Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My Point Exactly

Object Lessons: Romance, Violation, and Adolescent Sexual Desire

Deborah L. Tolman
Wellesley College

This article was my favorite so far. I have always had a keen interest in sexual desires and where they originate from. I understood how she incorporated her closing statement into this piece and by giving the two examples of the girls she interviewed. I understood completely her intent of this research :"By speaking to boys and girls about girls' entitlement to their sexual desire, we demand a rewrite of the romance narrative in which girls Will be sexual subject rather than sexual objects." Here she takes a whole new approach, one of which has never been brought to my attention. I always knew that a woman's sexual desire can be changed by past childhood negative sexual abuse such as molestation, rape, etc. However, by educating young women on the importance of their bodies and the actual ways in which their bodies are "supposed" to be used, and the feelings that they are holding back to experience are normal, we can possibly make some progress. We tend to teach society so much as to how sex is bad, don't do it. Then society contradicts this by things displayed to our youth through the media. But teenagers out there are going to go ahead and do it anyways. We need to explain to them that they can be loved for their inner beauty as well as their outer. They need to be informed on how it is natural and that they need to love themselves before anyone else can love them back. This quote was perfect for the issue. "Following a social constructivist perspective (Gergen,1985) the ways in which we do and do not "story" sexuality into being are definitive in how we make meaning out of our bodies and our relationships, and so the ways in which we do and do not speak about sexuality are crucial."

I understood Tolman's new approach on how speaking up more about sexual desire will enable us to teach these adolescents to speak up when making the right decisions. This will make them more comfortable with themselves to where they can say no at the right times. Helping educate these women and why they may not be connecting to themselves may help these adolescents and young women to change. They can come to realization that they may have been used as a sexual object in the past but they are not a sexual object they are who they are and thats someone who is beautiful. Sexual desire is also beautiful so we need to somehow get therapy to these young girls to let them know they are in charge now but they need to do it with respect because they deserve it. We need to show them the beauty of sexual desire. I always was interested in the statistics on prostitution and how a huge percentage of them were sexually abused as children. At first I thought to myself, wouldn't they hate men and not want to be touched? Some, yes. However most of them who prostitute if not for drugs which can ease their past pain and frustrations but to be in control. Its not for themselves of their own sexual desire, they ignore this, instead they do it for control purposes. They want to be able to control who touches them because in the past they were not able to, there is some kind of void being filled but it is not a healthy one and it sure isnt for sexual desire. I think Tolman has found a new intervention to teach our you on sexual desire, wonderful.

I understood her point made but I think there may be some difficulty in trying to get all teens to actually get through their past and move onto their true selves. I think it is something that lives with a person forever but it is a first step in helping these teens to reteach them what someone else has taken away. Possibly through some psychoanalysis and some long term intense therapy sessions it is a good approach for those who were victims to possibly change their views of themselves. However this is sort of out of the reach for most youths financially and medically. Prevention would be the key word here, motivational speakers, guidance counselors, support systems. I dont know if the media will ever change its capitalistic ways so that may be out of our control but there are other ways to prevent and fix future damage.

I would have to say it is hard to relate this article to most articles we have read. However I could see the connection between society and the media in general. Our class is all about teen media, media playing a role in almost every article we have read. The media shows these young adults off as sexual objects. We see this in rap videos, clothing commercials, etc. It is rare we see the brain and the beauty all in one and rarely if so its the "cool thing". And we wonder why these young adults lost this connection between sexual desire and sexual objectivity.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

This Video gives us a great representation on Miller's article on New Media, Networking and Phatic Culture. Great Stats!

