I thought this week’s reading was especially intriguing. I was able to relate to a lot of what Kalle Lasn had to say. I agree with his statement that we have a “labeling” problem. He says, “an awful lot of people are feeling down and they don’t know why. Something is draining their energy, addling their brains-but they don’t know what,” (10). I think the media, TV shows and the internet are to blame. We watch these shows and wish we had adventure in our lives, or wish we fell in love like the characters on a show. We strive to look beautiful based on unrealistic people in magazines and are constantly looking at advertisements to improve ourselves. Another topic I found interesting was his excerpt on noise. At night I have to sleep with a white noise machine in order to fall asleep. I have become so accustomed to noise around me that I need something to blend into my background in order to feel calm. I never thought about noise being a “mental pollutant,” but now that I look around me and pay attention to what everyone is doing I realized how much noise interferes with us. As I write this response I’m listening to music, because I am convinced it helps me concentrate. I wonder if I was just put in a room with complete silence if my work would improve and if I would feel calmer. One point that I strongly agree with is that,” Lack of diversity leads to inefficiency and failure,” (26). I have found that my lack of diversity and experiences of culture has greatly affected my artwork and has posed as a struggle for me. I wish I had the time to be put into more unusual situations to stimulate my mind. Instead I am put on an everyday schedule with no time for diversity, unless I am prepared for a panic attack.
In spite of myself, a product of a standard middle class and humbly comfortable upbringing, I do think Kalle Lasn has a point. However, I also feel that the Culture Jam author comes off a bit too strongly at times and lacks the focus to really make his entire thesis hit home for me. I am fully in agreement when Lasn references Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books) and compares “our mass media dispense [as] a kind of Huxleyan ‘soma’” (xiii). He writes, The most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of belonging. And belonging is best achieved by conforming to the prescriptions of America™. In this way a perverted sense of cool takes hold of the imaginations of our children. And thus a heavily manipulative corporate ethos drives our culture. Cool is indispensable—and readily, endlessly dispensed. You can get it on every corner (for the right price), though it’s highly addictive and its effects are short-lived. If you’re here for cool today, you’ll almost certainly be back for more tomorrow. (xiii) This relation is a very clever explanation for the lack of satisfaction that comes with material possession. Consumerism, like soma, is something that is just accepted and expected to be taken and its only momentary relief is rectified by its next dosage, making it all appear to make sense yet again. On this topic, I believe Lasn is completely correct. However, I think that when he gets onto the subject of the internet and what he calls “information overload” he is not only getting off track, but is also far too critical and nearing a blanket view that all that is new is bad. The internet which is a major contributor to Lasn’s “unreality” may have some issues but the fact is that at this point it is simply another realm of reality and it must be dealt with, not blankly criticized. Also, it is an extraordinary resource that greatly outweighs any problems in my opinion. The internet, as well as the television, have opened our eyes to so much more than used to be possible and true, it may seem unnatural which at times is somewhat off-putting. But it still is without a doubt for the best. Lasn writes, trying to make a point, “Jot down in a notebook the number of times a day you laugh at real jokes with real people in real situations against the number of times you laugh at media-generated jokes, the amount of sex you have against the amount of sex you watch, and so on” (22). Now that is a real life joke. First off, media-generated humor creates smiles vital to a happy life did come from an actual human being at one point, and isn’t it lucky that we have the technology to share it? And secondly, have as much sex as you’re seeing in the media and you have bigger problems than a lack of smiles. I think it is unfortunate the tangents that Lasn goes on with the internet and information we are exposed to because it takes away from what I believe his main argument about consumerism is. His tone comes off far too radically opposed to the modern way of life that makes him far less approachable, when really he has an important message that should be read. It is definitely valuable to reassess the things we actually need, the role of the media and advertising in our lives, and how society has been hugely changed by consumerism.
