semest 2, blog 3

84% of teenagers have a Twitter, 93% have a Facebook and 40% have a Tumblr. But are they using those social media accounts for the right reasons? Some might be, but most are not. Many teenagers are hiding behind the computer screen and using social media as their defense. But why? Why social media?

Teenagers post statuses, pictures, and tweets all the time. It’s a constant operation preformed by our generation. But how many of us actually mean what we say in those posts? Not many. For example: a girl tweeted “I hate you so much. Go die b***h”. This girl would never say anything like that to anyone’s face. So why say it on twitter? As it turns out, it was just a way for her to hide. Hiding behind social media is not the answer to anyone’s problem nor is it the right thing to do. Teenagers feel like they can hide behind social media because they feel as if it is not really them saying those things. Its their “virtual self” instead of their “actual self”. But they need to take into consideration that they put those thoughts, those words out there for everyone to see.

This claim addresses learning outcome one because Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr are forms of communication within media. They are the three major social medias that teenagers use. They were examined by students and the students came to a conclusion that our generation does not use these accounts for all the right reasons.

semester 2, blog 2

Bob Mondello claims in his article, Our Media, Ourselves: Are We Headed for a Matrix? that “the media in people’s lives are supplanting the people in people’s lives”. Is this true? Would we as a society rather sit behind a computer and talk to our loved ones or old friends on Facebook or see what they are doing on twitter rather than talk to them face to face?

Unfortunately, yes. This is extremely true. Our society today relies entirely too much on media and technology, especially when it comes to talking to one another. We now use Facebook and twitter to talk to each other when we are on the go. We move at such a fast pace nowadays that we use social media to connect with our friends without ever actually having to see them. You can see what they did in the past weekend, even in the past month or year, without ever even having to talk to them. All you have to do is click a couple of links on the computer and there you are, looking at, a now distant, friend’s pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but wouldn’t you like to have the story told by the one who actually experienced it, rather than looking at the pictures and making up your own?

“‘I want you to come and see me.’ Vashti watched his face in the blue plate. ‘But I can see you!’ she exclaimed. ‘What more do you want?’ ‘I want to see you not through the Machine,’ said Kuno. ‘I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.’” This is a conversation that Vashit and her son, Kuno, are having in the short story titled, The Machine Stops. Vashti is moving at a fast pace, she makes it seem as if she has no time to come see her son. The blue plate (media) is replacing the face to face time that a mother and a son should have.

Mondello says “A friend told me the other day that she had no CDs in her house anymore. All her music was on her iPod. She still has books, but she’s not buying as many as she used to. From the kid stuff in the entertainment center you’d guess she’s a Disney stockholder. But as her family outgrows those videos, so will her living room. And her kids’ll be growing up in a world without hard copies of a lot of what members of their mother’s generation use to ‘define’ living spaces and to tell people who they are.” Mondello’s friend is becoming modernized, like the rest of the world, by technology. We use technology everyday now in our society; and technology is how we get our media.

Some people love the social media aspect of our lives, they say that it does bring us closer together and connects us. While that may be true, it is not a true interaction, it is not the one on one, face to face conversation and interaction that we should be having.

semseter 2, blog 1 Hoover Ad

When you first look at this ad, it looks like a Christmas card but when you look closer you see that is an ad for a vacuum. But when you really look at the image you see and thin woman in a white and green long dress, possibly a nightgown, lying on the perfectly clean floor, reading a card, with her hand gently placed on the red vacuum, which has a green ribbon tied around the front. There are also three other presents on the ground next to the vacuum wrapped in white paper and red and green ribbons.
Looking at this image you immediately realize that it is an ad related to the holiday season because of the two colors that really stand out; red and green. These colors put together are almost always recognized as the holidays in America. The audience for this Hoover vacuum ad is definitely American husbands that have the “typical” American wife that likes a nice clean house for her husband to come home to. The big red text reads: “Christmas morning she’ll be happier with a Hoover”. By saying “she’ll be happier with a Hoover” really gets the husbands attention because he wants a gift that will make his wife happy. As for the smaller text, it states: “P.S. to husbands: She cares about her house, you know, so if you really care about her…wouldn’t it be a good idea to consider a Hoover for Christmas?”; this makes the husband think that if he doesn’t get her this vacuum, his wife will think he doesn’t care about her. This is a very good tactic to use. That fact that the main text is in a cursive writing suggests that the product is high class and sophisticated. Also, the way her hand is placed on the vacuum and the sweet, soft smile on the woman’s face suggests that she likes the present which makes this ad very convincing to the husband.
The purpose of this advertisement is extremely obvious. It is to get men to buy a Hoover vacuum for their wives for Christmas; to make them think that their wives will be happier with a vacuum like the one in this ad. Also, to make women think that they will be happier if they buy this vacuum.
The tactics and stylistic choices used to create this ad work very well to achieve its purpose. The use of red and green, the happy, smiling woman and the vacuum being red itself; all of these help create the message/purpose for this ad.

