Social Media Pros vs. Cons

     One of the pros versus cons that stood out to me was how social media can impact students' grades in school. The argument here is whether or not kids who use social media are being negatively affected by it when it comes to school.
     On the pros side, a middle school in Oregon introduced a social media program for students to use to help them stay engaged. After this was implemented, grades went up 50% and the attendance rates went up 33%. Social media can also help college students feel more welcome and reduce the dropout rates among freshmen.
     On the other side of things, using social media while doing homework can also lead to the quality of the work decreasing. According to the article they claim that students who use social media while studying score 20% lower than students who don't.
     After some fact checking, the websites that these facts came from all appear to be legitimate, credible sources. At the end of the day, students should study however they want whether it involves using social media or not.

Product Placement

     Product placement is a great way for advertisers to get their name out there and sell their product. Subtly placing certain brands in movies can be a big way to increase profit. Today, I watched the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. The movie is about race car drivers so I assumed there would be plenty of advertising in it. My expectations became true right away. They threw in some phony brands in the movie but overall there were countless companies that made air time in this movie. Each car in the movie had its own company so that is dozens right there.
     There was on particular scene early in the movie where there was a dinner at Ricky Bobby's house and there was so many different things that were placed on the table for the viewers to see. Ricky Bobby even says a prayer at the table and mentions foods like KFC and a few other major brands. Across the table there are other foods like Subway, and Pizza Hut for the viewer to see. There wasn't one main brand that was used in this scene, but a combination of many brands that the movie producers put in order to make the viewers eat their food.

Favorite Readings

     Throughout the semester, there have been many articles and videos that I have genuinely enjoyed doing. A few of my favorites have been the violent video game readings and the pornography industry readings/videos. In the Violent Video Games reading and the Shooting In the Dark passage, it was interesting to see different viewpoints on the issue from different perspectives. As someone who frequently plays these games like Call of Duty, and other violent games, I didn't really think they affected me. After reading some of the studies that were done, they can affect a person's mood/actions directly after playing which is something I found interesting.
     Another topic that was pretty interesting to learn more about was the pornography industry. This is a topic that is rarely taught in schools, so it was pretty nice to learn about something that was considered taboo to talk about. I especially liked the video about the Duke pornstar because it shows that not everybody supports this behavior even though she is doing it mostly for money.
     There have been some readings and videos that I haven't enjoyed as much. For example, the Rise of the Lavish Wedding was one that I personally didn't find as engaging. The topic of weddings and the history of them just didn't connect for me and had me bored while reading it. I did like the Say Yes to the Dress video we watched in class because it shows how crazy some brides are by spending that much money on their dresses.

Pinked!

     In the article "Pinked", by Peggy Orenstein she talks about how toys and many things have become gender oriented. For example, boys are supposed to play with certain toys and girls are supposed to play with certain toys. This was done by marketers who realized that they could make double the profits if they released toys in separate colors for each gender. The example given in the text was parents buying two different baseball bats for their kids. She states, "If you make a pink baseball bat, parents will buy one for their daughter". This is a smart tactic by marketers, but in the long run could be damaging to children. If kids grow up and think that certain color toys are only for one of the genders, then they are likely going to get bullied for playing with the opposite genders' toys. Kids should be able to play with whatever toys they want and feel comfortable. Like she pointed out in the article, kids will make fun of others and expect them to wear certain things. She tells the story about the girl with the Hello Kitty scooter with a "boy's" helmet and another boy exclaimed "How come your helmet's not pink?". Statements like these are what can make kids feel self-conscious and make them feel excluded from being friends with other kids.
   

Why We Play

     One motivation for why we play is for social contact. A large amount of the time kids are playing video games, it is with someone else. Whether they are physically together playing or just chatting through a headset, they are communicating and they feel good because they aren't alone. Jane McGonigal also talks about this during her Ted Talk. She talked about how video games create a social fabric and she even mentions how people like others more after playing games with them whether they are on the same team or not because it creates unity.
     Another motivation for playing games is there are goals and challenges in them. These keep us motivated because we want the best rewards possible and the challenges help us get there. McGonigal also hits on this point in her Ted Talk. She says that there's always something to be done when playing games and we get constant feedback when playing games. These are things that don't really happen as often in real life. McGonigal also says that people are always willing to work with you online which is another thing that isn't always true in the real world.

Football High

     There are some common themes that appear in both "A Variety of Religious Experience" and "Football High". Among them are religion, rules, transportation, social class, and more. I'm going to be focusing on religion and social class. Football can be associated with religion because much like religion, football generally has a specific day that it's played on which is on Sundays. Both football and religion satisfy our need for our psyche and our spirit. They both also make most people feel good and both teach lessons in different ways. This relates to "Football High" because in it, football and religion go hand in hand. The coach of the Shiloh football team is the son of the pastor of the church they all go to. Also, the church is the one that is paying for the team, essentially giving it the success it has.
     Social class also plays a role in this. In "A Variety of Religious Experience", it discusses how there really isn't any cultural background required to play team sports. This is a true statement for the most part, but in "Football High" it tells the story about how some families move around to different schools because their kid isn't getting enough playing time. This shows that in certain areas, you need money to become successful at team sports.

Mansome vs. Boys Will Be Boys

     In the article Boys Will Be Boys by Guy Garcia, he talks how companies try to advertise to "The Average Man". He goes on to explain that there really is no such thing as an average man because all men are so different and enjoy different things and have different styles. This is also shown in the Mansome documentary because they gave men different topics and many responded different ways. An example is shaving their body. Some said that they did and they liked it while others said they let it grow out because they don't care. 

