Social Media Addiction

Gaming

The article about Wii Shall Overcome is an interesting article. I don't really agree with Jane McGonial about gaming changing the world. I think that if she created this 1,000 year long game, it would make America even lazier than we already are. I think video games are one of the many reasons that American's are obese. Children are staying inside all day playing video games instead of playing outside and being active. I do agree that some video can be educational but I think most video games are for entertainment purposes. I think that video games keep you coming back for more because they are addicting. I do like that she says, "What the world needs now are more epic wins: opportunities for ordinary people to do extraordinary things- like change or save someone's life- every day." This is a great point, when you are playing video games you feel this accomplishment when you pass a certain level or win something, this needs to be put into real life. I think video games can sometimes be a waste of time but I also think they have brought a lot of advances to our lives technologically.

Reality TV is NOT reality

Today we talked about our readings Honey Boo and the show Real Housewives. I personally dislike reality TV. I don't think it is any sort of "reality" whatsoever. I agree with the articles that we read. I think that the show Honey Boo exploits some of the children on the TV show. The use of sub titles dumbs them down. When Honey Boo Boo's mom was on the Wendy show they didn't need to use subtitles. She also seemed like she knew how to manage their money from the TV show. She said that they couldn’t touch the money until they are 21 years old. TLC makes them come off as uneducated and these kids are probably more educated than most children. Because of the kids sounding uneducated it makes them also seem poor because of their lack of vocabulary. These children are made fun of like a carnival because of these subtitles and the type of language they use. The Real Housewives is a ridiculous show. It’s about women who have rich husbands and spend all their money and can’t get enough of DRAMA. This show is pretty much about ongoing drama between the housewives. I hope to NEVER become one of them because there are more important things in life than fighting with other GROWN women. I think this show is a bad example because other housewives that have money don’t act like them.

Binge Watching

Binge Watching is a common addiction that everyone goes through today. I have definitely found myself Binge watching shows in my day. The other week I got completely addicted to this new HBO show called “True Detective.” It was such an addicting show, I couldn’t stop myself. I was just like the video that Stevie played in class about Portlandia.  Another show I found myself watching was also “Breaking Bad” I think a lot of people can relate to this. The last season aired this past fall. This show is very addicting because it has such a great plot twist. A dad that used to be a former Chemistry teacher is diagnosed with cancer and starts to make meth to be able to provide for his family when he is dead. Binge watching differs from regular TV consumption because binge watching is watching TV shows one after another without stopping. Binge watching starts to interrupt your daily life because you can’t stop watching. Binge watching involves high cultural, which involves high intellectual involvement “think about it.” When you are binge watching you are normally giving your full attention to this show because you can’t stop watching.  Binge watching can be dangerous, if you are going to start a show you might want to make sure you don’t have any plans because you might start binge watching it.

Zombie Apocalypse

Today Eric King Watts came in to speak to our class. I thought it was a very interesting topic because I can't lie a zombie apocalypse has crossed my mind a few times after seeing Warm Bodies and religiously watching the Walking Dead. The whole zombie thing is definitely a popular concept because we have seen in it in so many movies and TV shows now. I thought it was interesting that this is what he does for a living writes books and talks to people about why he enjoys studying zombies. He talked about how two films from 1932 talked about slave labor, flesh eating, capital consumption and disease pathogens. He compared it today in 2014, these comparisons still exist in all of the zombie movies and TV shows today. At the end I enjoyed when he talked about what do zombie tell us about us? I thought it was weird that he said that, “we are all the walking dead.” After thinking about it is true because we all do have this heightened anxiety about the future…are we all going to die from an epidemic disease, or will the world just end? We won’t know until it happens, but we will constantly have this worry of what is going to happen. I definitely think there is a high possibility of this happening, I’m just not quite sure that we will actually turn into “zombies.”His speech in class was definitely interesting, I had never really thought this much into depth about zombies/zombie apocalypse.  

Fake Book

 I think its funny that Roiphe calls Face book "Fakebook." I do agree with him that some people's news feeds on Facebook are fiction. I think sometimes people definitely put on a show for Facebook because of the attention that they receive from others. I think social media has definitely changed ourselves because it has made us feel the need to post things and share things with all of our so-called "friends." I definitely have a lot of Facebook friends that aren't truly my "friends." I hate reading posts about peoples personal lives..theres just some things you should keep to yourself. It's not surprising to see a girl from high school that’s pregnant or engaged. I just don't think at my age I am prepared to see those things.

From Harmon and Steinways reading about our cell phone usage. I completely agree, we are all WAY too caught up in our phones I feel like half the time people aren’t fully engaged when you are talking to them. It drives me nuts, whenever my sister is on her phone and I’m trying to tell a story or talk to her she has no idea what I said ever and then I find myself retelling the story to her. I think it’s hard for people to really live in the moment, just like that video “I forgot my phone.” The girl in the video is trying to have fun with her friends the whole time but all of them are texting or taking pictures of themselves instead of enjoying their time together. Sometimes we need to realize that living in the moment is more important than being engaged in your cellphone.