My "Google" husband has been telling me for some time now, "If you want to know something...Google it!" So I Googled "Hopkin Green Frog" in the presence of my husband and son. Both of whom laughed so hard and continue to laugh even as I attempt to complete this blog, that it is becoming difficult to complete it.
Anyway, while at first glance, this seems to be a utterly ridiculous story-and assignment, I might add. Knowing that this story is about an autistic person puts a bit of a different spin on the matter. Apparently, Hopkin Green Frog is a lost toy of a 16 year old autistic boy. Being a special education teacher, as soon as I looked at the handwriting and read the note, it reminded me of some of my students. The loss of this toy occurred approximately 4 years ago. And?
Why do we care? I, personally don't, really. The fact that this has gained national media attention is absurd. Our soldiers are dying in Iraq; most of our governing officials are corrupt. People are losing their homes in record numbers...and I have, yet, another week of testing! What I see are dollar signs, about a green toy, for everyone involved.
While I can be sensitive to the fact that the person from which this story stems is autistic, after reviewing other sites on this topic, I find the attention being devoted to this matter unnecssary and excessive. To me, this is another example of the "over-the-top" use of 'new literacies'.
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3 comments:
Well, I recall telling you I googled it too. Anyway, at least you are "catching on." I agree way too much attention was given to Hopkin. Just think what the internet can do, it is a very powerful tool that can reach millions of people. Information can spread at a rapid rate. Hopefully the information that spreads will be more important or interesting that some boy's lost frog.
In and of itself, Hopkin is not newsworthy. But combine this with the article about memes and you begin to see how ideas fly through networks, and why networks are important. Networks are the name of the game today -- rather than linear connections between people, almost everything interconnects through webs of affiliations.
At first, I too had your feelings of "Why do I care?" and "This whole thing is excessive." I still agree with those ideas but I am fascinated by 1] how many people knew about this lost frog and I didnt--- I feel left out! and 2] the hilarious renderings of the lost frog flier. The Photocropped images are pretty funny. I think it is also very "smart" how some people took ads from Ipod, Mcdonald's, etc and morphed the ad into something connected to this lost frog. But at the end of the day, yeah, it's just a lost stuffed animal:)
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