New Media, Networking, and Phatic Culture

By: Vincent Miller

I understand how Miller is trying to inform us that society has gone into a "networked society" where people are starting to record their daily activities and voice themselves and their emotions through the internet and media. He begins with blogging and within his opinion on blogging states "Because of the increasingly disembedded nature of late modern life, a major task of the individual is to continually rebuild and maintain social bonds, making individualization by its nature non-linear, open ended and highly ambibvalent (Beck and Beck Gernsheim, 2002)." This tells us that people have began using the blogs to express themselves and their emotions in ways they otherwise wouldn't be able to do. In social networking and database culture Andreas Wittel (2001) had come up with what he called "network sociality". I agree with his approach on this. "Instead of gaining security through "trust" and self disclosure within the late modern context of mobility and disembeddedness, network sociality is an instrumental or commodified form of social bonding based on the continual construction and reconstruction of personal networks or contacts." This is saying that people are now building socially within these social networks. They are networking and meeting their friends and possible business partners now online. I would say most people want to have as many friends as they can, also to have a great population to advertise their product to, or even just to feel more secure about having friends and people to talk to in time of need. I have facebook and it nice to voice that when I have had a bad day and post it up and open my facebook later on and see that people actually care and try to cheer me up. This would not happen otherwise because I am not a big phone talker and don't open up to just anyone. This leads to the next argument on microblogging, connectes presence and the ascendancy of phatic culture.

Miller argues that without the means to the products which allow us to communicate than there would be no means to network, there fore we have become dependent on these products. I liked how Miller describes how facebook, twitter, etc encourage phatic communication through social add-ons such as vamprie bites, farmville, and games like that etc. I think they do this not only to get the people hooked on the game which will get them hooked on the site but also to get the people to use these games to socialize with others. The only one I know of is facebook and on facebook these games allow you to play while interacting with other facebook friends. This may give the user a feelings of acceptance in some way.

Most of Millers points I agree on and there is nothing I do not understand in this article because he makes alot of valid points and backs them up.

I can relate this article to Coming of Age With the Internet By McMillan And Morrison because society is being taken to a whole new level when it comes to social networking, blogging, and using the internet. People are now becoming mroe adapated to their online social skills rather than their one on one personable skills.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Vagina Monologues At Rhode Island College

I finally have a few minutes to tell you about my experience attending the Vagina Monologues at Rhode Island College. I decided to bring my boyfriend. neither of us knew what was going to be experienced. He was mostly the nervous one but we were both surprised that we enjoyed it so much. He enjoyed it so much he even bought himself a t-shirt that he wears that says "I love Vaginas". This monolgue was informative, touching, and comedic all at the same time. It attracted a diverse croud of people to whom most got invloved from time to time. My favortie was the woman who mimicked all the different sorts of moans that woman have while having play. The one I was most touched about is the little girl who experienced a sexually abusive lifestyle. The names people gave Vaginas was hysterical, some of which I had never heard before. They made the croud scream cunt over and over again. This play allowed us to be more comfortable with discussing ourselves and our bodies in front of others. It gave us an informative view of the different women and how private they may be with their sexuality to how open others may be. I did learn that no matter what, a woman should not be ashamed of what she has. My most favorite part was talking about our favorite vagina names on the way home from the play. I think it helped us open up a little more, something I didnt even think needed to be done. I am glad I went and I am even more glad I brought my boyfriend. :)

To read more about Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" check out her site at:
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/ensler/vm/



This was my favorite part of the play .. HYSTERICLE! of course this is the you tube version perfored by a different actress but it is almost exactly the same as the one performed at RIC.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Touching Song on youth today

This song I found had relevance to Lauren's article titles "Fast Forward". When hearing the lyrics I think of the media and how they try to control our youths. We can teach our youths to have the strength to be who they are and not allow anyone else to control this.

Fast Forward by Lauren Greenfield

In Fast Forward, Lauren Attempts to go into a four year journey to analyze the world of L.A youths. In doing so she finds that there are many adolescents and children who admire materialism and money. One thing she also found much in common among teens was the fact of growing up quick. One teenager stated "You grow up really fast when you grow up in L.A. It seems like everyone is in a rush to be an adult. It's not cool to be a kid." She took pictures of a wide diversity of children and teens of all different ages. I understood how she was able to see which child was influenced by what environment by just looking at a picture. She also asked a few questions here and there to hear what they had to say. My favorite was when the little boy commented on how his mothers dresses too young, and that she always has to have a style of dress that hasn't even come out yet. These pictures and interview's were nice in seeing how children not only act, but how they really feel about what is "in" and what is not. I also learned by this how important environment is when it comes to a child's impression of the world. What we see in front of us is what we are going to compare ourselves to and subconciously compete with. If we are shown different values than we rely on happiness not for materialistic things but instead what we learn is supposed to make us happy. There was nothing I didn't understand in this article.

