The key word is “instant fix”. It’s the solution that every young Westerner seeks, the solution that they settle for. This mindset represents the deterioration of our society: creating instant fixes is a lucrative business that inspires Big Businesses like McDonalds; instant fixes encourage people to develop solutions/relationships that lack vital infrastructure (consider Health Care and Global Warming); and instant fixes lead to an unrealistic interpretation of the world. This mindset has also played a strong role in raising the “Dumbest Generation” yet, where “reading” has become anathema: “we don’t read pages. We scan them [because] we’re usually in a hurry”; when the author looks “at most Web pages, I’m struck by the fact that most of the words I see are just taking up space, because no one is ever going to read them” (Krug 2006, pp. 22, 48).”


Companies that cater to Americans’ laziness are making millions of dollars annually. Not only are they promoting this “instant fix” mindset, but they are also applying it to their business. This means that unhealthy and dangerous items are being marketed to Americans.

By no means do I think that I am except from this trend. I recognize it, I detest it, but my life is also consumed by it. And my experience creating the portfolio has given me an insight into just how lazy I am. Time management wasn’t an issue for me: I began the project about a week and a half before it was due. My issue was apathy. I cared about the project, I enjoyed learning from it, but I didn’t want to use any program that would require an absurd amount of time (like Dreamweaver), and I definitely did not want to read the directs that would have made it a hell of a lot easier. The effort that a program like Dreamweaver required was too much for me- I had better things to do… sleep, eat, catch up on Dexter episodes, and study for finals. Same thing for the instructions- I just asked David or Andrew, and they told me what the instructions said.

My mindset for this project was simple: use the program that was easiest and quickest! Recognizing how this approach has affected my school work and education has forced my to reconsider why I am here. Even if creating websites isn’t something I enjoy doing in my spare time, I am paying (in some way or another) around four thousand dollars to do it. If I don’t commit to learning as much as I can now (with so many resources and people available to me) then I have no real purpose.


By putting forth the minimal effort in my school work, I’m throwing my money away.

So- I found the project tedious, overwhelming, and difficult. I chose the easy way out (by using Publisher) because I was intimidated, but I also learned that, at this point in my life (or any for that matter!) I can’t afford to take the easy way out.