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.