Hey, everybody! Party like it’s 2012? Or was it 1999? Maybe it was 1995. I guess it depends on whom you ask; there are many people with predictions on the end of the world. It is easy to discredit the freaks that look to their cat’s fur ball as a premonition but what about the scientist and the religious? How does society react to the “theory based” dates that have a rhyme or reason to them? David Koresh, the late leader of the Branch Davidian Church, believed that the Bible’s battle of Armageddon would happen in 1995. Singer Prince, who is now known as “the artist formerly known as Prince” sang a catchy tune about the end in 1999. The most recent date of choice is December 21, 2012. Scholars determined this date based on the Maya calendar. The Maya is an ancient civilization that is known for their expertise in astronomy on their calendar, a 5,126-year cycle will come to an end on 12/21/2012.
How does society react to these pre-determined dates of annihilation? First, they see the movie version of the event-to-be filled with special effects and A–listers. Then they purchase survival guides that are written to help the reader survive the end of the world. Surviving the end of the world, isn’t that an oxymoron? Some people may even spend every last dime they have on frivolous items that nobody could ever need, after all you can’t take it with you.
Doomsday dates come and go, some of them never even noticed, however society’s interest and participation never waivers.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Assignment 3-1
20/20 news program did a segment titled, College: Worth the Price of Admission. The piece investigated the quote; “people who have a college degree earn on average a million more dollars in their lifetime”. They interviewed three recent college graduates that have: degrees, a large amount of debt, and still no job. The college graduates had degrees that varied from meteorology, human development, and a doctorate. Walter Roland, the meteorologist, made the statement that “the college diploma is the new high school diploma”. I have thought about that quote and I have determined that society has pushed the notion that everyone needs/deserves to have a college degree. Just like anything in life when there is too much of something or everybody has one it becomes cheap, worthless or common. I do agree with Walter Roland, we may be getting to a point in society where a college degree does not define you from the rest of the crowd.
20/20 interviewed two specialists, one was an economist and the other an author of a book that attacks this problem. The economist believes that college should be saved for specialty degrees like medical and legal and that generic degrees are just a waste of time and money. She advocated vocational schools as an excellent alternative. They teach technical skills such as plumbing, electrical and emergency training. This training will supply an adult with enough marketable skills to earn more than the average American. The author’s research found that 40% of college graduates said that they would not spend the money on a college degree if they were given the chance to do it over again.
The Friday night segment was eye opening but not surprising to me. I originally dropped out of college to attend an apprenticeship for the electrical industry. The money I would make during the apprenticeship and long after as a journeyman wireman was double of what I would of earned as an elementary school teacher. My skills are marketable anywhere in the world so I will always have a job. I think that if college students choose a degree that is in demand and they bring something to the table that distinguishes them from the rest of the applicants, the college degree will still be worth something in the end.
NBC News. (Producer). (2009, January 16). 20/20. College: Worth the Price of
Admission. (Television series episode).
20/20 interviewed two specialists, one was an economist and the other an author of a book that attacks this problem. The economist believes that college should be saved for specialty degrees like medical and legal and that generic degrees are just a waste of time and money. She advocated vocational schools as an excellent alternative. They teach technical skills such as plumbing, electrical and emergency training. This training will supply an adult with enough marketable skills to earn more than the average American. The author’s research found that 40% of college graduates said that they would not spend the money on a college degree if they were given the chance to do it over again.
The Friday night segment was eye opening but not surprising to me. I originally dropped out of college to attend an apprenticeship for the electrical industry. The money I would make during the apprenticeship and long after as a journeyman wireman was double of what I would of earned as an elementary school teacher. My skills are marketable anywhere in the world so I will always have a job. I think that if college students choose a degree that is in demand and they bring something to the table that distinguishes them from the rest of the applicants, the college degree will still be worth something in the end.
NBC News. (Producer). (2009, January 16). 20/20. College: Worth the Price of
Admission. (Television series episode).
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Assignment 1-3
Author Cameron Crowe wrote the book “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. Crowe attended high school as a student to research the way kids behave in high school for his book. Crowe focused his book on the way kids mentor each other or as he puts it “cool coaching”. The theory behind “cool coaching” is that kids are segregated from their parents and other adults a large portion of the day and therefore have no one to look to for as an example. During this time kids that are unsure of themselves look to other students to show them how not to be a loser and how to be “cool” or “in” to survive. Crowe found that this type of mentoring was imperative to being able to cope within the tribal like hierarchy that only happens in high school.
Schwind, J. (2008). Cool Coaching at Ridgemont High. The Journal of Popular Culture,
41(6), 1012-1032. Retrieved January 09, 2009 from Ohiolink.