I happened upon this online (how ironic) and thought it fit nicely with the upcoming material; these are two articles and a video about Mark Boyle, a man who has gone without spending any money for the past year: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/oct/28/live-without-money http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/jan/25/mark-boyle-no-money-man http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/mark-boyle-money
Lasn talks about what is causing all the mental disorders in american’s. He claims it is the electronic world that we haven’t gotten adjusted to yet. In a way I do believe with him. People are not meant to be thoroughly linked through computers, cell phones and pagers. We are social creatures that depend on the sound of the human voice and silent gestures. Despite techonology, people are more isolated then ever. There is no human to human interaction. Just computer to computer interaction. People hide who they are in the digital world and with that communication begins to fail us. I am scared that the next generation will not know how to spell the word happy and in turn will put a winky smiley face instead. Just like how Lasn points out that the children who went out camping couldn’t communicate with their parental units, I fear that the youth will not know how to communicate the simplest emotions in the future. To again go along with the camping idea, we get a day off and we don’t know how to turn off the cell phone and enjoy the time we have with the person we are with. Lasn called this a reality index, virtual world versus human interaction. We are constantly looking for the new thing despite what we have. Grandparents become a burden instead of story tellers because kids want the television to be their story teller. (I turn off my cell phone when visiting my Grandmother.) Someone unexpectedly gave me a cell phone at the age of 25. I hate the damned thing unless I am alone at school and haven’t spoken to my boyfriend all day. Even then, technology goes even further, and this really bugs me to heck and back, technology replaced human voice with texting! Another reason as to why I think the human populace in America are becoming depressed directly links to how much work is forced upon the ones that supposedly succeed in life or the ones seen as the “failures.” Instead of developing love and family, people go after careers, isolation and wealth. And those that want family and love are faced with the lack of vacation days they get with their loved ones. America is one of the lowest rated countries in happiness and vacation days. We over work the American to the point that they can’t help but stress out and get depressed over the amount of work they have. We are taught that if we don’t give 110 percent then we will fail. If we do fail then we are losers. Since we can’t be losers and money is everything then it’s no wonder why people jump off buildings when the stock market crashes despite the loving wife, children and dog they have at home.
Also, in 1989, american mothers’ breasts had four times the amount of DDT permitted in cow’s milk. Whaaaat?! I was born in 1984. Did I drink a ton of DDT? The book never explained how all that DDT got into a woman’s system.
Culture Jamming is a very different type of book than San County Almanac. I see it as being very similar to the article about Losing Hope. Lasn firmly believes in his views. Sometimes it is hard to relate to this type of thinking as I tend to think that most things are fine in moderation, but many of his examples really struck home with me. When speaking about advertising taking over all aspects of our lives, from seeing product placement in a movie to a billboard on the side of a building on the drive home to grabbing a new product at the supermarket because the ad I just saw on TV got me very interested in what it does. For the last item, I can tell when this is happening. Most often I find myself looking at a product and resisting the urge to buy it because I know that I don’t need it and only want it because of the advertisement I just saw. But sometimes, I will grab something and reason why I should try it, and I wouldn’t have even noticed it or picked it from a generic brand if I wasn’t told by a commercial that I need to have this one now. Even right now as I write this post I have concrete examples. When opening up this book and flipping through the pages looking at pictures, I came across a bookmark telling me where I should sell my textbooks. It seems innocent enough as a bookmark is useful and I need a place to sell my books. But it is advertising none the less and I will at least peruse the site when it comes time for me to sell my books at the end of the semester. Additionally, while I sit typing at a table in the library, there are fliers sitting across from me letting me know that the ‘best damn Halloween party period’ will be taking place at a night club in Ann Arbor, and if I bring this pass I get $5 off! What a steal right? But whoever believes that and uses the coupon would not have been spending their money there in the first place if it wasn’t for the flier, so they are hardly saving money. I also notice the influence of advertising on the web. I have an add-on installed in my web browser that blocks banner ads and all sorts of ads on any website. I don’t realize how many ads there are until I go on a computer without the same feature. And I can only imagine that people unfamiliar with the add-on are equally unaware that there is an enormous amount of advertising that floods every single page. The other part of the reading that interested me was how he tried to grasp the common reader. First he talks about camping, and then about smoking. With camping, he tries to make the reader think about how they would fare in the wilderness. Although I enjoy camping, I can think of numerous people I know that would undergo the same withdrawal of technology Lasn describes; there has even been a movie chronically such an escapade a few years ago that came out after this book was published. Next, he reaches an even broader audience, camper of not, discussing the fifth that enters our bodies mentally and physically. He draws upon the story of smoking cigarettes: a once cool and youthful fad was uncovered to be detrimental to one’s health. The analogy is used to talk about how the information overload does the same to our mental psyche, and he hopes soon it will have the same publicity that anti-smoking campaigns had. This example was very graphic for me, and made me reflect on how I would feel giving up all electronic communication and disconnecting myself from the media. It would be a hard thing to do, but would have at least no negative effects, and most likely positive ones.
