Smart Phones, Lazy People

      Smart phones came around during the Millennial Generation and are arguably the one thing that can describe our generation the most. The Millennial Generation is thought of as lazy and good at adapting to new technology. Well of course a generation would be lazy if they had the answer to any question or anything they've ever wanted to know right in their hand. Our generation doesn't have to work hard in school and read books to find answers to their questions like previous generations had to, all they have to do is type their questions into Google. If they have iPhones they don't even have to type out the question, they can just ask Siri. Because students today don't have to work as hard to learn new things, they haven't established the work ethic that previous generations, like maybe their parents, have.
       So our generation might be a little lazy, but what we are good at is adapting and learning new advances in technology. We've grown up with computers and Smart Phones and because of this we feel familiar with them. A system update might be scary for previous generations using Smart Phones because that means change but for our generation it is simply a chance to navigate through and learn a new system. For most of us in our generation it is exciting to have the most advanced technologies and software programs and because of this it allows technology advances to spread faster through the public.

Roommates from Hell

       If I were to produce a reality TV show using Kirkwood students I would make a prank show about a student who gets set up by their friends to live with a total stranger, in one of the apartment buildings, that is there to make the student, who is set up, life hell. In order to create drama we could direct the student who is "in the know" and playing along, let's call them student B, to do things like eat all of student A's food that's in the fridge or use all of student A's beauty products. The drama would just unfold and it would be entertaining to watch how student A would react. In order to not make this feel too much like reality and keep viewers interested the pranks that student B would pull would have to be more devious and creative than normal pranks people pull and student A's reactions might have to be edited to appear more escalated than they actually were. It would be kind of like a blind date gone wrong but instead it would be someone you live with and can't just walk out on at a restaurant.

Be Masculine Or Die Tryin'

        How does one become a man? What's so special about being a man anyways? Every young boy is told at some point in their life to be a man, implying that being anything else (such as a woman) would be simply inferior. They are taught to be masculine and tough, but how does one become a man and establish their masculinity? In our last few reading they have discussed what it means to them to become a man. In the reading Knockout Punch becoming a man is related to both sports and war. War helps young boys become a man, it shows them what it means to be tough as well as other lessons such as "play when you're hurt", "Your enemy is inferior", and "Only girls cry". When war is not an option, young boys can learn these lessons from playing sports. This is further shown when we watched the documentary Football High young teens are told to push themselves to be stronger and be better and that is how you become a man. The idea of masculinity is also shown in advertising through the use of "Malboro Man"a cowboy used to sell Malboro cigarettes. This cowboy exhibits our societies ideals of what masculinity is and what it means to be a man. He is a loner and can survive on his own, doing everything for himself. He also is someone who delivers, he always gets the animals he is herding to where they need to go

Mean World or Feared World

       We constantly hear about the issue of violence, violence is everywhere and one issue everyone is always concerned about is the effect of this constant exposure of violence in the media on children. Studies show that children who are exposed to excessive violence are more likely to act violently but studies also show that violence in the media is increasing but violence and crime are decreasing. George Gerbner spent his entire life addressing this exact issue. One major issue he brings up is that we have always been exposed to violence, this is nothing new to us. We can't even compare someone who isn't exposed to violence to someone who is because everyone has been exposedto violence in someway. Another issue Gerbner brings up is that fact that an increase in exposure to violence in the media does not result in an increase of crime but rather an increase of fear of our surroundings. Gerbner's studies show that people who experience violence more are more likely to be afraid and to think that crime rates are greater than they actually are. These people are also more likely to report that they believe crime is increasing when the reality of the fact is that crime has actually been declining. A third issue Gerbner brings up is the stereotypes constantly portrayed in medias especially when it comes to violence and race. African American are always showed as either really successful, rich, powerful people or violent criminals. Latinos are also discriminated against by being shown as immigrants who cause nothing but trouble and act out in violent ways, not the productive members of society that they generally are. These stereotypes are wrong on so many level especially when you take into account the fact that most violent crimes are committed by Caucasians. Clearly there are so many other things to consider when discussing the issue of violence.

High on Football

        Parents put their kids in sports as soon as they are old enough and our culture and society suggest that sports are what make you a man and give you masculinity, young kids are starting to feel the pressure of becoming bigger and better than ever before. This constant pressure is pushing some teens past the limit to a dangerous point. In the document Football High we are shown that doctors have been studying the effects of playing football on the brain. Helmets are only worn to protect against skull fractures, not concussions and other internal brain damage and that's where the problem comes about. Football players even in high school have a decreased ability to remember things over the course of the football season because of the effect hits that they take have on their brains. The only solution to this problem is to take out the aggressive physical contact that football is based around or to better design our football helmets so that they protect against both skull fractures as well as brain damage that occurs from being hit and tackled all the time.
        Another issue brought up by this documentary is the issue of these players not knowing their own physical limits. Because of the constant pressures they face to be bigger and better than everyone else they push themselves even harder than ever before and some of them don't know how far is too far. We are given an example in the documentary of a young gentlemen who pushed himself so hard in practice that he had a heat stroke and eventually passed away. Players are also playing with injuries, they aren't taking into account the effects their actions they are taking will have on their body down the road. A solution to this problem is changing the views of our entire culture and society but in the mean time we could educate these football players on what could happen in the future if they don't take care of their bodies now.