I asked someone why they tell stories about themselves?
They responded by saying that is what you know best, you cannot necessarily honestly tell a story from another perspective, you only know your own perspective. I then told him that not necessarily in that sense but more like why do you tell stories at all, on a more general sense. He then replied "to affirm our existance" to get a response from others and see that we are paid attention to. Looking at his response as an existential view, we want the attention from the people to know because we don't want to be alone and we don't want to be ignored or "invisible."
I then asked this person why they behave in a way that is relaxed and independent. He says "because that's what I like to do, I don't like worrying, I don't like the feeling" This seems like a reasonable and authentic answer. But possibly there is a part of him that is aware of this behavior giving him some status and this response is him just deluding himself to believe that he is not doing it to get attention, because trying to be cool is looked down upon in society, but because it is really something that he honestly does for himself and it just comes off as not trying thus having the image of cool.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
HW 30 - Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool
In life we try to make sense out of everything, like what happens after death and why the world is unjust. We make excuses for the world to make ourselves believe that life has a sensible value for us. But according to Camus, there are things in this world that simply don't make sense. The world is unjust, there is love and hate and peace and war and all of it doesn't exactly fit together in a perfect globe like it does in our minds. This is the idea of absurd; the world does not make sense.
"In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality...While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless)"
We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalised boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. " As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Fried says we should find this happiness from within ourselves because we can rely on ourselves. Relating to Camus, we need to accept the dualisms in our lives but not delude ourselves with the paradoxes of cool.
Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on (is that absurd? or necessary?) and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.
The people you depended on are no longer there to make you feel confident. Connecting back to Matt Fried, he says; even when people leave people expect to get this feeling of okay ness from an external source. It seems as through, trying to be cool is looking for confidence from other people because we are so insecure with ourselves we have to convince ourselves we are "cool" from what other people say and as a response to the absurd, trying to make sense of things instead of our own opinions and realities, but because external sources are not always reliable, they do not last forever, and absurdities exist we often find ourselves feeling "empty" when the people we depend on to make us feel better about ourselves are not there anymore or when things simply do not make sense.
Works Cited:
"Albert Camus." Wikipedia. 13 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Second Vintage International Edition, 1980. Print.
"Emptiness." Wikipedia. 29 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
"Existentialism." Wikipedia. 17 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009..
Fried, Matt. "Psychology of Cool." Social Studies Class. 127 e 22nd, New York. 08 Dec 2009. Lecture.
"In his essays Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. His aim was to emphasize the fact that happiness is fleeting and that the human condition is one of mortality...While we can live with a dualism (I can accept periods of unhappiness, because I know I will also experience happiness to come), we cannot live with the paradox (I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless)"
We feel emptiness because we are always looking for happiness so we are disappointed when we are faced with unhappiness. "Emptiness as a human condition is a sense of generalised boredom, social alienation and apathy. Feelings of emptiness often accompany depression, loneliness, [or] despair. " As Matt Fried says, humans are built with the ability to feel negative emotions as well as positive ones. We can't expect other people to determine our emotions when we give them the power to decide whether we are "cool," or not. Our insecurities lead us to wonder if we are accepted by others. Fried says we should find this happiness from within ourselves because we can rely on ourselves. Relating to Camus, we need to accept the dualisms in our lives but not delude ourselves with the paradoxes of cool.
Also relating to Ralph Ellison's, Invisible Man, the main character goes through a similar routine of cool and emptiness. He joins a brotherhood and feels a sense of importance, being "Introduced as a kind of hero"(358) that people care about. Over time he realizes that they were only using him as a tool, "a material, a natural resource to be used."(508) for their group and he says "I felt suddenly empty...Up to now I had felt a wholeness...wholeness that guaranteed that it would change the course of history."(406). He thought he would be a significant figure in the world filling/covering up his emptiness but lost that cover up over time. The connection between emptiness and cool in this case is being cool does not last for as long as you would want it to because things change and people move on (is that absurd? or necessary?) and this leaves you with a feeling of emptiness.
The people you depended on are no longer there to make you feel confident. Connecting back to Matt Fried, he says; even when people leave people expect to get this feeling of okay ness from an external source. It seems as through, trying to be cool is looking for confidence from other people because we are so insecure with ourselves we have to convince ourselves we are "cool" from what other people say and as a response to the absurd, trying to make sense of things instead of our own opinions and realities, but because external sources are not always reliable, they do not last forever, and absurdities exist we often find ourselves feeling "empty" when the people we depend on to make us feel better about ourselves are not there anymore or when things simply do not make sense.
Works Cited:
"Albert Camus." Wikipedia. 13 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Second Vintage International Edition, 1980. Print.
"Emptiness." Wikipedia. 29 Nov 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
"Existentialism." Wikipedia. 17 Dec 2009. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
Fried, Matt. "Psychology of Cool." Social Studies Class. 127 e 22nd, New York. 08 Dec 2009. Lecture.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
29- Merchants of Cool
Based on Friedman's lecture on the Psychology of Cool (12/8/09), giving others the power to determine your coolness makes you vulnerable, because teens are influenced by the idea of being cool, the vast majority of teens are insecure. Corporate companies take advantage of this and use it as a technique to target teenagers, "Teens are like Africa" (Merchants of Cool) they colonize our consciousness. We all want to be valued so the marketing companies use that and flatter the chosen audience (teens) to get their attention.
The film, Merchants of Cool, make me believe that the corporations are evil for manipulating teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. But in addition to me being manipulated by advertisements, I am being manipulated by this film (another form of media). I am simply thinking what corporate media wants me to think even though those ideas are contradictory.
I think that because media holds such a big role in our lifestyles, the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day, we don't know what else to rely on. The media has become our main source for things, movies, television, advertisements, and second hand media from other people. I do think that advertisements for all ages should be limited, not necessarily banned but limited. For all ages I would believe that adults can be manipulated by the media as well as teenagers, probably not as easliy, but nonetheless manipulated, my parents still buy new digital items even when we do not really need them. I beleive that if we were not so influenced by ads we would find more reliable sources to be influenced by such as actual human beings who are not trying to get you to buy something (hopefully).
I think it should be limited and not banned because ads are in a cycle of capitalism and without ads that would mean people working with the ads would be out of jobs (I'm sure not all of them are evil, some of them are probably just stuck in that job), lots of actors other companies would be out or work, increasing poverty in the U.S. It would be harder to buy the things we need (food, water, etc) because we would have to figure out where to get what we need. I don't know if the US can handle not being told what to do all the time. We are so used to being tools we don't know what it is like to not be one.
The film, Merchants of Cool, make me believe that the corporations are evil for manipulating teens because they are vulnerable. They take advantage of teens as an easy target for their profits. Capitalists find the easiest way to make the most profit, even if that means creating these roles and norms for teenagers and influencing them to be cool highly affecting their lives. But in addition to me being manipulated by advertisements, I am being manipulated by this film (another form of media). I am simply thinking what corporate media wants me to think even though those ideas are contradictory.
I think that because media holds such a big role in our lifestyles, the average teen in 2001 sees 3000 advertisements a day, we don't know what else to rely on. The media has become our main source for things, movies, television, advertisements, and second hand media from other people. I do think that advertisements for all ages should be limited, not necessarily banned but limited. For all ages I would believe that adults can be manipulated by the media as well as teenagers, probably not as easliy, but nonetheless manipulated, my parents still buy new digital items even when we do not really need them. I beleive that if we were not so influenced by ads we would find more reliable sources to be influenced by such as actual human beings who are not trying to get you to buy something (hopefully).
I think it should be limited and not banned because ads are in a cycle of capitalism and without ads that would mean people working with the ads would be out of jobs (I'm sure not all of them are evil, some of them are probably just stuck in that job), lots of actors other companies would be out or work, increasing poverty in the U.S. It would be harder to buy the things we need (food, water, etc) because we would have to figure out where to get what we need. I don't know if the US can handle not being told what to do all the time. We are so used to being tools we don't know what it is like to not be one.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Informal Research 28
Cool From Wikipedia:
This website talks about the definition of cool, its history, and how the definition of "cool" changes between countries and their cultures. The article then talks about the distinctions within the ideas of cool. An excerpt from the show, The Simpsons, is used as an example to show these distinctions.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to
be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?
It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are uncool because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is cool--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you. Is your own perspective of yourself enough? Apparently not because we are always looking for approval of others. Why do trust other peoples' judgements of ourselves? My guess it is because we are so insecure with ourselves, we are so easy to trust what other people say about us.
The Breakfast Club:
In the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.
This film showed the dominant views of what is cool in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and what is uncool, the geek and the basket case. Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.
The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!
The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!
The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...
The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...
The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.
They all come to the conclusion that,"we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Which I agree with. We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect.
By the end of the movie the audience is feeling pretty satisfied as the cool and the uncool become friends. They get the briain to write the essay to the principal for all the them (I guess not everything changed) saying, "you're crazy to make [us write] an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal..." The audience ends up believing all five of the students are cool regarless of the norms (arguably) because they all shyed away from what they were expected to be. Which is going againts the grain and being authentic, supporting those general ideas of cool, but they still fit themselves under their given lables.
How To Be Cool:
This website has ten tips of how to be cool, basically saying generally everything that we have talked about. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others percieve you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool.
When comparing this website to my interview with the hair stylists', their definition was much simpler, just be easy to get along with and that is it. But it seems as though there is more to it than just being easygoing, With regard to physical appearance, beware of bad breath, body odor, etc. "In terms of body language, stand/sit up straight, look and feel confident, smile generously, do not stare, etc." It seems like a lot to think about.
You always see in the movies or shows when the main character tries to make the transformation into someone who is cooler than they think they originally are. The general formula for this type of story is that they try to be cool, they fail because they are too subconscious about being cool. Then in the end someone is there to tell them, or they figure out on their own, that being themself is what makes you cool and what makes you unique. But unique isnt always "cool", The basket case in The Breakfast Club is someone you can call unique but she was not considered cool. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considerd cool but she was not unique. When is unique cool and when isnt it?
Works Cited:
Hughes, John. "The Breakfast Club." awesomefilm.com. 1985. WDBG@AOL.COM, Web. 7 Dec 2009..
"Theories of cool." wikipedia.org. 2000. Web. 7 Dec 2009..
"How To Be Cool ." iloveindia.com. Web. 7 Dec 2009..
This website talks about the definition of cool, its history, and how the definition of "cool" changes between countries and their cultures. The article then talks about the distinctions within the ideas of cool. An excerpt from the show, The Simpsons, is used as an example to show these distinctions.
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to
be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?
It seems as though if you admit you're cool you are uncool because being cool is not caring. But if you're uncool, admitting that is cool--the song can be so lame that it's cool. But then how can you know if you're cool without asking and sounding like you're trying too hard? We all seem like we try so hard, trying different tactics of attaining coolness to get others to like you. Is your own perspective of yourself enough? Apparently not because we are always looking for approval of others. Why do trust other peoples' judgements of ourselves? My guess it is because we are so insecure with ourselves, we are so easy to trust what other people say about us.
The Breakfast Club:
In the movie The Breakfast Club, all of the general stereotypes are stuck in detention together, each of them playing the role that they fit into, "a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal...". They eventually become friends with each other despite the expectations of not associating with people outside of their social group.
This film showed the dominant views of what is cool in a typical high school, the jock, the princess, and the rebel, and what is uncool, the geek and the basket case. Each character fulfilled their archetype. In the beginning, "the princess," "the criminal" and "the athlete" think they are better than the others, "the brain" obediently sitting at his desk and "the basket case" in the back kind of just doing whatever she wants. Throughout the movie they escape these norms by admitting that they don't fit them.