The reading we had from Culture Jam was eye opening. I was not sure how to respond because the information Kalle Lasn stated was the truth, such as America being this multitrillion-dollar brand was very true and how we now have gone from living in a natural world to a manufactured one. Another interesting point that Lasn had brought up was the “Cool” factor, which was essentially following whatever trend, was brought up from the media. Lasn opened his book with the statement that everyone can make a difference which was a very clichéd saying in an “awaken inner giant book” and this made me wonder where he was taking this book to. A I read on he finally started talking about one of the many battles we currently face, which was the “image” sold of America(TM) brand who is associated with catch words such as “democracy,” “opportunity” and “freedom.” Coming from another country I remembered how idolized America was. It was where anything can happen, where endless “opportunity” was available. These are all true but I did not know that there are other sides to America as depicted by Lasn. One subject Lasn discussed was the subject of “insanity.” In the beginning of the chapter “The Ecology of Mind,” he posed the question “is everybody in America was ‘nuts’?” and with the right qualifications, the answer was yes. The fact was the worldwide rates of major depression in every age group have risen steadily since the 1940s. Lasn suggested that this was happening due to chemical agents in the air, water, or food. This was all great information but what strikes me most is what Americans call as “suffering” when compared to the rest of the world they are very blessed. The suffering Americans experience was plenitude which essentially means that they have everything they want however if everything is available and nothing was hard-earned, then they feel empty. This emptiness was an interesting to me because I never thought about it and it is so true because it ties in with constant consumerism.
This week’s reading was very interesting for me because it ties in so closely with so much of the reading from one of my other classes. The concept of “hipster” came about during the late 50s and early 60s when the public finally decided it was sick of the monotonous society of the 50s that emphasized social order and hyperorganization, stifling creativity and individualism. From a period of natural abundance, America’s become a society of manufactured, man-made abundance that allows for overconsumption of goods that we don’t even really need. Lasn’s illustration of our spoiled consumerism is shocking, to say the least. I never think about my lifestyle from that perspective, but through Lasn’s discussion of our desensitization to shocking media, and of our addiction to the electronic world, of the narrow tunnel of information we receive, I was given facts that I had subconsciously been denying. This brings to question whether we as people in this manufactured nation have our own will anymore. Is what we think to be “cool” just another product sold to us by the mass culture? And even if there is a true, raw form of “cool”, it is bound to be incorporated by the masses anyway. This week’s reading, like many of the mass society critiques of today, hold a very cynical tone that holds much against America’s cultural history that has brought us where we are today.
This week’s readings were very interesting and I found myself agreeing with many of the points Kalle Lasn made. His examples and arguments were strong and despite being taken aback initially by his tone, a response similar to when reading Beyond Hope, I was very persuaded about consumerism’s negative effect on our culture. I have read the magazine, Adbuster’s, many times and prior to reading this book I was a little hesitant about what the content would be and the arguments the author would make. However, the support and anecdotes Lasn chose to include contributed to the believability of his claims and even to his own likability. For instance, his examples on the infiltration of advertisement into our daily lives were something that caught my attention specifically. Although I have been aware of the methods companies are willing to undergo to introduce an idea or product into the life of the consumer I was struck by the extent of their determination. It seemed ridiculous to me the opportunities companies saw in areas that were not meant to be advertised on, in or around. Sending up images into the sky and the clouds similar to the Bat signal is bizarre at best. To see an idea used in a fictional story of superheroes brought into reality for the purposes of getting people to buy more is very distressing indeed. On a different note, another anecdote I found to be interesting was when Lasn described a hypothetical situation in which a family took a weekend out in nature camping. His description of this scenario was all too real to be ignored. The contrast between Leopold’s experience of nature and that of the “modern day family” is so extreme that it almost seems unbelievable the way in which our culture has advanced to the point where children are having withdrawals from the internet, television, and consumer media.
Ok… There had better be a large pot of gold at the end of this magical rainbow of supposed and complete mind control that this guy is talking about. I mean just damn. Makes it sound like we are completely doomed, helpless and have for the entire short time mankind has existed. I mean it sounds like we never ever had free will. Oh well time to crawl up into a ball and just pass on then. Kalle lasn’s emotional and (seemingly not backed by hard evidence it seems. Hey I didn’t see it. Did you?) Pleas for change just love to tug on every piece of our personal lives. Makes sense though. The man is basically saying everything we are doing and by extention not doing is poison to us and that the magic cure all to any illness we feel we suffer from can be cured. All we have to do is throw over the entire commercial, economic, and social system we live in! Hell yea its sooo simple! Ok so I’m being rather cynical about this all. (oh no!!! I clearly have been one of the victims he has been talking about.) The fact is that there might be certain things I agree with Kalle with. There are forces that we need to take control away from. Are ads for the most part kind of evil and propagandist? Yes. Does that mean that because they exist people should just take them at face value? Of course not and I have faith that people cannot be so completely brain dead not to come up with their own opinions about stuff. People know what an ad is. I really think that people are smart enough to realize that advertisers try to sell a fantasy. Anyway I will find this book interesting. But I will want one simple thing from this author. What kind of world are we trying to fight for? I would like to know what Kalle believes is the ideal world after we have crushed everything humanity has worked towards. What happens after the corporations fall? Breaking stuff without a goal other than just to damage it is of course not a high calling but simple vandalism.
