1-3 Journal Analysis

The editorial: The Revenge of the Nerds, is a humorous look at how the name Nerd has taken a turn from a derogative statement to a descriptive word that describes a person who is outside of the norm; which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Recalling his childhood the author finds himself reminiscing about the past and finding pride in his self described nerd-ness.

The author describes growing up in the sixties colleting comic books. “I collected comic books, those wonderful Silver Age comics produced by Marvel and DC. Any kid, who collected comic books at that time, by definition among the young gatekeepers of social norms, was a nerd. It was okay to read them, bending them into unrecognizable shapes in doing so, and then dispose them. But to collect them, it was anathema among my youthful associates.”(Hoppenstand, G.) It is this kind of trivial distinction; reading versus collecting, that can draw the lines between cool and uncool in a youths mind, and caught on the wrong side of that line one can become the subject of ridicule and name calling.

Describing how the shift in the popular opinion of so called nerds has taken place, the author observes. “Now it is downright cool to be a nerd. Nerds such as George Lucas created with Star Wars one of the most profitable media franchises in history. Nerds such as Stephen King have become international bestselling authors.”(Hoppenstand, G.)

The shift continues in the prevalence of video games among youth and young adults as well as the continued need for technology and computers in the adult business world.

5-2

Rocky is a prime example of a movie that has a formula. For the sake of this paper I will call this formula the formula of the underdog movie. In its most basic form the formula goes something like this: first we would get to see the daily life of the main character and get a sense of who he/she is. In most cases this person would be disadvantaged in some way. Then the character would be put in a situation where they have the opportunity to accomplish something and transcend their disadvantaged situation.

Rocky follows this formula in the following ways. At the beginning of the film we get to see Rocky as an everyday man, and follow him through his daily activities and interactions within his social circle. Rocky is void of any extra spoils of modern life. He is the epitome of blue collar, if not a social class below. He is portrayed as an honest hard working man who although may be employed on the wrong side of the law is respected within his community and regarded as a hard worker. His life is less than ordinary, and while that is o.k. with Rocky the outlook is somewhat bleak. Then a stroke of luck. He is handpicked by the world champion himself to fight for the title. Queue montage: Rocky in true blue collar fashion begins rigorous training with primitive tools. Good old fashioned on e armed pushups and running the streets of Philadelphia. This is the part of the story that conveys that while luck has played a part in Rocky getting the opportunity to fight for the title it is his hard work and determination that will give him a fighting chance.

Although Rocky does not ultimately win the fight, he has shown that he was not a push over, and that his heart and determination was enough to score a moral victory, and win the respect of those who doubted him. In subsequent films rocky does in fact win the championship, and he does so with the same work ethic and attitude that have defined him in the first film.

The formula of the movie is still applicable in today’s movies. This is well represented in the entire Rocky series of films that have spanned thirty plus years. Time and time again Rocky has showed us to never underestimate the underdog, and that through hard work and character one can achieve greatness. This formula is played out in in numerable films, books, television show and other mediums and no matter the details of the story at hand the message is easily identifiable and at the same time relatable to the viewers own experience and beliefs. That is why it works; because it is accessible to the viewer and not foreign.

If I were the director or writer of this film, the only thing I would change is the portrayal of Rocky a sort of unintelligent character. I am not saying that he should be a scholar necessarily, but I don’t believe that the dumbing down of his character adds anything to the story, to me it seems arbitrary. Other than that the film stands the test of time and conveys a message that we can all grasp. It is an inspirational film that I can watch over and over again. The only other thing is that the actual fight scenes that take place in the ring are absolutely un realistic. There is way too much action for it to be believable and if actual boxing matches were as fast paced as those portrayed in the film the fighter would not be able to continue past the second round because of exhaustion. It is good for the movie and fun to watch, but is simply unrealistic.

5-1

Tiger Woods. Recently there has been a lot of media coverage concerning Tiger Woods. Now normally this would not be a bad thing considering woods is one of the most famous athletes the sports world has ever known. The difference this time around is the coverage is negative, and pertains to alleged extra marital affairs that he has engaged in with a number of women that seems to be climbing every day. Some of the stories that are coming out in the media are totally contradictory of the man we thought we knew. Woods has manicured possibly one of the most clean cut images a popular figure could have produced. He has been known as a fierce competitor a role model for all and a seemingly fool proof investment for companies looking for a face of their product, this all in addition to the clean, classy image of the sport in which he plays; Golf.