The Brain:
I can't have an F, I can't have it
and I know my parents can't have it!
Even if I aced the rest of the
semester, I'm still only a B. And
everything's ruined for me!
The Princess:
I hate having to go
along with everything my friends say!...
You know, you just don't understand
the pressure that they can put on
you!
The Athlete:
it's all because of me and
my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him!...
"Andrew, you've got to be number one! I
won't tolerate any losers in this
family... Win. Win! WIN!!!"...
sometimes, I wish... he
could forget all about me...
The Basket Case:
My home life is un...satisfying...
[my parents] ignore me...
The Criminal:
(as his father)
Stupid, worthless, no good, God
damned, freeloading, son of a bitch,
retarded, bigmouth, know it all,
asshole, jerk!
(as his mother)
You forgot ugly, lazy and
disrespectful.
They all come to the conclusion that,"we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." Which I agree with. We all have problems and being "cool" or trying to be, is just a way of pretending that we are happy and avoiding/denying the fact that our lives are not perfect.
By the end of the movie the audience is feeling pretty satisfied as the cool and the uncool become friends. They get the briain to write the essay to the principal for all the them (I guess not everything changed) saying, "you're crazy to make [us write] an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions.But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal..." The audience ends up believing all five of the students are cool regarless of the norms (arguably) because they all shyed away from what they were expected to be. Which is going againts the grain and being authentic, supporting those general ideas of cool, but they still fit themselves under their given lables.
How To Be Cool:
This website has ten tips of how to be cool, basically saying generally everything that we have talked about. Number one is not caring what others think. Being indifferent, but still having a general view of how others percieve you. You have to be confident, be different, say what you think, laugh at yourself. Individualism is also an important aspect, be relaxed, and be social without coming on to strong to other people. There seems to be many regulations in being cool.
When comparing this website to my interview with the hair stylists', their definition was much simpler, just be easy to get along with and that is it. But it seems as though there is more to it than just being easygoing, With regard to physical appearance, beware of bad breath, body odor, etc. "In terms of body language, stand/sit up straight, look and feel confident, smile generously, do not stare, etc." It seems like a lot to think about.
You always see in the movies or shows when the main character tries to make the transformation into someone who is cooler than they think they originally are. The general formula for this type of story is that they try to be cool, they fail because they are too subconscious about being cool. Then in the end someone is there to tell them, or they figure out on their own, that being themself is what makes you cool and what makes you unique. But unique isnt always "cool", The basket case in The Breakfast Club is someone you can call unique but she was not considered cool. And in one of my interviews, a girl is considerd cool but she was not unique. When is unique cool and when isnt it?
Works Cited:
Hughes, John. "The Breakfast Club." awesomefilm.com. 1985. WDBG@AOL.COM, Web. 7 Dec 2009.
"Theories of cool." wikipedia.org. 2000. Web. 7 Dec 2009.
"How To Be Cool ." iloveindia.com. Web. 7 Dec 2009.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
27 Informal Research and Interviews
Street Interviews:
Esther and I leave the building but we don't know which way to go, John Li and Andy find us and we start to walk together in the direction of the hardware store. Andy and John walk ahead and a guy smoking outside a hair salon asks us, "you asking about 'cool'?, go ask her (he points to an asian lady inside the salon), she's cool" So we walk inside and ask the lady what she thinks is cool. she says someone who is easy to get along with who is openminded, and easygoing whether they are rich or not. Esther then asks her if she thinks she is cool. The asian lady says "I try my best to be cool" someone cool knows who they are they have to know how to "act it". She then got into how sometimes good people are not cool because they are not recognized but that doesn't mean that they are not good people.
She then calls over her co-worker, a lady with white spikey hair and asks her what she thinkgs is cool she paused to think and said "chill" calm and relaxed, not easily upset. She then says "we look cool, we're cool" gesturing to herself and the asian lady. She also says that there are lots of different opinions of what "cool."
Then she calls over another co-worker, a male hispanic looking guy, and asks he what he thinks is cool, he says "GQ is cool!" me and Esther didn't realize but they explained that GQ is his name, he thinks he is cool. He then said "Someone you can get along" and someone with a cool haircut (referring to the hair salon we were in). All three came down to the same answer that someone cool is someone you can get along with. I can agree with that but now that I think of it, it is a very vague answer. What makes them easy to get along with and how do you determine that?
After we left the hair place, we didnt really know where to go next. Esther said I had to pick since she started asking the asian lady. I decided we'd walk into duane reade and talk to one of the workers because they can't walk away from us. We were lucky because the lady at the cashier was't doing anything so I asked her, What do you think is cool. She thought for a minute and simply said "me" she seemed pretty confident but confused so she said "I dont really know, I don't use that term very much" so I asked, what do you think makes you cool? and she said that a lot of people like her, she had lots of friends and she had a funny personality. I asked her If she tried to be, she said "I don't try, I'm just me." Then Esther asked her how if she acted differently around her friends and her family, she responded, "No I act the same," I decided I didn't want to bother her anymore so the interview ended there. It seemed like the general idea of cool is someone easy to get along with, someone funny and well liked by a lot of people, and someone who knows who they are.
Family Interview:
I asked the first "cool" relative how she lives her life. She said that if she wants things she goes for it. Does what she can while shes young so she can learn from her mistakes now rather than later. From this I got that "cool" is doing your own thing and living your life in the moment.
I then asked a second "cool" relative what he thought was cool. He said "The Fonz, he's so cool he's like 'aye', he wears a leather jacket, and he doesn't really care." Going back to the indifferent and badass rebel coolness. Then he says "Beans are cool" referring to the phrase 'cool beans' trying to be cool while referring to that cool phrase. So I asked him if he thought he was cool, he said "Yes I model myself after the Fonz and I eat beans," then I responded, "But then you're not original" he said that was true and, "That's what makes beans and the Fonz so cool, they do their own thing." So this idea of unauthenticity is still not cool but its only not cool until they realize they are unoriginal. As long as they can go on believing they are cool and original, they are confident they are cool.
It seems as though unoriginality for cool people is almost taboo because people don't want to throw off their coolness. You probably won't hear someone question a celebrity's coolness because they idolized someone else. People seem so intimidated by cool people they don't want to question the 'authority' they think they have. For example, when Fall Out Boy the cool edgy alternative rock band did a cover of Beat it by Michael Jackson the classic king of pop. That cover was still cool, I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 on itunes for a while. Because Fall Out Boy already had status, they were still cool for doing that song even though they were clearly copying off of Michael Jackson and they got even more status for doing that song. If someone with low status in a typical high school copied off of someone else's style, they would be considered a poser or a fake and that would give them stigma.
Esther and I leave the building but we don't know which way to go, John Li and Andy find us and we start to walk together in the direction of the hardware store. Andy and John walk ahead and a guy smoking outside a hair salon asks us, "you asking about 'cool'?, go ask her (he points to an asian lady inside the salon), she's cool" So we walk inside and ask the lady what she thinks is cool. she says someone who is easy to get along with who is openminded, and easygoing whether they are rich or not. Esther then asks her if she thinks she is cool. The asian lady says "I try my best to be cool" someone cool knows who they are they have to know how to "act it". She then got into how sometimes good people are not cool because they are not recognized but that doesn't mean that they are not good people.
She then calls over her co-worker, a lady with white spikey hair and asks her what she thinkgs is cool she paused to think and said "chill" calm and relaxed, not easily upset. She then says "we look cool, we're cool" gesturing to herself and the asian lady. She also says that there are lots of different opinions of what "cool."
Then she calls over another co-worker, a male hispanic looking guy, and asks he what he thinks is cool, he says "GQ is cool!" me and Esther didn't realize but they explained that GQ is his name, he thinks he is cool. He then said "Someone you can get along" and someone with a cool haircut (referring to the hair salon we were in). All three came down to the same answer that someone cool is someone you can get along with. I can agree with that but now that I think of it, it is a very vague answer. What makes them easy to get along with and how do you determine that?
After we left the hair place, we didnt really know where to go next. Esther said I had to pick since she started asking the asian lady. I decided we'd walk into duane reade and talk to one of the workers because they can't walk away from us. We were lucky because the lady at the cashier was't doing anything so I asked her, What do you think is cool. She thought for a minute and simply said "me" she seemed pretty confident but confused so she said "I dont really know, I don't use that term very much" so I asked, what do you think makes you cool? and she said that a lot of people like her, she had lots of friends and she had a funny personality. I asked her If she tried to be, she said "I don't try, I'm just me." Then Esther asked her how if she acted differently around her friends and her family, she responded, "No I act the same," I decided I didn't want to bother her anymore so the interview ended there. It seemed like the general idea of cool is someone easy to get along with, someone funny and well liked by a lot of people, and someone who knows who they are.
Family Interview:
I asked the first "cool" relative how she lives her life. She said that if she wants things she goes for it. Does what she can while shes young so she can learn from her mistakes now rather than later. From this I got that "cool" is doing your own thing and living your life in the moment.
I then asked a second "cool" relative what he thought was cool. He said "The Fonz, he's so cool he's like 'aye', he wears a leather jacket, and he doesn't really care." Going back to the indifferent and badass rebel coolness. Then he says "Beans are cool" referring to the phrase 'cool beans' trying to be cool while referring to that cool phrase. So I asked him if he thought he was cool, he said "Yes I model myself after the Fonz and I eat beans," then I responded, "But then you're not original" he said that was true and, "That's what makes beans and the Fonz so cool, they do their own thing." So this idea of unauthenticity is still not cool but its only not cool until they realize they are unoriginal. As long as they can go on believing they are cool and original, they are confident they are cool.
It seems as though unoriginality for cool people is almost taboo because people don't want to throw off their coolness. You probably won't hear someone question a celebrity's coolness because they idolized someone else. People seem so intimidated by cool people they don't want to question the 'authority' they think they have. For example, when Fall Out Boy the cool edgy alternative rock band did a cover of Beat it by Michael Jackson the classic king of pop. That cover was still cool, I'm pretty sure it made the top 10 on itunes for a while. Because Fall Out Boy already had status, they were still cool for doing that song even though they were clearly copying off of Michael Jackson and they got even more status for doing that song. If someone with low status in a typical high school copied off of someone else's style, they would be considered a poser or a fake and that would give them stigma.
Monday, November 30, 2009
HW 26- Photos and Question
When I asked three people what they thought about their cool "look". The first response that I got was that they like the way they look and other people might not but that are confident in their own style. The other reaction that I got was that their look wasn't cool because they don't have the newest things or because their stype it isn't. Overall I got, "I dress how I wanna dress" (individuality).
I then asked what that thought of other people liking the way they look. They both said they like that they are approved by others. I then questioned if they are not approved. One said they would be self conscious and try to adapt to that opinion unless it is the opinion of someone they don't really care about. The other interviewee said as long as they like the way they look other people's opinion doesn't really matter to them. My last interviewee said "If they don't like my style, fuck off, I don't judge them so why judge me." On the contrary I believe we all judge people at least subconsciously, some people might just be more obvious about it. Thinking about the positive opinions, all three said are nice and they make you feel good because they give her confidence.
Finally, I asked them how it helps them in life/society being cool or looking cool. One interviewee said they get attention but then again "people don't really try to dig deeper or try to get to know you better because they're so stuck on appearance." The second girl I interviewed said that everyone has a different opinion about you. She says, but that "Doesn't mean I'm gonna go around shaping my look to what others want I dress the way I dress." These girls seem like pretty confident individuals.