I agree with his statement that we have a “labeling” problem. He says, “an awful lot of people are feeling down and they don’t know why. Something is draining their energy, addling their brains-but they don’t know what”
In response to Jesse’s idea that television and internet have pretty much gave us another reason to “feel down” in terms of being affected by the media, may not be the case. I know of many people that feel down due to life implications and hardships. One can say that Kalle’s idea that technology has been changing the way human’s function can certainly be a better approach to say the least. Human are social creatures and to some extent we need human interaction in order to function at a stage where we neither become depressed nor oppressed with life’s circumstances. I believe that many things such as our laptops and our cell phones have driven us to become overly attached to materialistic goods. So now instead of talking to someone face to face, we send them a tex. Or in some cases, having someone over for dinner, and a movie but instead we physically go and see a movie and grab dinner. That may be little exaggerating but I do feel that this is the way society is evolving but it is not the end of the world. Technology is a vast aspect of the way we communicate and live, and I could not imagine what I would do without it sadly.
I found this week's reading to be quite interesting, and also easier to read (compared to Sand County Almanac).
One interesting thought proposed by Lasn that I wholly agreed with was the section about Shock. I have also noticed that the public only watches the news for the "breaking stories" about mass murder, extreme weather disasters, and stories of the like. The "news" is being treated like movie plots; only the most intriguing, horrific 'plots' win the most viewers. News station's competition for ratings and viewers strictly limit what stories the public is exposed to.
I also liked the section on Hype. Companies and their products are in tight competition with each other for you, the consumer. And so, they set out to make their products look like the best thing ever to be invented and that you simply cannot live without it. I especially agree with Lasn when he says "The proliferation of commercial messages has happened so steadily and relentlessly that we haven't quite woken up to the absurdity of it all," (19). Children are taught from a young age that 'things' are important to life. From commercials for sugar-filled snacks or light-up noisy toys during sesame street to seeing ads while out shopping with family, children are taught to want things rather than to be happy with what they really need. If people would just take a step back and reevaluate their priorities before rushing out to purchase the newest, best thing, maybe we could lessen how much money is wasted in the United States purely on advertising.
The beginning of Culture Jam immediately reminded me of the My Space project. The book seems that it will be discussing the ways in which Americans have become mindless consumers who are hypnotized by commercialism. Culture Jammers are people who attempt to go against the commercialism ways of the American culture and even attempt to break this pattern. I strongly believe that one of the ideas behind the My Space project is that when we go through and log all of the possessions in our rooms that we will find far more than we could ever need. Beyond that, one must wonder that if they do not have an actual need for all of the goods that they have, then why do they buy these unnecessary goods? Culture Jam offers one answer to this question, which is to say that Americans are simply mindless consumer zombies. Somehow, I don’t believe that advertisement and commercials have so much of an impact on our society that we have become mindless consumers who buy goods when we don’t even know why they are buying them. I believe that commercialism does have an effect on the items, which we buy, but not to the point that we have no control over the goods and services which we spend our money on. Most importantly, I believe that having a strong mind and being strong willed is the best way to counteract the effects of commercialism. Both the project and the reading were directly correlated, and my interest on this topic of advertisement has been peaked. Hopefully the book will go into the methods, which are utilized by advertisement agencies in order to appeal to the minds of Americans.
Mondays lecture really had an impact on. It was nothing I hadn't been already familiar with, but actually being reminded and seeing it on television really made me take a second look. The video was basically a documentary-like video that takes place in one of the laboring factories in China. It was very sad and depressing to see the amount of work these people put in to making these things. In the film you see people shuffling through garbage, kids searching through sharp metals and dangerous objects just for us. It also makes me thing twice about what we spend on some of these things don't even cost a third of what we pay for them. There is not enough profit being made. It also makes me think about the unnecessary things I spend money on then later throw out. When those items are thrown out, they go right back to china, and then those people have to go through all that hard work again for nothing basically. I just thought that this was a very sad and depressing video.
