The good, the bad, the Internet

In class we talked about the internet and the good and bad things that came with using it. On one hand you can use it to find out information, but not all the information is correct. You wouldn't really be able to know what’s true and what’s not because people can write anything. People can be whoever they want to be over the internet and you would never know they aren't who they say they are.

In my life using the internet for social networking reasons is good and bad. Me being from England and not really having family in America, it helped me keep in contact with them and see pictures of how everyone is growing up and changing. It was nice to see but the negative thing about that was it made me miss being back home and not growing up around my family. One positive thing that came from using the social network that I met the father of my children online and we have not been together for 4 years. Along with the good, there have been negative outcomes from using the internet for social reasons. There have been occasions where it has led to bad attention and people using words to be rude towards me and taking my pictures offline and using them as their own. Now I stay of social networks, they have become too much of a hassle.

The internet does have some good aspects, but it also has some bad ones. It can break up friendships or create new ones. It can make people feel like they have worse symptoms than they do then they go to the doctor or they could read that their so called symptoms aren't bad then don't go to the doctor but it can be something life threatening.

ABC News

In class we watched the ABC news, on of the stories that would be considered "real" news was when they talked about trained terrorist sneaking into the U.S as refuges. It talked about how they had already killed American soldiers and how the system had failed by letting them into the U.S. The government put a 6 month suspension on the refugee program in order to make sure no more mistakes were made and they also hammered down on better background checks. This news would be something real because it could affect many people and holds as a serious threat to thousands of people because they can't determine how many terrorists entered the U.S and also there were two that moved into a nice neighbourhood and nobody knew that they were such a danger.

The story that could be as "meaningless" news was when they talked about John F Kennedy's plane. Although he was a very important man and someone who will be remembered for years, the story was very much pointless. They were showing you the plane and talking about what happened on the day that he got killed. The reporter was getting a tour around the plane and spoke about how the crew on board refused to put his dead body down in the cargo hold and how after that day, 7 other presidents used the plane. This could be seen as meaningless news because its something that occurred years ago and doesn't really affect anyone. Also there have been many programs on TV that would let people know such information, as well as many presidents after him.

Millennials

In class we talked about the different generations and how major things would usually hold a generation together. The millennial generation isn't really known for no major event that binds them together. When I think of millennial I think of the movie "Knocked up". The man who got the woman pregnant had the characteristics associated with a millennial generation person. He was someone who was very lazy and didn't take charge or take situations serious. He was still acting like a child and was forced to grow up, he wouldn't take responsibility for his actions and was very much care free smoking weed with friends and just hanging out. He did eventually rise to the occasion and do what he had to do.

Technology is also a main component associated with the millennial generation. It holds them together, because how fast technology is advancing and its people of my generation that will continue to take it to the next level. Although technology can be a good and bad thing for the reasons it has made my generation lazy and gave them easy access to the main sites they like to visit such as facebook and twitter. When I think of my generation I think of how stuck people are on these social networks and how they use them everyday. How people are so into their phones always texting and talking and how they always want the latest thing out. The good thing is the advancement of technology could take people to a whole other level and it keeps people connected.

"Reality" Televison

In class we read "What happens when people stop being polite" by Chuck Kloserman. Klosterman made the point that people start acting like archetypes they see on TV. He was talking about The Real World TV show and how all the people on there are different and have different personalities but on the show they have a type they are supposed to represent. How if a person is black, everything they do or say on the show surrounds their race and how it is always brought up. As well as if a person is homosexual then they would always talk about that and that's what they would focus on. He was also trying to make the point that people would begin to act like those they seen on TV.

I don't think this is a very strong argument, we don't know them people on TV and although some of us might feel we have things in common with them, that doesn't mean we will begin to act like them or even do everything they are doing. I feel that we would never really know how the people act in "real life" because reality TV doesn't define who they are or show who they really are. With the way television manipulates its audience into believing that something is occurring when its not and cutting and pasting different sections of the day, we will never really know what is real or fake within reality TV. Although I could agree with him when he was making the point how the people who would be the next cast members would act like the ones that was on there before, but I think thats all it is... acting.

Accidental Racist

The song "Accidental Racist" is by a country singer Brad Paisley and it features a rapper LL Cool J. A huge deal was made about this song because of the message behind it and the words they used. Many people didn't like the song mainly because they felt like racism was so many years ago so why is it still being brought up today and why do all whites feel they are labeled as racist and all blacks "ghetto".