I can relate this article to Raby's discourses. In the storm you have growth of identity and the "sense of self". I believe we all do develop in stages like Erikson ()says but I also believe that our environment has an important role in who we are today. I am a firm believer of nurture vs nature. And Raby's article along with Eriksons makes sense, however, by Greenfields interviews and pictures, society plays an important role on self identity. Maybe if children didn't see what society shows them to the extent it does as so important then maybe they wouldn't have social problems like Raby talks about. This article links social problems with what children see as "in". If a child doesn't fit in then they may act up because they don't fit in. Or they may even do what they need to do (eg commit crime) to get that nice pair of shoes or that 100 dollar bill.For ex one boy said in Lauren's interview "If you are doing a story about growing up in L.A, you have to show money. That's what its all about. He and two friends then held up bills for her to photograph(the bills were 100 dollar bills)" Do you see a social problem here or what?? I do... This leads into Rabys argument on pleasurable consumption how the media shows our children what to wear and whats cool to have. We cant leave out agency, because not everyone ends up the way their environment led them.

I would have to say I can relate this article to Morrison and McMillans article on coming of age with the Internet. In their article they describe the importance of relationships with self,family,real communities and virtual communities. The difference between these two articles is simply the absence of the direct concepts of the effects of the Internet. They relate however in terms of environment and media effecting the identity of our children's youth. Computers and being on the Internet is what a child sees more important these days then playing sports for example. The child is influenced by family and friends which impacts the self. Whatever they see to be the "in" thing (which is exposed through media and internet) then this can as a result effect the child's morals, values, and can in turn have a negative effect on the child's self image and identity.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Glee

While watching the first episode of Glee I associated parts of the movie with a few of our discussions from class. I understood the theme the directors are trying to hit. This show is based on high school children and popularity. It is also based on Passion. It gives a representation of the self-identity process teens go through. Also, it depicts the stereotypes that are formed and that in high school it is allot easier to be like the rest then to be yourself. I did notice that the show did make all the football players white males. What grabbed my attention and what I liked was the cheer leading squad had males on it! YEY...However, the main "popular" cheerleaders were of course your same old blonde light skinned girls. I liked how there was lots of humour used. I didn't like however how the faculty and students picked on the boy in the wheel chair allot. I feel like if students watch a TV show where the Principle is making a comment about how "you are not going to succeed with a handicap in the group", this gives students false impressions of how a principle should act, and also how they should be role models in how to treat other children. I think I would like to watch the next episode but if its on TV cuz I'm not gonna pay for it. I would really like to see this group of teens prove themselves by winning nationals. There was nothing I didn't understand while watching the show.

Glee went along with the assumption that youth is a culturally constructed category. Even in my high school years there were the same clicks there are now. That was only 6 years ago. Clicks now are pretty much the same but regardless they can change over time and as society (and within high school) this will change what these teenagers accept as cool and therefore change the way they act. I don't know where Glee is heading but at the end there were the cheerleaders and jock staring them down when they saw what a wonderful job they had done performing. They could become jealous but they could also all of a sudden feel like this is the next cool thing to do. These brave teens took a stand and could change the way the clicks look at theatre production, maybe in a more positive light. I can relate to this because I was friends with everyone in college and ran track. I brought my "hippie" friend who only believed a workout consister of typing on the computer and other friends who did not show interest. Because I thought it was cool I had introduced it to others it changed the way they looked at it. Some came to cheer, while others joined. I think in order to change a cultural construct it takes a leader and time. Eventually, this becomes the newest culturally constructed category everyone wants to par take in. Who ever started the pants past the bum phase? I know most of us found it unattractive yet it was the coolest style for a short period of time. Why? Because there was a majority of teenagers who went through that phase. If we werent dressing like that then we looked right past it because it eventually became a norm to us. Our parent's on the other hand who had a different style going on during their teens, could not believe when they saw this new in cool style of gigangtic baggy pants that come down past the bumm.