I thought this week’s reading was especially intriguing. I was able to relate to a lot of what Kalle Lasn had to say. I agree with his statement that we have a “labeling” problem. He says, “an awful lot of people are feeling down and they don’t know why. Something is draining their energy, addling their brains-but they don’t know what,” (10). I think the media, TV shows and the internet are to blame. We watch these shows and wish we had adventure in our lives, or wish we fell in love like the characters on a show. We strive to look beautiful based on unrealistic people in magazines and are constantly looking at advertisements to improve ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAnother topic I found interesting was his excerpt on noise. At night I have to sleep with a white noise machine in order to fall asleep. I have become so accustomed to noise around me that I need something to blend into my background in order to feel calm. I never thought about noise being a “mental pollutant,” but now that I look around me and pay attention to what everyone is doing I realized how much noise interferes with us. As I write this response I’m listening to music, because I am convinced it helps me concentrate. I wonder if I was just put in a room with complete silence if my work would improve and if I would feel calmer.
One point that I strongly agree with is that,” Lack of diversity leads to inefficiency and failure,” (26). I have found that my lack of diversity and experiences of culture has greatly affected my artwork and has posed as a struggle for me. I wish I had the time to be put into more unusual situations to stimulate my mind. Instead I am put on an everyday schedule with no time for diversity, unless I am prepared for a panic attack.
In spite of myself, a product of a standard middle class and humbly comfortable upbringing, I do think Kalle Lasn has a point. However, I also feel that the Culture Jam author comes off a bit too strongly at times and lacks the focus to really make his entire thesis hit home for me. I am fully in agreement when Lasn references Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (which happens to be one of my all-time favorite books) and compares “our mass media dispense [as] a kind of Huxleyan ‘soma’” (xiii). He writes,
ReplyDeleteThe most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of belonging. And belonging is best achieved by conforming to the prescriptions of America™. In this way a perverted sense of cool takes hold of the imaginations of our children. And thus a heavily manipulative corporate ethos drives our culture. Cool is indispensable—and readily, endlessly dispensed. You can get it on every corner (for the right price), though it’s highly addictive and its effects are short-lived. If you’re here for cool today, you’ll almost certainly be back for more tomorrow. (xiii)
This relation is a very clever explanation for the lack of satisfaction that comes with material possession. Consumerism, like soma, is something that is just accepted and expected to be taken and its only momentary relief is rectified by its next dosage, making it all appear to make sense yet again.
On this topic, I believe Lasn is completely correct. However, I think that when he gets onto the subject of the internet and what he calls “information overload” he is not only getting off track, but is also far too critical and nearing a blanket view that all that is new is bad. The internet which is a major contributor to Lasn’s “unreality” may have some issues but the fact is that at this point it is simply another realm of reality and it must be dealt with, not blankly criticized. Also, it is an extraordinary resource that greatly outweighs any problems in my opinion. The internet, as well as the television, have opened our eyes to so much more than used to be possible and true, it may seem unnatural which at times is somewhat off-putting. But it still is without a doubt for the best. Lasn writes, trying to make a point, “Jot down in a notebook the number of times a day you laugh at real jokes with real people in real situations against the number of times you laugh at media-generated jokes, the amount of sex you have against the amount of sex you watch, and so on” (22). Now that is a real life joke. First off, media-generated humor creates smiles vital to a happy life did come from an actual human being at one point, and isn’t it lucky that we have the technology to share it? And secondly, have as much sex as you’re seeing in the media and you have bigger problems than a lack of smiles.
I think it is unfortunate the tangents that Lasn goes on with the internet and information we are exposed to because it takes away from what I believe his main argument about consumerism is. His tone comes off far too radically opposed to the modern way of life that makes him far less approachable, when really he has an important message that should be read. It is definitely valuable to reassess the things we actually need, the role of the media and advertising in our lives, and how society has been hugely changed by consumerism.
I happened upon this online (how ironic) and thought it fit nicely with the upcoming material; these are two articles and a video about Mark Boyle, a man who has gone without spending any money for the past year:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/oct/28/live-without-money
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/jan/25/mark-boyle-no-money-man
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/mark-boyle-money
Lasn talks about what is causing all the mental disorders in american’s. He claims it is the electronic world that we haven’t gotten adjusted to yet. In a way I do believe with him. People are not meant to be thoroughly linked through computers, cell phones and pagers. We are social creatures that depend on the sound of the human voice and silent gestures. Despite techonology, people are more isolated then ever. There is no human to human interaction. Just computer to computer interaction.
