Lance Armstrong

Allison Davis, Garret Hoover, Erika Mabee

The Amanda Show

After really thinking about how times have changed, I realize that what my nieces are growing up watching is in so many ways different than what I grew up watching. In a way it kind of worries me. The comic relief I had when watching The Amanda Show usually never had to do with boys or drama. Amanda was funny because she did stupid skits. It was the small things that made us laugh in the 90s. Hannah Montana and other shows of that sort may not show that they are trying to target young girls into social media and growing up too fast, but when you look closer the subliminal messages are never ending. Also, what kind of role model is Miley Cyrus for girls that watch her show? My niece will be wearing a Hannah Montana shirt and then go on the Internet and see her drinking and partying at the bars. Just the other day my niece asked me if I had seen Hannah Montana's hair now that she cut it all off. She said "It's ugly and I can't believe she did that. Is boy's hair ok for girls?" What she sees from her so called "role models" is something that she wonders about everyday. Growing up the media never played a role in my life and all I saw from Amanda or Clarissa was from their show. Why does the media have to get involved in young people's life and in children's television shows?

Princess Culture

From the beginning I grew up around Disney movies. My room was decorated with princesses from the Disney movies and I felt they were real people. I think parents tend to believe that their children are drawn to these sorts of things depending on their sex. I think that from the start parents think it is necessary to buy their children what the norm tells them to buy. For example, one of my first big gifts when I was young was a Disney princess tent. My parents put it in my room and said I would sit in there for hours playing and talking to the princesses. As a young child your imagination runs wild. All the Disney princesses were real and they were my friends. When watching the videos today, I realized that these princesses had a lot to do with why my self-image was very important growing up. I'm not going to say that the only reason I cared about my appearance was because the princesses told me to, but I did want to look like them. Playing with barbies and watching Disney princesses on the television makes one believe that that's was normal girls are suppose to look like. All of these elements impacted the way I grew up.

Being a vegetarian

Throughout college I have met many people who claim that they are attempting to be a vegetarian. Out of all these people who have attempted I know one person who has went 4 years successfully being a vegetarian. He is so proud to say that he has followed through with this. The sad part of this is that he hardly ever eats. I have never seen someone with so much will power to say no to fast food. Being in college, I have no idea how he successfully stays a vegetarian. It is so hard not to just leave your house and pick up something to eat, especially when you don't have food at home (which is almost always). He has told me that there has only been once in these past four years that he has tried eating a hamburger, which he threw up minutes later. This scares me. I am so proud of him for not giving in to these foods, but the kid never eats! It is hard for him to be able to eat like a vegetarian when it is so hard to succumb to these types of foods when you are in college. Organic foods need to find a way to be cheaper and more efficient for people that can't afford them. As bad as I want to be a vegetarian I know I would absolutely hate my life eating lettuce and apples everyday.

Converse

After all this talk today, it made me realize that I don't really notice how much the way other people dress and think affect me. For example, I work at Scotty's Brewhouse and starting October 2nd we are required to black converse sneakers. We absolutely cannot wear anything else. Everyone knows converses are not cheap so I thought I would ask my boss if we could get a knock off brand of these shoes. Surely this wouldn't be an issue. To my surprise we are strictly suppose to wear legitimate converse sneakers. WHY! Now my job is transforming me into a hipster? Or whatever people are called that wear these shoes. I don't mind them, but I don't think it is right that they are making us wear them. I remember in my interview my interviewer telling me that a great thing about working at Scotty's Brewhouse is the individuality the workers have and how laid back it is. Now we are all suppose to wear black shirts, black belts and black chuck taylors. The other waitresses and I joke about how we are going to wear non-prescription glasses so we can fit the "hipster" stereotype better. We just can't get away from this evolving "coolness" I guess.

Facebook support

Today in class when we were talking about how people find social networking as a sense of support really hit home to me. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and when people starting finding out about my diagnosis, the support started pouring in. It was comforting to know that I had so many people that cared about me. I not only got support from my Facebook friends but I also was introduced to information about my disease. It went as far as the community getting together and making a Facebook event to help raise money for my treatment. It helped me in great ways to know how much support I had in the Facebook community.