Reflection

I had fun diving into media, because sadly it has a big role in my life. Its everywhere I turn, I see media on the streets, I see it on the big screen or the little one in my hand. I even hear it in the lyrics screaming in my ears. Before I just got really annoyed with commercials, but now I love to watch them and see how they are selling the product. There have been many occasions were I will see a commercial and are like "Nice try with that glittering generalities." I would definitely say that I have become more media literate and determining the message being sent. I can now see how companies have been advertising in TV shows, movies, and in sporting events. The other day while watching the Steelers and Bengals football game, the Allstate logo was imprinted on the net of the goal post, so that every time a field goal was kicked you got to see the Allstate logo. Not only have I become more aware, but also smarter about how too much media time can effect me. Through the movies we have watched in class and some of my own blogs, I see how much control media has over us. It has control over what we think, say, do, and wear. In a way it also controls what we don't do as well. Many of us, primarily teenagers, spend so much extra time on our phones that many of us either don't do homework until very late or not at all. Media is a huge distraction, but is very addictive as well. I don't think I can survive a day without my phone, because I mainly need it for music but also Twitter, Snapchat, and Trivia Crack. I know it sounds awful and I'm definitely not proud of the daily dose of media I need, but now at least I understand what I'm seeing and hearing on the daily basis. Before I would have never known that companies are so interested in understanding their consumers so much and the weird jobs that are involved in collecting that knowledge. Out of every thing I learned about these companies the most concerning part is how they use our insecurities and weaknesses to get us to buy their products. Instead of mirroring their consumers, they multiply the way the average person looks and acts like by like. Only to get a hot and "better" version of the consumer. It is really important that people become better educated consumers so that they see are aware of this. Many people are not aware of this mirroring, so they compare and judge themselves against the models and actors used in commercials and movies. I am glad that I have become an educated person on what companies are doing, but at the same time I will never be able to just watch TV or movies the same anymore. I have to over analyze every little bit of media now. However, I still appreciate my new knowledge about the thing that has a big role in my life. 

Why I hate twitter

Honestly, twitter sucks. It is just a huge advertisement for things no one cares about, but I'm pretty sure most of us are used to seeing ads. So what part do I hate if its not the ads? I hate the stupid pages that so many people find inspiration in or label it as their favorite page. Recently a new page has surfaced called 30 second fights where all they post are people beating each other up. Many of these fights are accruing at school between both boys and girls. This account has 760.6k followers who are constantly seeing fights on their timeline. Research shows that the number of fights accruing across America in high schools a day are on a steady incline. With these new accounts the idea of fighting to become "twitter famous" has sparked many students to pick fights at school just to been seen for 30 seconds on twitter. There is no consideration of the consequences, because  being on the twitter page triumphs any ethical decisions making. Also because many people see violence everywhere from the big screen to the little screen in our hands so we have become more  susceptible to violence.

Not only are there fighting pages but also very sexual and very degrading to women accounts. Twitter is filled with very unethical pages that have a mass number of followers. Teens see these pages and think they can do the same thing. The number of rapes committed by a teen age boy has increased, because they are constantly seeing these pages treat women horrible and sex constantly that they believe they can do it to. On these types of pages are creating a world where people are more focused on those 30 seconds of fame and believe they can do whatever the want.

Reality Tv

 

With everything from Keeping up with the Kardashians to American Idol, reality TV shows have been capturing the attention of not only the United States, but the rest of the world, as well. Some of them aren’t negative influences, but many are. There may possibly be some educational values in a few. Want to learn how to stab a best friend in the back? Watch Big Brother. How about how to raise a child in high school? Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. Reality TV shows have impacted society negatively, because they uphold bad morals, destroy relationships, and exploit their stars. One reason reality TV shows have negatively impacted society is the way that these TV shows uphold bad morals. For example, on Jersey Shore/ Jerseylicious the stars saw how they get better ratings for cheating on their boyfriend or girlfriend, getting plastic surgery, and getting into fights and arguments with friends or enemies. In order to get better ratings, they’ll cheat, get implants, and get into fights more often. Another example of this is Teen Moms. A study has shown that there are many girls aged 13-18 with low self-esteems, who have thought about getting pregnant in order to get on TV. They thought that it would increase their popularity at school, and give them a chance at their own reality TV show. Though, many of the girls who did end up pregnant didn’t get on TV. The girls just got a kid, and the issues that come with raising a baby at a young age. Reality TV shows set a new standard for what the “average” person should look like. It makes people really think about their body image because they see celebrities as one thing. People begin to think that if a whole bunch of girls on Teen Mom look like they should be on Teen Models, then why can the average person not look like that? What people don’t realize is on TV, the appearance of others can be altered by computers with the click of a mouse. Not only that, but beforehand they put on layers and layers of makeup, even if the viewer cannot tell it’s there. The makeup that makes whoever look good is also a way of advertising the product. With all the advertising on reality TV shows, people might as well be watching a half-an-hour long commercial. Those earrings the one girl keeps talking about looking great? Doesn’t it just make the persons targeted want to buy them? Most of these ads are targeted at teens, the audience that is viewing the shows.