ReplyDeletePeople hide who they are in the digital world and with that communication begins to fail us. I am scared that the next generation will not know how to spell the word happy and in turn will put a winky smiley face instead. Just like how Lasn points out that the children who went out camping couldn’t communicate with their parental units, I fear that the youth will not know how to communicate the simplest emotions in the future.
To again go along with the camping idea, we get a day off and we don’t know how to turn off the cell phone and enjoy the time we have with the person we are with. Lasn called this a reality index, virtual world versus human interaction. We are constantly looking for the new thing despite what we have. Grandparents become a burden instead of story tellers because kids want the television to be their story teller. (I turn off my cell phone when visiting my Grandmother.) Someone unexpectedly gave me a cell phone at the age of 25. I hate the damned thing unless I am alone at school and haven’t spoken to my boyfriend all day. Even then, technology goes even further, and this really bugs me to heck and back, technology replaced human voice with texting!
Another reason as to why I think the human populace in America are becoming depressed directly links to how much work is forced upon the ones that supposedly succeed in life or the ones seen as the “failures.” Instead of developing love and family, people go after careers, isolation and wealth. And those that want family and love are faced with the lack of vacation days they get with their loved ones. America is one of the lowest rated countries in happiness and vacation days. We over work the American to the point that they can’t help but stress out and get depressed over the amount of work they have. We are taught that if we don’t give 110 percent then we will fail. If we do fail then we are losers. Since we can’t be losers and money is everything then it’s no wonder why people jump off buildings when the stock market crashes despite the loving wife, children and dog they have at home.
Also, in 1989, american mothers’ breasts had four times the amount of DDT permitted in cow’s milk. Whaaaat?! I was born in 1984. Did I drink a ton of DDT? The book never explained how all that DDT got into a woman’s system.
Culture Jamming is a very different type of book than San County Almanac. I see it as being very similar to the article about Losing Hope. Lasn firmly believes in his views. Sometimes it is hard to relate to this type of thinking as I tend to think that most things are fine in moderation, but many of his examples really struck home with me. When speaking about advertising taking over all aspects of our lives, from seeing product placement in a movie to a billboard on the side of a building on the drive home to grabbing a new product at the supermarket because the ad I just saw on TV got me very interested in what it does. For the last item, I can tell when this is happening. Most often I find myself looking at a product and resisting the urge to buy it because I know that I don’t need it and only want it because of the advertisement I just saw. But sometimes, I will grab something and reason why I should try it, and I wouldn’t have even noticed it or picked it from a generic brand if I wasn’t told by a commercial that I need to have this one now. Even right now as I write this post I have concrete examples. When opening up this book and flipping through the pages looking at pictures, I came across a bookmark telling me where I should sell my textbooks. It seems innocent enough as a bookmark is useful and I need a place to sell my books. But it is advertising none the less and I will at least peruse the site when it comes time for me to sell my books at the end of the semester. Additionally, while I sit typing at a table in the library, there are fliers sitting across from me letting me know that the ‘best damn Halloween party period’ will be taking place at a night club in Ann Arbor, and if I bring this pass I get $5 off! What a steal right? But whoever believes that and uses the coupon would not have been spending their money there in the first place if it wasn’t for the flier, so they are hardly saving money. I also notice the influence of advertising on the web. I have an add-on installed in my web browser that blocks banner ads and all sorts of ads on any website. I don’t realize how many ads there are until I go on a computer without the same feature. And I can only imagine that people unfamiliar with the add-on are equally unaware that there is an enormous amount of advertising that floods every single page.
ReplyDeleteThe other part of the reading that interested me was how he tried to grasp the common reader. First he talks about camping, and then about smoking. With camping, he tries to make the reader think about how they would fare in the wilderness. Although I enjoy camping, I can think of numerous people I know that would undergo the same withdrawal of technology Lasn describes; there has even been a movie chronically such an escapade a few years ago that came out after this book was published. Next, he reaches an even broader audience, camper of not, discussing the fifth that enters our bodies mentally and physically. He draws upon the story of smoking cigarettes: a once cool and youthful fad was uncovered to be detrimental to one’s health. The analogy is used to talk about how the information overload does the same to our mental psyche, and he hopes soon it will have the same publicity that anti-smoking campaigns had. This example was very graphic for me, and made me reflect on how I would feel giving up all electronic communication and disconnecting myself from the media. It would be a hard thing to do, but would have at least no negative effects, and most likely positive ones.