Schwind, J. (2008). Cool Coaching at Ridgemont High. The Journal of Popular Culture,
41(6), 1012-1032. Retrieved January 09, 2009 from Ohiolink.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Assignment 2-1
The article on the Road Runner internet website, More than $5 million paid for TV inaugural events, written by the New York AP, states that networks have dished out $5 million to have the exclusive rights to air the inauguration and the events that will proceed and follow the governmental event (2009). These networks claim that they have come forward to make sure that the events are televised for free so that the world will be able to watch.
I do not have much personal experience to say that this has never happened before, outrageous amounts of money being spent to host a presidential inauguration. I have watched the new president be sworn in, standing outside in the bitter cold every four years for the last twenty. I refer to that moment as a tradition of our government for the handing over the guard. The daily reference of the inaugural event makes me think of the red carpet, worst dressed and paparazzi. Calling the inauguration an event has actually cheapened the true meaning of the day.
History will be made on January 21, 2009 and I will be proud to be a part of it. History was also made when George W. Bush, William Clinton and other American’s took the same oath to lead our country. The fact that our country democratically chooses a leader every four years makes history.
I am not opposed to President-elect Obama, but I fear for the prestige of the presidency. Will the paparazzi be hiding behind the hedges as Obama meets with foreign leaders and will every governmental event require massive amounts of port-a-potties?
Reference
Road Runner Homepage. (January 16, 2009). More than $5 million paid for TV inaugural
events. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from http://www.rr.com/flash/index.cfm?startView=ENTERTAINMENT
I do not have much personal experience to say that this has never happened before, outrageous amounts of money being spent to host a presidential inauguration. I have watched the new president be sworn in, standing outside in the bitter cold every four years for the last twenty. I refer to that moment as a tradition of our government for the handing over the guard. The daily reference of the inaugural event makes me think of the red carpet, worst dressed and paparazzi. Calling the inauguration an event has actually cheapened the true meaning of the day.
History will be made on January 21, 2009 and I will be proud to be a part of it. History was also made when George W. Bush, William Clinton and other American’s took the same oath to lead our country. The fact that our country democratically chooses a leader every four years makes history.
I am not opposed to President-elect Obama, but I fear for the prestige of the presidency. Will the paparazzi be hiding behind the hedges as Obama meets with foreign leaders and will every governmental event require massive amounts of port-a-potties?
Reference
Road Runner Homepage. (January 16, 2009). More than $5 million paid for TV inaugural
events. Retrieved January 17, 2009, from http://www.rr.com/flash/index.cfm?startView=ENTERTAINMENT
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Assigment 2-2
Three contemporary icons that stand out in my mind are the minivan, soccer mom, and bottled water.
The minivan was introduced as a cross between the full-size van and the station wagon. Families wanted to be able to keep the size of the van but still be able to fit it in the garage like the station wagon. During the 1980’s gas prices were in check and interest rates were low, the minivan became the vehicle of choice for the American family. The introduction of the minivan brought about the term of “soccer Mom”. Everywhere you saw a minivan there were sure to be a Mom and a boatload of kids. Soccer Mom’s are always on the go, they are constantly running here and there. They are trucking their kids, their dog and the neighbors’ kids from one extracurricular activity to the next. All this running makes Mom thirsty; hence the introduction of purchased bottled water.
I have always been behind the times. I missed the minivan era. My children played with kids whose parents piled them into a minivan to take them to soccer, but I never owned one; and why the term “soccer Mom”? The first time I heard the phrase I wondered, “do that many kids play soccer”? Why not “football Mom” or “baseball Mom”, are not these two sports our national pastimes? I refuse to buy bottled water. When I am at the soccer game and I get thirsty I reach for my water bottle, which I filled from my tap, for free, at home.
At one time these three contemporary icons were constantly entering my household by way of the Internet, television and the Jones’. I was beginning to wonder if I was shortchanging my two children. When I pleaded with my husband (between sips of my free bottled tap water) to trade in our sensible four-door sedan, for a minivan with a cool door that slid shut on its own, for the sake of our children’s future. He would remind me that we still owed on that sensible four-door sedan and that if we got a minivan we would be expected to take the entire team to practice on Wednesday. I never brought it up again.
minivan/soccer mom picture
Frontburner.dmagazine.com
The minivan was introduced as a cross between the full-size van and the station wagon. Families wanted to be able to keep the size of the van but still be able to fit it in the garage like the station wagon. During the 1980’s gas prices were in check and interest rates were low, the minivan became the vehicle of choice for the American family. The introduction of the minivan brought about the term of “soccer Mom”. Everywhere you saw a minivan there were sure to be a Mom and a boatload of kids. Soccer Mom’s are always on the go, they are constantly running here and there. They are trucking their kids, their dog and the neighbors’ kids from one extracurricular activity to the next. All this running makes Mom thirsty; hence the introduction of purchased bottled water.
