Hip, Hip Hop, Hip Hop Hypocrite.

 I have been increasingly more receptive to advertisements since we’ve starting discussing it, and therefore more aware of how they affect my mindset. After I see a certain commercial (it doesn’t apply to all, probably even just a small minority, it just seems like a lot due to the amount that are out there) I realise that I am duped. I won’t say that I rush out and buy that product, but I do give it a good second thought. How embarassing for someone who claims to be ad aware. After last night’s class and some methods of analysing advertising, I think I will start to actually analyse, rather than just subjectively judge, advertisements.

 I guess this just goes to show that even if you claim to be ad aware, the makers of advertisements know the mindset. My roommate took a psychology course in the media and advertising and learned about all the ways that psychologists use what they know about how the human mind works in order to more effectively promote material goods towards us. So I guess I can’t feel as guilty as I do, they’re literally getting inside your head. Maybe we should keep using sociology and start using psychology to make advertising a more positive aspect of the media, rather than using this knowledge to lead to our downfall (as Jhally would say).

 Social Sciences unite!

Mood Swing Like It Ain’t No Thing

 I really agreed with what Paul said in the first part of the class about how your mood, the setting, etc can affect how advertisements effect you. I strongly agree with this in the context of ad viewing, but also for many other contexts within sociology.

  When I am hungry, I am more receptive to food commercials, and may make the mad dash across the street to the Convenience Store to subdue my cravings. When I am thinking about making some sort of change in my house, I am more receptive to interior design ads and may jot down some neat ideas or websites. When I am motivated and aware, I seeth at the negative messages being sent by certain advertisers (whether intended or not). And when I am lazy and tired, I am unable to make any reaction to any advertisements. Good thing that advertisers have such a massive audience to work with, or they may have to put out ads based on moods and mentalities. But seems to me they’re doing alright as is.

I love sociology because it is so vast. There aren’t any answers, only good ideas. But the thing is that we are all so insanely unique and individual that you cannot take one theory and apply it to everyone, or even everyone categorized within a certain way, because we are all just so different! And for this I am definately a people watcher, revelling in the individuality that revolve within our society.

You Got Me Good Ads…

 Before we started discussing advertising in class, I thought that I was “Ad conscious” and that I didn’t fall under their trickery. But I’ve been noticing lately how much advertising really does work … and therefore, why should corporations and companies change their methods? As a consumer we get to sit in our living room and basically compare where we want to shop and for what. Convenient. But it’s when we’re being duped into buying things that we normally wouldn’t. My roommate and I were watching a movie on MuchMusic (the title of which is too embarassing to admit) and a Hershey’s commercial came on. Suddenly we were both craving chocolate and ran down to the vending machine. Lack of will power, I know. That is something that we don’t need to be putting into our bodies, nor spending what little money we have on, yet those advertisers knew how to draw out our cravings, and were just lucky that we were weak that moment.

 There are a lot of organizations that are starting to take action because of the assumed effect that advertising is having on our children, media is even being incorporated into the curriculum in schools (and rightly so), but even with these efforts, it is still such a small group compared to the corporations who are putting out these ads. So it’s hard to say whether these efforts will have any effect at all. We can only hope, for the sake of our children.

Sut Jhally you crazy cracker…

 There is absolutely no doubt in my mind which stance Sut Jhally takes on advertising. He boldly claims that advertising will ruin not only our society, but humankind. I can’t help but think he may be a little biased, and I’d really like to know where he gets his facts that “prove” the imminent downfall of our species.

 When he calms down further into his article, he does make some very valid points about our commodity driven society… but none that make me think that advertising is literally destructive. He certainly reminds me of a modern day Marx, and even goes so far as to say what he thinks Marx would comment on were he alive today.

 One thing I want to note is that it is really scary how “medieval” sociologists, in this case Marx, are incredibly accurate about today’s modern society. Paul has mentioned this a few times in class with the evolution of television and the sociologists that predicted technology like it. For this I must give kudos, because I rarely know what will be happening within the next week let alone centuries ahead of my time.

 I think that overall Jhally has some very valid points, and that yes, we should be concerned about advertising and its effects, but I think that the position he takes, that of the “end of the world” lest we do something now, scares many people off. If he is to make such claims, that advertising (of all the many other things we are doing to exploit our earth and society) will lead to our downfall, I really wish he would back it up with some evidence. If not to get the ball rolling with something more substantial than a ranting lunatics (?) words, then to make himself seem more credible.

Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?

 After reading Friedrich’s article, I didn’t come out with any new information, but was reminded about previous knowledge. I would not in a million years consider myself a feminist (I still like my boyfriend holding doors open for me and footing the bill) but I did have to shake my head.

