Upwardly Mobile: The Rise Of The Connected Class! Blog #8 Social Media Week

          Upwardly Mobile: The rise of the connected class, how ironic. I would say the rise of a totally unconnected class. It is sad to say, but our society in todays world in not near being connected, at least as human beings. We might be connected as a cancer that is destroying our system slowly, but other than that there is probably 1 or 2 people in a thousand that might be really connected with each other and that would be like family members or friends. Sadly enough we can all see the reality that surrounds us. The typical way of thinking is "me" "me" and "me" it is all about "me" Most people tend to forget that they are not the only ones who participate in every action, decision, choice taken or made on a daily basis.

          One of the main topics that grabbed my attention was a question stated in the first paragraph of this ad "how can all humans achieve more in a connected world?"("socialmediaweek") This so out of context, our society is not going to achieve anything as long as we let the social media drive our lives. Social media is full of lies, misleading information. Three of their main key topics in the reading are, "Live, Work and Create".

          Apparently our citizens are being empowered to to take control of their own lives, their health, and education by the Social Media. Businesses are doing great due to the success of the media. I would say maybe this might be a true statement up to a certain level of understanding, meaning what success means to them and what it means to us. Finally, the creativity concept, where they feel that we are in a democratic environment in which Social Media helps to make our ideas come to life.

          I like their closing statement "we’re looking forward to sharing an amazing year with you. Through engaging, entertaining, educational and diverse content and experiences, we will discover how our connected world helps us all achieve more and live more productive lives." ("socialmediaweek") I just feel that in order to make a change, or difference we need to start by acknowledging that we have a big disconnection between each other as a society eventhough we are connected cybernetic-ally. Cheers!!! 


http://socialmediaweek.org/global-theme/

Response to "Miss Representation" Blog Post #7

          Women are as important as men. We find this in the Bible as well as in the Unites States Declaration of Independence. Our fathers felt this way, they made this clear, that we are all equal. When we find the word or statement "men" in the Bible or in the Declaration of the United States it refers to men and women. After watching this video it is not surprising to me to see how this society has been declining in the past few decades. I am only 40 years old, but then again have done some research about how the media is taking control of our society. Media is simply brain washing all of us up to a certain level, some more than others. Media is a good representation of the image of Frankenstein the monster. Dr. Frankenstein created this monster and then lost control of it and was not responsible for him after the fact. The media is this monster which is simply getting stronger and the creators in this case the users or us are not being responsible for our own actions. Marshall McLuhan stated that Television was going to replace the ability to interact with each other and that our society was going to suffer the consequences as a result. "Technologies are extensions of human faculties" (Brey), our eyes are extensions of a book and as a result our brains have become extensions of the Media. Unfortunately, Media as a result is now determining who we are.

          Media has misrepresented the beauty of females in general. We as a society would not exist if there were no women. Women, deserve to take a stand not by them selves, but with the empowerment of men who truly understand what beauty truly means. It is obvious how women are being portrayed as sex symbols and in many cases as objects that make money. From TV shows to movies, ads, video games, commercials and even the news are not hiring women for their intellectual, but rather their "image". Beauty is not in the shape of the body, it is who you are regardless of how you look. The media is simply creating this untamable idea of beauty and our children are the one who will suffer the consequences.

          I am a graphic designer and from experience I can tell you that 99% if not 100% of the models in the magazines and on TV have been touched up and enhance either in photoshop or with make up, but these are just simply people with mistakes and deformities like you and me. 

          I enjoyed the example of Devanshi, the young girl in the documentary who seems like she understand that know one else is in control of her life, but herself. Keeping in shape should be about being healthy and not about looks. Let the media not take the stand for you, rather we take the stand by taking responsibility for what we are doing as users of the media. Let's take a stand and change the view of not just women, but of our future as a society so we don't destroy ourselves due to lack of knowledge.

Brey, P. (2000). 'Technology as Extension of Human Faculties.' Metaphsics, Epistemology, and Technology.
       Research in Philosophy and Technology, vol 19. Ed. C. Mitcham. London: Elsevier/JAI Press. 

A Tale Of Two Brothers

A Tale Of Two Brothers

Once upon a time long, long ago in a kingdom far, far away there was a King who lived with his lovely Queen and their two sons.  The king was often away at battle so the Queen whose name was Anna would stay in the Castle with the two boys.  The oldest of the boys was strong and healthy his name was Jack.  Jack had taken the lead male role in the family, as his father was not always present.

The youngest of the brothers whose name was Peter was slim and a bit frail, he had suffered an illness when he was a baby, and for that reason his mother had always been closer to him. Queen Anna had been afraid of losing Peter due to his illness and she had spent most of her time with him and had not given that much attention to Jack.

