section. Perhaps the experimenter did not need it but I personally wished to see one. For my paper, I am unsure of what to write for the review of literature because that is one of the biggest sections and can possibly tie the experiment together. From my view point, analyzing the numbers and other explanations for this experiment are easier to write than the review of literature.

Week4: "Accounting for Taste"

I love this!! This article is really over my expectation. There are so many comments I want to make about some statements in the article. Also, those pictures in the article are also my favorite ones. They are really playful.
One important thing I realized after reading this article is that I better respect others’ art taste. To me personally, music and other forms of art can not irritate me like to the point that I want to brake up with a boyfriend. But I guess some people pt so much weight on their art taste. I definitely do not want to up set that kind of people.
Some statements are honestly impressive such as "the most popular method for reducing stress was listening to music-ranking just above watching TV and talking bath," or "sensation seekers also particularly drawn to pornographic and horror films." These are new things I just learned but still trustworthy. At least, I can believe. Other research conclusions like country music listeners vote for McCain or rap, funk, or electronic/ dance lovers vote for Obama were just hilarious. I laughed out loud when I first read it.
The point I want to make after reading this article is that when some body studies something, DO NOT over generalizes the result. I am positive there are so many factors contributing in determining the choice of election.
Overall I liked reading about this article, the relation between the taste of art and personalities have a deep connection. These are tied at subconscious level.

Week3: "Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth"

 "the Jump Off" by Lil' Kim

I do not agree with what this article is talking about. There are couple reasons. And the first reason is that their ways of controlling the experiment is just not working well. I have taken a lot of physics and biology classes. I know the fact that a lot of experiments can fail easily just by making one tiny mistake. There are so many other reasons that the teenagers who participated in this experiment to learn about sex. The exposure these teenagers experienced can come from anywhere, family, TV, internet, etc... Some numbers that are presented in the article is also very difficult to compare with a situation that has no impact from degrading music. They were not in a well controlled environment. The result a bit too vague for us to conclude degrading music lead teenagers to increased sexual activities.

Just another thing I kind of disagree with the studies is the lyrics itself. Often when I am listening to songs, I do not listen to its lyrics. Sometimes lyrics are really hard to follow because of the way they sing. There are differences between people who only listen to the songs and people who go to the concerts a lot, because singers can visualize the "degrading sexual" attitudes in their costumes and dances.

Overall, to me this study is not very solid and I assume the tester can easily conclude the data differently at the end of test.  After all these experiments are not done in the lab with humans who interact with nothing but music.