Monday, November 23, 2009
25 Story Comments and Analysis
Maggie- Nice story, I like how you were very specific in your description of this cool person. Because this story is about a new girl who everyone is curious about because she is mysterious and different.
Esther- I like your story, I reminded me of you a lot. The character has a very calm attitude like he doesn't really care, he's just chill.
Omar- I liked the setting you chose, for the characters to be at a concert, that was pretty cool. And I like how you portrayed the protagonist as the nice guy, the medeator, mending a relationship between two of his friends.
Jacara- Your story seemed to be of an average girl and I like how in the end you show that she says what she feels to the man with the large bag, as you said in your title, she doesn't like to make a big deal out of it but she expresses her thoughts freely.
Kate- Your story is the popular girl who is hiding from herself and this is where she reveals who she wants to be and she is still pretty cool. She has a revalation and it is within a small amount of time, good job.
I noticed some patterns in these stories. In mine and Maggie's there is something mysterious about the character, you want to know more about them because there is something different about them. But, once you know more about the person, they are not as cool or interesting anymore. This is not shown in the stories specifically but in my own personal experiences, this is what I notice.
I also noticed that most of these characters are very confident, they know what they want and they are not afraid to be themselves. Specifically in Jacara's, the character in her story was not afraid to say what she felt. Also in Esther's story, the protagonist knew what he wanted to wear and did what he felt without much second thought.
Another recurring aspect of cool that I saw in these stories, is the person is generally a nice person. In my story, the protagonist helped the girl pick up papers, In Kate's story, her character defended another student, and in Omar's blog, he mediated a situation between his two friends. All showing that the "cool" person cares to some extent which sort of contradicts the whole idea of indifference is cool. They are different types of cool but is it cool to be both indifferent and nice?
Finally, another pattern I noticed was that the majority of the stories took place in school. That is generally where most people look for acceptance of being "cool" or that is where the person's "followers" take place. School is the where we see the same people every day and when there is something mysterious about someone in school (Maggie's) it sparks something and all of the sudden everyone is interested. School is also where we grow and develop our self esteem to then practice our confidence in front of an audience. It is also the place where we interact with people. It is the main common place for teenagers to fit people into achetypes.
Esther- I like your story, I reminded me of you a lot. The character has a very calm attitude like he doesn't really care, he's just chill.
Omar- I liked the setting you chose, for the characters to be at a concert, that was pretty cool. And I like how you portrayed the protagonist as the nice guy, the medeator, mending a relationship between two of his friends.
Jacara- Your story seemed to be of an average girl and I like how in the end you show that she says what she feels to the man with the large bag, as you said in your title, she doesn't like to make a big deal out of it but she expresses her thoughts freely.
Kate- Your story is the popular girl who is hiding from herself and this is where she reveals who she wants to be and she is still pretty cool. She has a revalation and it is within a small amount of time, good job.
I noticed some patterns in these stories. In mine and Maggie's there is something mysterious about the character, you want to know more about them because there is something different about them. But, once you know more about the person, they are not as cool or interesting anymore. This is not shown in the stories specifically but in my own personal experiences, this is what I notice.
I also noticed that most of these characters are very confident, they know what they want and they are not afraid to be themselves. Specifically in Jacara's, the character in her story was not afraid to say what she felt. Also in Esther's story, the protagonist knew what he wanted to wear and did what he felt without much second thought.
Another recurring aspect of cool that I saw in these stories, is the person is generally a nice person. In my story, the protagonist helped the girl pick up papers, In Kate's story, her character defended another student, and in Omar's blog, he mediated a situation between his two friends. All showing that the "cool" person cares to some extent which sort of contradicts the whole idea of indifference is cool. They are different types of cool but is it cool to be both indifferent and nice?
Finally, another pattern I noticed was that the majority of the stories took place in school. That is generally where most people look for acceptance of being "cool" or that is where the person's "followers" take place. School is the where we see the same people every day and when there is something mysterious about someone in school (Maggie's) it sparks something and all of the sudden everyone is interested. School is also where we grow and develop our self esteem to then practice our confidence in front of an audience. It is also the place where we interact with people. It is the main common place for teenagers to fit people into achetypes.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Cool Short Story- HW 24
Lynette Walks through the hall keeping her fidgeting to a minimal she'd been doing pretty well since she had all morning to practice going to her first four classes. She still feels eyes darting at her and says to herself, "Its not you they're looking at, its the person behind you, and even if they are looking at you, so what?" she trusted herself but fixes her shirt and rustles her hair anyway.
In the corner of her eye she notices a younger student with an unnecessarily large backpack drop several of their papers, she thinks to herself, "The first day of school has barely started, how can you have so much work already?," she rushes to the younger student and helps her.
She hands the papers back to her, "Here you go, cool necklace by the way"
"Oh, thanks" she responds.
"No problem."
She continued to walk while humming her favorite show tune going through the notes in her head. Suddenly she hears a collection of voices calling her name from behind her. She casually turns around to see her friends standing by the stair case cautiously waiting for a response, Lynette runs up to them with a huge smile on her face and fits into a group hug with her friends, "You guys look so grown up and its only been two months, what happened?," they all giggled in response. Jamie says, "Okay so where are we going for lunch?" they all respond the same way, with shrugs and "I don't knows." Lynette says "Let's just walk and see where we end up."
As they walk to lunch, she overhears most students chit chatting about their summers. April joins in and asks, "So how was your summer Lyn?" she replies, "Pretty good, can't complain" she knew it was a lie but she didn't really want to get into the details.
At that very moment she just happened to see Jason walk by, he knew about her summer and he knew what was wrong. Jason looked at her worridly, he came up to her and asked, "Hey Lyn is everything okay?" April looks at Lynette questioningly, thousands of questions building up. Lynette sighs and says under her breath, "I knew this day was too good to be true."
In the corner of her eye she notices a younger student with an unnecessarily large backpack drop several of their papers, she thinks to herself, "The first day of school has barely started, how can you have so much work already?," she rushes to the younger student and helps her.
She hands the papers back to her, "Here you go, cool necklace by the way"
"Oh, thanks" she responds.
"No problem."
She continued to walk while humming her favorite show tune going through the notes in her head. Suddenly she hears a collection of voices calling her name from behind her. She casually turns around to see her friends standing by the stair case cautiously waiting for a response, Lynette runs up to them with a huge smile on her face and fits into a group hug with her friends, "You guys look so grown up and its only been two months, what happened?," they all giggled in response. Jamie says, "Okay so where are we going for lunch?" they all respond the same way, with shrugs and "I don't knows." Lynette says "Let's just walk and see where we end up."
As they walk to lunch, she overhears most students chit chatting about their summers. April joins in and asks, "So how was your summer Lyn?" she replies, "Pretty good, can't complain" she knew it was a lie but she didn't really want to get into the details.
At that very moment she just happened to see Jason walk by, he knew about her summer and he knew what was wrong. Jason looked at her worridly, he came up to her and asked, "Hey Lyn is everything okay?" April looks at Lynette questioningly, thousands of questions building up. Lynette sighs and says under her breath, "I knew this day was too good to be true."
Monday, November 16, 2009
Exploration of Cool- HW 23
I would guess the definition of cool is being accepted and well liked by the majority of the people in your life. Which sounds sort of a lot like popularity. So I wonder, is being cool the same as being popular? I think it is possible for someone to be cool but not popular, they are cool but not many people are aware of it. And it is also possible that someone is popular but not very cool at all, it is just that a lot of people know them. But I think in our society this distinction is not very defined. Depending on where one conforms to, different people find different things "cool," so the definition changes from group to group. I thing the general view of cool, is someone who is confident, attractive, athletic, and assertive. Thus, the quiet and insecure people remain "uncool."
I think the concept of cool is kind of a double standard. "The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care"- Hugh Macleod. So you can either be cool and have lots of friends but be bored all the time because of the stereotypical and materialistic routine you go by or you can be alone but have some sort of meaning in your life.
In our society, we are all trying to reach "cool." We all want acceptance so we don't feel alone, and according to Macleod's quote, we all would rather be bored than alone. "I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279) M. T. Anderson. This makes me wonder, is it worth being cool if it forces you to have a meaningless life? Is it possible to be cool and have a meaningful life? We are constantly waiting for the approval of others in everything we do but does that really make us happy? or just content and satisfied?
Today in class we determined several of the main aspects that make a person "cool." Some of the most interesting ones or the "coolest" ones I thought were careless, talents/passions, "living the dream," independence but still connection with people, heroic, organic, and attention. In the stories we came up with today, most of the characters were cool but were natural careless about it.
In our story in particular, the two main characters had talents, one liked to write and the other was into music and we thought that was cool. We also find it cool when someone is thriving to do what they want, they have something going on in their life. Also referring to our story, the main girl was independent because she had to be separated from the guy she was with but it was still cool that they kept in contact with each other.
Heroism is also interesting I thought because its cool in the movies but I don't think we really see it that much on our every day lives, everyone just seems to be everybody for themselves. Finally, cool people have to grab your attention. I think we all have these subconscious ideas in our heads and we try to fit the criteria of "cool" without even realizing it. We try to fit in based on what we see other people doing, then wait for the approval of others, and decide what to do next based on that. This seems to be the cycle of achieving coolness.
I think the concept of cool is kind of a double standard. "The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care"- Hugh Macleod. So you can either be cool and have lots of friends but be bored all the time because of the stereotypical and materialistic routine you go by or you can be alone but have some sort of meaning in your life.
In our society, we are all trying to reach "cool." We all want acceptance so we don't feel alone, and according to Macleod's quote, we all would rather be bored than alone. "I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279) M. T. Anderson. This makes me wonder, is it worth being cool if it forces you to have a meaningless life? Is it possible to be cool and have a meaningful life? We are constantly waiting for the approval of others in everything we do but does that really make us happy? or just content and satisfied?
Today in class we determined several of the main aspects that make a person "cool." Some of the most interesting ones or the "coolest" ones I thought were careless, talents/passions, "living the dream," independence but still connection with people, heroic, organic, and attention. In the stories we came up with today, most of the characters were cool but were natural careless about it.
In our story in particular, the two main characters had talents, one liked to write and the other was into music and we thought that was cool. We also find it cool when someone is thriving to do what they want, they have something going on in their life. Also referring to our story, the main girl was independent because she had to be separated from the guy she was with but it was still cool that they kept in contact with each other.
Heroism is also interesting I thought because its cool in the movies but I don't think we really see it that much on our every day lives, everyone just seems to be everybody for themselves. Finally, cool people have to grab your attention. I think we all have these subconscious ideas in our heads and we try to fit the criteria of "cool" without even realizing it. We try to fit in based on what we see other people doing, then wait for the approval of others, and decide what to do next based on that. This seems to be the cycle of achieving coolness.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Art Project- HW 21
(Lost time, Lack of phyiscal activity, no sleep, distraction)
Bert Brecht supposedly says, "Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think my drawing is deffinately a mirror because it points out to the viewer what they lose when they spend hours on the computer. I'm not really sure if it is a hammer, I would like to think that it is, but I think it takes more than two pictures to shape someone. But it also depends on who sees it and how they interpret it. I think it is up to the viewer to determine whether the piece of art is a hammer or not. Determining whether the art is a mirror I think is easier to determine.
I think my art makes me "fink" or "theel" but I am coming from a very biased perspective. Personally, it makes me think about how I could spend my time more effectively, and what is really important, how do you define a good way of spending time, what is productive and what is a waste? Everything has its pros and cons but it seems as though we are influenced (especially recently) that spending time on the computer is a waste. This makes me feel guilty for spending so much time on the computer and it makes me want to take into consideration my other options of what to do with my spare time.