As the years went by the King died, Jack was now a young man and he had not met a suitable maiden yet, so he started to develop feelings for his mother the Queen.  Queen Anna was a beautiful woman and any man would have felt attracted to her.  As Jack started feeling lust for his mother he also started to feel hatred and jealousy towards his younger brother Peter.

As the days and months went by Jack’s feelings grew stronger and he felt he needed to eliminate Peter out of his mother’s life.  Jack came up with a plan to kill his brother, he decided to ask Peter to go horseback riding with him deep into the forest there he would lead him to the cave where there lived a dragon and he would leave him there for the dragon to eat him.  He planned to return home to tell Queen Anna that Peter had gotten lost and that the dragon had killed him.  Now he would have the beautiful Queen all to himself and he would make her his woman.

Peter was so excited to go horseback riding with Jack.  He looked up to his older brother and wanted to be like him.  As the young men went deeper into the forest, Peter started to feel hesitant about going too far into the forest, but Jack assured him he had been there before and that there was nothing to fear.  When they came to the cave where the dragon lived Jack got off his horse and dared Peter to go explore into the cave with him.  Peter didn’t want to go but he didn’t want Jack to think he was a coward.  As Peter got off his horse and started to go into the cave Jack ran back to his horse and took off taking Peter’s horse with him.  The horses were going so fast there was no way Peter would catch up with them. 

To Jack’s surprise the dragon was not in his cave but was out looking for food, he caught Jack and killed him.  As Peter was running trying to get back to his Castle he found the two horses and only some bloody rags left over of Jack’s clothes.  Peter got on his horse and headed back to the castle to tell his mother the tragedy that had occurred. 

On his way he met a beautiful Princess named Charlotte from a nearby kingdom who was also riding in the woods.  Peter was immediately attracted to her and introduced himself to her. Peter forgot for a moment what had occurred to his brother.  Peter took Princess Charlotte to meet his mother and told the Queen the sad news.   After some time Prince Peter and Princess Charlotte fell in love and got married. Peter and Charlotte had 3 children and they lived happily ever after.

http://www.goodfon.su/wallpaper/drakon-dragon-peschera-krylya.html

How a Pixar animator learned to think like an 11-year-old girl

Is this Pixar's next Toy Story? 

Animation is the topic of the week. "Pete Docter, the legendary director behind Up and Monsters Inc., has a new animation which is about to hit the big screen. Inside Out is set inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl whose emotions -- joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust -- compete to control her. 

Getting inside the head of a pre-teen is no easy task, but then Docter relishes unusual challenges." ("CNN"). A Psychoanalytical, Semiotic and a Marxist analysis can be done when dissecting an animation like this one. After reviewing this video, we can appreciate the talent and skills an animator must have. How an animator needs to think according to the character being created is important, and to learn to communicate what is important is key. In this trailer we can see clearly how feelings, personalities, and gestures are key to the success of the animation. In this case an 11 year old girl is the main focus of the movie. Pixar is not talking about human nature just by chance  in this video clip, it is because they have a targeted audience and that is to get parents and children's attention. If we grasp the message of the video, we can see how personality is one of the main topics of this movie. How an 11 year old thinks, or in other words how a human being reacts in general. What makes this an outstanding animation concept is the story behind it, the sound effects and the music. Pixar in this case is using an 11 year old as an icon for the next blockbuster hit, a girl whose emotions are very colorful and very interesting in shape within the animation design. "Many corporations use symbols and icons as a means of establishing some kind of “corporate identity” because it is easy to remember a symbol or icon. The design of a firm’s symbols and icons— through the use of color and form and often specific words or numbers— helps give people a sense of what the corporation is like" (Berger, 493-496). In this case I would say that Pixar is a family oriented corporation who is concerned with how kids react in the current society. Great video clip for those who enjoy animation and would love to understand where we are heading as the animators express their perspectives.

Berger, Arthur A. (Asa) (2013-10-15). Media Analysis Techniques (Kindle Locations 493-496). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.  

"How a Pixar animator learned to think like an 11-year-old girl  - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 16 June. 2015.<http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/entertainment/disney-pixar-animation-inside-out-pete-docter/index.html>.