Blog 1-Learning Outcome 1

In Garrison Keillor’s travel narrative Take in the State Fair he uses a lot of sensory detail just like you would in any other travel narrative. The audience could simply be anyone but the purpose is to make the reader feel like they are there experiencing everything that the author is. Structure and content are affected by the audience and purpose greatly in this travel narrative. Keillor structures it in a way so that the audience can picture every little detail in their head. He also uses the word “you” a lot. This technique is actually forcing the reader to feel, see and smell everything that the author does. Here is a quote that shows how well Keillor uses this technique: “You disembark. You look like a man who could not contain his excitement. For cover, you hide in the crowd. You walk close behind people. You join the throng at the hot-corn stand and comfort yourself with a salty ear of buttered corn.” Also, Keillor does a fantastic job of using sensory detail. “You pass up the Slingshot for the double Ferris wheel. An excellent clothes dryer, lifting you up above the honky-tonk, a nice breeze in your pants, in a series of parabolas, and at the apex you look out across the gaudy uproar and the blinking lights, and then you zoom down for a close-up of a passing gang of farm boys in green letter jackets and then back up in the air. You tell your child that this Ferris wheel is the ride that, going back to childhood, you always saved for last, and so riding it fills you with nostalgia. She pats your hand.” This is a great quote that shows sensory detail. He describes the Ferris wheel ride so well that you can picture in your head just what he is seeing.

Blog 2-Learning Outcome 1

http://www.indystar.com/article/20111205/OPINION08/112050308/Zero-tolerance-bullying

The article of text I have chosen to analyze is an editorial from The Indianapolis Star titled “Zero tolerance for bullying”. The audience of this text would be concerned parents and/or any adults who read The Indianapolis Star and the purpose of the article is to make people aware of serious bullying and persuade them to help make a change. These two factors affect the structure and content greatly. The author writes in a sophisticated way where had the audience been children or teens, he probably would have kept it very elementary. “Let's keep it simple when it comes to the bullying of students at school. It's wrong. It's dangerous. And it must be confronted aggressively.” This opening sentence immediately grabs your attention and gives you information on the topic. This is a good technique to use because the average person would most likely skip over text that starts out boring. “A federal lawsuit filed by the mother of a young victim has focused fresh attention on............but didn't take sufficient steps to stop it.” This paragraph (paragraph 5) of the article gives you a real incident that has happened in the community. This is a good technique that the author uses to help persuade you. It shows just how bad bullying can be and affects the audience in such a way that it could make them want to help.

Blog 3

There is a light breeze coming from the east, the sun is beginning to set as people run around the jet black and bright white stripped track; but me, I’m in the middle of all the commotion holding a twelve foot, red and yellow, fiberglass pole and instead of my track being black, it is a dual, eroded looking red; I like to think of it more as my own personal runway. I stand fifty-three feet away from a metal box and a huge forest green foam pit; my heart is pounding so extremely hard and fast that I can hear it in my ears but feel it in my stomach; just before I feel like i am about to throw up I hear my coach yell “Go!” and without even hesitating, I take a giant step with my right foot then another giant step with my left. I get faster and faster as I sprint down the runway. As I get closer to the metal box I lower the pole and once it hits the back of the box, I jump off of my left foot and go flying through the air. I can feel the pole bend and instantly I’m flinging my feet, along with the rest of my body, up ten feet into the air. I get to the peak of my jump and it’s almost as if time stops and I can see everything and everyone. All of the spectators look like ants roaming around. And now, as I make it over the crossbar, I’m falling on my back and I can see the now orange, purple, blue and pink sky. As I hit the foam pit the feeling of relief comes over me and I lay there for just a few more seconds taking in the moment.

 

I feel that I have best mastered the technique of sensory detail. The paragraph that I have provided above shows a lot of this technique in a very good way. The purpose of sensory detail is to make the reader/audience feel like they are there with the writer or that they are experiencing it themselves. To do this you must use a great amount of very specific details. I have done so in this paragraph by saying “There is a light breeze coming from the east, the sun is beginning to set as people run around the jet black and bright white stripped track” when I could have just said “I’m at a track meet and it’s a very lovely evening” but that would not give the reader an actual sense of what I am really feeling and seeing. By describing the track and the runway it lets the audience see where I really am. Also this sentence shows the audience what I am doing and helps them picture it in their mind: “I take a giant step with my right foot then another giant step with my left. I get faster and faster as I sprint down the runway. As I get closer to the metal box I lower the pole and once it hits the back of the box, I jump off of my left foot and go flying through the air” and by saying that “my heart is pounding so extremely hard and fast that I can hear it in my ears but feel it in my stomach” lets the reader know just how nervous I am.