 In a way it’s sad that this exploitation of women through advertising is simply the norm for a 20-year old university student like myself. I may think that it’s degrading and sexist, but I have learned not to judge my own appearance based on what “they” tell me. All I can do is laugh, laugh at how unrealistic it is. Do people actually buy certain products because they think it will make them look like the anorexic, airbrushed model on tv? Unfortunately, the stats and masses of information show otherwise.

 I hope that my next comment is not taken the wrong way … I am already having troubles wording what I want to say.
But, aren’t we pushing an image on men the same way we are on women? Of all of the men that I know, family members, friends, classmates, acquaintances, no two are the same. Yet, advertising tries to group all men together and tell them that they have to be rich, powerful men that give into consumerism and treat women like objects. And then we could talk about sexuality; ads assuming that a sexy woman is going to appeal to all men. That is no longer the case.

 I think that ads are becoming increasingly more aware of how they portray their products, knowing that selling sex won’t appeal to most women, and hopefully not the majority of men either. I do think it is still a concern though, especially with the younger generation; teenage girls who are getting their image aspirations from ads. For those of us who have already been socialized against falling into this trap, it shouldn’t be a problem, but for those who are BEING socialized by television, that’s when the problem arises.

 Friedrich says something that I think really sums it up, “Advertising is a phenomenon in itself because it has such an amazing effect on its viewers, intended or not.”  

Kudos to You, Sociology

 I don’t like to admit it, but I am a very stubborn person. I get an idea in my head, and feel like I have proper justification for that idea, and it takes a very patient (or mean) individual to change my mind and make me see any differently.

 It can be very entertaining when you get another individual, like myself, and debate them. It happened to myself and my neighbor, and we never did come to a compromise. He still likes to bring it up to get me all wriled up, because we know that, after an hour debate later, neither one of us will budge from our belief.

 Sociology is one of those persuaders. Despite how opinionated I am, being exposed to the many different sides of one issue, has made me realise, that yes, I may be right, but that other people can be right too. It’s an opinion. So for that, I thank you, Sociology. I have been forced to open my eyes and to consider the rantings of others, and to maybe, just maybe, give them a little validity.

 But this is exactly the point that Paul made in class. When we are exposed to a new idea, we tend to huddle up and remain with our familiar and personal beliefs. We have grown up being taught one thing, and when someone questions that, it is way out of our comfort zone. I think many of us become defensive, protecting what is “normal” and “right”.
 Sociology makes us break from the mold of familiarity and open our eyes to different thoughts and opinions. We begin to consider different points of view.

 This takes me back to a blog I wrote earlier about the many different sides of Sociology, and that no one can be wrong. So I have learned, after many a Sociology class, to value the opinions of others, if not for the content, then for the mere fact that they have their own opinion … and that it is ‘ok’ for it not to be the same as mine.

 I can’t say that I won’t have my debates and expose my beliefs, but I can say that I will open my eyes and consider what others have to say, if not for what they have to say, then for at least saying it!

Something to do…

 Paul proposed the question of whether we go to the movies because of  a movie that we want to see, or whether we go for something to do.

 I have to admit that I’m one of those people that goes just for something to do. And this past weekend leaves a very good example of this. I was home for my reading break, and my boyfriend took me into Edmonton for my birthday, before we even knew the theatre or what was playing, we decided that one of our activities was going to be to see a movie. I think that when you do it this way, it leads to an underrated experience. First of all you have to compromise on a movie that you both want to see, and you also have to assume that there’s going to be something you want to see – sometimes there’s nothing but crap, sometimes you can’t choose between the ones you want to see. You have to pick a theatre and a day.
 If you went to the movies because there was a movie that you wanted to see, all of this would be decided for you. And hopefully going because you want to see the movie will make it that much more enjoyable, rather than compromising on a crappy movie.

 I can’t say what it is that makes me do this. If there’s a movie that I really want to see, I usually wait until it’s out on DVD, and honestly, I don’t even think about it. I don’t search every theatre on it’s opening night, most of the time I don’t even know when that is. And the funny thing is, I really enjoy movies. Even if it’s really horrible, I like to be able to say that I sat through it all, just to say that I did.

 It could partly be my socialization that going to a movie on a Friday night is “the thing to do”, but mostly it just gives me something to do.

Gettin’ the Ball Rollin’

 I think we probably could have had a whole class and massive debate on the topic of awareness leading to social change. I just wanted to express a few of my ideas regarding this.

 I think that it’s so easy to go either way on this issue.

We can look at the pathetic human existence and everything wrong we’ve done in the world and how we cannot compromise to rest on a mutual decision regarding these issues. We can also look at the statistics (courtesy of Noam Chomsky’s movie last class) that the political, educated class makes up only 20% of society. It’s hard to think that all of these things put together, plus the many more than I haven’t even started to consider, would lead to some form of change.

