Writing Journal #7

This reading was definitely shocking.  I would have never imagined that anything like the 'power team' could exist, let alone survive in today's world.  The reading outlines the basic idea behind the power team's show, as well as describes some of the tricks and performances they do.  They impress audiences with 'incredible' physical feats and infuse a Christian message along with them.  They provide real, tangible human strength and blatantly relate it to there faith and spirit.  There are some intentional messages being directly and indirectly pressed on the audience.

In my opinion, these people know exactly what they are doing.  Although they may not be doing it to make money or gain notoriety, and just trying to share their faith, they must know that they stand as symbols and are influencing the audience.  The father and daughter scene, and the 'darkness and light' portion of the show are perfect examples.

There is a definite sense of belonging in a religious group, and i think that is a major factor in a lot of convertees decision to become Christian.  The power team provides the image of a powerful, strong group and to someone without direction or a sense of belonging would understandably be drawn to something like this.  This isn't the case 100% of the time, but i do think it occurs more often than not.

Overall, the power team makes me a little frustrated and definitely confused about the state of the public today.  There are some people out there who actually buy this stuff and feel good about doing it.  Although, if they stopped and thought about it from a balanced perspective, i think they would find that this is just a well thought out strategy to convert you to Christianity.

WJ#7

                Chuck Klosterman raises some interesting points about canned laughter in his essay, and I agree with many of these points.  His writing style is sharp, dry and to the point and its easy to tell how someone like him could hate laugh tracks if he is personally anything like his writing style.  He makes some interesting points regarding the sophistication of the humor involved with or without the presence of laugh tracks.  He says that TV programs that forgo the laugh track end up inevitably being taken more seriously; I think this makes a lot of sense.  Not that they are serious in the sense that they are less funny, but that the quality of the material and jokes are treated more seriously.  When this happens, there is much more room for different comedic styles other than the very surface level joke-and-laugh humor that is found in most laugh track-ed programs.

                Klosterman also raises some interesting points about laughter in American culture.  When I think back on the way I have communicated with people, I notice that there is a lot of unnecessary laughter.  It’s completely second nature.  Laughter is treated almost like conversation filler, or something that lets the person that I’m talking to know that, whether I care or not, I find it relevant or interesting.  

                These topics are interesting to me and I look forward to hearing everyone’s opinions in class.

WJ#6 Research topic.

When we were asked to brain storm about possible topics in our majors I immediately knew there would be very little to write about in the field of chemistry.  So I decided to turn to ideas and issues that i find interesting, but have never actually taken the time to dive into.  Out of all my ideas, one thing seemed to stick out the most.  It became my first choice.

Topic for research:  Advertising and its effects on consumers.     

In my opinion, advertising in today’s society focuses less on trying to sell you a physical product, and much more on trying to sell you a lifestyle associated with a product.  All of us experience this daily, whether it is television ads, billboards, or ads in magazines, most of them try to pin-point unconscious desires within us.  Up until about WWII advertising focused primarily on functionality and durability.  If you needed a product back then, you needed it to last and to perform as long as possible, so the logical purchase was the one of best long term value.  Post WWII when the economy turned up and people had more money to spend things slowly became different as competition between companies became more and more important.  We see some of the first to attempts appear to manipulate public consumption with the idea of associating products with desirable lifestyles.  A very broad and generalized idea of this would be if you see an ad for a clothing line and everyone in the ad is not only wearing the clothes, but also socializing, laughing, physically fit, and unbelievably attractive then one could maybe relate the idea of the fabricated lifestyle in the ad to the clothes being sold. Thus, when given a choice between clothing, the consumer is drawn to the clothing that they think reflects the lifestyle of the ad.

 

There are tons of factors involved and this means that this isn’t always the case with all advertising 100% of the time, but i do think this is a common strategy in modern advertising.  I’m really interested into looking further into this idea and learning more about exactly how advertisements influence what we buy.  I think that there could be adequate sources to draw from and plenty of examples and perspectives to consider.

Citation.

Here is proper citation for the article referenced in my interview assignment.

Bekiari, V., & Lianos, P. (1998). Characterization of Photoluminescence from a Material Made by Interaction of (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane with Acetic Acid. Langmuir The Acs Journal Of Surfaces And Colloids, 14(13), 3459-3461.

Response: Attached to Technology and Paying a Price.

Today we were asked to read and respond to "Attached to Technology and Paying a Price", conviently linked for those of you reading this, here.  The article discusses the issues with becoming overly connected to technology and how it can really impede the ability to focus.

We are told about the life of Mr. Campbell who "is a heavier user of technology than most".  He begins and ends each day with tech gadgets, and all day, every day he is connected.  We learn about his relationship with his annoyed wife, and neglected children.  We also learn all about his failed vacations, procrastinating, and general detachment to physical life. I feel the purpose of his article was to leave the reader to wonder, why would anyone want to bombard their brain with all this garbage?

Now, obviously the article is taking the anti-tech side of the 'technology in everyday life' debate, and offers scientific studies that suggest being connected too often can cause some brain networking and focusing problems.  It even gives some historical perspective, comparing the jump in technology now to earlier eras.  Despite all this evidence, i still have to disagree with the author.

I feel that a lot of these problems are not technology based, but people based.  A lot of popular services like skype, facebook, twitter, blogger, etc. have improved the quality of information exchange tremendously in the span of just a couple years, and the ability to access this information practically anywhere is something people can use to be productive.  The abuse, or over use, of these services rests solely on the user themselves.  Im pretty well immersed in tech and personally, it doesn't sabotage my life like it does Campbell; it simplifies it. 

And as for the fractionating of your brain, i feel that is also a personal issue. Even as i write this now, I'm listening to music, browsing facebook, and monitoring email.  One needs to effectively learn either how to block out distractions, or manage them rather than blame them.  As with anything, learning a new skill takes time and thought, so why cant we condition our brains over time to learn to cope with the influx of stimuli being offered?

I'm curious as to what the class debate will be like tomorrow, I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's ideas and thoughts on this.

Hello

Hi everyone.  I'm Andy, a sophomore chemistry major, and I'll be using this blog to respond to assigned readings in research writing, English 202 taught by Dr. Jeremy C. Justus here at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Not only am I a chemistry freak, but i have been playing classical piano since age 10.  Other than that, im your stereotypical culture loving, music playing, coffee drinking, art consuming, inconsequential thinking college student.  Hope you like what i have to say!