Presentations

I really like Danica's presentation.  I liked the way she interpreted the prompt and had a different take on the essay than everyone else did. I thought that her use of pop culture and how people feel about themselves made the presentation so much more interesting. The images she used were intriguing and got me thinking and kept my focus. I also liked that she talked about the health risks involved with certain trends instead of just why it's bad to be a follower and not create your own image. Overall I really enjoyed the presentation!

Buying an Identity, Destroying the World

The way we as American’s tend to view ourselves is based on our possessions. We buy certain clothes in order to portray ourselves a certain way to others. But not only are we buying things for the wrong reasons, we’re buying TOO MANY things for the wrong reasons. It seems that nowadays there is so much more of everything! There’s one car for every driving member of a household, there’s one TV for every room in the house, everyone has their own cell phone, laptop, and numerous other electronics. This overconsumption is harmful not only to our pocketbooks and our self esteems but also to the environment. With all this buying a lot is going to waste. We’re throwing away products as we aquire new ones and the waste is absolutely tremendous. It’s beautifully illustrated in Faustian Economics when it is said, “our national faith so far has been: there’s always more”.  It’s crazy how we can use and use and use and think that there will be no consequences to our actions. Eventually we’ll run out of things like oil and fossil fuels and then what? We have little alternatives as of right now. Our overconsumption needs to slow down if science is ever going to be able to catch up. 

Advertising and Your Emotions

Advertisers use our emotions to trick us into buying things. They tell you it will somehow improve your quality of life. If it’s clothes, you’ll look better. If it’s a car, it’ll run better and people will think you’re cooler. No matter what it is it’s going to make your life better. In Layouts and Illustrations Caples makes the claim that “the principal consideration in selecting the style of type for your copy is that it should be easy to read. The easiest type for people to read is the type they read most often.” This doesn’t seem like an emotional appeal but that’s the trick of advertising. The familiarity of the text draws you in. It seems comforting and something you’re at home with. The smallest trick goes unnoticed by the consumer, they don’t know why they’re so drawn in by an ad. They may mistake this for attraction to the product. These unnoticed tactics are the scariest, in my opinion. 

Web of Connections

We live in such a technological world that it becomes impossible to avoid advertisements. Not only are advertisements everywhere we turn, they also appeal to us whether we know it or not. Advertisers have honed their skills using ethos, pathos, and logos. The advertisers have learned how to appeal to our emotions to manipulate us into buying their product when in actuality we never wanted it in the first place. They play on our memories and try to get us to reminisce. In Making Connections by Anthony Greene describes this saying, “Visiting your alma mater, catching a whiff of burning leaves or finding a letter from a loved one can bring back vivid memories and events you might not have thought about in years. Item associations let us remember that Italy has good wine, and they help us connect people’s names to their faces.” (Greene 27) If we see an ad over and over and it has a common theme then we’re more apt to remember that brand versus others. For instance the Geico Gecko, Ronald McDonald, and numerous other advertisement mascots allow us a sort of familiarity with the company, we begin to feel as though we know them on a personal level and that’s a tactic that advertisers are well aware of.  Blakeslee describes this control perfectly, “Several decades into the era of consumer capitalism the whiz kids on Madison Avenue have learned fairly well how to attach psychic puppet strings to our minds but they will never really know why their tricks worked.” Advertisers know many ways to draw in potential customers and they don’t really seem to know how they’re doing it but they do know that what they’re doing works.

Mindfulness

In a society where media is so prevalent it's important to take time out of the day to reflect. That is what a part of mindfulness is. In "Me, Myself and I" Uwe Herwig states that "when people are in touch with their feelings, they are better able to manage everyday stresses." This is a great benefit in being more mindful and aware of your emotions. In society mindfulness is encouraged. We're always told to "find yourself" and "follow your dreams" which requires some soul searching and reflection. But society discourages mindfulness as well with all the media. The media is such a huge presence that we don't have enough time in the day after we catch up on all the celebrity gossip, new, and our favorite shows. Our free time is spent in front of some sort of screen, be it TV, computer, cell phone, or something else. Nobody ever takes thirty minutes out of their day to just sit back and think. I think that mindfulness needs to become a bigger part of peoples lives. If we're in tune with our emotions our lives overall will be calmer and more pleasant. 

What Is A Postmodern World?

This postmodern world we live in is ever-changing. It's driven by the idea that truth is objective and it simply depends on how you view this situation at this moment in time. And even opinions are subject to change. Nothing is written in stone. All truths are not the same for every person, statistics and evidence can be tailored to fit the desired outcome. As long as somebody has the smallest shred of evidence to backup their claim. Postmodernism is a cultural shift. We are more mobile now than we were in the modern era, and so is our information. According to Walter Truett Anderson's From Modern Self to Postmodern Selves postmodernism shows a mobility of people and symbols as well as cultural pluralism and change. People are moving around now more than ever. They're following their hopes and dreams. They don't feel as tied down to their homes as they used to. Symbols are mobile now as well. With the boom in social networking information is becoming more and more accessible. Anderson states that, "words and visual images are the raw material out of which realities are made." Those raw materials are readily available to anybody with access to the internet. Media can be broadcasted like never before. With the click of a button the population has access to a wealth of information. This is the postmodern world. Freedom, options, understanding. We understand other cultures in so much depth in this new age. With the ability to travel around the world or even to skype with somebody from another country we gain worldly knowledge, maybe without leaving the confines of our own living room. This new world opens so many doors for people. It allows an exchange of knowledge and culture that we've never had before. 

     In this postmodern world one can become anything they want to be. It is easy to change your persona from one day to the next. Much like Clark Kent shedding his suit and tie to don tights and a cape, we can change our identities at anytime we please. Andrea Jones brings up the fact that "skin differentiates but does not isolate. Your singular existence unfolds within it, but skin does not hold the universe at bay." This just shows that skin is the glue that holds the pieces together, it's not what makes up who you are. Who you are is determined by what your beliefs are and what sort of a person you want to be. You can't change what you are on the outside. All you can control is what's inside. In this postmodern world we aren't confined to the traditional roles of society and therefore we can be whatever we want to be. Women are aloud to like working with their hands, men can discuss feelings, whatever we want. This is a major part of what makes up the postmodern world.