Current Thoughts on Research Paper

How does the consumerist nature of Facebook give teens a false sense of security with their information?

The internet as a whole is dedicated to instant gratification. With a few clicks of a button, users can find any information that they want, communicate with people across the globe, or make almost any purchase imaginable. The online community has come to expect speed in addition to ease of access. Amazon.com, one of the biggest and most recognizable champions of e-commerce, is famous for its fast shipping and variety of products that it markets. In this world where they not only expect, but enjoy quick, faceless decision making, consumers make dangerous choices. How many of us actually read online legalese before “agreeing” to terms of service? (I should probably do a survey on this—it’d be an interesting statistic to include in my essay)

People blindly assume that companies’ best interests are aligned with consumers’ best interests all too often. After all, businesses are able to sell more when consumers are happy with business practices, right? Not necessarily; businesses are all about the profit. They are able to sell more when consumers perceive a need to use a particular product or service. Advertisements exist to convince people that they need to consume specific products; that materialism is necessary in order for them to be successful in society.

Many teens perceive social media as a need, and in some ways, it is. Facebook is so omnipresent in affluent societies across the globe that it is almost socially unacceptable to not have an account. For teens, Facebook and other social media are like banks where gossip, news, and other social currency are exchanged. Social media is a relatively new technology, but it is so convenient that it has become a basic part of social functioning. Sharing information is one of the main purposes of the internet. It grants individuals the opportunity to impact the community and it allows people to access knowledge that might otherwise be unobtainable. Yet this has the potential to go too far. It can be dangerous to have personally identifying information like home addresses and cell phone numbers available to the public and many teens do not realize this.

The Internet and Oversharing

I'm still working on narrowing my thesis down, but here is is:

Does the mass-scale, consumerist nature of the internet give teens a false sense of security online?

The internet is a large part of popular culture. In fact, our society is so dependent on this technology that we are probably more equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse than an internet blackout. Teens seem to be the most common consumer of social media, which embodies the commodified, mass-scale, instant gratification uses of the internet as a whole. The sheer size of social media grants people a sense of anonymity, because they feel that they are merely numbers, not scrutinized as individuals. Yet this “safety in numbers” may be somewhat false. Sometimes teens overshare personal information because they do not realize that it can be tracked by strangers, or they do not believe that they would be targeted by scammers. Teens also often disregard online privacy policies and license agreements; legalese is onerous and time consuming to read. Blindly trusting companies to keep consumers’ best interests in mind is dangerous; companies exist to make money, and there is money to be made from exploiting consumer trust and selling information. Targeted advertising exists because too many consumers unquestioningly “agree” to be tracked by cookies or have their personal information, like photos, used in new ads. Even other individuals on the web can use information that is carelessly posted online, like the creepy troll on Reddit that Raymond mentioned in one of our last discussions.

Sources so far:

http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web

link to site that Raymond posted in our discussion of incivility

http://0-www.2facts.com.library2.pima.edu/icof_story.aspx?PIN=i1500490&term=privacy+in+new+media#h4

gives both sides of issue on governmental mandate of privacy on social networking- in database

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704183204575288153333749426

2010 interview with Mark Zuckerberg published in Wall Street Journal: discusses Facebook privacy policies

Surveys about the percentage of people (or if there are any studies on just the teen population) who actually read online agreements before consenting might be interesting. Statistics on “oversharing”, like the average number of photos and/or status updates a typical teen posts in a day might also add to my essay. Other articles on the debate over regulating privacy policies, cookies, and targeted advertisements could be useful, too.

Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are like separate chat rooms for specific purposes. Sports teams, volunteer groups, and businesses create their own pages in order to organize and inform people about events. This can help connect people, but it can also turn people away from groups or clubs that they might otherwise be involved in.

Information posted on Facebook groups is visible to everyone on that group. This is convenient for record keeping. If a member of a club like National Honors Society has a problem updating their hours sheet or getting directions to an event, then asking for help on the group page is a way to demonstrate responsibility. Even if communication doesn’t go through on time, there is a record of effort made on the member’s behalf.

Facebook groups are also a way to reliably send information to everyone in a club. In groups like Kiwanis Club, in-person member meetings can be difficult to coordinate because people often have other obligations in the school or community. It is easy to accidentally miss members in a mass text or email about an upcoming event, and reminders on school announcements are too brief to effectively communicate all of the club events happening on campus. Facebook groups are effective because it is the members’ responsibility to sign up for the group. Once they are on, they receive notifications whenever officers create events or post reminders. Through Facebook, officers can easily communicate with clubs that include over 100 people. Even non-officers can suggest events and ideas to the whole group through Facebook pages.

