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.