No doubt that Woods should have to face the music regarding his behavior; to his family. Personally I find it disturbing that someone’s personal troubles are exploited for ones viewing pleasure. This is not reality television; this is someone’s life and someone’s family. I have heard arguments that say that since Woods is famous that he has forfeited his right to privacy, and I think that is ridiculous. Just because someone is great at their job, which in his case is Golf, that does not mean that they have given up their right to privacy, or that they should be exposed to heightened media attention. Yes Wood’s actions are reprehensible; yes he will have to work this out with his family. But it is nobody’s business except theirs and if people cared at all about this family, then they would be decent enough to let this family be, and not force them to relive the situation day after day in the public eye.

4-3 Hero/Celebrity

A Hero or heroine is the name given to characters that exhibit courage in the face of danger in order to benefit the greater good; these actions are viewed as acts of heroism. Heroes can be viewed in many facets of our popular culture today. From real life events, to stories played out in movies and books heroes and the heroism myth is a prevalent storyline that continues to this day. Often times in culture people tend to emulate or idolize those who display heroism. It is also common for people in our culture to idolize or emulate celebrities. It is important for us to be able to differentiate between the two, and also be able to identify the different reasons why heroes and celebrities are often looked at as role models.

A celebrity is someone who is in the public eye that is to say that they are for one reason or another known by the majority of a culture on a superficial level. The majority of the time the celebrity is known due to their occupation. Whether the person is an artist of some sort, or professional athlete fame is what quantifies them as celebrities. Along with fame often times celebrities are extremely wealthy and garner the attention and envy of a culture. Recently a strange phenomenon has occurred where people have become celebrities without ever contributing any redeeming acts towards the culture in which they have become famous. A cultural obsession with money and wealth has created an atmosphere in which privileged recipients of generational wealth have become idolized and envied by many in our culture.

Our cultures interest in reality television I believe is birthed out of our obsession with money. In the majority of these television programs the contestants or participants are often in competition for a cash prize. For instance one popular program fills a house with strangers and at certain points throughout the show people are voted out of the house. The object of the game or show is to be the last person in the house. The winner receives a large cash prize and instant overnight stardom. I suppose that the people that participate in these reality programs do it for a number of reasons, but I believe the most reoccurring themes would be that of celebrity and financial gain.

The need for our culture to reach out for heroes and celebrities happens at different times and for different reasons. Take for instance the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The country was awe struck in fear and mourning. Soon images began to pour onto our televisions of New York City firemen. Within a matter of days these men became the face of heroism. The culture needed a strong figure to look to in a time of distress, and we gained a sense of security by identifying these men as heroes.

We live in a culture that is constantly growing more connected with technology and people are also ever willing to provide access to their daily lives via the internet. In a sense many of us have become reality stars in our own right. Status updates and random posts to social networking sites have become common place, and ones willingness to share personal details about ones life is rarely second guessed. I don’t know that this is either positive or negative, but would argue that it simply indicate4ds a shift in how we communicate with others within our culture. Personal lives as well as business are often conducted using these very impersonal tools such as E-mail, Facebook and the like. Blogs are replacing traditional news outlets and the stay at home reporters are gaining followers and fame.

I think that heroes and celebrities play an important role in our culture, but one must be careful who they put on a pedestal. I remember when I was younger I used to look up to Michael Jordan. To me Jordan exemplified greatness. He was a fierce competitor and the undisputed champion in his profession. I watched all the games and had his posters hanging in my room and bought into the “Be like Mike” campaign that was popular at the time. It wasn’t until later that I learned about Jordan’s gambling addiction, or his extra marital affairs or nay other of his human flaws. When you hold someone up as your hero you believe them to be perfect and an example of what you want to be like, and to find out that that person is flawed and imperfect can be devastating to young mind. While I still do respect Jordan it is for his accomplishments on the basketball court and I no longer wish to “Be like Mike”. In stead I wish to be like myself and strive to work towards accomplishing comparable things in my profession.

4-1

This is a topic that I don’t necessarily feel qualified to write about, but something is bothering me. On a recent shopping trip with my girlfriend I made an observation. In the several stores we went into some of the clerks and also customers were wearing glasses. I know what you’re thinking….”What you have got to be kidding me. GLASSES? Trust me I have no qualms with people wearing glasses; I do however take issue with people wearing fake glasses. These glasses I saw many people wearing I am convinced served no purpose other than aesthetic. Now I may never know for sure whether or not these people were visually impaired or not but my girlfriend showed me a display of various eyewear that were all fake, which leads me to believe that people buy them. So here’s where I am confused; don’t people who actually need glasses wear contacts so they don’t have to actually wear glasses? So why is it that people who were fortunate enough to be born with 20/20 vision put on huge, fake thick framed bifocals? What a fad! I can’t wait for this trend to reach the next level when people that don’t need to, start wearing contact lenses that do nothing, or better yet contact lenses that impair your vision so that you actually need a prescription from an optometrist. Ridiculous! What’s next fake casts, to feign injured bones. Imagine the customization on those. “Oh that broken arm really goes with those shoes”. PUUHHLEASE! If this is what’s hip, I want no part of it.

