Women, Toy R Us ect...

1)

Thesis: Facebook is a business and it doesn’t benefit the people that are using it, only the people who are selling it.

I agree with the fact that Facebook chains people to their desks and homes. It does not allow us to communicate in a very festive way.

I also agree with the lack of creativity that Facebook has. It is not selling/making anything; it is only an outlet for relationships that happened before facebook was invented. It is replacing the world with a fake virtual world. I agree that the whole thing is just a business that isn’t selling anything.

I agree that it gives people a weird since of self confidence but I don’t agree that this is necessarily a bad thing. Promoting self confidence is a good thing and if a shy person can get on facebook and “talk” to a few people this is an improvement. It may encourage an otherwise shy person to get out into the real world and make connections because they “tested out” their connections on facebook and realized that they didn’t need to be shy anymore.

I disagree that Facebook is a “regime.” I understand that Facebook doesn’t give you much privacy, but I don’t think that Facebook is totalitarian. Facebook does not regulate what we post or say. It does not prevent you for leaving if you want to.

2)

I know that media is a big part of society today but it was really interesting to see just how big of a part that it plays written out on paper. I never really thought about how most of the stories that we hear everyday are controlled in some way through the media and the small amount of businesses that own that entire media. The article did make a really good case for media literacy. It just makes since that with media being all around us that we should try to understand it and analyze it as much as possible.

3)

1. The media presents women without pores and expects and all other women to look like them.

2. The self esteem of girls plummets when they hit adolescence, which is a phenomenon that does not happen for boys.

3. When women who are given power, it is always presented in a trivial way that. The power is always presented in some form of beauty (your power always comes from beauty).

4. Women are supposed to be “virginal and sexy” at the same time. The messages are conflicting and disturbing.

5. Sex is used to sell everything, sending the message that women need men. The industry also uses sex in a way that does not show the importance of sex. It never shows relationships and meaning.

twit

1. I like the section on subliminal seduction because it really showed me something I didn’t know before. It says in the book how subliminal messages have been debunked by experts and that they really don’t exist. Sadly, I did not know this. I always thought that it was just something that happens in advertising, and I totally understood why people were buying up books that supposedly uncovered the messages.

My Question is, if people are so scared of subliminal messages and advertising that can enter their brains without them knowing, why aren’t they just scared of advertising in general? Isn’t it doing the same thing?

I loved section 6. I feel like the broad consumer is a hypocrite (even myself) so it was great to see people really sticking it to the media. I liked the first section about the guy who made no suv parking signs. It really made me stop think about the values that people really hold. Is it really to go against the advertising/media to get food at the coop or just easy to revolt it when it’s convenient and buy an suv later? Maybe we are all doing things out of convenience. Hence the section when a whole year worth of subjects bought all random items that were placed in their cart that they did not put in their carts. People are not only blind consumers of advertising they are blind consumers of things they actually buy. Moving forth from this idea it is proven that we are just blind consumers again in the section MeBay. People are learning that they can blindly consume anything they want to, friends or even a spot in public office. The whole thing is ridiculous.

My question is, how little can we use our brains? Will the blind consumption of products get worse than it is today, is that even possible?

2.

A. Twitter is a simple communication tool that can help our World to communicate/learn.

B. I disagree with the fuzziness that Johnson portrays surrounding Twitter. I do not agree with the idea that Twitter portrays “social warmth” and “unsuspected depth” - my friend eating a bowl of cereal is still just as plain as it was before the age of Twitter. When discussing the conference (#hackedu) he said Twitter added a new level of conversation. Even though I was not there I still disagree. Just because two sets of conversations were happening at the same time does not mean that either conversation was exploring some new depth. Hence multitasking being two things done badly at the same time. Along the same conversation, however, I do think Twitter at meeting does provide something good. Johnson was right about how it was nice to have a record of everything that was happening which is a permanent part of history. Records can be a useful tool which Twitter provides. I also agree with the fact that Twitter provides a new way to get educational information. You can get helpful articles by recommendation from a “friend of a friend” instead of searching Google and ending up at Wikipedia. Advice from people you know can be more valuable than the AI of Google.

C. I do not have a Twitter account but have been thinking about it since the start of this class. I’ve been curious after reading certain article to get involved. I don’t have any friends that use Twitter, so it would not be for personal use but more professional use. I would love to be able to see what my favorite bands are doing and what new Broadway shows are good and so forth.

3.

A. the relationship between media and teens is a loop - teens follow what is marketed and what is marketed comes from what teens are doing. It is a vicious cycle.