I have always been behind the times. I missed the minivan era. My children played with kids whose parents piled them into a minivan to take them to soccer, but I never owned one; and why the term “soccer Mom”? The first time I heard the phrase I wondered, “do that many kids play soccer”? Why not “football Mom” or “baseball Mom”, are not these two sports our national pastimes? I refuse to buy bottled water. When I am at the soccer game and I get thirsty I reach for my water bottle, which I filled from my tap, for free, at home.
At one time these three contemporary icons were constantly entering my household by way of the Internet, television and the Jones’. I was beginning to wonder if I was shortchanging my two children. When I pleaded with my husband (between sips of my free bottled tap water) to trade in our sensible four-door sedan, for a minivan with a cool door that slid shut on its own, for the sake of our children’s future. He would remind me that we still owed on that sensible four-door sedan and that if we got a minivan we would be expected to take the entire team to practice on Wednesday. I never brought it up again.
minivan/soccer mom picture
Frontburner.dmagazine.com
bottled water picture
letsgetgreen.wordpress.com
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Assignment 1-4
The publicized passing of actor John Travolta’s son has brought back my interest in the religion of Scientology. I learned of Scientology in my early 20’s while attending college. My first encounter with the church was well before the much talked about interview between talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and with well-known actor Tom Cruise. The members of the group that I met were ordinary people quietly handing out pamphlets to the passing students on campus. There was nothing in the news about the literature or the fact that the Scientologist even existed. However, Tom Cruise’s interview brought The Church of Scientology to the forefront of the mass media when he emphatically announced his religious belief that modern medicine’s use of drugs to fight mental illness was the cause and not the cure. This controversial statement, by a well-known celebrity brought Scientology from the college campus to the world.
The world is infatuated with the rich and famous. Ordinary people base the way they live their lives on the values and opinions of celebrities. People determine what they eat, drink, wear and even how they vote by what the famous do. Celebrities have so much influence over the masses they can bring something that no one knows about and make it huge. There is much talk in today’s society about celebrities and their influence over people and how, if any, they should be held accountable for their actions.
The world is infatuated with the rich and famous. Ordinary people base the way they live their lives on the values and opinions of celebrities. People determine what they eat, drink, wear and even how they vote by what the famous do. Celebrities have so much influence over the masses they can bring something that no one knows about and make it huge. There is much talk in today’s society about celebrities and their influence over people and how, if any, they should be held accountable for their actions.
Cartoon Network
Popular culture is ideas or things that the majority of the people are familiar with and/or what to have or know. The critical word in the definition is “majority”. The way I determine whether something is considered to be popular culture or not is if: 1) my teenage children know about it, 2) it is on the cover of every magazine, 3) my children want it and 4) I am not willing to spend my time or money on it.
The participation in popular culture to me is mainstream and is not for independent thinkers. My real interest in popular culture is the people who develop the ideas and things. The inventor of the item that changed the way we do things. The thinker who came up with ideas that changed the way we see things, and the personality that made us want to get to know them.
Understanding popular culture is relevant to being successful in the business environment. Popular culture is all about what the majority of the people want. Business is about supply and demand; in order to be successful you have to have something that people want. My company is a developer of commercial and residential real estate. We have to understand what people want now and what they are going to want in the future. We cannot be successful if we do not build the type of buildings people want in the right locations.
The artifact that I have chosen to be an example of popular culture is the cable station Cartoon Network. I chose Cartoon Network as an example of popular culture because I feel it has had a tremendous affect on how our children perceive the function of the television in their life.
Cartoon Network is a television station that airs child enticing programming 24 hours a day seven days a week. The fact that the station calls the child to watch at any time of the day makes the child and adult believe that it is normal to participate in this type of entertainment at any hour if not every hour of the day. Adolescents that once were limited to watching children’s programming a few hours a week are now tuning in all hours of the day. The once active and imaginative child is now stationary and participating in mindless activities.
The participation in popular culture to me is mainstream and is not for independent thinkers. My real interest in popular culture is the people who develop the ideas and things. The inventor of the item that changed the way we do things. The thinker who came up with ideas that changed the way we see things, and the personality that made us want to get to know them.
Understanding popular culture is relevant to being successful in the business environment. Popular culture is all about what the majority of the people want. Business is about supply and demand; in order to be successful you have to have something that people want. My company is a developer of commercial and residential real estate. We have to understand what people want now and what they are going to want in the future. We cannot be successful if we do not build the type of buildings people want in the right locations.
The artifact that I have chosen to be an example of popular culture is the cable station Cartoon Network. I chose Cartoon Network as an example of popular culture because I feel it has had a tremendous affect on how our children perceive the function of the television in their life.
Cartoon Network is a television station that airs child enticing programming 24 hours a day seven days a week. The fact that the station calls the child to watch at any time of the day makes the child and adult believe that it is normal to participate in this type of entertainment at any hour if not every hour of the day. Adolescents that once were limited to watching children’s programming a few hours a week are now tuning in all hours of the day. The once active and imaginative child is now stationary and participating in mindless activities.
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