My Final Reflection.

Wow.. I've gotten so used to updating these media blogs that I can't believe this is our last reflection. I've been waiting for school to end, but the fact that we have a few days left with some of our teachers is only now starting to sink in.

These blogs have been really fun. I was able to talk about my feelings toward a few ads that I would have never told anyone else otherwise. I had the opportunity to go out and specifically look for ads and realize how seriously swamped we are with them in our daily lives.

I also learned how to use this website and how to make blogs in the first place...

Now that we're here, the end (dun dun DUN), I don't really know what to say. These media blogs certainly have trained me to question the actions and placement of actors and products, because every small detail was done in that way for a reason.

We've seen the same advertising techniques over and over again, so at some point, many of us became almost immune to them. A lot of us just brush off a commercial and the idea that they somewhat control our lives in the long run. (product wise)

I think the biggest thing I realized through these media blogs and the class itself was that commercials are advertisement. That sounded really strange.. But what I mean is that a lot of us will stop the ad block or ad skip to watch an interesting commercial. But the idea that we are allowing ourselves to be sold an idea or product or allow companies to freely sell their products with our help doesn't really kick in. I realized that by watching those commercials and allowing myself to be vulnerable to the messages of advertisement, I'm allowing those companies to grab a hold in my life and some presence in my daily life.


Why should we allow companies that want tax reforms and desire to take advantage of other countries' low worker pay, to have presence or a role in my day? I don't want to support that kind of thing and thus I'll try to skip all commercials.

What I'm saying now doesn't really make sense because I'm putting together pieces from this semester and my childhood, so there are a lot of holes I don't know what to cover with. I remember actually rewinding or refreshing the pages to watch the interesting commercial I caught a glimpse of while fast forwarding. I think back to that and still ask why I would go so far to allow the brand to freely take away part of my day.

Overall, there were many things that I learned through the media blogs and Critical Thinking class: from the surprising statistics about women's role in the US, to the known but now labeled and categorized advertising techniques, to even the fallacies.

I can't name and give an example to everything I learned, but the media blogs have mostly pushed me to purposely go out and see the changing and updating media. I used to avoid a lot of social media and anything in the world because it took so much effort to find those things out and also a lot of my feelings to empathize with a world event. (Sad current events do take a toll on me..)


But I'm beginning to realize that hiding away as a hermit doesn't do me any good. I have to force myself to get out there and stay updated, especially in this racing society. Unless I want to be left behind with no knowledge of what is considered the easiest type of technology (already halfway there...), I have to grind my teeth and push my feet forward, even if my mind drags along.

Media blogs make me question, will we ever slow down? If we do slow down, will it be from a crash? When will we ever find the true balance between the modern and traditional? Is there even a balance?

In this changing society, all you can really do is grab hold of the speeding trolley and hope that you end up at the right destination at the right time.

Goodbye Media Blogs. For now. :)

Escaping Reality.. Just How Desperate Have We Become?

ZocDoc Lets You 'Escape' the Doctor's Waiting Room with Virtual Reality

ZocDoc is a pair of glasses that allow the user to see a whole different scenery. It was invented and placed in the waiting room of a dentistry to bring some pleasure to bored patients. The sceneries were of green meadows and horses or a blue pond with encasing rocks, and more.

All of the scenes were of nature, so I can understand why it would help those who are a bit anxious to meet the dentist. But if this product was marketed just so that patients have something to do during the wait, I begin to worry for our generation. Those types of inventions are cool and all, but there have been multiple instances where a video game player used those types of glasses to fully experience the game and ended up in a mental asylum. I just think warping our current reality is a bad idea from the getgo.

The moments that we just wait in silence is also important, in my opinion. Like Mr. Tagg says sometimes, there isn't enough silence in this generation and society. There are noises and music everywhere. I personally am privileged to go to the mountains for a weekend every summer, so I enjoy those peaceful moments where you don't hear any cars racing by but only the distant creek and leaves rustling from the slight breeze.

My overall reaction to this invention was, what is becoming of our society. More inventions because of more creativity and inspiration. I get that. But why not lean towards some specific inventions and forget those that could cause some serious psychological damage.

I personally think having to take off the glasses when your name is called in the dentist room and then face reality and a dentist at the same moment is not worth putting myself in the vulnerable situation in the first place.

The Link Between Modern and Traditional

Telecom Giant SoftBank Adapted Digital Comms for an Older User

This ad is about Telecom teaming up with a man named Hiroshima in Japan. His mother has never sent a email in her life and lives on an island with the lowest technology using rate. Hiroshima moved to the city with his family so that his children could experience more things, but that left his parents to miss out on the childrens' growth. So, Telecom teamed up with Hiroshima to modernize the tools that the mother already used in her daily life. For example, SNS could be printed out as a newspaper format from a printing tool inside her mailbox and a robotic box that encases the pole in her house records the childrens' height every time Hiroshima uploads or updates the software.

I think this was a great way to connect with people who are reluctant to adjust to the modernizing world. All this new technology is hard enough for high schoolers who are expected to know how to use a Mac and imovie while not even owning a computer or laptop. So, how can we expect the elderly or just the older generations to adjust just as quickly as us?

This modernization and adjustions probably cost a lot of money, but I think it's worth it if it allows the older and newer generations to find a middle ground.

What Did I Tell You?

Dove's "Amazing Love Story" Ad

I meant to update this post two days ago, but here it is now.