I think the most interesting aspect of making are is coming up with the idea. I had a hard time thinking of what to draw. I struggled with deciding the aspects of the digital unit I wanted to portray. I started to think about how we are in such a competative society we have to spend our spare time wisely, and I don't think that the majority of us generally do, including myself. That lead me into wanting showing what we lose when we use DRDs as much as we do and how we are at a disadvantage when we want to make progression in our own lives through my drawings.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Big Paper
INTRO:
The way we communicate, the way we dress, the way we act, generally, the way we live, its all very similar. We are all being brainwashed by the media to live the way we do. The advertisements, the internet, television, and movies all influence our lives. We don't choose the majority of the things we think we do, like getting those jeans, or that screen name, or to say "like" a thousand times a day, society is set up so that is what we choose. I'm sure we've all wondered why we are the way we are, its because of society's expectations. These expectations are presented in The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
Advertisements as a form of media shown on the internet or on television manipulate the way we present ourselves; this distracts us from current events. Seeing that 74.1% of Americans use the internet (Nielsen) and 99% of American family households own at least one TV (Nielsen). This tells us the majority of Americans are fed advertisements very frequently. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear; this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. In contrast with his friend Violet, is not as distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by humans.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth, All the people on earth traveled to a space ship to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do anything from their hovering chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have very easy access to television at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interruption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turns off and their eyes are opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
We are also being manipulated in the every day conversations we have though digital devices, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy; this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. In the back of our minds there is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think for ourselves about whatever we find important in our lives. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and is necessary to purchase distracting us from the control advertisers have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society; this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I personally feel taken over by technology. I allowed the addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). the media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed. We are so caught up in buying the newest devices we do not realize the fact that we are being manipulated.
ARG#4:
The media and other brainwashed Americans constantly advertise the next best thing that makes our lives easier and more convenient, it manipulates us to think that easy and convenient is good, this distracts us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives more convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of their hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up on their own. Advertisements tell us digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our physical ability. We are convinced that DRDs making our lives easier is a sign of progression in society but it is preventing humans from using their bodies to the full extent.
ARG#5:
Movies, shown on digital represenational devices as a form of media, it influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. We all watch movies, as a country we spend millions of dollars on movies at the box office at movie theatres, a good amount of Americans are influenced by current films today (movie tickets website). Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture (10/27/09), he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the typical Disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other algorithmic aspects about a 'normal' life that are shown in movies constantly. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream and imagine what she wants to do before she faces her inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen. People watch generic TV shows about the drama of a high school student and they expect and their lives to be just like that. This is manipulating us about the 'right' way to live, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#6:
Media in the form of movies and television make us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. We think we want happiness because that is what we are influenced through the media. (Andy lecture 9/25/09). Connecting to a movie we saw in English class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but we are just meeting the standards of how to live our lives. Connecting to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied. We get caught up in the films and shows that portray this idea of finding happiness in life and it manipulates us to think we want that too but it only leaves us unhappy and distracts us from thinking for ourselves and exploring our own reasons for living.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Women had to fit the norm by cooking and cleaning and dress a certain way because that is what would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. There is more gender and racial freedom specifically in the work force and thus in everyday life (Giecek). To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be more freedom for the people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to. (Andy Lecture 10/20/09)
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we deceive ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to deceive ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Banach’s lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being deceived by marketers and the media to believe that we think for ourselves but in the process, we fit the expectations of society because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy and convenient. We are manipulated to choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
CONCLUSION:
The media has power over us to make us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society. From my life, I believe that I am being brainwashed just like everyone else. I get distracted by movies and TV and the internet. But now I feel like because I have a different perspective from studying this digital unit and looking at different sources, my personal perspective have changed and it seems as though “We’re all puppets... I’m just a puppet who can see the strings.”(Moore). I don't think I can see the strings as clearly as I could because I am blinded by years of manipulation but at this point I feel like I can identify where in parts of my life I am being influenced about what to think.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
Works Cited
Anderson, M.T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candelwich Press, 2002.
Banach, David. "Ethics of Absolute Freedom." 2006. Creative Commons License, Web. 8 Nov 2009..
DVD, I<3 Huckabees
DVD, Wall-E.
Giecek, Tamara Sober. Teaching Economics As If People Mattered: A High School Curriculum Guide to the New Economy. Boston, MA: United For a Fair Economy, 2000.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986. Print.
Nielsen, A.C. "Internet Usage Statistics." Internet World Stats. 2009. Miniwatts Marketing Group, Web. 8 Nov 2009..
--. "Television and Health." The Sourcebook For Teaching Science. 2007. Web. 8 Nov 2009..
S, Andy. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 20 October 2009.
--. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 25 October 2009.
T, Jason. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 27 October 2009.
"Get Movie Showtimes & Tickets." Movietickets.com. 2009. Movietickets.com, Web. 8 Nov 2009.
The way we communicate, the way we dress, the way we act, generally, the way we live, its all very similar. We are all being brainwashed by the media to live the way we do. The advertisements, the internet, television, and movies all influence our lives. We don't choose the majority of the things we think we do, like getting those jeans, or that screen name, or to say "like" a thousand times a day, society is set up so that is what we choose. I'm sure we've all wondered why we are the way we are, its because of society's expectations. These expectations are presented in The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
Advertisements as a form of media shown on the internet or on television manipulate the way we present ourselves; this distracts us from current events. Seeing that 74.1% of Americans use the internet (Nielsen) and 99% of American family households own at least one TV (Nielsen). This tells us the majority of Americans are fed advertisements very frequently. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear; this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. In contrast with his friend Violet, is not as distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by humans.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth, All the people on earth traveled to a space ship to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do anything from their hovering chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have very easy access to television at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interruption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turns off and their eyes are opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
We are also being manipulated in the every day conversations we have though digital devices, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy; this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. In the back of our minds there is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think for ourselves about whatever we find important in our lives. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and is necessary to purchase distracting us from the control advertisers have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society; this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I personally feel taken over by technology. I allowed the addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). the media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed. We are so caught up in buying the newest devices we do not realize the fact that we are being manipulated.
ARG#4:
The media and other brainwashed Americans constantly advertise the next best thing that makes our lives easier and more convenient, it manipulates us to think that easy and convenient is good, this distracts us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives more convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of their hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up on their own. Advertisements tell us digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our physical ability. We are convinced that DRDs making our lives easier is a sign of progression in society but it is preventing humans from using their bodies to the full extent.
ARG#5:
Movies, shown on digital represenational devices as a form of media, it influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. We all watch movies, as a country we spend millions of dollars on movies at the box office at movie theatres, a good amount of Americans are influenced by current films today (movie tickets website). Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture (10/27/09), he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the typical Disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other algorithmic aspects about a 'normal' life that are shown in movies constantly. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream and imagine what she wants to do before she faces her inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen. People watch generic TV shows about the drama of a high school student and they expect and their lives to be just like that. This is manipulating us about the 'right' way to live, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#6:
Media in the form of movies and television make us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. We think we want happiness because that is what we are influenced through the media. (Andy lecture 9/25/09). Connecting to a movie we saw in English class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but we are just meeting the standards of how to live our lives. Connecting to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied. We get caught up in the films and shows that portray this idea of finding happiness in life and it manipulates us to think we want that too but it only leaves us unhappy and distracts us from thinking for ourselves and exploring our own reasons for living.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Women had to fit the norm by cooking and cleaning and dress a certain way because that is what would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. There is more gender and racial freedom specifically in the work force and thus in everyday life (Giecek). To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be more freedom for the people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to. (Andy Lecture 10/20/09)
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we deceive ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to deceive ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Banach’s lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being deceived by marketers and the media to believe that we think for ourselves but in the process, we fit the expectations of society because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy and convenient. We are manipulated to choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
CONCLUSION:
The media has power over us to make us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society. From my life, I believe that I am being brainwashed just like everyone else. I get distracted by movies and TV and the internet. But now I feel like because I have a different perspective from studying this digital unit and looking at different sources, my personal perspective have changed and it seems as though “We’re all puppets... I’m just a puppet who can see the strings.”(Moore). I don't think I can see the strings as clearly as I could because I am blinded by years of manipulation but at this point I feel like I can identify where in parts of my life I am being influenced about what to think.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
Works Cited
Anderson, M.T. Feed. Somerville, Massachusetts: Candelwich Press, 2002.
Banach, David. "Ethics of Absolute Freedom." 2006. Creative Commons License, Web. 8 Nov 2009.
DVD, I<3 Huckabees
DVD, Wall-E.
Giecek, Tamara Sober. Teaching Economics As If People Mattered: A High School Curriculum Guide to the New Economy. Boston, MA: United For a Fair Economy, 2000.
Moore, Alan. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986. Print.
Nielsen, A.C. "Internet Usage Statistics." Internet World Stats. 2009. Miniwatts Marketing Group, Web. 8 Nov 2009.
--. "Television and Health." The Sourcebook For Teaching Science. 2007. Web. 8 Nov 2009.
S, Andy. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 20 October 2009.
--. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 25 October 2009.
T, Jason. "Lecture." Social Studies Class. School of the Future, New York City. 27 October 2009.
"Get Movie Showtimes & Tickets." Movietickets.com. 2009. Movietickets.com, Web. 8 Nov 2009.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
HW 20: Big Paper Revised
INTRO:
Most people in the American culture are the same. The way we communicate, the way we dress, the way we act, and generally, the way we live. We are all being brainwashed by the media to live the way we do. The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
Advertisements as a form of media shown on the internet or on television manipulate the way we present ourselves; this distracts us from current events. Seeing that 74.1% of Americans use the internet (Nielsen) and 99% of American family households own at least one TV (Nielsen). This tells us the majority of Americans are fed advertisements very frequently. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear; this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. In contrast with his friend Violet, is not as distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by humans.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth, All the people on earth traveled to a space ship to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do anything from their hovering chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have very easy access to television at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interruption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turns off and their eyes are opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
We are also being manipulated in the every day conversations we have though digital devices, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy; this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. In the back of our minds there is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think for ourselves about whatever we find important in our lives. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and is necessary to purchase distracting us from the control advertisers have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society; this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I personally feel taken over by technology. I allowed the addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). the media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed. We are so caught up in buying the newest devices we do not realize the fact that we are being manipulated.
ARG#4:
Movies, as another form of media, also influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. We all watch movies, as a country we spend millions of dollars on movies at the box office at movie theatres, a good amount of Americans are influenced by current films today (movie tickets website). Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture (10/27/09), he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the typical Disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other algorithmic aspects about a 'normal' life that are shown in movies constantly. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream and imagine what she wants to do before she faces her inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen. People watch generic TV shows about the drama of a high school student and they expect and their lives to be just like that. This is manipulating us about the 'right' way to live, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#5:
The media constantly advertises the next best thing which makes our lives easier and more convenient, it brainwashes us to think that easy and convenient is good, this distracts us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives more convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of their hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up on their own. Advertisements tell us digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our physical ability. We are convinced that DRDs making our lives easier is a sign of progression in society but it is preventing humans from using their bodies to the full extent.