3-3

My favorite website is Digg.com. This is a news site that pulls stories from all over the internet based upon popularity and includes everything from blog posts, to AP articles. The fact that it pulls information from all over the internet, means that you can see different viewpoints on different t subjects, and be exposed to news article that you may not have been given the chance to see by mainstream outlets. The articles are divided up into different categories such as Technology, Science, Sports, Offbeat etc. Digg became my favorite site because it is constantly changing and being updated with new content, and I like the fact that the stories or articles that are displayed are in a sense voted on by the Digg community. That is to say that the content would not appear on the site if it were not “Dugg” by enough people. With that being said, as a daily reader of Digg I have seen trends and common themes among the stories that appear and there are certainly stereotypes perpetuated by some of the content that appears. I would not say that these stereotypes are necessarily good or bad because generally the types of stereotypes may be along the lines of something like “computer nerds don’t have an active sex life”. Although in our culture this generally viewed as a negative stereotype the way the site presents the material is in a kind of tongue and cheek manner.

Some of the themes or recurrent types of information posted on Digg would be either positive news surrounding Obama or some opinionated piece of writing explaining why they think people that are at odds with Obama are wrong. So the stereotyping is not necessarily in the content provided, but actually lies in the fact that at some point the owners of Digg have stereotyped their audience and have decided that as a majority their audience was more likely to enjoy article that supports Obama and discredit the opposite party, rather than the other way around. This alright with me, and not necessarily because I support one political party or another, but simply because I am aware of this practice and I know if I want unbiased news all I need to do is simply find another site. The practice of predicting consumer’s tendencies is a long practiced highly valuable tool for the business world. Recently with advances in technology, and the creation of complicated algorithms companies have been able to make, with relative accuracy recommendations for the consumer. If anyone has ever done online shopping with Amazon they have certainly been prompted with the message “other customer also purchased this”. The same thing is true for services like Netflix; they are constantly making recommendations for me based upon my previous viewings, and not surprisingly have referred me to a lot of movies that I end of enjoying. So they are stereotyping me, they are saying well you like this; you must like this.

Stereotypes emerge for a lot of different reasons, in the examples I gave above they are emerging in an effort to better serve the consumer, and increase profits for business. So in this forum the stereotypes are a positive. The consumer gets more of what he/she wants, and in return the business can receive greater profits. Stereotypes also emerge from fear and are introduced as a control technique. Stereotypes based upon race or religions are perfect examples of stereotypes born out of fear, and I believe they still exist and continue to be believed because they are passed down to generations from people who actually believe them. In this case the stereotype is negative. Another example of a positive stereotype is that of a Police Officer. It is widely known that a Police Officer is a law enforcer and can be readily identified by his/her uniform. If people did not buy into the idea that Police Officers were a form of authority they would have no control over any other regular citizen. It is the stereotype that allows them to operate. Society’s ties to stereotypes are played out on a daily basis and one look no further than a television commercial. We are made to believe that by purchasing a product, it may put us in a different social class or failure to buy a certain product would lower us to another. For instance the purchase of a vehicle; while the Mercedes Benz may illicit stereotypes of social status, the person who drives the old rusty Buick that smokes out of the exhaust may be stereotyped negatively.

3-1

Following the prompt in the assignment description this weeks post is about the iPhone or about the ensuing battle for smart phone king between the iPhone and the new offering from Verizon Wireless The Droid. I chose to write about this because I am the new proud owner of said iPhone, and to my dismay one of my friends recently purchased a Droid and over the past week or so we have been at odds over which device is better.

We live in a culture that has technology engrained into it. We depend on it daily, and without things like cell phones and internet access many of us would not be able to complete the most basic of tasks. It is certainly a generational thing but we also have become accustomed to being constantly connected to our friends and peers using these technologies. With ample products available ready to meet these needs, in my mind two devices stand out as leader of the pack; the iPhone and The Droid. Obviously my opinion will be slanted but it’s my blog so I reserve the right to be biased and opinionated. The marketing for the Droid seems to be focused on all of the things the iPhone cannot do the problem I have with this tactic is this; I haven’t found myself trying to do something on the device and not being able to. Phone calls check, email check, music check, text check, check, check, check etc. etc.

Really in all actuality the devices do the same things and the only “real” problem I have with this debate is why I even care. Seriously! It’s just a phone and ownership of one or the other does not determine greatness as a person. But you have to pick a side in these matters and I have chosen my allegiance; at least for the next two years.