To those of you who caught onto this during my group Dove's presentation, you should remember this ad.

That's right, the famous love story revolving around Dove's deodorant.


Dove's advertising techniques are sometimes very subtle or very abrupt. For the beauty patch, I would consider it to be a very subtle commercial because though the fake patch was made by Dove, there was no mention of Dove until the very ending logo.

So, when comparing the beauty patch to this love story, I would have to say the love story was pretty abrupt. I almost missed it, but Dove's little dove is shown n the bottom left corner in the beginning of the video. Unless the viewer caught onto that, the commercial must have been very confusing at the end because Dove comes out with the line, "The sweatiest moments are some of the most precious." It just seemed like a very bad product placement at the end.

This commercial was one of those that you ask, "What?" at the end of because you didn't catch on that it was an ad (not a story) until the very end.

Old Spice and Screaming

Terry Crews in Old Spice commercials

I've heard a lot about the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa, so I decided to see the ads myself. Turns out, he is good looking and advertises Old Spice in the weirdest scenarios. The ads itself were really strange...

But while I was watching some videos, I noticed that one had Terry Crew in it. This led me to watch all of the Old Spice videos with Terry Crew in it (link) and I don't really have an opinion on Old Spice now.

There was a lot of screaming (which is common for Terry Crews) and a lot of weird transitions and scenes. I'm not really sure what to make of the scenes... There were exploding faces, exploding bodies, muscle-movement-powered-sound system...

If the association that Old Spice is going for is weirdness and crazy fun, I think they are succeeding. But there's a different motive involved, I'm not sure what it is and if it worked. Terry Crew is a very funny person and well known in the media, so we can say that they used a celebrity to sell their product.

             

Miss Representation

Miss Representation.

The statistics in the documentary were very shocking and eye opening. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was this bad. Miss Representation was released in 2011, but from what I see in the media today, not much has changed. Sure there are more activists and mentions about feminism due to big celebrities, but there hasn't been much change in the government roles and corporation memberships. (At least I don't think there has been.)



There were a few quotes by the women that were interviewed that stood out to me. These two were some of them:


Katie Couric's quote is really true because the media can be used for both ways. It can be used to lift and change the way women are percieved and what they are assumed to be, or they can worsen the value of women and their capabilities.

Carol Jenkins' quote was my overall favorite. Women make up 51% of the USA population (from 2011) yet represent a whole lot less than that. So when Carol Jenkins says that what you know about yourself and your country and even your world comes from the male perspective, she is right on point. The media affects our behavior, speech, thoughts, everything. And males dominate the media (well, at least are more represented than females), so that gives them a huge advantage in business, law, everything you can name. I love that she says it's not wrong, but just not democracy. In this way, she is not denying males of their perspectives, but just saying that there is an unbalance in representation.



The other thing I wanted to point out from the documentary was the photo shopped images of models. The left is a photo of the actual model, and the right is the model photo shopped. Personally, the picture of the right is kind of uncomfortable to look at... but that's not the point I want to make. The point is that the documentary said, "The media makes unrealistic expectations for women." Or something along those lines.

We are creating an impossible image that we cannot achieve naturally, and then hate on others and ourselves for not achieving it. I think it's kind of ironic because a lot of people look at these images of models and then strive to be like them: skinny and tall and pretty. But the fact that these visuals are not achievable completely destroys the process.

I'm not sure if my thoughts are being explained in a comprehensible way, but it just seems like a sad ironic tale that doesn't seem to have an end.

Old Vs. New

"Today's Generation"

I've always wondered about the future of our generation. Our generation is the one when all this new technology was made and when new disorders and even diseases arose from overuse of technology.

I can across this picture as I was researching for an earlier post and I found it to be hilarious because it is sadly true.

I remember in sixth grade when I got my first phone. It was a touchscreen but one of those 1 cm thick androids. I could finally text and call but I had no access to the internet or any apps or games until I got a new phone in eighth or ninth grade (Samsung S3). I also remember seeing friends of the same age owning multiple ipods and an actual iphone in sixth grade, and when we were in middle school, fourth graders already had the new iphone 4s.

My family is still "old-fashioned" compared to others in America because we use Windows 7 (or did before the computer automatically updated to Windows whatever its called), use older versions of Samsung and flipphones, and also print out pictures and put them in photo albums. Gasp. What are those?

Photo albums are like scrapbooks, only you usually only fill it with pictures and no decoration or arts and crafts. Just so you know.

I might sound like a know-it-all or an arrogant person, but from the results of the newer generations (some kids can't read an analog clock...), I seriously would not be surprised if some of you never used a photo album before. So many parents and people in general take so many pictures with their phones and most people never bother printing it out and filing it away in an album.

In fact, I remember reading this post on facebook a few years back that mocked the coming generation. It talked about how future mothers will pull out their iphone 1 and 2 when the son-in-law comes over to show him baby pictures. It won't be like back in the day with actual photos.

I just.... I don't even know what I have to say. It's just a huge shock and kind of baffling moment to internalize this change. I still have stacks of albums in my living room from the 1900s (don't worry, it's a joke..) of my parents, and I continue to print out pictures I take on my phone to put into albums.

I think we should continue to print out and file away important photos. Phones can take a lot of photos, but they are sometimes very undependable and erase all your memory. Rather than risking losing all your baby photos, wouldn't it be better to print out the most important ones for the future?