Pretty Hurts

Mama said, you're a pretty girl
What's in your head it doesn't matter
Brush your hair, fix your teeth
What you wear is all that matters

Just another stage
Pageant the pain away
This time I'm gonna take the crown
Without falling down, down

Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Perfection is the disease of a nation
Pretty hurts
Shine the light on whatever's worse
Tryna fix something
But you can't fix what you can't see
It's the soul that needs the surgery

Well doesn't Beyoncé know how to tell the truth of what most of us women focus on and how badly it hurts. This song is a frank and very personal take on what beauty is. Perfection and the impossible standard of beauty set in society is corrupting the nation. We all try so hard to reach that singular, narrow-minded idea of “perfection” despite the fact that beauty itself is subjective. The things us women do to ourselves to reach that perfection we are all striving for hurts. She's saying that everything we do for beauty to make ourselves feel beautiful, hurts. The constant struggle to reach perfection is painful and distracts from what really matters in life. 

Beyoncé explained in a video the message she is communicating. "My message behind this album was finding the beauty in imperfection. I had this image of a trophy and me accepting these awards, and kinda training myself to be this champion and at the end of the day when you go through all of these things, is it worth it?" she said. "You get this trophy, and you're like, 'I basically starved. I have neglected all of the people I love, I conformed to what everybody else thinks I should be. And I have this trophy. What does that mean?' The trophy represents all of the sacrifices that I made as a kid," she continued. "All of the time that I lost being on the road and in the studios as a child and I just wanna blow that s--- up." 

There are women who put themselves through that pain for a trophy, but many just to it to look good in the eyes of others. So many women starve themselves to look skinny, get implants to make their boobs or butt look bigger, and get plastic surgery again to look good. But is it really worth it? Us women put ourselves through so much extra pain just because we have gotten it in our heads that our looks are more important than our other amazing qualities.      

I am real not the commercialization of me

Have you ever just looked at yourself in the mirror and thought 'Wow I look good,' but then those confident thoughts and that feeling is just crushed when you see what "true women" look like according to the media. Women in media are shaped into the perfect but very unrealistic bodies but for some reason women are still trying to reach for that body type. A study on body imaging and advertising showed that 69% of girls said that magazines models influence their idea of the perfect body shape. The average U.S. women is 5'4" and weighs 140 pounds whereas the average model is 5'11" and weighs 117 pounds. Even though models are below the average of U.S. women they still get photo shopped into thinner and younger looking women. The images aren't real they are artificial, constructed, and  are impossible to actually attain, but real women and girls compare ourselves against it every single day. Of course this exposure to these "ideal" body images have been proven to lower women's satisfaction with her own attractiveness. In a study 47% of girls were influenced by magazine pictures to want to lose weight, but only 29% were actually overweight. This terrible emphasis on physical perfection has caused women to see their own bodies as over weight and disgusting when they are perfectly fine and beautiful. 44% of women who are average or underweight think that they are overweight, because they sit and compare themselves to bodies that aren't real.  Through this colossal idea about what women's bodies should look like, women have began to lose the reality of what a healthy body actually looks like. We are all so used to the way female bodies look in commercials and movies that we began to believe that we to need to look like that. It's not possible to look like that without living so unhealthy and probably unhappy. We all need to take a step back from media to realize that commercials aren't a mirror or an expectation to what your body should look like its an ad trying to sell you a product by poking at your weaknesses and insecurities. What we all need to realize is that commercials aren't reality they are made up to sell a product. The women you see in commercials are never going to beat the beauty of your natural self. The person you see in the mirror everyday is real and beautiful, the commercialized you isn't who you truly are or who you should be its a model of you who is jealous that you get to be whoever you want to be.

