Reflection Post

My first answer to how much media I consume would have been something like, "I think that I'm pretty much consuming media at all times of the day except for when I'm sleeping." I layer thought about my answer a little more and I decided that sometimes, even when I'm sleeping, I dream about my phone, twitter, or certain brands that I want to buy clothes from. This observation really makes me realize the media culture we have in society and how we can't really get away from it. In this way, I'm saying that the amount of media I consume is pretty much infinite. I don't think that the media has completely and fully shaped my personality, but I'd definitely say it has had an impact on my life choices and how I decide to do some things based on what I see in the media. 

I think this class has helped me realize and understand the media and advertising techniques, but I also think I taught it to myself over time. When I was younger, I wanted to wear everything Lizzie McGuire (Hillary Duff) wore or buy everything advertised on TV. As I get older, I realize this stuff is mostly junk and that I really don't need it. 

It is important to have media literacy because without it, we would believe everything advertisers told us. If we believed this, we would just buy in to everything and we would have no space for personal thought. Educated consumers realize how to pick out what and what they shouldn't take away from the media and advertisers. 

Throughout these past few weeks, I've really started to realize the hold that the media has on our society. It's pretty crazy! I've really enjoyed this assignment because it has lead me to really think about what is delivered to us on the daily by the media. 

Apple Watch

One brand that has created a great "coolness factor" is Apple. If you have some sort of Apple product, you are seen as cool. In my experience, even though Galaxys are usually more dependable phones, iPhones are more popular because they're cooler looking.

The new Apple watch is out and I don't really think anyone understands the purpose of it other than it having a tiny touch screen and costing a ridiculous amount of money. My dad got one a couple weeks ago from a fundraiser and I still don't understand it in the slightest. I don't really feel like Apple has worked hard enough to get me to understand/buy it. 

I put the watch on the other day when I went out and most people's reaction was, "Woa is that the Apple watch?" or "how do you like it." Whenever people asked me if I liked it I said that I honestly have no idea. That's when I recognized that I wasn't wearing the watch for it's function, but instead to look cool. What I'm trying to say is good job, Apple, you have created a super successful and working brand image. 

Body Image

One thing I have struggled with my whole life are my body image issues. Ever since I was in about second grade, my friends, peers, and even "best friends" would make fun of me for being chubby, being too tall, or having big feet. Since then, I have been paralyzed, feeling uncomfortable wearing anything but baggy clothes or one piece swim suits. Because of my feelings of insecurity, Missrepresentation is a movie that I really appreciate. 

One statistic in Missrepresentation that really affected me is that 58% of girls who are 13 years old and 78% of girls who are 17 years old dislike their bodies.  A main reason for this is the media's portrayal of women. Advertisers photoshop images of models to show an unachievable level of perfection (perfect complexion, big eyes, big lips, big butts, small waists, skinny legs, big boobs, etc.). Every little girl looks up to these media images for inspiration and guidance. If they are even just a little chubby, they feel that they do not measure up and think they have no value. 

Probably the most frustrating thing to me as a child was the fact that even though I ate healthy and was on a year-round swim team which practiced six days a week, I was never as skinny as my friends. Even as I get older and thin out, I don't see images of women like me in the media. Most models are around my height but are about 40-50 pounds lighter. I wish that when I was younger, strong, athletic women were more well represented in the media. While I understand that there are some people who weigh 110 pounds and are six feet tall, there aren't many and those women are unlikely to be either strong or healthy. I think young girls should see women in the media who are strong; women who can back squat 200 pounds, compete with the fastest runners or swimmers in the world; high jump, run hurdles, or pole vault as role models for success.  Women would be healthier and happier if we could see more images of these strong bodies in the media use those images as role models instead of frail and skinny models. 

Marriage-30-40 is the new 20?

Lately I've been noticing that people don't really get married as much anymore and when they do they are like 30-40. I think that one of the reasons people don't really feel the need to get married early on is because of the sexual promiscuity shown in media. People aren't told to settle down with one partner, they are told to go from bed to bed looking for a fun time. 

I don't think that the whole thing to blame is the media, but I think it could play a big part. A reason could definitely be the fact that people live longer and are healthier than they were even when our parents were our age. I also think it just might be that not a lot of people really see their friends settling down or anything so they don't feel the need to seek that out. 

Wether I'm talking to my brother (a college freshman) or any of my friends who are in college, they just don't really seem to be eager for "relationships." Most college kids think that relationships are too serous because if you start dating someone in college, you may get married to them. Most people think marriage is scary and daunting. I'm curious to see what happens in the future with my friends and my brother. Will they continue casually dating or will they seek out long term serious relationships that will possibly lead to marriage?