ARG#6:
Media in the form of movies and television make us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. We think we want happiness because that is what we are influenced through the media. (Andy lecture 9/25/09). Connecting to a movie we saw in English class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but we are just meeting the standards of how to live our lives. Connecting to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied. We get caught up in the films and shows that portray this idea of finding happiness in life and it manipulates us to think we want that too but it only leaves us unhappy and distracts us from thinking for ourselves and exploring our own reasons for living.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Women had to fit the norm by cooking and cleaning and dress a certain way because that is what would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. There is more gender and racial freedom specifically in the work force and thus in everyday life (Giecek). To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be more freedom for the people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to. (Andy Lecture 10/20/09)
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we deceive ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to deceive ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Bench’s lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being deceived by marketers and the media to believe that we think for ourselves but in the process, we fit the expectations of society because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy and convenient. We are manipulated to choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the media makes us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society.
Most people in the American culture are the same. The way we communicate, the way we dress, the way we act, and generally, the way we live. We are all being brainwashed by the media to live the way we do. The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
Advertisements as a form of media shown on the internet or on television manipulate the way we present ourselves; this distracts us from current events. Seeing that 74.1% of Americans use the internet (Nielsen) and 99% of American family households own at least one TV (Nielsen). This tells us the majority of Americans are fed advertisements very frequently. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear; this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. In contrast with his friend Violet, is not as distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by humans.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth, All the people on earth traveled to a space ship to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do anything from their hovering chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have very easy access to television at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interruption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turns off and their eyes are opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
We are also being manipulated in the every day conversations we have though digital devices, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy; this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. In the back of our minds there is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think for ourselves about whatever we find important in our lives. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and is necessary to purchase distracting us from the control advertisers have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society; this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I personally feel taken over by technology. I allowed the addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). the media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed. We are so caught up in buying the newest devices we do not realize the fact that we are being manipulated.
ARG#4:
Movies, as another form of media, also influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. We all watch movies, as a country we spend millions of dollars on movies at the box office at movie theatres, a good amount of Americans are influenced by current films today (movie tickets website). Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture (10/27/09), he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the typical Disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other algorithmic aspects about a 'normal' life that are shown in movies constantly. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream and imagine what she wants to do before she faces her inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen. People watch generic TV shows about the drama of a high school student and they expect and their lives to be just like that. This is manipulating us about the 'right' way to live, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#5:
The media constantly advertises the next best thing which makes our lives easier and more convenient, it brainwashes us to think that easy and convenient is good, this distracts us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives more convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of their hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up on their own. Advertisements tell us digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our physical ability. We are convinced that DRDs making our lives easier is a sign of progression in society but it is preventing humans from using their bodies to the full extent.
ARG#6:
Media in the form of movies and television make us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. We think we want happiness because that is what we are influenced through the media. (Andy lecture 9/25/09). Connecting to a movie we saw in English class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but we are just meeting the standards of how to live our lives. Connecting to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied. We get caught up in the films and shows that portray this idea of finding happiness in life and it manipulates us to think we want that too but it only leaves us unhappy and distracts us from thinking for ourselves and exploring our own reasons for living.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Women had to fit the norm by cooking and cleaning and dress a certain way because that is what would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. There is more gender and racial freedom specifically in the work force and thus in everyday life (Giecek). To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be more freedom for the people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to. (Andy Lecture 10/20/09)
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we deceive ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to deceive ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Bench’s lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being deceived by marketers and the media to believe that we think for ourselves but in the process, we fit the expectations of society because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy and convenient. We are manipulated to choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the media makes us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Big Paper Suggestions:
Arden- This is a good rough draft. From what I got, at the beginning it looked like your thesis was that digital representation devices keeps people connected but there is still a seperation in the experience. Then when you get into the new digital language that's where I kind of get lost because you don't really connect the rest of your arguments back to your main idea.
I think you have great examples and you explain them pretty well but you need to clearly connect back.
I also suggest that you take advantage of the resources that Andy's given us, you can take stuff from lectures and cite him or talk about Feed and quote from there or some of the articles and research we have done in previous assignments. This will make your arguments stronger.
Good start Arden, and thanks for your comment :]- Sandy
Esther- You have a good hook to your intro. I really like your thesis because I completely agree with it so I think your paper has potential to be really good, just keep it up, continue to write and finish it in time :) -Sandy
Omar- I think you have some really great ideas here about conformity and what society wants to think and how it is being expressed to us through digital represenation devices.
In my understanding, you're basically saying that DRDs distract us from important things and it gets us addicted to digital devices that just kill time and don't have any realy significance in our lives.
I would suggest that you just organize your thoughts and make sure you find strong evidence to back it up and connect back to your thesis. This is a good start- Sandy
I think you have great examples and you explain them pretty well but you need to clearly connect back.
I also suggest that you take advantage of the resources that Andy's given us, you can take stuff from lectures and cite him or talk about Feed and quote from there or some of the articles and research we have done in previous assignments. This will make your arguments stronger.
Good start Arden, and thanks for your comment :]- Sandy
Esther- You have a good hook to your intro. I really like your thesis because I completely agree with it so I think your paper has potential to be really good, just keep it up, continue to write and finish it in time :) -Sandy
Omar- I think you have some really great ideas here about conformity and what society wants to think and how it is being expressed to us through digital represenation devices.
In my understanding, you're basically saying that DRDs distract us from important things and it gets us addicted to digital devices that just kill time and don't have any realy significance in our lives.
I would suggest that you just organize your thoughts and make sure you find strong evidence to back it up and connect back to your thesis. This is a good start- Sandy
Monday, November 2, 2009
Big Paper 1- Rough Draft
INTRO:
If you go to times square and look around, soon enough you are bound to find someone similar to you. Someone who has a similar personality, similar style etc. Most people are the same. The way we talk, the way we dress, the way we act, and generally, the way we live. We are all being brainwashed by the media. The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
The media presented through advertisements on the internet or on telvision manipulate the way we present ourselves, this distracts us from current events. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear, this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. Because his friend Violet is not distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by man.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth. All the people on earch traveled to a _________ to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do everything straight from their chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have a tv right in front of them at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interupption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turned off and their eyes were opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
The media is also spread through digital, casual, conversations, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy, this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. There is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think significant thoughts about things that might be more important to us. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and was is necessary to purchase distracting us from control advertiseres have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society, this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I feel sort of taken over by technology. I allowed this addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). The media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed.
ARG#4:
The media portrayed through movies also influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture, he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other aspects that are shown in movies multiple times. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream about what she wants to do before he inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen manipulating us about the way we should live or want to live, distracting us from living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#5:
Media, advertising the next best thing makes our lives much easier and more convenient and it brainwashes us to think that easy and convenient is good, distracting us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives mor convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of the hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up. Advertisements tell us that digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our phyisical ability.
ARG#6:
The media also makes us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. Connecting to a movie we saw in english class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but just be meeting the standards of how to live our lives. In addition, connecting back to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Infact I think they were more strict. Women all had to cook and clean and dress the same way because that is what they were told would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. Not all girls dress the same and not all men dress the same, they dress similarly, but in the past the dressed more similar to each other. To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be many people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to.
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we decieve ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to decieve ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Banach's lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being decieved by marketers and the media to believe so but in the proccess, we fit the expectations of socitey because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy. We are manipulated to chose the life that is laid our for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the media makes us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society.
If you go to times square and look around, soon enough you are bound to find someone similar to you. Someone who has a similar personality, similar style etc. Most people are the same. The way we talk, the way we dress, the way we act, and generally, the way we live. We are all being brainwashed by the media. The media presented through digital representation devices manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception of the world.
ARG#1:
The media presented through advertisements on the internet or on telvision manipulate the way we present ourselves, this distracts us from current events. Advertisements tell us how we should look which distracts us from political issues. In Feed by M. T. Anderson, an allegory about modern day teenage life, the main character Titus is always distracted by his feed that fills his mind with lots of advertisements, "Feeling blue?, Then dress blue! It's the Blue-Jean Warehouse's Final Sales Event! Stock is just flying off the shelves at prices so low you won't believe your feed!"(299). Titus is constantly being told what to wear, this prevents him from noticing what is going on in the world. Because his friend Violet is not distracted, she knows about current events and tells Titus, "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it?"(273). Violet basically tells Titus that there is nothing is natural anymore, everything is produced by man.
Also seen in the movie Wall-e, an animated film about a robot trying to bring life back to planet earth. All the people on earch traveled to a _________ to live on a machine that allows them to have the ability to do everything straight from their chair, they never have to get up for anything. Similar to feed, the citizens have a tv right in front of them at all times which gives them advertisements and several forms of digital entertainment. One of the advertisements says, "Blue is the new red!" and instantly, everyone changes what they are wearing to blue without having to move an inch. Eventually, because of Wall-e's interupption to the stimulated world off of planet earth, one of the citizens' portable TV turned off and their eyes were opened up to how the world is really, they saw how everyone was in their own world on their digital devices and everyone looked almost exactly the same. The digital advertisements make consumers believe that they should look like everyone else and it distracts them from the fallacies in society.
ARG#2:
The media is also spread through digital, casual, conversations, this distracts us from the reality of our world. When one person is manipulated by advertisements, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy, this distracts us from human thoughts. I personally, know of several times where I ask for a friend's opinion about something before I make a purchase. During one of Andy's lectures, he pointed out that everyone mostly thinks about what to buy. That is ultimately how we are brainwashed. There is always something we want to buy whether it is absolutely necessary or not. This distracts us from the ability to think significant thoughts about things that might be more important to us. Our minds are so filled up with advertisements without physically owning a feed it deprives us from thinking for ourselves.
ARG#3:
Advertisements also manipulate us to have these ideas of what is important and was is necessary to purchase distracting us from control advertiseres have over us. Media makes us believe we always need the next best digital representation device to be socially acceptable in society, this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated. I feel sort of taken over by technology. I allowed this addiction to digital life and technologies to hold true in my life because it was the norm of society, everyone else had it and you have to keep up with the progress in civilization. (Will 9/9/09). In Feed, Violet's father had to buy a feed to be taken seriously in the work force. "'I was at a job interview...I realized that they had chatted me, and that I had not responded. They found this funny. Risible. That a man would not have a feed. So they were chatting about me in my presence. Teasing me when I could not hear. Free to assess me as they would, right in front of me'...'It was this that I realized that my daughter would need the feed. She had to live in the world.'"(288). The media brainwashes us to think we need the latest digital technology to survive in society distracting us from the fact that we are being brainwashed.
ARG#4:
The media portrayed through movies also influences consumers about their own lives distracting them from reality. Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like a movie, distracting us from a real way of life decided upon ourselves. In Mr. Tsui's lecture, he made a point that most of our ideas of love and romance come from the movies and what they make us believe. For example, the disney story how the girl always finds the perfect guy and they live happily ever after. We seem to base our lives a lot on this and several other aspects that are shown in movies multiple times. Also shown in Feed, after Violet faces many problems with her feed, she begins to dream about what she wants to do before he inevitable death and she realizes that most of her dreams are based on what she's seen in movies. "Everything I think of when I think of really living living to the full--all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms. See what I mean? My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits."(217). Similar to Violet's ideas about life, our own ideas come from what we see on the movie or television screen manipulating us about the way we should live or want to live, distracting us from living our lives to the fullest the way we want to.
ARG#5:
Media, advertising the next best thing makes our lives much easier and more convenient and it brainwashes us to think that easy and convenient is good, distracting us from physical activity. Emails make it easier to send letters, phones make it easier to talk to someone, ipods make it easier to listen to music on the go. Technology simply makes things easier for us. It is not necessarily something we need, but something that makes our lives mor convenient. This allows us to become lazy. The physical experience of working technology and knowing how to use it is preventing us from using our bodies to its full extent. Technology allows us to do the bare minimum with our bodies, whereas in a sport we need to work our muscles to adapt to that type of physical activity. Also shown in the movie Wall-e, when a citizen fell off of the hovering chair, they would fall to the ground helplessly and a machine would have to pick them up because they were physically unable to get back up. Advertisements tell us that digital technologies that make our lives easier are good and it distracts us from the negative aspect, that it limits our phyisical ability.