What if men had periods- Manpons

This commercial for the non-existent Manpons very cleverly lampoons the tone of advertisements for men's products. If this were an ordinary tampon ad...well, first of all you wouldn't see the product, it's just too clear where it's gonna go. Instead, you get lots of shots of women jumping into pools and wearing mini-skirts while dancing. Here we just get straight. Also, a detailed explanation of the mechanics behind Manpon technology. It's surprising that this sketch isn't actually written by a sketch comedy group, but by a non-profit called Water Aid. Water Aid works to bring clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education to places where those things are scarce.  Well, they wanted to raise awareness about the fact that 1.25 billion women who do not have access to toilets during their period. If you've never had your period, you might not understand how awful that is. Considering who makes most of the political decisions still, imagining how the world would be different if men got their periods is a good exercise. Dudes wouldn't just be packing Manpax. They'd understand the urgency of these women's situations. Getting your period isn't for wimps. That's why I love this video so much. It makes men think about 'what if I had to go through what girls do' and it makes them realize that they need to be nicer to them and their needs.

2016 Toyota Tacoma

 We all know by now that modern day commercials are degrading. From scantily clad Victoria's Secret Angels to even more scantily clad women eating Carl's Jr. burgers and back to scantily clad women dreaming about men on Valentine's Day, commercials are full of sexism. While unrealistic feminine ideals are constantly pushed upon us, today's ads aren't just sexist against women. Men are targeted by unfair stereotypes in advertising, too. They're often depicted as either idiots or hyper-masculine (or both). I think it is safe to say that this Toyota Tacoma is one of those ads. It not Toyota's fault though, its the harsh stereotype held over men.When the commercial was released Toyota said, "Have you ever seen a thundering stampede of off-road vehicles? In this one-take film, the all-new Tacoma shows how the fearless play. Play Now in the all-new Tacoma." They basically just went along with the whole stereotype that all guys like seeing things get blown up, getting dirty, and being apart of the group labeled fearless. It plays off the stereotype that guys  like things getting blown up for no reason. And not only are things getting blown up in the ad there are dirt bikes flying through the air and a man getting dragged in a tube on a quad, so what man wouldn't see this ad and be like Toyota gets me I am going to buy a Tacoma now. But that's not true. Not every man is captivated by explosions and who says women aren't interested in getting down and dirty to. So in conclusion commercials need to stop playing off of the stereotype of men and women. They need to try and capture what people are really like in there ads not the connotation of things. Toyota isn't the only company doing to, it's everyone.     

Google - Year In Search 2015

 Honestly 2015 was awful and I'm glad to say good riddance to it. Sure there were some great moments and some incredible ones that were highlighted in the Google commercial, but there weren't that many. The video created an illusion of popular mass movement, but most of the many of the movements last year were started because of violence or ended with violence. So much blood was shed and lives lost that everyone has been scared for beyond when the year ends. The year showed the world that as of now peace is a lost key thrown away in the world's deepest waters and no one is willing to dive deep enough to get it. All we do is look up "How can the world find peace?" but we take no actions. 

Google was able to make a 2 minute video of propaganda. This Google video of the most searched questions of 2015 cover these bases:
Ignoring that 80% of "refugees" are economic migrants? Check Cringe worthy "revolutionary" narration. Check Ignoring that "Black lives matter" is actually a racist group themselves? Check Annoying dress fad? Check 
It is just trying to distract Americans from what really happened in the United States, because if you pay attention you can see that most of the events occurred in the U.S. or really interested the majority of the nation. It doesn't necessarily cover other parts of the world. It detracts people from the truth about what occurred last year and because of the years of videos like this one it didn't work for most. However, in the comment section some did say that they cried while watching the video. Its safe to say that the video can go both ways. 

Beside the message of the video, Google did a great job with the music and layout of the video. The music made it an upbeat and happy two minutes. Without the music it would have been very boring. Not only did the music make it sound good, but also the speech by Caitlyn Jenner and the short words spoken by President Barack Obama. The layout of how you see the words searched and the images also keep people's attention. 

Google did what people wanted, they showed most Americans what they wanted. Many Americans don't like to open their eyes and see the true reality of what is going on outside of the U.S. They did a great job to try and sell just how great 2015 was, even though it wasn't.