We can also put some hopeful faith in humankind and believe that we can push our differences aside for the sake of the earth and the generations that will follow us. We can rest the responsibility on only 20% of the aware population and hope to hell they come up with something feasible.

 I wouldn’t describe myself as an optimist, but I have to say that I lean towards the latter. I want to think that if we’ve done all of this damage, and are now smart enough to be aware of the problem, that we will also be smart enough to fix what we’ve done and hopefully prevent it from happening again. But from all of the Sociology courses that I’ve taken, and my brief knowledge of societal history, I realise that change is SO SLOW! So despite my positive outlook on our society’s ability to pull together, I do think that this isn’t something that will be decided, implemented, and therefore fixed overnight. Maybe not even within our lifetimes. I’d like to hope that we haven’t done enough damage to make our generation’s time on earth questionable.  But I could be wrong.

 So ya, that’s what I think. Those 20% can pull up their socks, spread the awareness, and do what it takes to bandaid up this big mess that we’ve got ourselves in. I hope.

Quit telling me what to do!

 We mentioned this quite awhile in one of our classes, but it didn’t apply until now. The Film unit!

 How much of an influence do critics, peers, or just anyone have on how you enjoy a movie?

 I like to get opinions from people I know have seen a movie that I am wanting to see, because I don’t want to waste my time or money on a piece of crap. But then I realised, hey! our opinions are so subjective that even if I’m getting an honest opinion from someone, it doesn’t mean that mine will corresponde. Why, they may even clash.

 I will admit though, that what someone says does have a slight impact on my opinion of the film. I’m going to use “Borat” as an example. Oh “Borat”. I had heard, from a significant amount of people, normal people, like myself, that I absolutely HAD to see “Borat” and that I would literally pee my pants laughing, it was THAT hilarious! Well, can you imagine my excitement as my boyfriend and I walk into the theatre, ready to see the “film of the year”. Can you also imagine my disappointment as I sat throught his piece of garbage and laughed a maximum of three times? I didn’t even get any popcorn! I was so thoroughly disappointed. I’ll admit that I probably wouldn’t have seen the film if it haden’t gotten such “rave” reviews by my peers, but they hype, ho boy, I was so built up, and let down so low. So much, so that I openly gave MY “rave” review for this movie. I had expected so much and got so little that I felt I had to warn people not to go through the same.

 Now, I haden’t thought about this before, but then would MY opinion affect the way that THEY enjoyed this movie (if they chose to see it after my rant)? Perhaps then my roommate went to see it, to find out for herself, and expected nothing more than a chuckle, but maybe this kind of humour was her cup of tea and she literally DID pee her pants laughing.
I guess what comes around goes around.

 I won’t comment on things such as the Oscars and box office ratings and entertainment critics, because to me, they mean nothing about what film I’m going to see. To me, it’s the peers.

 But hey, I’ll still ask my friends what movies they recommend and let them know my preferences as well. It certainly won’t stop me, but it may affect my cinematic adventures for the rest of my movie watching days!!

Ruuuun Forrest, Ruuuun!

 Well I did it. I read the entire Brym and Lie article. Had to take a little gym break in the middle but I got it done!
I never realised how sociological movies were. And after I read what made them so sociological, it was so obvious. I will probably never look at movies the same way again … so thank you, Paul, for turning my leisure entertainment into an extension of class!! 

 I do think it’s important, as blooming Sociologists, to look more critically at something as integrated into our lives as entertainment. I probably watch at least 4-5 movies a month, if not a few more, and lazily watch and unprofessionally critisize what I’m seeing. But I haden’t stopped to realise what thought and intent is put into movies to infuse them with a sociological point. Now I can blame my movie watching on Social Science.

 The comment on the Forrest Gump movie got me thinking. It asked, “Would you like things to happen to you without really understanding what’s going on? Or is it better to live an examined life?”
I think that after this class, and after many other Sociology classes, we won’t have a choice. We will automatically examine and critique our lives, and the lives of others. What I didn’t have a chance to figure out was whether this would be a good thing or not.

 I will be the first to admit that I am a planner. I need to know what I will be doing, all the time. I need to know my day, week, month, and year in advance. (And although I’m open to changes in the plan, I still need one, whether or not that will actually occur). But does this make me live any better of a life? What if I did just slip by from day to day, riding on the seat of my pants? (that’s an expression right? did I use it right?) I don’t know. I guess no one will ever really know. You can’t live the same life twice and examine one and not the other, and then compare them. Sociology has taught me just how different and unique everyone is, and that it’s such an amazing thing, not bad at all.

 I can say that I will continue to plan, because I’d be lying if I didn’t. But I think that I will consider how critically I look at my actions. I guess it depends just what it is. Some things need to be analysed, and others just let go. I guess you can have you cake and eat it too.

 Mmm, cake.