This article can relate to coming of the Age with the Internet by Sally J McMillan and Margaret Morrison. The reason why the girl in this video felt like she was nothing was because of what other girls think of her. She tried using the Internet to put herself out there for others to see her talent. She was then ridiculed by the other students who made her feel like poo about herself. Media Matters. I say this because it was stated by the girl who was a great singer that she was trying to be famous because that's what everyone strives to do , is become famous. If she really knew thhat there are plenty of unhappy famous people out there she may just have second thoughts.But the media leaves what goes on behing closed doors out, so in the light (AKA Media Portrayal) all famous people are happy. Also, I found many relations to Rabys reading on "Girls Negotiating Adolescence". The main characters who join the group Glee seem to all be taking a risk. Most of whom have never cared about others opinions. However the quarterback of the football team has a rep to uphold, but he still gives it a try and when he has the chance to back down, doesn't. I liked when they said they wanted to find something that they were good at. He is willing to make a change to "find himself".

This video I found has relevance to this show with underlying meaning. there has been lots of talk recently about "pregnancy pacts." I find this relevant because teens these days (as in Glee) try to "fit in" to be cool. There could be other reasons why teens get pregnant but when there are "pacts" as in this case, up to 17 girls in one yr around the age of 16, there is definitely a social problem that exists. I feel bad some girls have gone this far to fit in. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Hip-Hop and the Corporate Function of Colonization

Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.
In this article by Jared A. Ball I was only able to pull a few things out of it. I understand he is trying to say that the corporate world has control over the hip- hop industry. He quotes "Having else where looked at the function of mass media as primary mechanisms of the maintenance of colony, recent events have again emerged requiring further investigation into the function of corporate control over the cultural expression of colonized populations." The artist gets to voice his opinion but it is mainly influenced by the sales and the corporate world. The corporate world is telling the artist what it takes to sell an album. Is the corporate world taking over hip-hop? Is is any longer an art of just the artist, or is it just about the money.

I don't understand how the "lyrics committee" did not allow the "fuck the police" album to be released. I am confused when the author writes "This elite uses structure of corporate governance to maintain this control in relative anonymity where CEOs and commerical spokespeople become mere illusions making their position as modern-day colonial administrators."

These two article relate the most to the assumption on "media matters". This is because no matter what the case we discuss that media matters in this course in most of our readings. In some of the last, the media played an important role on the way it affects our children and teens. In this article I would have to say media matters in a different form. Media matters for the corporate world. Media matters in the way it depicts a certain culture to be. The media is needed for these artists to put out their albums. However the media does matter , but in a negative way, of how it helps the rich get richer but the poor remains poor. By watching these videos and listening to these albums, the media does not tell us this.

This article gives another understanding of the hip - hop corporate world.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_4782.shtml

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Hip-Hop Industry Masonic Agenda pt.1/3

This You-Tube Video is a great representation of this article. I was able to pull out quite a few quotes that relate to this controversy between hip-hop, media, and socialization in relevance to how the rich become richer while the poor stay poor because they are not heard but instead looked at as a money maker to society. At first, hip-hop helped the Black Community voice themselves in trying to pull themselves out of poverty. Somehow along the line this has changed.If you would like to see the rest of the parts of the video you can visit the site ( I would highly recommend this to you because it is so interesting) at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pCHZUd-jS4

