Wow, gaming articles are not for me! I tried about four times to get through these articles and then I would just keep changing my mind about which would be easier to read and write about. Maybe this is because I am not a big gamer myself. My gaming experience consists of super Nintendo and Game Cube… I guess that makes me a bit ignorant on the subject. I just really don’t see the point of sitting on the coach for hours at a time and pretending to be involved in some mock, fantasy, technological world. Really though, maybe there is a gamer out there who can defend their habits, I would love to hear the other side of the story. My brother always said that it was a way to forget everything and what shocks me the most is that he is active! He plays on sports teams and down hill races, has a job and goes to school. But somewhere in there he has found the time to play Halo for hours on end, and all to forget…? Don’t get me wrong he is not addicted or anything, thank goodness. It just makes me sick to see those skinny, pale teenage boys on intervention who are addicted to video games and their parents are crying “we miss him so much”. Argh… that is just so twisted to me! Sorry to anyone out there who is addicted or finds that they have a problem but honestly…get over it!
Racial Division on TV March 21, 2007
Racial division might just be the stupidest idea that I have ever heard of! I am sad to say that I missed the airing of this desperate attempt to win back viewer numbers. In our society today I think that most people have become very aware of what is appropriate when it comes to racial topics and what is not considered morally or politically correct to say. Almost to the point where people have become hyper-sensitive and are afraid to say anything that could be taken to be even remotely racist. But I hope that, that is just the step that we have to take to find an equal balance between all races.
Reading this got me to thinking that there are so many stand-up comics or comedy shows such as “MadTV”, “MXC” or movies like “Borat” where you often find yourself over-whelmed with racial slur and stereotypes. But for whatever reason this seems to be over looked, I mean I am sure that some of it does get stopped or the producers or comics are punished for expressing these views. But why does it seem to be more acceptable? Is it just that these prod casts are simply hinting at it, or are their producers less well-known? Although I do see some moral and political dilemmas in the latest idea for “Survivor” I do not think that they are that far from what other media sources are producing and showing. I am not sure that it would matter what “Survivor” does, so long as they are separating groups into sub-groups whether cultural, gendered or other, it will appear inappropriate to someone. It seems just as mean, rude and derogatory to me to divide into men vs. women as race1 vs. race2. As soon as you create an environment where there is a specified division, there will be struggles for power and resources. I think that there would be immediate conflict, but I guess that, that was the whole point.
All I really want to say I guess is that the producers chose the potential to make money over keeping their program morally, politically and socially correct. They are ultimately using man-kind against itself and all to make dime. They are exploiting the social issues that we are currently still learning to deal with in our society. This also raises a debate on the aspects of “Orientalism”. I am curious to inquire the race of the men and women who are behind the idea of this division of race theme. It would in no way surprise me if they were Caucasian. According to the dilemmas within “Orientalism” western cultures have been aiming their gaze at eastern culture and are therefore holding the power. So if our society is indeed in a position of power, maybe we could be a little more prudent with it and respect other cultures and not subject them to division within reality TV shows. Because ultimately by showing that racial division is hilarious and turns a profit of television what kind of example are we setting for our future generations…? Just as a side note to all you big company producers, this idea was not all hunky-doohray!
“The Consumer Isn’t a Moron; She’s Your Wife” March 13, 2007
I absolutely love that quote! It just wraps up everything that I want to say on this topic. I do believe that both men and women are starting to realize the antics that advertisers are using in order to sell their products. I don’t think that our society is totally oblivious to the images that are being portrayed and their sexual content, which is becoming more and more obvious and less and less tasteful. But what men and women are not grasping is that these ads are disrespectful and further are becoming deeply embedded in our minds as normal. That is why I love this quote! Sure it is easy to sit there and think “wow any women who buys those jeans hoping to look like that model is an idiot”, but no one realizes that it is their wife, mother, sister, girlfriend or friend who are effected by these thoughts. On the other end of the spectrum women think “wow any man who finds that to be attractive is a total pig, and does not see women as anything more than an object”, but no one realizes that, that man had been persuaded to see women that way. We seem to have pulled ourselves away from the issue, we don’t want to be involved, but it is too late. There is no way that anyone could genuinely say that after every ad they see, they stop for a moment and de-brief. These images and ideas slip into us; unless we consciously fight each idea in every ad, we will be effected. Individuals do not have time to sit down at the end of the day and think over and over again “Women are NOT objects, Men are NOT pigs” … or “Women are marginalized, we live in a man’s world”. Ads have become so conniving and frequent that we no longer have any control over what is embedded in our minds.