Even in the adult world Facebook groups are ideal for coordinating volunteers for community events like the All Souls Procession. Information about fundraisers, the event schedule, and other ways to get involved are available on the pages. When people “like” pages, their friends are notified. This way, information about community events can spread by word of mouth in addition to public fliers and official news reports.

Facebook groups are also an appropriate place for inside jokes and team bonding that might be awkward and exclusive if they were publicly visible. Someone involved in the high school swim team might not necessarily understand or relate to the quirky, Celtic-oriented nerdy vibe of the Tucson Highlanders. Each group page reflects the individual vibe of the group, and this helps people within these groups get to know each other better. Bands, teams, and even volunteer organizations perform better and are more enjoyable to be a part of when the people involved know and like each other.

However, team bonding can go too far. Facebook groups can become invasive; too much contact can make people stop liking each other. For example, even though I love my best friend, if I hung out with her nonstop for several weeks in a row, we would fight. I don’t like the people in my Facebook groups as much as I love my BFF, so excessive contact with them is more likely to drive me insane. In many cases, if I’m not contacting them on my own, it’s because what they have to say isn’t extremely important to me.

Here are a few points that I plan on discussing further:

-Just another thing to keep track of in world bombarded with emails, texts, calls, IMs, and other social networking sites. People involved in community tend to be overachievers to begin with- why add to the plate with something else they need to keep track of?

-Online etiquette is different than face-to-face contact. Personalities can be misrepresented, communicating without visual cues can cause conflict because the tone of a conversation can be misinterpreted, and overall people tend to think less about each other’s feelings when they are not right next to each other.

Hunger Games

Hunger Games reveals the consumerism, ignorance, and disparity within our own society.

Hunger Games is a fictional film based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. In the movie, there are twelve districts subjected to the rule of the capital, which had won a war for control 74 years in the past. The reparations for the war included the majority of the resources produced and the volunteering of 2 tributes from each district, between the ages 12 and 18, to compete in the annual hunger games. The hunger games are violent and miserable; in the end, only one of the 24 tributes survives each year. This story is targeted at teens and young adults, but is relevant to all adults in our society.

Effie Trinket, the escort of the district 12 tribunes, is oblivious to the horror and struggle faced by Katniss and Peeta because of her upbringing in the culture of the capital. While she is bringing the tributes to the capital she is proud and excited to introduce them to her lifestyle of wealth and excess. However, Effie is so materialistic and caught up in her own consumption that she does not even notice the tribunes’ horror at the contrasts between their daily struggles at home and the consumerism within the capital when they arrive. Effie’s ignorance highlights the contrasting cultural values in the different societies.

Additionally, Effie’s obsession with manners and elaborate outfits reveal the triviality of concerns within the capital. This idea is further developed in a scene where a young boy is gifted with a sword, like one of the weapons that the tribunes can use to try to slaughter each other in order to survive in the games. Rather than being disturbed at the present, his parents laughed and encouraged him as he play-fought his defenseless sister. This reveals leading societies’ tendency to encourage of indiscriminate dominance over “weaker” people and governments. Again, the societal disregard for the tribunes’ lives reveals the disconnection between the capital and the outside world, in a similar way to the disconnection between first world values and third world values in contemporary society. The Games themselves represent the commodification of human lives and emotions. In the movie, the devaluation of individuals is both a cause and an effect of the instability of society as a whole. As Effie’s understanding of the world is limited by her culture and the tribunes are suppressed by theirs, the film depicts the struggle between individual people and societal machines, such as government and economics.

In the movie, the hunger games are run by a special group of technicians. Their goal is to amuse consumers in the capital and placate the citizens in the surrounding districts. The technology is beneficial because of its entertainment value; however, it also allows images and information to be edited by President Snow and his staff. Consumerist interests and governmental control corrupted the media and limited the information that the general public received. Similarly, in our society, consumer and corporation funding of news programs limits the biases and relevant programs produced in our media.

Exploitative Economics, Advertisements, and Consumerist Culture

New technology is created with the intent to bring convenience and ease to peoples’ daily lives. Innovations are the result of problem solving, not merely from businesses attempting to profit. However, in our increasingly fast-paced, work-oriented, consumerist society new technology creates barriers to happiness because people are expected to DO more instead of have more leisure time, consumers are expected to HAVE more updated technology instead of being satisfied with their current lifestyles, and we lack a concrete set of moral guidelines for dealing with new technology.

