I know the topic of Facebook may seem to be talked about constantly, but when I revisited the idea of Facebook in terms of what I have learned in this class, I felt like I had some unique things to say. The theory I kept coming back to was the Parasocial Relationship Theory.
Everyone in this class knows someone that has a relationship like this on Facebook. For me, I'm not going to tell you his name, but I went to high school with a guy that leaves comments on over 30 people's Facebook pages in one day and probably only receives one or two responses. I would reply, but I have no desire to open that can of worms. This bond of intimacy that he thinks he must share with several is actually a lie. Facebook promotes this idea by allowing its users full access into the lives of people who may not know everyone that frequently visits their page.
The next topic I thought applied well to Facebook is commodification. It is hard to even see what aspects of Facebook aren't an advertisement anymore. The games are sponsored by either a brand or a person with something to gain. When people think that they are only playing a game, they are actually having a product and/or brand shoved down their throat. Something as simple as trying to help your friend's farm in Facebook's Farmville has now turned into countless hidden messages and advertising. Entities such as restaurants, clothing companies, and music moguls are now using the website via techniques such as creating a page that you can become a fan of as well as the more traditional creation of a group.
Throughout the media logic, I feel as if the Youth of America doesn't really know what they're doing when they socialize on this filthy, advertiser-friendly website. Teens may not be picking up on the advertisements in Facebook, but they are picking up on the amplified themes such as what clothes to wear and not wear, what media to consume, what to eat, and what to think. I dare you to find someone on Facebook that has nothing at all in common with anyone on Facebook. It's as if Facebook has killed creativity.
What are we supposed to do after recognizing this? Are we all supposed to delete our accounts? We can't , as a society, just delete our accounts. There are many real-life opportunities that come from this website such as finding a love interest or a possible career. That is what it was meant to achieve, right? It seems to me that this website has gone "off the beaten path" in order to exploit the users that made it profitable in order to become immensely profitable. Is this entirely their fault? No, but when a kid brings a gun to school, the parent is still somewhat to blame. I blame the consumer mess found on this website on greedy advertisers, but Facebook, I've got my eyes on you.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Reefer Madness
This is a marijuana propaganda film from awhile back, I can't really tell which year it was because it doesn't really say. Well it says 1930 but I don't think that is correct. Anyways, I think this video is very funny because none of the things that happened in the video are even that accurate but they use it to scare people, hence it being a propaganda film. People will believe most anything if you scare the crap out of them and show them terrible things happening like women jumping out of 50 story tall buildings for no reason, men fighting one another which leads to one man shooting and killing an innocent lady and other harmful things like playing the piano while making out with someone. It's funny to see how far we've come as a society from then and now.
Old Spice | Sun :15
This is a great video because it proves a great example of the sex sells idea. The guy in the video is from numerous movies probably most recently seen in Gamer. He's a really funny guy and the whole time you watch any of these old spice commercials you can't help but laugh because of the way he presents the product. Old spice did a great job in marketing their products recently.
ball state ass slapper
I think this ball state ass slapping thing has gotten way too far out of hand. I understand that it was a violation of those females privacy and it was extremely controversial because one of the people slapped was a ball state worker, but we need to let this thing die. I honestly think that it was a funny thing that happened, I don't agree with what happened but I laughed when I heard about it. I've talked about it in other classes and people are saying that this guy is a serial ass slapper and that he's sick in the head and if we don't stop him now then more people will be violated. At the end of the day, honestly, this guy is just slapping asses and not raping or sexually abusing these women. If the most this guy is going to do is slap them on the ass then fine, catch him, fine him a few hundred bucks and move on. There are bigger fish to fry than this loser on a bike. Now a days I don't think he'd get more than a slap on the wrist. Think about, we've had pro athletes kill people while driving drunk, rape women in public places and beat their wives and yet they don't get any hard punishment at all. I personally believe that our PR department and Dr. Gora screwed themselves over by publicly announcing this and sending out mass emails. It was very poorly written too, so that doesn't help their case. Had these women reported it like they did and the police kept it to themselves this wouldn't have been a big deal and nobody would be talking about it. Also, as we said in class, social networks don't help this case at all, it's like adding fuel to the fire.
social network and south park
South Park recently did a show on social networking making fun of people who overuse facebook, specifically. As much as we laughed about at it and enjoyed the show it’s scary to think that there are people out there who really depend on facebook more than anything. If you didn’t get a chance to see it should try and watch it. If you’re not going to do that what happens is Stan, a main character, doesn’t want to get sucked into facebook and get addicted like his other friends. His dad even gets mad at him because they aren’t friends on facebook. Stan finally gives in because his friends made him a facebook. His girlfriend, Wendy, gets pissed at him at school because they aren’t “facbeook official” and she demands he goes home and changes his relationship status to “in a relationship.” The show goes on and Stan eventually gets sucked into facebook. His other friend, Kyle, befriends this boy who has no friends and once people figure out that Kyle is his only friend they all start to defriend Kyle, whom in return can’t keep his Farmville crops growing. His one friend, who kyle doesn’t know, truly believes that he and kyle are friends and acts as though they know each other in and out just because of the status updates he leaves. The point is that people get too involved in social networking sites that it takes over their lives. Social networking sites are great to keep in touch with people but too many of us act like we wouldn’t know what would happen if we lost our accounts. It’s sad.
Tiger the Great
Ever since Tiger Woods had his little run in with his wife and the law, people have been on his case harder than OJ Simpson. I understand that he is not only a role model on the golf course but also off, but at what point to we say, "This is his life and he needs to figure things out for himself in the privacy of his own home."? I don't understand why people are freaking out, it's not like he's the first major athlete to cheat on his wife and get caught. There have been many famous basketball players do the same thing...Michael Jordan, ever heard of him? Greatest basketball player of all time cheated on his wife and it was made big for a few days but not like this. I think people need to keep their nose out of places where it doesn't belong and let Tiger handle his own personal matters. All we should care about is how he performs on the golf course, not off. (No sexual reference meant by that...okay maybe a little bit was meant). The point is we as a society love gossip and scandals. We are driven by it and we always have to be digging a little deeper to find it. STOP DIGGING.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)