It may have been a shock for many people that a country singer and a rap artist would join up and make a song seeing as the genre of music they are in are supposed to have a completely different message. In class we talked about how country singers lyrics are easy to understand, talk about love and tell a story. While rap artists music is supposed to be violent, talk about money and all things being negative. This song has a different message depending on the person who is listening to it though.

Me myself personally don't see anything wrong with the song overall. Although I don't agree with how they stereotyped both groups of people though. LL Cool J talked about wearing gold chains and being from the hood. Not all black people are from the hood nor do they wear gold chains. Many people from different cultural backgrounds can be born in the hood and wear gold chains. I agree with the part of the song when they say "Our generation didn’t start this nation. And we’re still paying for mistakes. That a bunch of folks made long before we came". This is much very true, many of us wasn't born during the time racism was legally okay but people are still fighting to prove they're not racist or that they have been done so wrong.Racism is a very touchy subject for a lot of people but from experiences I've had in my past and to this day, I know for sure racism still does exist whether people want to talk about it or not. The song just brought it to light and let people know that many of us black or white are still paying for something we had no control over nor any part in.

Intertextuality

Now that I know what the definition of intertextuality is, I realize it is something that is big in popular culture. When I think about this, the movie Thor comes to mind. I was watching the movie on Netflix not to long along ago and once it was over something else popped up called Thor and I was thinking it was the second part, was I very wrong. It looked like a "bootleg" version of the actual movie and yes I was upset. Moving on, from the movie has come several things, like comics, toys, games, and clothing / costumes.




Another intertextuality I have encountered would be all these Adidas ads that they have out there, weather its on TV, billboards or just pictures you see on the Internet. Adidas is a popular shoe that many people spend their money on. Most of the Adidas commercials now have me thinking of basketball or associating it with some type of sport. Like if people talk about they want some new running shoes or some shoes for the gym, these automatically come to mind.

Half way through: Popular Culture

Looking back on the first semester of class I have learned a lot about popular culture. How we engage in it everyday as we go on about our lives. The media plays a huge role in popular culture and sometimes dictates how we feel about ourselves. They have false images that we can never live up to because the people themselves look nothing like that. Popular culture has us spending money on things we feel at the time makes us happy and in actuality it might not in the long run but we buy it anyway because it is what is in at that time. The thing I also learned about popular culture is that it changes over time, it is never the same. Although trends might come back out, it is never persistent throughout your life. I learned about how advertisements objectify women and how you can never be to skinny.

What I've also got out of class is how people compare their own lives to what they see on TV and will never truly be happy because they can't compare to what isn't real. A reading we did in class by Chuck Klosterman "This is Emo" would be a great example of how he told us of Hollywood making it impossible to be in love. How we measure our relationships on the prospect of fake love. We let these "couples" on TV tell us what love is supposed to look and feel like and in real life it isn't necessarily like that so we think we aren't in love or were unhappy. Once people start to realize these people are acting while they themselves are in the real world and stop trying to compare themselves to what they see on TV then they might actually be happy because how they feel is real and they won't be looking for actors to tell them how to feel.

People always compare themselves to others and what others have instead of being happy with what they have. It seems everyone always wants to either fit in or stand out by being overly popular. Popular culture had made it to were woman are expected to be sexy and guys are meant to be athletic. It defines who we are as a people and what our values are as a whole. I've learned that popular culture can be such a negative thing. Instead of living our own lives we are so influenced by what we see on TV and the things around us. We always compare ourselves to others instead of being happy within ourselves. We deny or don't want to think that we are brainwashed and have become so accustomed to the values of popular culture that it has become "normal" to us. People focus on these celebrity figures and look up to them when they don't even know them but yet want to be them. This is a crazy world we live in and everything has a label.

Masculinity and Violence

From a very young age boys are taught that they are not supposed to show any emotion. "Only babies cry" and to just shake it off if they hurt themselves or are upset, to just get over it. Society has came up with this idea that in order to be a man, in order to be masculine you need to be strong, aggressive, bold and you must never cry. If a boy cries, he is seen as being weak. If he listens to you and understands, he is seen as being sensitive which is usually a word used to describe women.

Training boys to be societies perception on "masculine" in my eyes is a bad thing. Having them believe that if they cry then they are seen as weak or soft and telling them they need to be hard all the time. I have a son and I don't want him to feel like he can't express his feelings becasuse he will be seen as soft but unfortunately thats what society has come to. Growing up he must win fights, he must play contact sports, he must act like he doesn's care and can stand on his own two feet, he must be buff and work out in order to be catogorized as masculine or he wont be worthy.