ARG#6:
The media also makes us believe that we want to find happiness, distracting us from actually living our lives to the fullest. Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting in distracts us from doing what we want. Connecting to a movie we saw in english class, I <3 Huckabees, the movie is a comedy and comes from an angle that does not take the existentialist topic seriously and I noticed, often times we don't take our lives seriously. We waste lots of time doing meaningless things on our digital devices and they don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest. We become lazy and we may think we are living our lives to the fullest because it is what we see people in the movies doing and they look happy but just be meeting the standards of how to live our lives. In addition, connecting back to Feed, Titus feels the same way, like he is always trying to be cool because he thinks it will make it feel better but it never does, "It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. I had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279). We are always listening to the advertisement tell us how to be happy or how to be cool or how to fit in but in the end we are never satisfied.
CONNECTIONS:
I believe that in the past there have always been expectations for how to be normal. Infact I think they were more strict. Women all had to cook and clean and dress the same way because that is what they were told would make them attractive to men. In contrast with how it is today, there are still ideas of being "normal" and accepted in society but now I feel like they have become more open. Not all girls dress the same and not all men dress the same, they dress similarly, but in the past the dressed more similar to each other. To continue the pattern, I think in the future there will still be ideas about what is normal, I think there always will be but there will be many people who do not follow that, they create their own idea of normal for other people to conform to.
OPV:
Banach argues that essentially, everyone has absolute freedom, we decieve ourselves by giving into the influences around us and we choose to fit the norms and be manipulated by the media. "We attempt to decieve ourselves and act as if we weren't free, as if we were really determined by our nature, our body, or the expectations of other people."(Part II of Banach's lecture). He argues that essentially we all think for ourselves. But we are really being decieved by marketers and the media to believe so but in the proccess, we fit the expectations of socitey because it is what we have been told and it is what is easy. We are manipulated to chose the life that is laid our for us algorithmically. We think we decide for ourselves but ultimately we take the easy path rather than thinking for ourselves.
SIGNIFICANCE:
It is important to be aware of this manipulation. Instead of simply falling for all of it, we look at it from the perspective of the advertisers and see what is it that they are really doing to us. It is important to see what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, the media makes us think that being happy is fitting into the norms, buying the latest clothing, buying the next best digital device to make our lives more convenient, and it all leaks into our minds highly affecting our lives. All of this distracts us from the truth and reality of our society.
Outline Feedback:
Esther- your thesis is good because you have good evidence to back it up. Your Feed and Wall-e evidence seem to be the strongest so when you organize your essay those should be the first and last arguments so you can start of and end your essay strong.
Your arguments about humans needing entertainment, so they created photographs and the development from there seems pretty logical but you should get some evidence to back that up.
I suggest that you use maybe lectures or stuff from you previous blog posts of your own or of others that might strengthen your arguments. Andy also gave us a list of several sources that we could use, it might be helpful to go through them.
This is a good start Esther! - Sandy
Omar- You have an interesting thesis.
I think you make a good argument that most people are entranced in pop culture and the media and DRDs and that distracts us from the important things in life. I think this is a valid argument but you could get specific about what is it about pop culture that attract us and what is it really distracting us from, what is so important that the media doesn't want us to see?
I also think you should take advantage of the sources that we have researched in class, maybe some sources you have in your previous posts, or Feed, or Wall-e.
This is a good start Omar!- Sandy
Your arguments about humans needing entertainment, so they created photographs and the development from there seems pretty logical but you should get some evidence to back that up.
I suggest that you use maybe lectures or stuff from you previous blog posts of your own or of others that might strengthen your arguments. Andy also gave us a list of several sources that we could use, it might be helpful to go through them.
This is a good start Esther! - Sandy
Omar- You have an interesting thesis.
I think you make a good argument that most people are entranced in pop culture and the media and DRDs and that distracts us from the important things in life. I think this is a valid argument but you could get specific about what is it about pop culture that attract us and what is it really distracting us from, what is so important that the media doesn't want us to see?
I also think you should take advantage of the sources that we have researched in class, maybe some sources you have in your previous posts, or Feed, or Wall-e.
This is a good start Omar!- Sandy
Sunday, November 1, 2009
HW 16- Big Paper 1 Outline
Thesis: The media presented through DRDs manipulate the way we live and distract us from the deception in the world.
Argument 1: The media in advertisements presented through the internet and television manipulate the clothes we wear and distract us from the deception of the world.
-->The advertisements tell us how we should look and what we should buy and distract us from political issues.
*Feed ("Feeling blue? buy some blue jeans..everything must go!")
*Wall-e ("Blue is the new red")
*Digital Experiment (TV attracts more attention than reading because it feeds you the info)
Argument 2: The media is spread through digital conversations in casual conversations distracting us from the deception of the world
-->When one person is manipulated by advertisement, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy, distract us from real human thoughts
*Own experience (When I talk with others about making smart decisions about purchases)
*Andy Lecture (all we ever think about is what to buy)
Argument 3: The media in advertisements presented through the internet and television manipulate our minds to believe what is a necessary purchase to distract us from the control advertsers have over us.
-->Media makes us belueve that we always need the next best DRD to be socially acceptable in society, this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated.
*My Video blog post
*Feed (Violet's father needed the feed to be taken seriously in the work force)
Argument 4: The media expressed through movies influece viewers about their own lives and distracts them/us from reality
--> Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like the characters in the film distracting us from coming up with our own ways to live.
*Tsui Lecture (is that allowed?..our views of love and romance are based on how it is portrayed in the movies)
*Feed (Violet's dreams and Titus's expectations came from movies)
Argument 5: The media expressed through advertisements about DRDs manipulate the way we are looking for our lives to be so simple, distracting us from the reality of our complex lifestyles.
-->the latest digital technologies make us believe that convenient and easy is good, distracing us from physical activity.
*Video blog post (we minimize the way we use our bodies)
*Wall-e (the people don't ever have to move, they live their lives completely digital)
Argument 6: The media expressed through advertisements and movies makes us believe we want to be happy, this distracts us from living our life to the fullest.
--> Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting into the norms distracts us from actually living our lives to the fullest.
*English I<3 huckabees ("We waste lots of time doing meaningless things that don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest.")
*Feed (Titus is always chasing cool but never reaches it)
Connections:
-->In the past there have always been expectations to be 'normal' or like everyone else if not more strict.
-->In the future, I predict that the norms will slowly bein to be broken then then new norms will form as well.
(I need to find sources for this..)
OPV:
-->One could argue that the media only influences the way our lives are and we essentially chose the way we live (Banach's absolute freedom)
-->I disagree and believe that in the end we all do what's easist, choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We may think we are deciding for ourselves but ultimately we are chosing the easy path rather than the creative path (which I think is difficult to find).
Significance:
-->It is important to see how the DRDs are manipulating our minds so we know what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
Argument 1: The media in advertisements presented through the internet and television manipulate the clothes we wear and distract us from the deception of the world.
-->The advertisements tell us how we should look and what we should buy and distract us from political issues.
*Feed ("Feeling blue? buy some blue jeans..everything must go!")
*Wall-e ("Blue is the new red")
*Digital Experiment (TV attracts more attention than reading because it feeds you the info)
Argument 2: The media is spread through digital conversations in casual conversations distracting us from the deception of the world
-->When one person is manipulated by advertisement, it is then spread in every day conversations when people talk about what to buy, distract us from real human thoughts
*Own experience (When I talk with others about making smart decisions about purchases)
*Andy Lecture (all we ever think about is what to buy)
Argument 3: The media in advertisements presented through the internet and television manipulate our minds to believe what is a necessary purchase to distract us from the control advertsers have over us.
-->Media makes us belueve that we always need the next best DRD to be socially acceptable in society, this distracts us from the fact that we are being manipulated.
*My Video blog post
*Feed (Violet's father needed the feed to be taken seriously in the work force)
Argument 4: The media expressed through movies influece viewers about their own lives and distracts them/us from reality
--> Movies make viewers believe their lives have to be just like the characters in the film distracting us from coming up with our own ways to live.
*Tsui Lecture (is that allowed?..our views of love and romance are based on how it is portrayed in the movies)
*Feed (Violet's dreams and Titus's expectations came from movies)
Argument 5: The media expressed through advertisements about DRDs manipulate the way we are looking for our lives to be so simple, distracting us from the reality of our complex lifestyles.
-->the latest digital technologies make us believe that convenient and easy is good, distracing us from physical activity.
*Video blog post (we minimize the way we use our bodies)
*Wall-e (the people don't ever have to move, they live their lives completely digital)
Argument 6: The media expressed through advertisements and movies makes us believe we want to be happy, this distracts us from living our life to the fullest.
--> Norms make us believe that conforming will make us happy but fitting into the norms distracts us from actually living our lives to the fullest.
*English I<3 huckabees ("We waste lots of time doing meaningless things that don't really allow us to live our lives to the fullest.")
*Feed (Titus is always chasing cool but never reaches it)
Connections:
-->In the past there have always been expectations to be 'normal' or like everyone else if not more strict.
-->In the future, I predict that the norms will slowly bein to be broken then then new norms will form as well.
(I need to find sources for this..)
OPV:
-->One could argue that the media only influences the way our lives are and we essentially chose the way we live (Banach's absolute freedom)
-->I disagree and believe that in the end we all do what's easist, choose the life that is laid out for us algorithmically. We may think we are deciding for ourselves but ultimately we are chosing the easy path rather than the creative path (which I think is difficult to find).
Significance:
-->It is important to see how the DRDs are manipulating our minds so we know what lies behind the amusing and shiny digital devices and ultimately do something about it.
Monday, October 26, 2009
HW 15: Comments
Esther- I appreciate that you had so much passion in this post, you seem to really enjoy photography and it was nice that you incorporated that into this unit.
Basically, you researched about Brownie cameras which seem to be old fashioned kind of cameras.
I can connect with you where you say that pictures today do not hold much meaning. I agree, I feel like in general, all the pictures today are to brag about yourself, to post on facebook and tag your friends. Cameras today as so high-tech, they will capture everything, whereas, I believe older kind of cameras seem to have more character and it has more meaning. But I'm guessing that at the time period, those cameras were pretty impressive and were just like any other picture. But I guess now we appreciate the history behind it.
You could maybe deveop this post by getting more into what a brownie camera is because I didn't really get a clear understanding of it.
Maybe you could explore what brownie cameras were generally used for at the time and who used them.
Cool research topic-Sandy
Esther- your experiment was very unique.
This blog post, from what I understood, was that without DRDs you were able to apply your emotions physically instead of digitally
I agree that many things are expensive just because its 'branded,' you have to pay extra to be labelled.
This post could be further developed by organizing and making transitions between your ideas I agree with Andy, this would be a pretty cool short story, I would read it.
Exploring, "America's culture is twisted and base on Death." I thought this idea was very interesting and well put. Aside from the Columbus encounter, how is America's twisted culture related to death?
Very creative- Sandy
Esther- I appreciate that even though you did not finish the book, you made an effort to have a general understanding of what happened and get the assignment done.
You basically said that Feed, as an allegory, was on point with the parallels between Titus's life and our own.
I agree with, "Tidus is living a good life but a tragedy. I don't think they are truely happy anyway. They are just following the norm," I think Titus and his friends just do what they think will make them happy according to society, not according to their own beliefs.
