Every waking moment of our lives are concentrated with consumerism. I wake in the morning and turn on the television to catch the news report before work. In between the reports are fascinating and stimulating commercials. Commercials that tell me what to drink, what to eat, and what to buy. Many of these commercials are specifically generated to catch the eye of me, the consumerist. Generation Y, adults in range of 18-34 years old, the offspring of the "baby boomers," is the primary audience of advertising agencies. To paraphrase
Gladen, " the legions of the so-called 'Age of Acquisition' who have few established brand loyalties and lots of pocket change." This audience is seen to be the major
threshold of consumerism. Generation Y is the part of society that splurges on Starbucks coffee, purchases the Nike product to stay healthy, and the Sean John and Baby Phat to keep us looking hip. We as Generation Y are knowing in the political fields of appropriation of our loyalty. Our generation is mostly disaffected with the political scene, we know that isolation from this begins with our
iPods, Avatars, and
PlayStations. Rather we haven't been taught that consumerism as something that extends beyond the own
enjoyable trip to the mall. (
Gladen p. 289) Many people are opposed to this active appeal of the
Generation Y, these media activists
have three strategies to bring down the house of consumerism. The first is to find a way to appeal to the young people on their level as an
individual. The second is to find the examples in popular culture, to show us that we are manipulated to believe we need these things. The third
strategy is simply to have the youngsters speak with their parents about their personal
experiences as they were growing up. As Johnson exemplifies, this consumerism is not about what we buy, but how we buy it. He believes that television is actually making us smarter. Television is making me smarter. So when I watch a episode of 24 on Fox, I am becoming smarter merely
because I can follow multiple story lines. So if this show is making me smarter; does that mean I will buy product more intelligently. I think not, the shows we watch many of us believe are for their entertainment value and nothing more. This entertainment value is what keeps us from watching the Home Shopping Network and being an avid consumer who must buy, buy, buy. On the other hand, Will states that, "Ours is a stage besotted with graphic entertainments." He is referring that our society cannot stand up to the intellectual crowd because of our inability to connect with books and academia. We can no longer keep up with the academic world
because we are constantly being bombarded with "graphic entertainment." This graphic entertainment is what supports the consumerism we are immersed in. Many of us Generation Y have grown up with many cartoons that told us what to buy merely because they re the newest hottest toy; such as My Little Pony and G.I. Joe. The television we watch everyday informs us of the material objects that can make us happy, if we only choose to accept the advertisements and buy. Just look the other way when Starbucks or Nike is advertising and remember that you are being manipulated to think these items are more special.
Johnson, Steven. "Watching TV Makes You Smarter" They Say I Say: With Readings. Comp. Gerald Graff, Cathy Berkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.
Rockler-Gladen, Naomi. "Me Against the Media: From the Trenches of a Media Lit Class". They Say I Say: With Readings. Comp. Gerald Graff, Cathy Berkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.
Will, George F. “Reality Television:Oxymoron” They Say I Say with Readings. Comp. Gerald Graff, Cathy Berkenstein, Russel Durst. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.
Your post is really interesting to read. I especially enjoyed your flow. Although your overall thesis was pretty clear and your points were very easy to find- your post seemed to missing one thing. I think what it was missing was the definition of who was making the argument. I think it's great that you agree with your author; however, I think that for this assignment had you stated what article and author you were writing about rather than writing it as your own opinion it would have been better.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, the media. Where would we be without the media? Where as I think we need commercials etc to get the word out there about specific products, they are sometimes absolutely annoying.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I completely understood your arguments against the other author's posts. I think you argued with them from a personal standpoint versus telling us how your author would respond to them. That's my only negative though. Other than that, your post flowed nicely. Good job!
Your take on the article Me Against the Media was really interesting. You made a lot of good points as to how we are all affected by advertisements. I do agree that there are a vast amount of products out there trying to be promoted. On the other hand, I am in the classified generation Y, and I often do have loyalty to specific brands. I am not going to drink my Starbucks because I have seen celebrities holding one, I will buy it because I enjoy it's delicious taste. I would say many of us are looking past the promotion efforts and buying what we enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWell written and well said, even though we do see and hear others telling us how television can be good, it stimulates the mind and in how watching channels like the discovery channel can help us in learning. The one thing we do look past on when watching television would most definitely be the advertising and marketing that surrounds television itself. We see little children always wanting the hottest trend that they see on television and it is the parents job to explain to them that they don't need it especially if it is something that they did not need themselves growing up.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting points on the media and where they are taking our generation. I was brought into the essay with you interesting argument on morning news but instead being more taken in by the commercials. I couldn't agree more when you were saying the media pulls us in with its well written commercials that tell us what to eat, where to eat and what to buy. Commercials can be consuming without us even knowing it. Great job group!
ReplyDeleteI think that your article flowed very nicely. You had good transitioning and it was very clear about generation changes especially with children and commercials. I did not really see where you explained how your writer would see the other two authors that you chose. Those views did not really stand out to me, it seemed more like your opinion on their articles.
ReplyDelete