Gossip Girl

Even though I hate to admit it, Gossip Girl is one of my favorite TV shows yet. The show follows the lives of a group of extremely wealthy teenagers. For some reason, some sort of crazy drama follows all of the teens. All of the teens start partying (getting extremely drunk and taking massive amounts of drugs) at very young ages. The teens all seem to have little to no parental supervision while they prance around New York like they own the place (they practically do).

This is pretty much every teen's dream-no parental supervision in the big city. In this way, I think that the media is fed by teen's desires to be independent. In other ways, I think the producers feed the viewers some ideas about what they should be doing. I don't necessarily think that many teens walk around New York like adults, go to Paris for the weekend to go shopping, or have their own personal maids. These ideas created by the media give teens unrealistic expectations and make themselves feel uncomfortable in their own economic situations because they can't be the heir to half of New York's hotels. 

The producers of the show assume that teens only care about sex, drugs, alcohol, partying, and money. Some of these things are true but they do not actually consume young peoples' lives like how they do in the show. 

I think the thing that is so appealing about Gossip Girl is how unrealistic and crazy the show is. I kind of feel like I am living my life through Serena and Blair when I am watching the show. 

In fifteen or so years, I don't really think the media will be that different. The plots may change, but the messages won't.

Video Games

Last week, I was at a friend's house and he was playing a video game. I usually would have just ignored the game and gone in another room, but this one caught my eye. This game was super violent and gory. From what I could tell, the main point of the game was just to drive around and kill people. 

One of the main concepts of the game was to violently murder innocent civilians. One of the craziest parts of the game was that the player could just walk up to a cop and violently murder them with knives, guns, spears, etc. 

My later thoughts were that these games must subconsciously get into people's heads. I wonder if people feel like the things that they do in video games translate into real life. Sometimes I think that American's brutal video games have a lot to do with why our country is so violent. 

I think that there should be some sort of restriction on video games. I understand that there are ratings and stuff on them, but I think that is inadequate. Like movies, I think the purchase of video games should be restricted content wise. I don't think it's a good idea to fill kid's heads with violent ideas from these games. 

The Unbreakable Kimmy

Recently, I have started watching a new show called the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The show was created by one of my favorite people in the entire world, Tina Fey. The show is exclusively on Netflix. The show is about Kimmy, an Indiana “mole woman.” The mole women were kidnapped by Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne. The Reverend lead three girls to believe that the world was ending and that they had to take shelter in his underground bunker. The girls are rescued fifteen years later and are shell shocked when they get back in the real world.

            

Kimmy missed out on her teen years and has not had formal schooling since eighth grade. One problem that comes up to Kimmy a lot is her lack of media knowledge. After Kimmy leaves Indiana, she moves to New York City. The first thing she did in NYC was go to the store to buy light up Scetchers. Pretty much every adult knows that light up shoes are out of fashion especially for adults because they are not advertised/marketed towards adults.

           

The show highlights how ever-changing media is. Many of Kimmy’s problems are from her not understanding pop culture references.

Sometimes we don’t realize how fast media and pop culture change around us. Pretty much all you have to do to notice is go backpacking even for only like three days to see. When I was younger, the first thing I always wanted to find out when I came back from a backpacking trip was what the new hit song was. I needed to know this to stay “cool” and updated on the world around me. The cool song changes so often that it’s hard to keep up.

          

I don’t blame Kimmy for being so oblivious to the media after missing fifteen years of her life. After just missing just a few days in the media, I feel outdated and slightly confused.

Ads, ads everywhere!

A very common thing to have in apps now are advertisements. The main ads in apps that I notice are ones in Twitter. The ads will just appear like a normal tweet while I am scrolling through my timeline. Here is an example:

I particularly noticed this one because of how it was taking about a grandmothers love. I thought this was pretty funny because I'm pretty sure my love for my grandma has nothing to do with soap. Maybe it's just me. 

I personally have very warm and loving feelings towards my grandmother so I understand the appeal of this ad. This ad wants me to associate Dove with my grandma, convincing me to buy it! 

I'm not sure if Dove needed to go this far with advertising, but it was a good idea. 

Another place I notice advertising sneaking in is Snapchat. Sometimes I will be watching a live stream Snapchat and a trailer for some movie will pop up. The trailer that has been coming on a lot lately is the movie with Blake Lively in it. I don't even know what the name of the movie is so clearly, trying to advertise in Snapchat doesn't really work. 

Whenever an ad pops up in a Snapchat story, I just tap through it to skip.

Two other places that are also filled with sponsored ads are Instagram and Tumblr. The ads on these apps look like regular posts on the websites and are strategically placed. It's impossible to get away from advertising in media. 

Regatta Advertisements

Recently, I stayed in a hotel called the Comfort Inn. The first thing I noticed when my roommates and I got our room keys was that there were ads on them! Some of the room keys had advertisements for a steakhouse and some of them had advertisements for Papa John’s pizza. This was very out of the blue. Not going to lie, that’s pretty creative! This is a way of advertising that people won’t really notice so it subconsciously gets in their heads. This is a very interesting and innovative way to break through the clutter.