To develop this post by including specific examples of how your life is like Titus's. For example, when you said "The randomness of these conversations entertain our "ignorant" minds." maybe you could explain a specific random conversation that entertains our ignorant minds.
To further explore this post, you could connect Violet's quote that you mentioned to our culture, "Do you know the earth is dead?...We take what's coming to us. That's our way." The earth is dead, and death is what builds up our culture (referring to your experiment post) so, the United States being a "leading country," how does our culture influence the rest of the world?
You post influenced some interesting ideas, I liked reading it- Sandy
Omar- You had a very clear and specific post.
You were bascially saying that Feed is on point in the analogy, teenagers relate to Titus pretty closely.
I agree with you where you said that Tobin decided to make the book a traged to make it more realistic. I wrote something along those lines on my blog post as well.
To devlop this blog post maybe by organizing your paragraphs more concisely. For example, in your second paragraph you have two different ideas, so maybe split that up in two seperate paragraphs.
To explore your ideas, after reading this book do you think it has/will influence you to change your DRD habits? How do you think that would affect your life?
I enjoyed reading your post -Sandy
Omar- I like how your post sounded like you were genuinely interested in the book, it made it nice to read.
You basically pointed out the tactics Tobin used to make his book a successful allegory.
I agree with you where you say that although the book is targeted to teenagers, anyone can get something out of it. I said something similar in my post.
To develop your ideas maybe you could use specific examples by using quotes from the book.
To explore this more by thinking about whether Tobin's art would be as effective if it had not been so harsh about the realities of our lifestyles.
You had an interesting perspective in this response- Sandy
Omar- I thought your post was well written
Your main idea was that the two excerpts that you read offered different, more positive ideas about television and video games.
When you make a point to bring up the argument that although video games are frustrating, people still buy them, I thought this was an interesting argument, I see my brothers get frustrated over the games they play but they continue to buy the next versions.
you can develop this post by organizing your ideas in a clear way.
To further explore your ideas, you can get into the specific similarities and differences between Feed and the excerpts.
great post- Sandy
Basically, you researched about Brownie cameras which seem to be old fashioned kind of cameras.
I can connect with you where you say that pictures today do not hold much meaning. I agree, I feel like in general, all the pictures today are to brag about yourself, to post on facebook and tag your friends. Cameras today as so high-tech, they will capture everything, whereas, I believe older kind of cameras seem to have more character and it has more meaning. But I'm guessing that at the time period, those cameras were pretty impressive and were just like any other picture. But I guess now we appreciate the history behind it.
You could maybe deveop this post by getting more into what a brownie camera is because I didn't really get a clear understanding of it.
Maybe you could explore what brownie cameras were generally used for at the time and who used them.
Cool research topic-Sandy
Esther- your experiment was very unique.
This blog post, from what I understood, was that without DRDs you were able to apply your emotions physically instead of digitally
I agree that many things are expensive just because its 'branded,' you have to pay extra to be labelled.
This post could be further developed by organizing and making transitions between your ideas I agree with Andy, this would be a pretty cool short story, I would read it.
Exploring, "America's culture is twisted and base on Death." I thought this idea was very interesting and well put. Aside from the Columbus encounter, how is America's twisted culture related to death?
Very creative- Sandy
Esther- I appreciate that even though you did not finish the book, you made an effort to have a general understanding of what happened and get the assignment done.
You basically said that Feed, as an allegory, was on point with the parallels between Titus's life and our own.
I agree with, "Tidus is living a good life but a tragedy. I don't think they are truely happy anyway. They are just following the norm," I think Titus and his friends just do what they think will make them happy according to society, not according to their own beliefs.
To develop this post by including specific examples of how your life is like Titus's. For example, when you said "The randomness of these conversations entertain our "ignorant" minds." maybe you could explain a specific random conversation that entertains our ignorant minds.
To further explore this post, you could connect Violet's quote that you mentioned to our culture, "Do you know the earth is dead?...We take what's coming to us. That's our way." The earth is dead, and death is what builds up our culture (referring to your experiment post) so, the United States being a "leading country," how does our culture influence the rest of the world?
You post influenced some interesting ideas, I liked reading it- Sandy
Omar- You had a very clear and specific post.
You were bascially saying that Feed is on point in the analogy, teenagers relate to Titus pretty closely.
I agree with you where you said that Tobin decided to make the book a traged to make it more realistic. I wrote something along those lines on my blog post as well.
To devlop this blog post maybe by organizing your paragraphs more concisely. For example, in your second paragraph you have two different ideas, so maybe split that up in two seperate paragraphs.
To explore your ideas, after reading this book do you think it has/will influence you to change your DRD habits? How do you think that would affect your life?
I enjoyed reading your post -Sandy
Omar- I like how your post sounded like you were genuinely interested in the book, it made it nice to read.
You basically pointed out the tactics Tobin used to make his book a successful allegory.
I agree with you where you say that although the book is targeted to teenagers, anyone can get something out of it. I said something similar in my post.
To develop your ideas maybe you could use specific examples by using quotes from the book.
To explore this more by thinking about whether Tobin's art would be as effective if it had not been so harsh about the realities of our lifestyles.
You had an interesting perspective in this response- Sandy
Omar- I thought your post was well written
Your main idea was that the two excerpts that you read offered different, more positive ideas about television and video games.
When you make a point to bring up the argument that although video games are frustrating, people still buy them, I thought this was an interesting argument, I see my brothers get frustrated over the games they play but they continue to buy the next versions.
you can develop this post by organizing your ideas in a clear way.
To further explore your ideas, you can get into the specific similarities and differences between Feed and the excerpts.
great post- Sandy
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Hw 14- Second Text
Resoponse to Everything Bad is Good for You- Steven Johnson
The main argum ents about the texts are, the pros of gaming, television, and internet. Johnson talks about how older generations compare the recent digital representation devices to older ones and the percieve the new ones as bad. Johnson then retorts that and goes through all the positive aspects of DRDs.
The older generations compare reading to video games. The bad aspects of video games are generally that it makes you want to play the game until you beat it, so you just sit there all day playing which prevents physical activity and physical interaction. Like reading, it prevents physical activity. But the pros of reading that Johnson mentioned are, that it allows you to exercise the mind which requires effort, concentration and attention. All that video games require as well. To get to the next level a gamer is focused on the game for long periods of time and thinking of ways to get to the next step. Video games can be challenging as well. In a sense, reading and video games do have some core similarities.
Johnson also makes an argument that says, video games are created to make you curious and make you want to know what comes next, that's why it is so addicting but I personally do not find certain games so addicting and it makes me wonder why that is. I can watch my brothers play their video games for about five minutes and it will not interest me and I wonder, if it is designed to grab my attention, why doesn't it grab mine. I think maybe because I am not so accustomed to them, like in Andy's example of how television does not attract him because he is not accustomed to it, while I might find television entertaining because I am accustomed to it, Andy is not.
Then he argues that in comparison to reading, video games expands useless knowledge. Everything you learn in the game is not necessarily of any help to you. But arguably, in reading, depending on what you are reading, they can be useless as well, such as teen fiction books, they are more for entertainment as well. But we don't really learn anything from them, but it is still reading so it physically looks better than sitting and playing a video game all day. But is it really all that much better? Personally I think a good balance of the two is okay.
Then comparing video games to television. There is no interaction with television, you sort of just pay attention and listen to what is going on. Which personally, I don't think is very challenging to do because the shows are created so that people with limited attention spans can watch and remain interested. Some shows require that you watch it from the beginning so you understand what is going on. Others are entertaining whether you have seen the show or not. Either way, I think you can basically figure out what is going on. Johnson also talks about how the audience has to trust the creator to fill in the details for you. In the positive aspects of television, Johnson explains how the viewer analyzes the relationships in the shows and it forces them to pay attention to the connections between the characters. Television also allows you to connect with the characters. On a reality show, the environments might be produced and fake but the emotions are real and relatable to the audience.
In comparison of internet to video games, there is interactivity. You control what you do on the computer and in video games, you control what you do in the game, but in gaming, what you are doing is more specific. If you want to get to the next level you figure out what you have to do. On the computer there are many more options. You have the option to "project your identity onto," you have the freedom to express yourself through the computer. This exercises your cognative muscles.
This excerpt contradicts with Feed in several ways. Feed mainly argues that television, and internet, and gaming generally forces you to be lazy. Because everything is so easy to have access to, all you have to do is think and your answer is there, it makes us brain dead. Whereas, in this excerpt, it goes through what tv, computer, and games does for us in a positive sense.
The main argum ents about the texts are, the pros of gaming, television, and internet. Johnson talks about how older generations compare the recent digital representation devices to older ones and the percieve the new ones as bad. Johnson then retorts that and goes through all the positive aspects of DRDs.
The older generations compare reading to video games. The bad aspects of video games are generally that it makes you want to play the game until you beat it, so you just sit there all day playing which prevents physical activity and physical interaction. Like reading, it prevents physical activity. But the pros of reading that Johnson mentioned are, that it allows you to exercise the mind which requires effort, concentration and attention. All that video games require as well. To get to the next level a gamer is focused on the game for long periods of time and thinking of ways to get to the next step. Video games can be challenging as well. In a sense, reading and video games do have some core similarities.
Johnson also makes an argument that says, video games are created to make you curious and make you want to know what comes next, that's why it is so addicting but I personally do not find certain games so addicting and it makes me wonder why that is. I can watch my brothers play their video games for about five minutes and it will not interest me and I wonder, if it is designed to grab my attention, why doesn't it grab mine. I think maybe because I am not so accustomed to them, like in Andy's example of how television does not attract him because he is not accustomed to it, while I might find television entertaining because I am accustomed to it, Andy is not.
Then he argues that in comparison to reading, video games expands useless knowledge. Everything you learn in the game is not necessarily of any help to you. But arguably, in reading, depending on what you are reading, they can be useless as well, such as teen fiction books, they are more for entertainment as well. But we don't really learn anything from them, but it is still reading so it physically looks better than sitting and playing a video game all day. But is it really all that much better? Personally I think a good balance of the two is okay.
Then comparing video games to television. There is no interaction with television, you sort of just pay attention and listen to what is going on. Which personally, I don't think is very challenging to do because the shows are created so that people with limited attention spans can watch and remain interested. Some shows require that you watch it from the beginning so you understand what is going on. Others are entertaining whether you have seen the show or not. Either way, I think you can basically figure out what is going on. Johnson also talks about how the audience has to trust the creator to fill in the details for you. In the positive aspects of television, Johnson explains how the viewer analyzes the relationships in the shows and it forces them to pay attention to the connections between the characters. Television also allows you to connect with the characters. On a reality show, the environments might be produced and fake but the emotions are real and relatable to the audience.
In comparison of internet to video games, there is interactivity. You control what you do on the computer and in video games, you control what you do in the game, but in gaming, what you are doing is more specific. If you want to get to the next level you figure out what you have to do. On the computer there are many more options. You have the option to "project your identity onto," you have the freedom to express yourself through the computer. This exercises your cognative muscles.
This excerpt contradicts with Feed in several ways. Feed mainly argues that television, and internet, and gaming generally forces you to be lazy. Because everything is so easy to have access to, all you have to do is think and your answer is there, it makes us brain dead. Whereas, in this excerpt, it goes through what tv, computer, and games does for us in a positive sense.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Feed B
Looking at Feed as an art, Tobin uses the allegory to show the reader the typical modern day teenage life in a more extreme way. Tobin uses the allegory as an artistic choice to force the reader to draw the connections between Titus' life and our own. It was also an artistic choice for him to make the book a tragedy. I don't think the readers would feel the same way of the book had a happy ending. As a writer, they try to send a message to readers, to make them think or feel or notice something. A happy ending would make a reader have an 'its okay because everyone else is doing it' kind of attitude about the book. But because the book is a tragedy, personally it made me feel like our society is so corrupt and so lost in norms and technology and that there's something wrong here. Tobin leaves noticing the negative aspects of modern day teenage life.
