Group Project: Social Media Addiction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or08vsMy5gg&feature=youtu.be

It all Comes Back to Social Media

Sadly, we are coming to the end of the semester. Two hours from now I will be sitting in in LB 125 eating breakfast, watching a video, and soaking up the last morsels of new testable material. But for me, it all comes back to social media, and the material we practically began this course with.

Why does it all come back to social media? Is it because that was the first thing on the syllabus that I connected with? Is it that my project group chose social media as our topic? Maybe. It's possible, but I don't think so. That's not the whole story.

I am a self proclaimed comm nerd. This Wednesday when Dr. Messner showed  a YouTube video  called "Google Exodus," I tweeted it to #bsupop out immediately after class. The next day I posted the light hearted view of what Mosses would have done with the internet at his fingers to my sister's Facebook wall, adding the comment "proof social media has changed how humans communicate."

I was amused further when my group members were sitting around my kitchen table working on our social media project and conversation seemingly grind-ed to a halt because in our attempt to search social media sites for an academic purpose we had fallen victim to Facebook's call to log in and tune out.

I remember making the point during a class discussion about social media use, that social media such as Facebook and Twitter, were tools, and people should view them as little more than that, a tool to be used when it's appropriate. Now, feeling a little hypocritical, I admit that my social media use has greatly increased thanks to the creation of my twitter account and the choice to use this topic for my group's project. Spoiler Alert! Our group is even diving into Pintrist for the sake of our video presentation. Before you laugh too hard at the expense of my mildly addictive personality you should think twice.

In an article printed in Newsweek in July of this year (2012) Tony Dokoupil wrote about social media and some alarming peer reviewed research that is finally starting to leak out about the social media generation. Among the info that is given attention by Dokoupil's article is that social media use is leading to the increase in ADD and ADHD. Perhaps even more shocking, Dokoupil points out that there is research that shows that someone who is addicted to the internet has a practically identical brain scan to someone who is addicted to heroin.

After Thanksgiving my group of social media addicts will turn in a project putting down the very tool that temporarily froze our productivity more times this semester than I can count. At the conclusion of this semester I vow to do a social media cleanse. Comm 322 has been an awesome course. I am sad to see it go, but the cliche holds true, "All good things must come to an end."

Men Go to Jupiter...

"Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. Girls go to Mars to get more candy bars." 

“Girls” have never been more complicated than “boys.” While male counter parts on TV have certainly crash landed on Jupiter, shows like last summer's "Political Animals" features powerful women who can kick ass at work, be a caring mother, and struggle though both sides of their lives every step of the way. 

While Sigourney Weaver is perhaps the most relate-able Hillary Clinton the world will ever see. Complex male character like Fraiser Crane are hard to find on network television.

If you're already snoring while reading this blog post that's okay. I'm not the least bit offended. Television programmers have classically conditioned you to do so. If you're nodding your head in agreement then cheers! At the very least, you think you're above the influence. Let's have drinks and watch a Frasier marathon! 

In my last blog post I wrote that I find Woman who have "legitimate" reason to take themselves seriously and do so are sexy, but I didn't expand on that statement. Having had some time to ponder what I wrote and to soak up some more class discussion and material I have expanded this idea. This concept can be, and should be, applied to men as well.

In my mind, people with "legitimate reason" are people who know who they are, appear to be comfortable with their own self truths, and actively play to their own strengths while not being afraid to admit their weaknesses.

It has been delightfully challenging for me to look at just how complicated and prevalent the issue of gender in the media has become. I was repulsed by Hitchens during Friday’s class session. I was embarrassed that he had been given an avenue where he felt it was his responsibility to speak for all men and their perspective on women.

It shouldn’t be about men vs. women. It’s about people. For me it’s about discovering a class at a time what it is to be a feminist.

Reposted with Label

Charles Larson says "Cultivation Theory tells us what kind of things are going on in the world around us and what kinds of things we can expect to happen, when, where, and how often." Basically, the more we observe a behavior the more we look for it.