Hip-Hop, Mass Media and 21st Century Colonization

By Jared A. Ball, Ph.D, Communications Fellow
I understand most of the author's arguments in this article. The author is trying to say how hip-hop is tied to the mass media and uses colonizations of the 21st century to keep the cycle going. For example, politics play a big role in all of this. For instance at the end of the article Jared states that " In future columns I will detail the historical shift in hip-hop, the corporate/industrial mechanism, detailing how the final product is shaped to these political needs and offer detailed strategies and current movements/ artists whos work is in assertive resistance to this neocolonial condition." I understand Jared's approach in trying to eventaully prove how hip hop is geared simply towards using mass media and depicting the certain way a culture should appear to be and in turn making a profit. In doing so we are subconcioulsy growing bias on certain colonies and how we think they should act. Also, it gives the people a false impression of how "Black Americans" make it big in this world. I get the underlying sense and I feeling from this article that says in my mind "just release a hip-hop album and you will be at the top, this is how you can succeed in this political, corporate industrical society. The government is making money off of taxes and the hip hop artists who may not have had a chance at anything out of the "ordinary" got a chance at their white picket fence, despite the passion they may or may not have for hip hop. For example he states "It is not the PEOPLE that these conditions are natural but, instead, to the CONDITION, of being colonized. Popular media and, therefore, hip-hop cannot be changedprior to a societal shift (revolution)in who holds power and how that power is being wielded." The hip-hop industry is not realistically made based on society and culture but instead upon marketing and the corporate worlds. Otherwise known as "MASS MEDIA."

This article was very straightforward and as I finished it I began to put the pieces together to give myself a complete understanding. As I began to read it the very first line confused me. However, as soon as I began to read the rest of the article it all made sense. I then went back to reading it and I actually really liked how he decided to begin with the quote "given the societal need and function of mass media and popular culture, all that is popular is fraudulent" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fraudulent.He couldn't have said it any better.

Look at how hip-hop is defined on this particualr websit and tell me how you feel about the way they define it.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:hip+hop&ei=DtmKS5agGorYtgPb9OyEAw&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title&ved=0CAYQkAE

Monday, February 22, 2010

Your friends will be moving on with their lives, while you are still sitting in the same spot, Literally

Coming of age with the Internet... Sally J. McMillan and Margaret Morrison

These authors went ahead and collected data in the qualitative forms of autobiographies. This approach was nice in being able to see different views of young college student adults and how the coming of the Internet has been a part of each of their lives. I have always had my own hypothesis on the whole "coming of the Internet" and how it "effects society as a whole". It is there and it is wonderful. Wonderful in ways just like some students stated in the articles such as convenience. Convenience to shop,to communicate at much cheaper rates, and my favorite is the learning tools the Internet gives us. An example of this would be one person who said " the Internet has changed my life. I now almost exclusively buy organic foods. I no longer eat red meat because of information I retrieved off of the American Medical Association's website and from sites authored by various environmental organizations."I believe the access of the Internet has given me the quickest and easiest way to read and comprehend (if needed) an article. for instance, Raby, when she used lots of words I didn't understand I just looked them up. I was already on the computer so it was "convenient". Before I would just read and not get the fullest understanding because I didn't have access to a dictionary and if I did it may not have the word i am looking for. Now along with Pros come cons. In this article it states "Many respondents reported that they feel in danger of losing themselves amidst the wealth of information available on the web." Going back to discourses, people can be misled by the Internet. An article could be biased whether it be fact or not, but biased in an underlying tone and it could be misinterpreted. Not all information on the Internet is correct either. For example,many of my Professors will not except Wikipedia citations because anyone can write anything they want on Wikipedia. I used to use it in high school and wasn't aware of this until college. I may have been misguided at one point and didn't even know it. I firmly agree with some of the students beliefs on how the Internet takes us away from social environments and in my opinion I do not think that is healthy. Families these days spend less time together. Ironically I was just discussing this in my juveniles and justice class. There would be less delinquent behavior if parents and children spent more time together. It also goes over the idea that "the younger generation such as younger siblings, etc are smarter when using the Internet". This tells me that some parents may be lost. If the parents do not know how to even turn on a computer then how are they going to monitor what their children are doing. Just like everything else it has its pros and cons. The Internet in my opinion is best used properly when in moderation. Use it and don't abuse it.

I did not fully understand the concentric circles used in the model of figure 1. I understand that it "contributes to the aspects of the participants every lives". However, I don't understand why the authors couldn't just state each of these in a list rather then a circle. I don't understand the relevance of the circle.

