Doing Homework After THE WORST DRIVE BACK FROM BOSTON EVER

1.
A. Tom Hodgkinson despises Facebook.
B. Agree- My roommate spends Saturday nights at home alone on Facebook, drinking in her bed.
- Facebook and other internet social sites promote "a kind of vanity and self-importance" in people.
Disagree- Advertising in Newspapers is not pointless, they are directed at readers to specific papers.
- Not a disagreement, but the author thinks way too much about drinking.
2. After reading this article, the idea that the media is hypocritical stood out to me. I didn't know that the average household owns three televisions- but I guess I could have guessed that...
3.
- Sex sells
- Vulnerability sells- it makes the consumer feel powerful
- Some women have wider shoulders than hips and are tall and thin... they just don't have any boobs...
- The "ideal" of womanhood has not changed that much in the last forty years
- I am a subject of the media
I felt kind of numb after viewing this clip.
Kilborune uses humor in presenting her research to better sell it to her audience.

Ad Nauseam (It's Over)

Three themes I noticed throughout the book Ad Nauseam were how lonely most people are, how we try to solve this loneliness by conformity and purchasing instead of forming deep and meaningful relationships, often with little alteration of our feelings and then do it again and again (we are insane!), and that most people are very easily convinced and manipulated (we take a lot for granted and don't bother to question).
My question for section 5 is there any research done about the indirect effects of this subliminal messaging? How does it effect behavior, when a consumer chooses not to purchase?
My question for section 6 is it worth fighting the media so aggressively and openly? Don't you have to work through the system to beat the system? If you're fighting all your life, will you have time to be happy? Maybe it's just about be selective... or buying everything in sight! (kidding)

Twitter and Merchants of Cool

Twitter:
1. Twitter is not as bad as first impression would suggest.
2. I have never used twitter myself, so it is difficult to think about it personally. I don't agree or disagree with anything the writer mentions about twitter, because I have no experience with it. I also do not believe I have any friends or family members who use it (or at least none have mentioned it to me) so it has never really come up in conversation. There was one quote in the article though, that really struck me: "We don't think it at all moronic to start a phone call with a friend by asking how her day is going. Twitter gives you the same information without your even having to ask." Isn't that part of being a friend? Caring? If somebody is curious about my life and bothers to ask me what I have been doing, it is an indicator that they care about me, if not, otherwise. I kind of like the subtle social indicator of interest.
3. As I mentioned before, I do not use twitter and have never in the past either. I have no relationship with twitter, social or professional.
Merchants of Cool:
1. There is actually a job position called "cool hunter".
2. Sprite is still a popular soft drink and has a relationship with hip-hop... I haven't seen anyone drink Sprite is years.
3. TRL stands for Total Request Live- have never seen that show and knew nothing of what it is about.
4. 13-year-old girls "party" and grind with boys.
5. How few record labels there are- makes me wonder about some of the "under ground" hip-hop I listen to like Binary Star, who are openly opposed to main stream hip/hop society.

Ad Nauseam

After reading sections three and four of Ad Nauseam, two things stuck out in my mind particularly. First in section three “Consumer Culture and Society”, the mention of the film “Idiocracy” and its dystopian society revolving around our most primitive animal drives: sex, food, and crapping. I myself have seen this movie and am fully aware of how disgusting the portrayed futuristic society is, but at the same time am also fully aware of how sexy Luke Wilson is too. I don’t claim to be above and beyond the media, but reading this makes me ashamed of how much sex, food, and yes crapping (let’s be honest) take up time in my thoughts. I know no person can avoid any of these three activities (or at least the thought of these activities) but it makes one a little depressed when you realize they are time consuming for you too.
The little section “Coked Out of Your Magazine” reminded me of the section of the film “The Persuaders” when it is said that the airline was trying to build a spirit and emotional connection with consumers that cannot be copied by other brands, because the actual product could be mimicked. Coke does not want its advertisements near certain articles, because the content of the articles could interfere with the emotions they want summoned in association with their brand. This would not be as important if Pepsi did not exist and it was actually soda they wanted to sell.

Response to "Get Smarter"

1. As our technology evolves, so will our human brains- both in the direction of improvement.
2. Agree- “We shouldn’t let the stresses associated with a transition to a new era blind us to that era’s astonishing potential.” Change is good, but takes adjustment.

Agree- “In any case, there’s no going back. Strengthening our fluid intelligence is the only viable approach to navigating the age of constant connectivity.” In order to beat the system, you have to work within the system.

Disagree- Drugs better our ability to learn and focus. I have witnessed many who use/abuse these sorts of drugs. Biology should never be overlooked; tolerance to drugs will be developed, just like tolerance to distraction, which might happen more effectively if it happens naturally.

Disagree- I agree with the statement about becoming so accustomed to distraction that we find it difficult to focus even when we are not being directly and/or aggressively distracted. I know a lot of people who have to disconnect their access to the internet in order to work at their computers- just the option/temptation of distraction without any tangible form is distracting enough.

Some Things I've Been Persuaded About

1. Advertisers want consumers to feel “cult like devotion” for brands, not just loyalty
2. Advertisers take advantage of people’s fear of loneliness, and so imply that purchasing a product will enable consumers to achieve a desired lifestyle involving community
3. Advertiser take advantage of people’s need for meaning in their lives, and so imply that purchasing a product will enable consumers to achieve a desired lifestyle involving narrative and transcendence
4. Brands seek to set up emotional connections with consumers, because this connection cannot be mimicked unlike the actual products… but can it?
5. It is an actual concern these days in marketing that consumers will get lost in the brand experience and will be confused about the actual product trying to be sold

P.S. "The Art of Loving" should be read, by all that are ready for different results and are tired of the same old crap...

Inside a Nalgene

I had a dream I managed to squeeze a small plastic toy manatee inside a Nalgene bottle. I woke up the next morning a did exactly that. I did not dream up any sort of meaning from this activity. I had to make that up later, once the manatee was inside the bottle and I was wide awake... habitat loss is the major cause of our biodiversity crisis.

Ziggy Stardust

I Hanker For You Direly

Hello, my name is Janet Ruttenberg. I was born at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where my mother was working as an anesthesiologist. My father had grown up in New York City and wanted a change of scene, so after my youngest brother was born we moved to Newton, which is about fifteen minutes outside of Boston, MA. I mentioned my messing around with google translator over winter vacation in class today, but I also always have fun watching silly videos of house cats on youtube. It was also mentioned today that between my place here in Burlington and my parents home, I have one dog Hugo, six cats (Bootsy Collins, Ziggy Stardust, Wilma, Gregory, Television a.k.a. TV, and Shark), a turtle Elvis, and a late Beta fish Simon. I like that I can obtain accurate research via the web, but don't like how people often assume all the information they find on the internet is such. I would like to work in pet care, and hopefully work to make our pets' ecological footprints lower. I love domesticated animals and wildlife, but I feel it is very important to realize that our pets are just an extension of our human society, and have negative impacts on wildlife as well.