Orange is the New Black, Marxist Analysis

Orange is the New Black, a TV series in which we can see stereotyping, racism, materialism, and different social class levels in conflict. The first episode titled "I wasn't ready" is full of Marxist content, an entire paper can be written only about the first 5 minutes alone. This is the first time I watched this TV show and I got interested or hooked up not because of the content, but rather because after the Marxist Perspective reading I can better understand what this TV show does to the viewer. Piper's perspective is the only view we can perceived the most, we identify with her as a new inmate inside of this jail environment. As the show develops we start to see that not just Piper's perspective changes drastically, but ours as well. We can clearly appreciate a class relationship issue as well as a societal conflict in the first half of the show. Law enforcement, guards in this case are portrayed as jerks, stupid and pigs with empowerment. Men in general are also portrayed as pigs especially when Piper's fiancé farts in the bed when she walks away into the restroom and then when Piper makes that phone call and the guard starts to masturbate. The idea of making love is lost in this episode it is referred as f***me instead. Yes, it seems like Piper is in love, however she was also in love 10 year before that and see what happened to her. Society is loosing the true meaning of what is truth. Money is portrayed as happiness and satisfaction at the beginning of the show accompany with sexual seduction and satisfaction, and at the end it is portrayed as perversion and the reason why we end up making the most stupid mistakes possible.

I liked the scene where one of the inmates slaps one of the new inmates, the Latina; which to our delightment the one who slaps her was her own mother. Here we see a vicious circle of social relationship issues in which it portrays an idea that if you are in jail most likely your kid's will end up in jail, just like the wrongful mentality that if you smoke, drink or do drugs your kid's will also end up using these. The media portrays stereotypes that drive our way of thinking and slowly, but surely these ideas stay in our mind and it is when people make stupid decisions and react improperly to certain events in life.

It is clearly communicated through S. Healy the guard who is doing Piper's documentation that there is a broken system in place, he stated to Piper during their conversation as to how she ended up in that place and I quote "and here you are, costing the tax payers money and sweating in my arm chair. You know I have been here for 22 years and I still can figure out how this system works. I have a crack dealer who is doing nine months and then I have a lady who accidentally backed up into a mailman who is doing four years. The guy broke his column bone, but come on I just don't get it." (Wasn't). The system of our country is portrayed as a broken system, is the system broken? After seeing TV shows like these and watching the news like the ones we typically watch on the daily basis it is possible that we are being brain washed little by little to believe these ideas to the point that we no longer trust the laws of our country.

Unfortunately, everything is about money and sex and drugs in today's world for many people. It sounds like the 70's, right? or is it that this movement never went away, but is is simply being emphasized via the the media today? This is why Piper makes her biggest mistake by getting involved with her rich trafficking lesbian partner.

Finally, racism is very well shown throughout the entire episode, especially when the driver of the jail bus tells Piper that she takes care of her own people. Marxist views are all over this show, I can continue sharing my thoughts about the many social, political and societal issues portrayed in "Orange is the New Black" episode, but I think I have contributed to this blog up to this point with the above. Overall, great show, good actors, content is on the grey area in my opinion. This can be of negative impact for people who are not ready to watch and understand the true message.



"I Wasn't ready" Orange is the New Black. Netflix. 2013. Television

Dogs exchange paws (Semiotic Analysis) Trending this week in the media (Blog #3)

This past weekend was a great one for me. I was able to enjoy the weather. My daughter Eden and I went in the pool on Saturday and then yesterday I went ahead and took care of a wedding photography shoot. The sunset was outrageous, and the broom and bride looked phenomenal. This morning while looking on the news media for something interesting to read I found a link that caught my eye, the link said "Dogs exchange paws in the cutest wedding we have seen this year"(Yahoo!). My first reaction was shocking as I was not able to believe what I was reading. Dogs getting married…really? Is society loosing perspective of what is important and what this means? It might seem cute, but if we stop and analyze this ad from a Semiotics and the Marxist Analysis perspective we will realize that it is all about advertising a new clothing line and a new business trend despite of how it may affect our society. Let's not forget how culture codes can shape a society either for the best or the worst, in this case I would say for the worst. Marriage should be something sacred, no wonder our society is experiencing a decadency in respects to the family and it's values.


“Culture can also be understood as a collection of codes we learn when we grow up in a society that tell us how to think, how to behave, what to eat and when to eat it, and all kinds of other things" (Berger 935). This ad is basically telling us that marriage is nothing but a joke and that making money is more important than family. Advertisers are very creative. However, we as consumers should stop and think how would these hidden codes affect our future descendants as they grow up in a society that feels like this about what is sacred. "Cultures can be thought of as collections of codes that shape our behavior" (Berger 935). If we see this in detail, we can see that what is cute is not the dogs, but rather the dogs clothes being worn by the dogs themselves. What is the message of the ad? It Is a behavioral misleading message with a goal of making money out of something that should be important, like marriage. "Grid-group theory has direct applications to the media. Our media preferences are shaped, in good measure, by two things: a desire for the reinforcement of our basic values and beliefs by watching television programs, going to films, and reading books that support them and, second, a desire to avoid cognitive dissonance by not going to films or watching television shows that challenge our belief systems" (Berger 1692-1695).

Yahoo! News. Yahoo Web. 8 June 2015.

Berger, Arthur A. (Asa) (2013-10-15). Media Analysis Techniques. (Kindle Locations 935+). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.