The media doesn't help with this either. You have so many shows, movies and music portraying violence so graphically and making it seem like its something cool. Cartoons even portray violence with the bad guys and the good guys fighting it out and to boys this is so "cool". The APA feels like there is to much violence on TV and that it is impacting youth to the extent that they are becoming more violent themselves. You have kids playing video games and wanting to see what would happen when they do that in real life, when in actuality they are taking a life. The APA try to help people on a mental health aspect and want the violence to be cut out on TV. I don't think all violence should be cut out, but at least limit the age of the audience available to watch. Then again, just because a movie is rated R doesn't mean all parents won't allow their kids to watch.
The ACLU begs to differ and believes violence in the media doesn't impact kids. I feel its on the individual and what they have been through in life. Is a movie, cartoon, video game going to be the icing on the cake that will push them off the edge to do mimic what they see?

"Football High" : Is it worth your life

In class we watched a documentary called "Football high". It gave you the real insight on football and how over time it has became a huge sport to high school kids. According to Chuck Klosterman, football would be considered a part of intimidation culture in the sense that we recognize peoples failures and it is a very competitive sport. While watching this I was horrified that people would really play this sport and how dangerous it really was.

Important issues brought up in the documentary was the dangers in football. Two players from an Arkansas high school passed out from heat stroke, both of them were hospitalized. One of the boys who was a 16 year old boy ended up dying due to his kidneys shutting down and going into renal failure. The other boy was lucky enough to make it to see another day, but even after the life threatening experience he continued to play football. They would have the players training in heat conditions as high as 112 degrees on the heat index. There was another case were four high school boys were hospitalized for the same reasons. The death rise in football in the last 10-20years is highly increasing. There is no policy about the kids practicing in such high conditions, only recommendations. If a child dies from heat stroke no one has any repercussions.

Football is becoming such a huge deal that in Shiloh high school, they train excessively and hire private couches to train with the kids and help them with speed, strength and agility, along with other things. They would have around 6 couches to train 40 kids. Parents would take their kids out of the school they are currently attending to put them in a school were the football teams are highly ranked. They would even move homes or rent apartments so their kids can be eligible to play for that specific school. The high school kids would be marketed so that more people would like them. High school American football is even beginning to get a lot of exposure, the kids are doing major press conferences, have to meet a specific fan base and ranked by scouts. The documentary also talked about how the size of footballers has changed over time, before being over 200 pounds was seen a bad thing, now they have players over 250 pounds and the bigger you are the more your cut out for the sport. The kids do weight training and nowadays it is so easy for kids to gain weight and work out to turn that into muscle.

Another issue that was brought up was kids playing football are often getting concussions, which could lead to brain damage. The high school kids are suffering from head trauma and one which was addressed was CTE. CTE was found in the brains of many football players, which was deterioration of the brain. A 21 year old who played football died from committing suicide, but never had any concussions, yet they found CTE in his brain. At least one child in every game is likely to get a concussion. There is no penalty for sending a child back on the field who already had a concussion during that game but there's one for telling him he can't get back in the game until he sees a doctor

The sad thing about this is people are aware of what playing football can do to them and how it can lower their life span. Football is so violent. You have couches telling the kids things like "I'm going to hurt you if you coward down, that not who you are". These boys aren't scared to get injured of hurt, they just want to play. They are told to get back up even if they are hurt, beat peoples brains out. People need to think about is a game more important than your childs life. Why are there helmets if they aren't used to protect them from concussions. Kids are dying every year from this game and again everyone knows what outcome could possibly happen, yet no one cares because its football and in football its okay to beat people down, this is how you prove your manhood, is it really worth it though? All this money being spent to build bigger fields, hire better couches, and get recognition. It's high school, most of these kids wont even live to play in college, let alone have a dream of going to the NFL.

Fake Love

In the reading "This is Emo" Chuck Klosterman explains how the media, music, television (Hollywood) gives people an unrealistic version of what love is. He calls this fake love, he explains how people have such high standard of what love is supposed to be. Klosterman says "no woman will ever satisfy me... but this is okay because I will never satisfy a woman, either". People base their relationships on fictional events. He explains how we measure our relationships against the prospect of fake love and if our relationship isn't how we view them on movies or hear them in songs, then we aren't happy because we believe were not really in love.