I do not understand if the authors agree or disagree completely with whether or not talking online and making another identity is OK. They claim it helps someone who is shy, yet it helps an introvert be more introverted. I felt there were a couple points made here that contradicted each other. I understand they are both valid points along with many others but sometimes in this article its hard to see which points they favor.

Along with the relevance the article had with discourses as I mentioned above, there was relevance with youth as a culturally constructed category. I believe this goes to say that the Internet as well as teens and young adults have changed over time. We see in this article, and in life in general,that the older generation does not have as much experience with the Internet as the younger generation does.

Monday, February 15, 2010

This You Tube video explains one teenage girls image of herself. I felt it relevant to this weeks article.This girl, like most at her age, is confused

"A Tangle of Discourses: Girls Negotiating Adolescence" By: Rebecca C. Raby

The author in this piece did her own miniature study on 30 teenage girls and their grandmothers. Her goal was to help her get a better outlook on what she claims are the five discourses ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discourse) of adolescence. These include storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem, and pleasurable consumption. These are how teenagers may think of and speak about the world around us. Raby claims "adolescence is a clear, predicatable (but turbulent) stage that teenagers inevitably ://www.thefreedictionary.com/inevitably) undergo." In saying this she is saying we all have been there done that and had the same self conflicts resulting in these events (she calls these "key traits") . However these interviews show each teenage girl and descirbes their opinions of being a teen in their our own ways. We all have had our similar yet different experiences but not one of us will describe it in the same way.Ray does this study to show that all adolescents each in their own ways will go through these these discourses even though they each may express themselves differently along the way. Ray used the grandmothers along with the current teens for the interviews to see the effects of generation on this topic. Her method was as follows "By drawing on interviews with both grandmothers and granddaughters, I have been able to identify the diverse ways in which adolescents talked about across time, across identity positions (such as class and gender) that intersect with teenage hood , and between general references to adolescence as a category and particular referencees to individual teenagers." Her results came from very diverse groups aged from 13 to 19.
  • The storm and the becoming are more likely to be naturalized (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/naturalized) as inevitable, psychological and/ or biological features of adolescence. This is to say that these two dscourses are bound to happen and will commonly happen as the adolescent matures. In my Psychology class I learned about Erik Erikson (http://www.learningplaceonline.com/stages/organize/Erikson.htm). The author defines the storm as psychological and having stages like Erikson. Also, biologically teens go through hormone changes which also like the stages of development effect a teen and the way they look at life. I learned about Erikson and his stages in my Psychology class but Steinberg gives another outlook on teens and self identity that interested me "Parent;s probably project their own discomfort about adolescnce onto their children....as a way of avoiding facing the unrest they themselves feel about growing old." The Becoming interested me the most because it explains self discovery and identity formation. In doing she explains how the teen may end up confused because they are entering endependence yet they are dealt with much consequences to their actions. This is described as "Panoptic time." We expect so much from our teens yet we are educated enough to know that they are able to have an excuse because of their development. This quote interested me and it makes me feel like we ignore adolescnets sometimes "Child and teen desires, ideas and expereience may be consequently dismissed as irrational (
  • This You Tube video explains one teenage girls image of herself. I felt it relevant to this weeks article. This girl, like most at her age, is confused about her identity.
    • The author in this piece did her own miniature study on 30 teenage girls and their grandmothers. Her goal was to help her get a better outlook on what she claims are the five discourses ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discourse) of adolescence. These include storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem, and pleasurable consumption. These are how teenagers may think of and speak about the world around us. Raby claims "adolescence is a clear, predicatable (but turbulent) stage that teenagers inevitably ://www.thefreedictionary.com/inevitably) undergo." In saying this she is saying we all have been there done that and had the same self conflicts resulting in these events (she calls these "key traits") . However these interviews show each teenage girl and descirbes their opinions of being a teen in their our own ways. We all have had our similar yet different experiences but not one of us will describe it in the same way.Ray does this study to show that all adolescents each in their own ways will go through these these discourses even though they each may express themselves differently along the way. Ray used the grandmothers along with the current teens for the interviews to see the effects of generation on this topic. Her method was as follows "By drawing on interviews with both grandmothers and granddaughters, I have been able to identify the diverse ways in which adolescents talked about across time, across identity positions (such as class and gender) that intersect with teenage hood , and between general references to adolescence as a category and particular referencees to individual teenagers." Her results came from very diverse groups aged from 13 to 19.
    • The storm and the becoming are more likely to be naturalized (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/naturalized) as inevitable, psychological and/ or biological features of adolescence. This is to say that these two dscourses are bound to happen and will commonly happen as the adolescent matures. In my Psychology class I learned about Erik Erikson (http://www.learningplaceonline.com/stages/organize/Erikson.htm). The author defines the storm as psychological and having stages like Erikson. Also, biologically teens go through hormone changes which also like the stages of development effect a teen and the way they look at life. I learned about Erikson and his stages in my Psychology class but Steinberg gives another outlook on teens and self identity that interested me "Parent;s probably project their own discomfort about adolescnce onto their children....as a way of avoiding facing the unrest they themselves feel about growing old." The Becoming interested me the most because it explains self discovery and identity formation. In doing she explains how the teen may end up confused because they are entering endependence yet they are dealt with much consequences to their actions. This is described as "Panoptic time." We expect so much from our teens yet we are educated enough to know that they are able to have an excuse because of their development. This quote interested me and it makes me feel like we ignore adolescnets sometimes "Child and teen desires, ideas and expereience may be consequently dismissed as irrational (BARBIE. I saw this video after our discussions on this. After watching it a second time and seeing her proud of her new self being plastic I have come to my conclusion that media has a serious effect on teens. She may be 23 and possibly has body dysmorphic disorder so she may have been born to never be happy with herself. I believe the media made it worse for her sickness. She now has her publicity but instead of people blogging about her "Jay Leno" chin she claims she had, they are now going to blog about her sickness. People will always talk about others and the internet gives these teens a way to communicate how they feel about others. Some people such as Heidi Montag can not mentally handle it. I feel like the internet and the media is in control of Heidi and she unfortunately has no idea.