My weekend was full of advertising. Almost every person was wearing shorts that had JL Racing! logos. If you aren’t wearing JL shorts, you get weird looks. Another thing that almost everyone is wearing or has is a US Rowing tank. These tanks just have big US Rowing logos on them. These tanks aren’t free either. These tanks will run you about $25. All you get from this is just paying to advertise a corporation. Even though these aren't original ideas of breaking through the clutter, they are still effective. 

Skintimate Ad "Shave and Shine"

Not gonna lie, I discovered this ad by looking at Scotlyn's media blog post. At first, I was just gonna pass it up, but in the past day since I watched it, I can not stop thinking about it. It was about ten seconds into the video when my jaw visibly dropped. A girl literally says, "she's got a face that's kinda model-esque but she's got leg hair like a porcupine." As I am typing this, I am actually laughing. There is no way this is real right? Well, sadly, it is. Words actually can not express my disgust.

Later on in the video, they have the girl with hairy legs hiding her legs behind a plant. Actually hiding. Talk about body shaming! Later on in the video, the girls start chanting, "My leg hair, I shave it! My leg hair, I shave it!"What? This comes off as the advertisers trying to brainwash their audience.   My favorite line is "She got more numbers than the stock exchange 'cuz she kissed her thorny legs goodbye!" I guess this is supposed to make the viewer feel like they will get the attention of men if she has saved legs. Interesting logic.

My main takeaway from this ad is that I do not want to shave my legs. This ad makes me want to protest shaving my legs because of the way it body shames girls who chose not to shave their legs. This ad is telling girls that having any leg hair at all is completely unacceptable. This message is flawed because it is pretty much impossible to get rid of every hair follicle on one's body, because guess what, women aren't born hairless!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jvLSvaH8hs

Pro Life/Pro Choice

"Pro Life/Anti-Choice versus Pro Choice/Anti-Life/Baby Killers"

No matter what words are used by politicians, everyone knows what abortion is. People who believe abortion should be illegal call themselves "pro life." First off, the word pro has a positive connotation for being good. Life is very positive because we are all alive and we value our lives. "Pro life" advocates would call people who believe abortion should be legal "anti-life" or "baby killers." First off, "anti" is very negative, because it means against. And being anti-life? Well, that just sounds horrible! Every person has his or her own belief as to when life begins, so it's unfair to say they are "anti-life."

People who believe that abortion should be legal call themselves "pro-choice." Pro is positive because it's advocating for a position. Choice also has a positive connotation, especially in America, home of our unlimited choices!  Choice advocates would call "pro-life" supporters "anti-choice" which can be seen as really negative. In America, we value freedom and the ability to make our own choices and don't want anyone to get in the way of us making them.

In his essay, Politics in the English Language, George Orwell outlines how often politicians confuse people by using different phrases and words. All of the different names for the same things would definately be an example. We don't need all of these different phrases that really mean "pro abortion" or "anti abortion." 

My Relationship With Media

Media plays a constant and big part in my life. Even though I hate to admit it, I’m pretty much glued to my cell phone at all times. My phone wakes me up in the morning. My phone is the very first thing I look at when I wake up, to see if I have missed anything from the night before. When I’m trying to “wake up” I listen to music (mostly on Pandora Radio which is full of endless ads for movies, food, drinks, colleges, etc… you name it, its on there). Some of the music I’m listening to has product placements or mentions of products I should buy or the kind of glamorous lifestyle I really “want” to have. Throughout the school day, my phone is never far away. I mostly leave my phone in my backpack. 
I don’t really have much time to watch TV or movies so I get most of my media intake from my cell phone. There are ads on all of my favorite and most commonly used apps (Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Tumblr) all of the time. These apps all give me a false sense of reality in a way and give me a portal into the glamorous, fun, wealthy, partying life that is desired by most. After time everyone gets used to seeing all of these ads and really become numb to them. 
There are a few ads that often really catch my eye. Mostly the controversial, sexist ads posted by most companies. There are also some really cool ads that catch my eye sometimes though. For instance, I recently watched the Nike women’s commercial about being “better for it” because one of my teammates shared it with me as motivation. I thought it was kind of interesting. An advertisement actually being motivational. Can’t decide if that’s awesome or weird. Either way, the people who came up with it were genius. 
I probably didn’t become completely aware of media until this summer, after I went on my trip to Africa. A lot of my views on the way things are presented to us changed. I remember in 7^th and 8^th grade I was super obsessed with fitting in and looking cool. I wasn’t cool unless I was wearing Abercrombie clothes, Victoria’s secret push-up bras, and Juicy Couture jackets. I definitely got over this phase by the end of 8^th grade, but I remember the huge impact this mindset had on my life because I was obsessed.