B. In the marketing boys are portrayed as overly aggressive and obnoxious where as girls are portrayed as sex objects.

C. Marketing has gotten increasingly sexually in relation to teens. From Dawson’s Creek to now, the sexual content that is being marketed to kids is greatly amplified.

D. Marketing will go to any lengths to find out what is new and hip; including spending $20,000 to access a website that represents the new trendsetters in the teen world.

E. Instead of putting marketing labels right in teens faces, to make things more cool, companies will slide marketing into places without their label on it. The marketing is getting to kids without them even knowing about it.

PBS/Google Smarts/AD Nauseam

1) The section entitled ‘my very special trip to the Nike store’ instantly made me think of the PBS video and the company Song. It is incredibly sad that companies are branding people as the kind of people who should represent their store. Companies are not marketing to everyone but only a select few. In the book, Nike was giving away their products to celebrities. In the video, Song entitled the all being representation of their company by the name of a woman. Companies should not be marketing major products to one particular class or gender of people when the products are consumed by people over both genders and all economic statuses. Another part that I also connected to the PBS video was the part from the section on “community.” There is a quote from Seinfeld about how people feel judged by the “community” and how most people have “no idea” that they are living in this community. It is a humorous quote but it really connected to the politics section of the video. The majority of people have no idea about the, on average, 70 demographics that they are fit into for political purposes. It is sad how people are split up into these “communities” for politics, advertising and other big business purposes.

2) Thesis: People can use technology to overcome problems; this is a process of modern day evolution.

2a) I agree with the whole argument that we have been getting smarter to coincide with our evolutionary needs. We are simply responding and surviving. This is true. Technology is helping us to excel evolutionary needs.

I also agree with the fact that having detailed video games and a wide range of media may actually be making us smarter and not really giving us ADD. I see it like this: humans remember about 20% of what they learn every time they learn it. Therefore the more we are introduced to the more we will know. Perhaps all this chaos is just making humans know more things at any given time, hence, smarter.

I do not agree with the argument on drugs. Caffeine and Nicotine are not basic cognitive-enhancement drugs. They throw off the balance of your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Caffeine gives you a high and crash - it is not helping you cognitively. Consistent use of nicotine puts you at a higher risk for just about everything. These drugs are not part of our evolutionary needs.

I agree with the fact that our technology can let us assemble with a few clicks, this is a fact. However, I do not see this as a good thing. There is more value in face to face communication than online get together. There is also something wonderful about no one being able to reach you at any given time. Too much communication can be stressful; I do not really believe it can make us smarter.

3)

a. Politicians can market certain views to any person in any demographic they choose. All they need is a paper full of names classified into various categories of values.

b. Companies now think that products represent emotions. Now when we see ads we are seeing emotions and being directed to associate them with brands and products.

c. The values we have are deeply psychological and can be tapped into for the purpose of giving us a brand that will speak to needs we do not even know we have.

d. Are we really voting for who we want? Maybe not. All it took was one focus group to figure out what words should be used to get both sides of a party to like the candidate.

e. Businesses do not want us to be able to access a place where there are no advertisements. Once you’re in, you’re in.

Art Project

This project was to portray women in the media. There is a mouse in the cage and it is covered in women's beauty ads and pictures. It was designed to show how women are turning into mice, boxed into a world full of messages.

Introduction

Hello, I'm Torie Sanders. I was born in Norway, Maine and then moved to Vermont. Since moving to Vermont I've lived on Sugarbush Mountain and then Stratton Mtn. I'm now an undergraduate student and live in South Burlington.
During the holiday I was able to have many media experiences, though I have never really taken the time to think about them previously. I was able to attend a techno rave over the break, which is something I had never done before. I'm assuming that music/light shows is a form of media and therefore it is a fun media experience. One thing I enjoy about 21st century media is the ability to learn how to cook with the click of my remote. I really enjoy the food network and I think it is wonderful how easily accessible recipes from all over the world can be. I dislike how easily the media can be manipulated. For example, the other week I saw an article saying that women who have suffered from breast cancer should have more soy. Being a nursing student, I know many of the bad effects of soy and how harmful it can be to women's bodies. The article was funded by the soy industry. In today's society, companies can manipulate the media to print and represent what they want.
So far my vision for the future includes getting my nursing degree and finding a good hospital to work at. I would love to work in maternity, but we'll see. The summer after I graduate I'm also planning on biking across the country with my friend who is also in this class, we're going to stop at Red Cross destinations along the way to volunteer and gain experience.