Also noticing that Tobin's ending is just pointing out that there is a problem and not necessarily going into what should be done about it. He leaves that for the reader to decide whether to go with the flow of society or do something to make it better. I think because he may not necessarily know what to do about it either, he decides to just raise awareness about the ignorance of younger generations in today's world.
I think he is speaking to both mainstream adults and young adults because I feel like this topic of technology distracting us from the world around us is important not only to the young adults, but also to the mainstream adults because I believe they are getting sucked into all the new technologies as well as the younger generations (also shown in the book).
I would think that Tobin decided to write a book instead of a film or a website to shy away from the technologies. I think it would be kind of hypocritical if he decided to use new film or internet technology to make a point that technology is a negative aspect of modern teenage life and that it is making us more ignorant.
"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think that Feed is both a hammer and a mirror because it shows average American teenagers what they look like and how dumb they act when they are trying to be cool and trying to be like everyone else, but in proving this, it begins to shape the reader, depending on how they are affected by the book, in giving them another perspective. The book I don't think is necessarily telling you what to do and specifically shaping your life but it makes the reader almost feel guilty and get the incentive to want to change because of the book's influence. I would want my art to be a mirror and a hammer as well.
Also noticing that Tobin's ending is just pointing out that there is a problem and not necessarily going into what should be done about it. He leaves that for the reader to decide whether to go with the flow of society or do something to make it better. I think because he may not necessarily know what to do about it either, he decides to just raise awareness about the ignorance of younger generations in today's world.
I think he is speaking to both mainstream adults and young adults because I feel like this topic of technology distracting us from the world around us is important not only to the young adults, but also to the mainstream adults because I believe they are getting sucked into all the new technologies as well as the younger generations (also shown in the book).
I would think that Tobin decided to write a book instead of a film or a website to shy away from the technologies. I think it would be kind of hypocritical if he decided to use new film or internet technology to make a point that technology is a negative aspect of modern teenage life and that it is making us more ignorant.
"Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." I think that Feed is both a hammer and a mirror because it shows average American teenagers what they look like and how dumb they act when they are trying to be cool and trying to be like everyone else, but in proving this, it begins to shape the reader, depending on how they are affected by the book, in giving them another perspective. The book I don't think is necessarily telling you what to do and specifically shaping your life but it makes the reader almost feel guilty and get the incentive to want to change because of the book's influence. I would want my art to be a mirror and a hammer as well.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Feed A
1. I think that feed is on target as an allegory of modern teenage life. When I discussed with John and Omar on Friday about the parallels, it was easy to find what was similar and difficult to notice what was different when comparing our lives to Titus's. We noticed that we both get very distracted by digital entertainment. It allows us to escape from reality and we both use it to our advantage more than we should. We also noticed that we are so brain dead we are almost immobile, people feel uncomfortable walking the streets without their ipods and in Feed, everyone has their technology implanted in their brains. We both don't really know what it is like to live without technology. He found it surprising when he Violet told her that not everyone owned a feed, "only about seventy-three percent of Americans have feeds. Oh I said. Yeah. And so I felt stupid. There's so many who don't?"(112). We find it surprising when we know of people who don't own TVs or cell phones etc.
We also discussed what we thought the lesions represented. Omar thought it was more of the big picture, how we are so digital its almost unhealthy while we talk about it like its something cool. I thought maybe it was like cigarettes, they are clearly bad for you but people continue to smoke because they want to look cool, then it turns into an addiction. Then, we talked about Violet, how she was so aware of everything around her but she still cared about what people thought of her. After a party with Titus and his crew Violet chats Titus and says, "Your friends hate me. They think I'm stupid...They think everything I say is weird and stupid...Take me home."(164-165). Although she tried to resist falling under the typical modern teenage life, she still cared about what they thought of her. In our lives we are constantly trying to be accepted by other people.
2. I think there are two main perspectives to the main tragedy, the culture is collapsing. Violet's perspective as a girl who resists the feed, she sees all the misery in the world, she knows more than just what her feed tells her. "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it? No. No, no, no. We don't know any of that. We have tea parties with our teddies. We go sledding. We enjoy being young. We take what's coming to us. That's out way."(273). She tries to resist the feed by "Trying to create a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it. I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible."(98). Although she was aware of what was going on around her, it lead her to her death.
The second perspective is Titus's, he lives a tragedy because he doesn't notice the world around him. He tries to live his life to the fullest by doing stereotypical modern teenage activities, but he is still unhappy. He lives his life just like any other typical teen not knowing what the feed is doing to them. He is so caught up in trying to be cool but he is never really happy.
"It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279).
His perspective adds to the book as a tragedy because he is always "null," he never seems to be satisfied with the thiings he buys or what his feed suggests.
In regards to my life, I suppose I could sit here and say all the things wrong with my life that would mean my life is a tragedy but I think that would just prove it even more of a tragedy. So I'll say that my perspective can be similar to Titus's in how I am dependant on technology and how often times I can be unaware about the world around me. But when I learn about the world around me, I don't really do anything about it, I may make minor adjustments in my own life which in the end, doesn't really solve anything in the bigger picutre.
Imagining our lives as a movie like a modern teenageer, "My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits"(217) I guess in the end everyone's life is a tragedy because we all will die. There may be happy moments in our lives (of course it is debatable whether we are really happy or we just think we are happy) where momentarily you will be happy but at the end of all our lives is death. As of right now my life is not a tragedy because I'm not dead or totally brain dead yet (at least I don't think I am). I think my life is more of a boring sitcom because I my life isn't dramatically sad or dramatically amazing, so somewhere in the middle.
3. I think Feed is pretty on point, while I was ready I easily related to Titus which basically proves the parallel between average teenagers today and Titus. I don't think Titus and his crew are livin "brag" lives. They may be convinced that they are happy because they are following the norms but I don't think any of them will be truly happy until they decide what makes them happy and goes by that instead of what society influences them to do.
We also discussed what we thought the lesions represented. Omar thought it was more of the big picture, how we are so digital its almost unhealthy while we talk about it like its something cool. I thought maybe it was like cigarettes, they are clearly bad for you but people continue to smoke because they want to look cool, then it turns into an addiction. Then, we talked about Violet, how she was so aware of everything around her but she still cared about what people thought of her. After a party with Titus and his crew Violet chats Titus and says, "Your friends hate me. They think I'm stupid...They think everything I say is weird and stupid...Take me home."(164-165). Although she tried to resist falling under the typical modern teenage life, she still cared about what they thought of her. In our lives we are constantly trying to be accepted by other people.
2. I think there are two main perspectives to the main tragedy, the culture is collapsing. Violet's perspective as a girl who resists the feed, she sees all the misery in the world, she knows more than just what her feed tells her. "Do you know the earth is dead? Almost nothing lives here anymore, except where we plant it? No. No, no, no. We don't know any of that. We have tea parties with our teddies. We go sledding. We enjoy being young. We take what's coming to us. That's out way."(273). She tries to resist the feed by "Trying to create a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it. I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible."(98). Although she was aware of what was going on around her, it lead her to her death.
The second perspective is Titus's, he lives a tragedy because he doesn't notice the world around him. He tries to live his life to the fullest by doing stereotypical modern teenage activities, but he is still unhappy. He lives his life just like any other typical teen not knowing what the feed is doing to them. He is so caught up in trying to be cool but he is never really happy.
"It turned out that my upcar was not the kind of upcar my friends rode in. I don't know why. It had enough room, but for some reason people didn't think of it that way. Sometimes that made me feel kind of tired. It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I'd been running toward it for a long time."(279).
His perspective adds to the book as a tragedy because he is always "null," he never seems to be satisfied with the thiings he buys or what his feed suggests.
In regards to my life, I suppose I could sit here and say all the things wrong with my life that would mean my life is a tragedy but I think that would just prove it even more of a tragedy. So I'll say that my perspective can be similar to Titus's in how I am dependant on technology and how often times I can be unaware about the world around me. But when I learn about the world around me, I don't really do anything about it, I may make minor adjustments in my own life which in the end, doesn't really solve anything in the bigger picutre.
Imagining our lives as a movie like a modern teenageer, "My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits"(217) I guess in the end everyone's life is a tragedy because we all will die. There may be happy moments in our lives (of course it is debatable whether we are really happy or we just think we are happy) where momentarily you will be happy but at the end of all our lives is death. As of right now my life is not a tragedy because I'm not dead or totally brain dead yet (at least I don't think I am). I think my life is more of a boring sitcom because I my life isn't dramatically sad or dramatically amazing, so somewhere in the middle.
3. I think Feed is pretty on point, while I was ready I easily related to Titus which basically proves the parallel between average teenagers today and Titus. I don't think Titus and his crew are livin "brag" lives. They may be convinced that they are happy because they are following the norms but I don't think any of them will be truly happy until they decide what makes them happy and goes by that instead of what society influences them to do.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Digital Experiment:
For my experiment, I watched tv for half an hour, then read for half an hour and noted the similarities and differences. I started watching the show, One Tree Hill, but because our cable is bad, the picture was really fuzzy so I turned to TBS (where the picture was clear) and watched Family Guy. During commercials I would leave to get some food or I'd get distracted by something else very easily so now I can't really remember what happened in the episode, but I know it was one I had seen before. Then after maybe 10 minutes I started watching the Ellen show and the guy from that show Bored to Death was a guest on her show, they gossiped about his marriage and the show and so on. Then I started reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I read the preface which was about how much the book has become a success, then the author talking about how the book came to be. Then I started to read the first chapter, the book starts off where Yossarian, the main character is in the hospital. Then the half hour was up.
I noticed that when I was watching TV, it was very easy for me to get distracted, I could flip the channels and leave the room all I wanted. But when reading the book, it sort of forces you to focus if you want to understand the text. I also noticed that while I was watching TV (my brother was watching with me), you could make commentary with the people you are watching with, watching TV is an experience you can share at the moment wheras, in books, if you make commentary while you are reading, other people don't really understand (similar to reactions to a computer screen), but you can talk about the book afterwards with other people who have read it as well and make commentary. Finally, I noticed that in a half hour of watching tv, you can see the whole story, but in a half hour of reading I only got to read a small part of the story (depending on how fast you read, this can differ). Overall, I feel like both activities can be entertaining as long as you are interested and you understand what you are watching or reading, but television is more instant while reading requires focus and dedication to the book to finish it and see what happens in the end.
I noticed that when I was watching TV, it was very easy for me to get distracted, I could flip the channels and leave the room all I wanted. But when reading the book, it sort of forces you to focus if you want to understand the text. I also noticed that while I was watching TV (my brother was watching with me), you could make commentary with the people you are watching with, watching TV is an experience you can share at the moment wheras, in books, if you make commentary while you are reading, other people don't really understand (similar to reactions to a computer screen), but you can talk about the book afterwards with other people who have read it as well and make commentary. Finally, I noticed that in a half hour of watching tv, you can see the whole story, but in a half hour of reading I only got to read a small part of the story (depending on how fast you read, this can differ). Overall, I feel like both activities can be entertaining as long as you are interested and you understand what you are watching or reading, but television is more instant while reading requires focus and dedication to the book to finish it and see what happens in the end.
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