Media Exposure
This is an interesting contrast: I’ve been putting off writing an assignment for Pop Culture, even though I like this class significantly more than any other, I guess, “theory” courses. So after chatting with a school friend, and just going to look at my blog, I figured I should blog it. I already have a few posts on here that can relate to this assignment, and I know that as small an audience this blog has right now, this is a medium.
The original title of the assignment, The New Definition of the ‘Tween,’ is in relation to me being in limbo on which generation I’m apart of. Depending on who is reporting on the topic, I either fall within the last 2 years of Generation X, or the opening years of Generation Y (or MTV Generation or even the Internet Generation). I don’t watch MTV, so I’m not fond of that generation stereotype.
The first part of the title refers to what this is really all about. Media and how it affects me. Somewhat of a pop culture nut, watching TV, listening to music, surfing - or even creating (pages on) the Internet, keeps me on my toes and continually thinking or at least absorbing pop culture by osmosis. I’m analytical by nature, and absorb only what I think is necessary, at least that’s what I’d like to believe.
The Simpson’s, Star Trek, Superman, House, CSI (all flavours); these are my television repertoire down to the basics. Yeah, I watch other things, but these are the ones that I consider suicide if my PVR doesn’t tape them and I can’t bit torrent the edited episodes from the Internet. The funny thing is, I think that if I dropped TV completely, just to give myself more time in a week, I wouldn’t miss it too much. Conversely, I can’t seem to get out of my head, “I can put off my assignments until after I watch another episode of House from this DVD collection that a friend of mine let me borrow,” considering the main TV of my home is 4 feet from my computer desk, where most of the school work gets done. Or lack thereof.
More than just the TV gets me distracted. Video games are almost as distracting. Whether it’s on my X-Box, or on my computer, it’s a welcome distraction with the added benefit of mayhem and wanton destruction. One item in the long list of distractions is World of Warcraft. All geekiness aside, I’m sure that I won’t succumb to the “Ever-crack” syndrome, playing so much that I lose my friends and family, no, I’ve proven that I won’t. Over the last six months of having a membership, I have only played at about 30 hours; an average of 9 minutes a day, give or take 20 seconds.
There’s always the Internet. Reading the news, blogging (oh, looky! It’s now an educational pursuit!), reading comics, or going on my latest research binge, among other things is what makes this a temptation to take me away from otherwise paid work. This is a distraction that can be used wherever there is internet access.
I could go on about the what, but let’s get to the how. How does media affect me?
TV has an effect on my personality, like for instance a little harsh sarcasm from watching House on a regular basis. However, most of the quirks and subtleties I have I’ve gained through friends and relatives.
I sometimes go back to my childhood and wish I could travel to the stars (as in Star Trek) or have superpowers (mostly from watching every possible rendition of Superman available). My ideologies and beliefs sometimes contradict each other from watching Star Trek, which is a modern issues show masquerading as science fiction; and due to the fact that I am a Christian, and not all popular ideologies are the Christian equivalents. Not to mention the “clearly discernable drift to Trek’s treatment of religion, one which—not surprisingly for a popular phenomenon—runs parallel with our society’s rising interest in spirituality during the past three decades,” (quote, Christianity Today) of which these spiritualities don’t always follow what I believe. Not to say that any other show doesn’t cross those lines, it just seems that because of the nature of Star Trek’s need to raise certain questions, it seems to cross those lines a little more often and a little more in your face.
Mainstream music does not have really much if any effect. I listen to that very little pop music (except for if I was bored at my job, actually listened to the radio quietly in the other room, and all they had on was Top 40). I do however listen to a lot of Christian Contemporary, Jazz, sometimes Hard Rock (when the mood strikes). Of which I have a song in my head nine times out of ten, when I’m doing any work that doesn’t require me to talk or listen. And even then I’m listening to the music on my laptop or iPod. iPod: there another can of media worms.
Does media effect me? At one point in my life, not so long ago, it defined me. I was a Star Trek fan, and that’s what the world equated as a geek. That’s what I was. The geek isn’t completely gone, I watch Star Trek re-runs when there’s nothing else on; but it doesn’t define me. My varied taste in music obviously doesn’t fit me into any nice little demographical package. Technically the video games I play may fit me into a demographic, but the amount I play them does not. The key to this is: I am my own person. The field of study I’m in basically put me at the forefront to create the media that affects people. I only hope it can be in a positive way. The only downside, if you can call it that, is that whatever “positive way” means to me may be completely different from you or the rest of the world. Media may not define me, but it does effect me.
When I think about the objects, or the material goods that I have, that play a part of pop culture, I have to think that I may be effected by media maybe a little more than I lead myself to believe. Maybe.
The electronics I own, specifically the portable type, are pop culture icons. The iPod Nano, one of a line of products that define portable music mostly due to the marketing campaign and it’s market share, is my music player of choice. Is this the first MP3 player I’ve owned? No. I’ve had about 5. Yes, two of which were from the Apple iPod brand, but for me, it’s because they did it right and they did it right the first time. The other companies that create MP3 players have been constantly changing the way that they make their players, how their software works; Apple has been consistently improving their software. They haven’t needed to change it. That’s the reason I have purchased two three iPods. Now they’ve got the iPod touch. So do I.
Everyone has a mobile phone, and those who don’t are stubborn, and I’m pretty sure my Pop Culture teacher is one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m stubborn too. Just not about getting a cell phone. I own a Motorola RAZR (or Razor), one of pop culture’s favourite phones. You see them on TV, you see them in movies. The “sexy” adds that Motorola is known for are very appealing to the masses - guys get horny from the adds with girls that have little in the way of clothing, and the girls want to be them. As for me, I bought the RAZR because I bought a phone previously that had the exact same software on it, with a few improvements. Motorola has done phones, and not to use the same terminology, but they have done it right. Yeah, they’ve had their share of software bugs, but their software has remained relatively consistent through the years. Familiarity, knowledge of the software, and awesome voice recognition - that’s why I bought the RAZR.
Commercials. I have a love hate relationship with them. I think I could categorize commercials in four ways: Commercials that I hate and anzalyze the hell out of, ones that I like and analyze the heck out of, ones that I get sucked in to and ones I ignore. Commercials I hate are generally annoying ones where there is a blatant attempt to get your attention (i.e. Comwave particularly annoys me). The TV ads that I like are generally ones that are humourous or get their point across in a very clever way.
I like to joke, make people laugh. Is that a media exposure phenomenon? I suppose a psychologist could make me think back to my childhood, ask what TV I watched and what sitcoms appealed to me (despite the fact that I can’t stand sitcoms anymore).
I get sucked into a new commercial for something electronic or a kitchen gadget, or a one for a new TV show that seems interesting. The list of ones that I get sucked into would probably be a long and exhausting endeavor.
The problem with TV advertising in general is the usage of my PVR to record shows, I skip all commercials in the recording, and don’t get to watch any commercials that fall into any category - good or not.
Still to be continued…