When someone is confronted with the question what can we do to stop this cycle; the obvious answer is to say “bring attention to the problem” We need to convince young girls that there is more to them than their sexuality, and to boys that they are more that testosterone. Which does have potential to work and possibly to stop the rapid decline of self-esteem in this country, but who is going to do that? The individuals with the economic capital and resources, of course! And who are those people; well they are owners of large corporations. Alright so here we have Dove, who has done a magnificent job of demonstrating that behind all the work that beautiful woman is actually quite normal looking, nothing special, just average. Which can be helpful, it shows that no one naturally looks that beautiful. So we can all put down our mascara and love ourselves, right? Wrong, Dove ends their ad saying join our campaign, help girls create higher self-esteems. This is just another technique for selling products! The term is called “Affectual Rationality”, meaning that because this corporation is associating themselves with charity and kindness, more people will purchase their products. When a consumer walks into the cosmetic aisle and is forced to decide between a bar of Dove soap or of Olay, Dove is hoping that the consumer will remember the commercial and think “Wow, Dove is really trying to make a difference; I should support them and their campaign” What Dove has just done is sold another bar of soap, how many girls feel better about themselves, we will never know!
The Desensitization of Music Thievery March 7, 2007
It’s hard to believe that despite the fact that stealing music is wrong and illegal, I can’t remember a time when music was not on the computer. The text states that it went “wildly out of control” in the 90s when the internet made it big. Does that mean that there were no issues of stolen music before the golden era of the internet? I find this somewhat shocking; it is just strange to think that no one worried about it at all, until a medium to do so was discovered. All though from another light, I must admit it makes perfect sense, what a paradox.
The way I see it, music is being stolen at such a large and successful rate is for several reasons:
- CDs at record shops seem to be overwhelmingly overpriced, especially when the band is no longer popular.
- There is so much music circulating and so many different genres that it would cost a fortune to keep up with it all.
- As a consumer it is difficult to justify buying a 20$ CD when you only like one song by the band. It is even more difficult to buy a 5$ single track, seeing as there is only one song on it.
- There is this idea out there that Celebrities and Bands are above the rest of society. So despite the fact that the music might be amazing, charging so much for a CD may cause some dissonance in consumers. As much as they want to own the CD, buying it represents supporting the band and therefore supporting an idea that you as the consumer or just a piece of a vast society living under the world of
Hollywood. - Stealing music off the internet or simply burning your friend’s copy is so accessible it would seem foolish not to. On this note, I think that it is also fair to assume that music burners do not understand how they could get caught or the consequences for this action.
- All stores and other consumer based industries have found ways to protect themselves from loses like these. So there is a mentality out there that bands and musicians should be working to protect themselves from getting burned (pun intended). We can take
A Perfect Circleof TOOL for example, Maynard has made his CD’s “non-burnable”.
On the other hand, I do recognize that stealing music is wrong and that musicians work hard to produce the music that they do.
-
- It is difficult to write songs, both the lyrics and the music, but also to get up on stage and perform for millions of eager fans.
- A Musician is a very acceptable career in our society today, so just because they are probably having a lot more fun and living a more comfortable lifestyle does not mean that they are not working. I think in a sense it can be compared to workers being replaced by machinery. Instead of making the most profit that they can be performing the task that they are good at, their employers are investing their time and money into finding ways to get the work done without depending on the actual worker.
- Bands and Musicians are also investing time and money into various other institutions that help keep this capitalist market rolling. Such as record labels, Photographers, Journalists, CD production companies, recording companies and charitable programs.
- Numerous bands and Musicians are also creating their own charitable programs with aims to better the world.
In the end, I guess that I am just searching for a way to understand how it has become acceptable to steal music but not cable or internet or CDs from the store. I want to find where it became desensitized to this extreme.