While the majority of innovations are guilty of this paradox, Apple technology in particular exemplifies this inconsistency. The iPad/iPhone duo (and their ability to sync over the cloud) was created to simplify and combine the functions of communication, education, and entertainment. Phone, email, calendars, and various other apps exist in order to aid consumers’ productivity while most music, videos, and books are available purely for entertainment. However, instead of allowing people to finish their jobs efficiently and spend extra time solely on leisure, this technology has created an expectation for people to constantly work, maintain relationships, and “relax” on-the-go. Meanwhile, consumers lose control over their privacy as companies gain the ability to track the items they buy, games they play, and even the things that they search on the internet.

With this information, companies are enabled to market more directly to individuals. However, businesses continue to sell “pleasure” through advertisements that reinforce our cultural status quo because the imbalance of power within our society is the force driving capitalism. While they are not underprivileged, average individuals experience a perceived need for more when they can compare themselves to those who have excess. Individuals’ freedoms are limited by greed, carelessness, and ignorance within our society.

Historically, our society has treated economics as a zero-sum game; our predecessors took land from the natives, used slaves to cultivate the land, and practiced the Monroe Doctrine to protect their interests in nearby foreign land while avoiding dangerous wars with powerful empires overseas. Currently, American consumers are being manipulated by large corporations. The upper class (which tends to be the same demographic as the original colonists) manages large businesses, and therefore has significant power within the economy. The upper class also tends to be highly visible in the media, enabling this socioeconomic minority to set trends that are unobtainable for the majority. These trends are expanded upon advertisements that target consumers’ insecurities and desires. Internet tracking allows businesses to send specific advertisements that target the most susceptible individuals. Because they are raised within this exploitative culture, people typically do not question the system. Acceptance of the status quo limits consumers’ investigative curiosity. This ignorance allows businesses to further exploit consumers, who do not use their purchasing power to “vote” for more morally sound business practices because they are unaware of corruption or unwilling to sacrifice potential profits from low prices in exchange for protected privacy.

Vintage Weight Gain Ads on Pinterest

     I was messing around on Pinterest the other day when I found this one. The woman who posted it had made a comment about wishing that this was still society’s perception of beauty. It’s a vintage ad claiming that it is ugly to be skinny. The advertisement was selling these magical pills that could help women gain weight in order to become more attractive. I was surprised at how much the cultural myth has changed in the last 50-60 years.

     In modern society, thinness is considered a virtue; the majority of our models and celebrities are skinny, which creates a cultural expectation for all women to be slender. Our cultural myth creates unnecessary pressure on girls and women to attain and maintain a certain body image. I’ve always been on the lower side of having a normal BMI, but I’m also very active, so I eat a lot, often. When I’m out with friends after swim practice, and we are all enjoying our second cheeseburger and large fries at In ‘N Out, women who notice tend to make comments to each other like “Oh, to be young again.” Some even comment to us, saying stuff like “Enjoy that while it lasts.” These small offhand phrases can sometimes makes me a little self-conscious; I wonder if I should be watching my weight or if I’m eating too much, even though I know that I need the extra calories because of my workouts.

     Conversely, the advertisement encourages weight gain. While the image-related cultural myths are polar opposites, the ad shows that our society has persistently placed pressures on women to attain particular body images.

     This advertisement, viewed in the context of modern society, has shown me how cultural expectations can influence women’s body image and self-confidence. It has persuaded me to care less about my weight and image because, as long as health is maintained, weight is only as important as the influence you allow cultural bias to have on you. This may not have been the message that the advertisers originally intended to give (in fact, encouraging self-confidence and satisfaction with a variety of body shapes and sizes is the opposite of what the advertisement was supposed to do), but the image was shared on a social media site to point out the foolishness of fully accepting cultural myths in advertisements because of their detrimental effect to consumers’ confidence. The newer message definitely appealed to and affected me.

 

http://www.styleite.com/media/vintage-weight-gain-ads/#0

LeRoy Ashby's "Rising of Popular Culture"

I think that LeRoy Ashby’s article, “The Rise of Popular Culture: A Historiographical Sketch”, displayed how pop culture is a form of competition for power between various ethnic and socioeconomic groups. The racism white entertainment sought to continue dominance over African Americans, whereas minority subcultures rebelled to maintain their independence. For example, according to Ashby, blues music "changed (white culture's) attitude" toward African Americans and allowed this minority to gain significance and control within the larger American culture.

Similarly, the competition between high culture and low culture are another example of this same competition for power. As American society transformed and became more focused on opportunity and social mobility, historians and cultural analysts began to question the role of elitist ideals in society and place more value in studying the culture and traditions of the masses. Because our society is democratic and relies on the opinions of the general public, our concept of culture has also evolved to place value on the ideas and lifestyles of the majority.