      Heidi Montag: "I almost died like Michael Jackson" (Access Hollywood)

      Monday, February 8, 2010

      "Media Literacy"
      MEDIA-"In general, "media" refers to various means of communication. For example, television, radio, and the newspaper are different types of media."(http://www.iwebtool.com/what_is_media.html)
      LITERACY-"Literacy is more than just being able to read and write. Literate children see reading as fun and exciting. They use reading to learn about a wide range of subjects, and they use writing to share their ideas."(http://www.drspock.com/article/0,1510,5133,00.html)
      After googling Media Literacy I have come to define the term in my own mind. Media Literacy focuses on the awareness of the media and what impacts it has on society which include TV, Magazines, the internet, etc. When defining media literacy, no other quote besides this one comes to mind:
      "To look is one thing,To see what you look at is another,To understand what you see is a third,To learn from what you understand is still something else:To act on what you learn is all that matters.-- Taoist
      This defines not only the importance of the media but the importance to take in, how we take it in which can be due to parenting skills and culture, etc. Everyone takes in the media in different ways. It can also be a subconcious thing..for example, I didnt even once look into how Disney portrays their characters as characters I once thought to be wonderful role models to not thinking so, this done to the awareness based on education I have been lucky to have. To understand and debate on the issues is another important aspect of media literacy. This is all part of the learning aspet (which like I have said before) has made me aware. This in turn has made me happy I can prevent my children from seeing the inappropraite someday. However, it has also taken from me what I thought was something wonderfull when I was sitting at the cinema or watching TV. We all take it in, but HOW do we take it in? Do we even KNOW what we are really seeing? These are situations where the uneducated need to become educated. To see different opinions and debates on you tube and through the internet of what is right and what is wrong in societies opinions interests me. This is all part of media literacy.
      On the website Called Media awareness Network a media and education resource there are different examples and definitions of media literacy..
      A woman by the name of Jane Tallim gives a defintion I feel defines it in my eyes..
      "Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media— from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there, and noticing what's not there. And it's the instinct to question what lies behind media productions— the motives, the money, the values and the ownership— and to be aware of how these factors influence content....... (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/teachers/media_literacy/what_is_media_literacy.cfm)
      Go to this website for a good clarification of media literacy given by North Ameican Experts on the sibject
      "Most often, "the media" are lumped together as a single entity. But "the media" are actually many forms of communication...including newspapers, magazines, and billboards, radio, television, videocassettes, video games, and computer games. Since the students participating in VidKids are primarily engaged in television viewing (most of them are too young to read newspapers and magazines), our activities focus on video and TV. (http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/education/programs/digitalstudio/studio_programs/vidkids/medialit.html)