This means that my preschool classmates of mine expected to grow up to be Barbie and Batman. In theory as we matured into adolescents those expectations should change based on added experiences. But do they? New phrases are introduced into the vernacular, and suddenly it's "cool" to be a "Bitch" or be "Pimpin'."

As my generation has stripped off their awkward hoodies and into their fully realized bodies it's just gotten worse. I, who have grown up trying to embrace that my worldview is in the minority, but I still struggle not to "look" at the sexy, submissive "princess" that walks by my table in The Atrium, and what I have learned by talking to some of my female friends is that being ogled in this way doesn't bother them in the least in certain circumstances. One friend saying "I know that if they look (at my chest) that they are interested in me."

I am not an expert, by any means, of the effects of gender roles and their portrayal in the "big picture," but I can speak to my own universe. After Wednesday's class I found myself thinking about what I find attractive in the opposite sex. The statement I eventually revised and published in my head is "I find women who have legitimate reason to take themselves seriously, and do so to be really sexy.

I realize there is a subjective quality to the word "legitimate," but if I take the feminist perspective when looking at "Princess" and "Super Hero culture" it's obvious to me that these ideas breed sexism. After watching the video in class Friday I have come to the sad conclusion that sexism is unavoidable; however that doesn't make blatantly sexist it excusable.

At the beginning of the class Wednesday Dr. McCauliff said “This is the week that ruins most people’s lives,” and I wouldn’t say that my life is ruined, but I would definitely say my perspective is changed.

  

Food Inc. Follow Up

Last week when we watched Food Inc. in class I found myself dealing with a stomach  in knots, and clearly I wasn't alone. Last Wednesday while walking out of class a classmate I had never spoken to before was so effected by the message of the documentary he started talking to me about it like we met at the water cooler on a regular basis. I admit to being in a hurry and am guilty of not taking the time to learn my distraught classmate's name, but what I felt when the viewing was all said and done was quite different, apathy. 

I felt apathetic after watching the documentary. The fix is in. The FDA isn't doing anything about the problem, and the federal government, which I would argue should keep us safe from our food, is subsidizing many of the practices that put consumers at risk. I walked out of Friday's viewing feeling so powerless to do anything about the system that I actually ate a McDouble value meal that afternoon. 

I realized the irony behind my dietary decision, but I didn't rethink it until today (Wednesday) when I saw a report on CNN that stated   "the number of Americans falling ill or dying from contaminated food has increased 44% in the past two years alone, according to a report released Wednesday."

The report continues to report that appox. 48 million people get sick from tainted food each year, and despite President Obama signing legislation that gives The FDA more power to keep citizens safe, the majority of the law hasn't been implemented yet, and congress has plans to cut funding to The FDA.

This reality is frightening, and honestly, I am not sure how much I can do other than have common sense when it comes to protecting myself from food borne illness on a limited budget.  

Pack a Picnick and a Blanket, It's Millitainment!

First off, let me apologize for creating the new blog at the top of the first screen. This is my first blogging experience, and I'm mildly tech challenged.

More importantly, I want to reflect on the class discussion for this week.


Militainment should frighten us all. Anyone who has ever sat down with a a veteratin should know that we who haven't served in the military don't have a clue what it's like to be in a war zone. The reluctance that many vets have to discuss their experiences in detail should be enough for us to pick up on that.

Video games and cooperate driven reporting encourages us to buy into the idea that war isn't gruesome. It's something that we should pack a picknick basket and grab a blanket to watch in front of the television in primetime. This indicates that history does repeat itself.

In the early days of The Civil War by standers to battles would pack picknick baskets and go out on the hill and watch the battle down in the valley. There was a general belief that battles would be entertaining, and miilitainment was born!

Taylor made the point in class that the media wouldn't produce video games and TV programming if we didn't eat it up, and I agree with her. Our purchasing habits incourage the cooperate media to sell us a picknickable war which we have continud to pack in our baskets next to the raisons. The branding of this war by the mainstream media and US government has worked for our most recent conquests in the middle east. We will have to wait and see if similiar tactics are utilized by the mainstream media and our government in future conflicts to encourage citezens to pack a picknick basket that will make Yogi druel.