The reading we had from Culture Jam was eye opening. I was not sure how to respond because the information Kalle Lasn stated was the truth, such as America being this multitrillion-dollar brand was very true and how we now have gone from living in a natural world to a manufactured one. Another interesting point that Lasn had brought up was the “Cool” factor, which was essentially following whatever trend, was brought up from the media.
ReplyDeleteLasn opened his book with the statement that everyone can make a difference which was a very clichéd saying in an “awaken inner giant book” and this made me wonder where he was taking this book to. A I read on he finally started talking about one of the many battles we currently face, which was the “image” sold of America(TM) brand who is associated with catch words such as “democracy,” “opportunity” and “freedom.” Coming from another country I remembered how idolized America was. It was where anything can happen, where endless “opportunity” was available. These are all true but I did not know that there are other sides to America as depicted by Lasn.
One subject Lasn discussed was the subject of “insanity.” In the beginning of the chapter “The Ecology of Mind,” he posed the question “is everybody in America was ‘nuts’?” and with the right qualifications, the answer was yes. The fact was the worldwide rates of major depression in every age group have risen steadily since the 1940s. Lasn suggested that this was happening due to chemical agents in the air, water, or food. This was all great information but what strikes me most is what Americans call as “suffering” when compared to the rest of the world they are very blessed. The suffering Americans experience was plenitude which essentially means that they have everything they want however if everything is available and nothing was hard-earned, then they feel empty. This emptiness was an interesting to me because I never thought about it and it is so true because it ties in with constant consumerism.
This week’s reading was very interesting for me because it ties in so closely with so much of the reading from one of my other classes. The concept of “hipster” came about during the late 50s and early 60s when the public finally decided it was sick of the monotonous society of the 50s that emphasized social order and hyperorganization, stifling creativity and individualism. From a period of natural abundance, America’s become a society of manufactured, man-made abundance that allows for overconsumption of goods that we don’t even really need. Lasn’s illustration of our spoiled consumerism is shocking, to say the least. I never think about my lifestyle from that perspective, but through Lasn’s discussion of our desensitization to shocking media, and of our addiction to the electronic world, of the narrow tunnel of information we receive, I was given facts that I had subconsciously been denying. This brings to question whether we as people in this manufactured nation have our own will anymore. Is what we think to be “cool” just another product sold to us by the mass culture? And even if there is a true, raw form of “cool”, it is bound to be incorporated by the masses anyway. This week’s reading, like many of the mass society critiques of today, hold a very cynical tone that holds much against America’s cultural history that has brought us where we are today.
ReplyDeleteThis week’s readings were very interesting and I found myself agreeing with many of the points Kalle Lasn made. His examples and arguments were strong and despite being taken aback initially by his tone, a response similar to when reading Beyond Hope, I was very persuaded about consumerism’s negative effect on our culture. I have read the magazine, Adbuster’s, many times and prior to reading this book I was a little hesitant about what the content would be and the arguments the author would make. However, the support and anecdotes Lasn chose to include contributed to the believability of his claims and even to his own likability.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, his examples on the infiltration of advertisement into our daily lives were something that caught my attention specifically. Although I have been aware of the methods companies are willing to undergo to introduce an idea or product into the life of the consumer I was struck by the extent of their determination. It seemed ridiculous to me the opportunities companies saw in areas that were not meant to be advertised on, in or around. Sending up images into the sky and the clouds similar to the Bat signal is bizarre at best. To see an idea used in a fictional story of superheroes brought into reality for the purposes of getting people to buy more is very distressing indeed.
On a different note, another anecdote I found to be interesting was when Lasn described a hypothetical situation in which a family took a weekend out in nature camping. His description of this scenario was all too real to be ignored. The contrast between Leopold’s experience of nature and that of the “modern day family” is so extreme that it almost seems unbelievable the way in which our culture has advanced to the point where children are having withdrawals from the internet, television, and consumer media.
