Month: September 2018

I especially liked this video about unboxing videos and why we watch them because it reveals a deeper reasoning behind our behavior. Growing up in a capitalist society we tend to feel the effects of materialism. We’re fortunate enough to have the luxury to be able to have enough money that we can spend some of it on things we might not need, but WANT. My best example is the Supreme Brick. Don’t get me wrong I do enjoy Supreme from time to time, but they sold an actual brick that sported the Supreme logo on it and it sold out in minutes and is now worth more than 5x it’s original price. We end up buying things not based on their functionality but on what society deems its worth. The simple fact that the rest of society also wants that item influences us and may push us to also want that item. To me, it seems like a sort of addiction, we always find ourselves scratching that “itch” mentioned in the video. It’s something we all subconsciously do and I’m no exception.

“Here, in short, are people becoming famous for doing nothing much at all, but doing it where everyone can see them.” This quote, taken from the article “Reality TV: a dearth of talent and the death of morality” unfortunately describes the society we live in. When we come home and turn on our TVs we often give our attention to people who quite frankly don’t deserve it. It’s also shocking to see that this article, which was written in 2001, is still relevant today. The article brings up the idea of Reality TV as an inverted ethical universe, which lead me to an interesting question on society, how different would popular culture be if TV portrayed real meaningful values like “modesty, decency, intelligence, humor, selflessness”.  If we looked to Reality TV and saw these values in the “contestants” would these same values then be more prevalent in our every day lives across the people we meet? I guess this also shows the effect that Reality TV as a form of pop culture has on society’s values.

Out of the readings assigned so far, “Strategies for Active Reading” is one of my favorites. I enjoy these readings because it’s easy to relate to and pick up on useful information. Whenever I’m faced with having to read a long text I get nervous because I’m not good at staying focused on reading for an extended period of time. The article brought up a good point in breaking the text up into “chunks”. I benefit a lot from compartmentalizing things and reading is one field where I can apply this strategy. The article also highlights that we as readers and students must acknowledge how we learn and which strategies work best for us. In high school, I was always given printouts which I noticed don’t work as well for me as being able to download readings as pdf’s and reading them on my iPad. Being able to access readings digitally lets me annotate the readings right there on the tablet and have a neat method of organization which to me is also extremely important. The last point I relate to is about the speed at which we read. I noticed I tend to read quickly to finish my homework quicker, however as soon as I came across this point I read a little slower and retained a lot more information. These are tips I will try my best to carry out as a reader and be conscious of as a person.

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I chose this to represent me not only because it’s me in the photo but because it captures my essence in a unique way. I feel like at times I may be a quiet person, almost letting myself stay in the shadows. But beyond the enigma, there lies a pretty cool person! 🙂