     In the article, Garcia also talks about metro sexuality. This is when men are almost obsessed with grooming themselves and looking good, something that females are generally known for rather than males. The article talks about how this has become a sort of slur and has a negative connotation. In the video, this is sort of proven because many of the men in the video agreed that metrosexual has become a bad term and one of them said that he didn't know anyone who would be proud to be a metrosexual. 

     Boys Will Be Boys also mentioned how men's magazines are becoming more and more like women's magazines. It states that these magazines are, "serving up testosterone-ized versions of women's magazine staples on beauty, health, and relationships." Mansome also describes this concept and said that men's magazines are treating men how women's magazines treat women. They do this by placing strong expectations on them such as having good abs, big muscles, good hair, etc.

Duke Freshman Pornstar

     In 2014, a freshman at Duke University was caught doing porn as her side job to help pay her tuition. She faced all types of criticism and bullying and the mass media ate this story up. The interesting thing about this story is the way that different media outlets handled it. For example, the internet show, Take Part Live focused mainly on the money aspects of things. They took it more lightheartedly and even made jokes about it, while other media outlets took it more seriously. They did not understand the outrage over this whole situation and compared it to stripping. They just thought of it as another college student trying to make ends meet and do what is necessary.
     In comparison to Take Part Live, the online news channel, Young Turks focused on a different part of the story. They took it a little more seriously and talked about the vicious bullying that this young woman was going through. People online were giving away her personal information and she was receiving death threats. They also believed that she shouldn't be shamed for doing porn but they were more centered on the fact of how bad she was bullied, unlike the Take Part Live crew. I think this is a better way to approach it because they show the issues she went through, unlike the Take Part Live who didn't take it as seriously.

Fake Love-This is Emo

     In the article, "This is Emo" by Chuck Klosterman talks about the idea of fake love. Fake love is being in love with the idea of love rather than being in love someone. Many people see fictional couples and they aren't realistic expectations of what real love is because they are often in situations that ordinary people are not. An example of this is Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez from the High School Musical trilogy. This couple exemplifies the idea that each partner fills the other's needs and makes their dreams come true. After they find each other their lives are happily ever after, which in real life is not usually the case. Young people see this in the movies and expect that their lives will be like this and this will happen to them. It gives kids unrealistic expectations of what to expect from true love. Not every relationship is going to be like Troy and Gabriella and people need to realize that there are ups and downs to relationships and it isn't happily ever after. Although all of us want to obtain the relationship status of many fictional couples, it shouldn't be the expectation.

Mean World Syndrome

    The Mean World Syndrome was an idea proposed by George Gerbner. Basically, he said that the media that we are exposed to is extremely violent such as in TV shows and movies. This violence in the media makes us think that the world is way more dangerous than it actually is. Violence is so popular around the world because it is easy to understand in many cultures and, well its entertaining. If there is s fight going on on-screen it is pretty easy to tell what is going on no matter what language it is in.
    Having so much violence on television can change the way we think when it comes to racial minorities. For example, many Latinos are depicted as being violent and dangerous and are rarely given roles that have them in a nice family setting. Another example is of Arabs or Muslims. They are almost exclusively on television to be portrayed as terrorists and nothing else. This is not a good thing to be portraying because most of the time these groups aren't like this in real life. We dehumanize these groups of people and many Americans think these things to be true and they will treat people in real life as they are depicted in television as terrorists and violent people.

Celebrity Culture- Timothy Caulfield

    After watching an interview with Timothy Caulfield regarding celebrity culture, a few things stuck out. He talked about many factors of becoming a celebrity that many people don't consider.

    The first thing he mentions is the shifts over time regarding celebrities. Values of celebrities have increased over time. Nowadays, people obsess over celebrities more than ever. The odd thing about this is that becoming famous is more attainable now than it ever has been. You don't even need a skill to be famous and we tend to obsess over regular people who are "celebrities". 

    Another one of Caulfield's points was that many people today have a certain illusion of becoming a celebrity. Parents are taking their kids to talent agencies and trying to help them become a celebrity. People also believe their chances of becoming a celebrity are much higher than they actually are. These people are usually delusional about their talent and aren't anything special. 

    The last thing he talked about was one's social mobility. The U.S.A. has a relatively low social mobility level compared to other developed countries, but we have an extremely high celebrity obsession. These things don't usually go together but it shows that Americans have a different way of thinking. 

Pro's and Con's of Pop Culture

     Pop culture is inescapable and there's nothing we can do about it. In "Escape From Pop Culture", by Diablo Cody, she writes about how she goes on a camping trip to try to get away from everything and by the end of the trip all she could think about was pop culture references relating to everything she was doing. There are positives and negatives to pop culture and that's okay because nothing is ever going to be perfect.
    Pop culture can help bring people together who could've never met. Many people we hang out with are most likely people who we share the same interests in music, television, politics and other subcategories of pop culture. Pop culture gives us each our own "social currency"which is used to connect with other people. This social currency helps us achieve desired positive impressions among people who are important to us such as our family, friends, and coworkers.
    There are negatives to pop culture as well. Pop culture can create negative social views from people who don't understand it. A good example of this is the Dungeons and Dragons craze in the 80's that led many parents believing that the game was some sort of devil-worshiping game simply because they didn't understand what was really going on. Another example is how a form of pop culture like social media, can ruin people's lives and promotes bullying and negative behavior. Jon Ronson did a TED talk about how one lady told an inappropriate joke on Twitter, and her life was ruined by it due to the backlash of people demanding she be fired and wishing harm to her.