In the movie "Maid in Manhattan" long story short, there's a high profile politician who falls in love with a maid who is just getting by financially taking care of her son. He doesn't know she is a maid at first because he sees her wearing a guests clothes that is staying at the hotel she works at. The man eventually finds out shes a maid and that doesn't bother him. They get married and raise her son together and live happily ever after. People will look at this and it would give them hope that they can have nothing and find a wealthy man who will love and give them everything they desired. People who are in similar situations may believe that everything will be perfect from there on out and there will be no arguing, fights or anything. When reality hits, life isn't like the movies and their relationships aren't perfect.

In the movie "Friends with benefits" makes it seem that two people having only a sexual relationship with each other can't just be friends. In the end everything will work out and once again they will end up together and live happily ever after. This movie is based on fake love but many people will compare their lives to this and feel this is how it should be when in reality someone who your strictly having a sexual relationship with isn't bound to be your soul mate.

What are we trying to sell?

Jean Kilbourn from the video "Killing Us Softly 4" would object to an advertisement like this. This add is supposed to selling a bra but in reality it is selling sex. It says "I can't cook but who cares" It objectifies women and basically tells us it doesn't matter if we can't cook, as long as you have big breasts and look a specific way then your okay. It says that this is the one and only wonder bra, is it a wonder becasue it can get you man or make you look like how she looks. When a man looks at this he isn't looking at the bra they're selling, but the woman wearing it and how she looks all promiscuous with her mouth open like shes telling you to come get her. A woman will see how men pay attention to this and want to go out and buy a bra like that thinking that will have men drolling over them like they would the woman in this image. The woman is in a setting by herself and holding the straps of the bra like she could take it of anytime. This add also feeds into the typical stereotype of how women should be the ones doing the cooking, but now it doesn't really matter because something else is for dinner. The add has no information about this bra but if you read inbetween the lines and open your eyes like Jean Kilbourn, you will see that as women we are just sex objects in the media.

Sexiness In Society

Sexiness plays a huge role in our culture today, just as much as it did many years ago. In the 60's, Marilyn Monroe was a major sex symbol and Pamela Anderson was seen as a major sex symbol in the late 90's and onwards. In class we talked about how Marilyn Monroe for her time represented how "new" women were becoming successful, but yet she played dumb. That's what drew men to her as well as her beauty and how she used that beauty to date the greatest men. Were as Pamela Anderson represented a time were sex was much more talked about and acted in a way were she kept nothing private, not even her sex life to date celebrities who try to stay famous. These women were made to be so much more than they were by the media, which led other women to think not so highly of themselves because they thought they couldn't compare to these women.

The saying "Sex sells" is true, sex does sell weather we want to believe it or not. Look at Miley Cyrus for instance on the award show previously. Dancing provocative and being "over sexy" everyone started talking, tweeting and writing about it, people hated it but still commented on it. Everyone had something to say. When we watch movies, 9/10 were watching them because who's in them, rather than what the movie about. The advertisements they post on billboards, TV, newspapers, basically all over the media proves this. You see commercials of these victoria secret models and how they look so flawless and we want to be like them. We see how much attention guys pay their images and want to buy the underwear there wearing because we feel it will make us look beautiful or a guy will look at us that way. We see these celebrities and the way the media makes them look like they are the prettiest people on earth. I feel the more sex a celebrity seems to have, the more famous they become, all these woman are portrayed by the media to be so sexy and we all look up to them and fantasize on being just like them. In reality though, they are all human just like we are and under all that make up and clothing, they have issues just like the rest of us.

Popular Culture and Happiness

Popular culture and happiness go hand in hand in everyday life. They are both temporary and don't last for a very long time. We engage in popular culture by what we wear, watch, listen to, read, eat, drive, really the things we like to do. Engaging in these various activities makes people happy for the time being until there's something else they would like to do. We see celebrities wear certain clothing or have their hair a certain way, then become infatuated with looking like them, sometimes without even knowing it. We go to the mall and spend money on the same style clothing they have, getting our hair the same way they do, because it "What's in" and everyone is doing it. Popular culture changes over time, the same way happiness changes over time. What makes us happy today might not make us happy tomorrow or even a week from now. We let advertisements influence how we feel or even what to spend our money on. They show women on TV dieting or taking these weight loss supplements and to us they look flawless. Our mind begins to tell us if we take what they take we will look the same way and be so much happier. Therefore we want to buy the product. We have so many thoughts on how we would look and what we would do and wear while looking that way. After a while of not seeing progress like how you envisioned you see something else you want to buy and cycle starts all over again. Popular culture and happiness are ongoing events that keep us moving in everyday life.

Isn't she so much "happier"