      Monday, February 1, 2010

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8O8p0Ac1Rg
      "Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us"
      Linda Christensen
      A student of Christensen by the name of Omar states after studying cartoons and childrens literature wrote "When we are reading children's books , we arent just reading cute little stories , we are discovering the tools with which a young society is manipulated." Before I took this class I would have never thought anything of the way the media depicts their characters. My eyes are now wide open to the sexism,racisim,etc. I also like how Eva stated in her blog that you barely ever see homosexuality in the media. Slowly but surely we are making progress but i feel like no matter what there will always be underlying conflicts with these issues in movies, magazines, and the media. I have to say that now thats sense of enjoyment and enteratinment has been taken away from me when it comes to watching tv, movies, and reading magazines.The more educated and open to these issues the more I am gong to becoime a critique of these issues rather then using them for entertainment. I hope some day I will not have to do that. A point was made which brought me back to my teenage years and hit home. Justine, a senior in Christensen's contemporary and literature and society class stated: "It can be overwhelming and discouraging to find out my whole self image has been formed mostly by others or underneath my worries by what I look like are years by being exposed to images of girls and their set roles given to them by TV and the media."I always had my own styles,however, I remember my first pair of NIKEs thats I begged my mom to buy for me because all the girls on the track team had them. She worked hard to get them for me despite they didnt make me run any differently or make me act any different towards the girls. Unfortunately after I had my NIKES at that point in my life I noticed the other girls talking to me more. I believe it is all subconcous and it amazes me to get down to the core like we are doing,simply amazing. I love to notice the unnoticed.
      • Justine also made a statement which confused me. "True death equals a generation living by rules and attitudes they never questioned and producing more children who do the same" Is this saying death is portrayed differently in different religions or backgrounds? Or am I missing something as far as an underlying meaning?
      • Also, I am wondering if anyone else believes if we make more equality within the media if you think people will still find issues to pick at within the media? Will it always need improvement? Just looking for some opinions on the issue....
      I can relate this material to our first assignment which we are going over tomorrow on the assumptions. Many of us assume roles whether it be subconsciously or not. In the first class we related teens to lots of negativity which hopefully can be changed in the end. This article is very similar to the writers of these magazines, movies, tvs shows in which they are trying to make the perfect story, what they think to be perfect, which may not be in all of societies minds.
      When I was 13-
      My life began to change from the poor girl on the south side living with roaches and constant break-ins in the small three bedroom apt with my single mother and two sisters to the girl who lived with the white picket fence ( so it appeared). I think living two different lifestyles made me who I am today. I can relate to those who have lived poorly and those who do not. Because of this I was friends with everyone and did not see what was in front of me but instead how they treated one another or me. I was the girl to stick up for someone when they were picked on despite me getting made fun of I knew the feeling of having to wear hand me downs and never had name brand things like my fellow students had. I have so much to say about being 13 because I feel it was one of the most important times in my life when I experienced the most mental, physical, and emotional changes in life. In closing I will have to say I am proud of where I came from because it makes me who I am today. I have put myself through college and graduate this year. It took me six years but I did it all on my own which gives me a feeling of euphoria every time I think about it. My past made me who I am and I recognize that in others and hope that others do the same with themselves. I am a strong willed, compassionate, Independent woman.

      Welcome to my page!

      YEY! My name is Samantha Lamarre and I have now for the first time in 25 years entered the blogging world! I used to think blogging was chatting but I was wrong, it has a whole new category of its own. I am very excited to have taken this class and believe blogging will be the new exciting way to do assignments.