Ok… There had better be a large pot of gold at the end of this magical rainbow of supposed and complete mind control that this guy is talking about. I mean just damn. Makes it sound like we are completely doomed, helpless and have for the entire short time mankind has existed. I mean it sounds like we never ever had free will. Oh well time to crawl up into a ball and just pass on then. Kalle lasn’s emotional and (seemingly not backed by hard evidence it seems. Hey I didn’t see it. Did you?) Pleas for change just love to tug on every piece of our personal lives. Makes sense though. The man is basically saying everything we are doing and by extention not doing is poison to us and that the magic cure all to any illness we feel we suffer from can be cured. All we have to do is throw over the entire commercial, economic, and social system we live in! Hell yea its sooo simple! Ok so I’m being rather cynical about this all. (oh no!!! I clearly have been one of the victims he has been talking about.) The fact is that there might be certain things I agree with Kalle with. There are forces that we need to take control away from. Are ads for the most part kind of evil and propagandist? Yes. Does that mean that because they exist people should just take them at face value? Of course not and I have faith that people cannot be so completely brain dead not to come up with their own opinions about stuff. People know what an ad is. I really think that people are smart enough to realize that advertisers try to sell a fantasy. Anyway I will find this book interesting. But I will want one simple thing from this author. What kind of world are we trying to fight for? I would like to know what Kalle believes is the ideal world after we have crushed everything humanity has worked towards. What happens after the corporations fall? Breaking stuff without a goal other than just to damage it is of course not a high calling but simple vandalism.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his statement that we have a “labeling” problem. He says, “an awful lot of people are feeling down and they don’t know why. Something is draining their energy, addling their brains-but they don’t know what”
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jesse’s idea that television and internet have pretty much gave us another reason to “feel down” in terms of being affected by the media, may not be the case. I know of many people that feel down due to life implications and hardships. One can say that Kalle’s idea that technology has been changing the way human’s function can certainly be a better approach to say the least. Human are social creatures and to some extent we need human interaction in order to function at a stage where we neither become depressed nor oppressed with life’s circumstances. I believe that many things such as our laptops and our cell phones have driven us to become overly attached to materialistic goods. So now instead of talking to someone face to face, we send them a tex. Or in some cases, having someone over for dinner, and a movie but instead we physically go and see a movie and grab dinner. That may be little exaggerating but I do feel that this is the way society is evolving but it is not the end of the world. Technology is a vast aspect of the way we communicate and live, and I could not imagine what I would do without it sadly.
I found this week's reading to be quite interesting, and also easier to read (compared to Sand County Almanac).
ReplyDeleteOne interesting thought proposed by Lasn that I wholly agreed with was the section about Shock. I have also noticed that the public only watches the news for the "breaking stories" about mass murder, extreme weather disasters, and stories of the like. The "news" is being treated like movie plots; only the most intriguing, horrific 'plots' win the most viewers. News station's competition for ratings and viewers strictly limit what stories the public is exposed to.
I also liked the section on Hype. Companies and their products are in tight competition with each other for you, the consumer. And so, they set out to make their products look like the best thing ever to be invented and that you simply cannot live without it. I especially agree with Lasn when he says "The proliferation of commercial messages has happened so steadily and relentlessly that we haven't quite woken up to the absurdity of it all," (19). Children are taught from a young age that 'things' are important to life. From commercials for sugar-filled snacks or light-up noisy toys during sesame street to seeing ads while out shopping with family, children are taught to want things rather than to be happy with what they really need. If people would just take a step back and reevaluate their priorities before rushing out to purchase the newest, best thing, maybe we could lessen how much money is wasted in the United States purely on advertising.
The beginning of Culture Jam immediately reminded me of the My Space project. The book seems that it will be discussing the ways in which Americans have become mindless consumers who are hypnotized by commercialism. Culture Jammers are people who attempt to go against the commercialism ways of the American culture and even attempt to break this pattern. I strongly believe that one of the ideas behind the My Space project is that when we go through and log all of the possessions in our rooms that we will find far more than we could ever need. Beyond that, one must wonder that if they do not have an actual need for all of the goods that they have, then why do they buy these unnecessary goods? Culture Jam offers one answer to this question, which is to say that Americans are simply mindless consumer zombies. Somehow, I don’t believe that advertisement and commercials have so much of an impact on our society that we have become mindless consumers who buy goods when we don’t even know why they are buying them. I believe that commercialism does have an effect on the items, which we buy, but not to the point that we have no control over the goods and services which we spend our money on. Most importantly, I believe that having a strong mind and being strong willed is the best way to counteract the effects of commercialism. Both the project and the reading were directly correlated, and my interest on this topic of advertisement has been peaked. Hopefully the book will go into the methods, which are utilized by advertisement agencies in order to appeal to the minds of Americans.
ReplyDeleteMondays lecture really had an impact on. It was nothing I hadn't been already familiar with, but actually being reminded and seeing it on television really made me take a second look. The video was basically a documentary-like video that takes place in one of the laboring factories in China. It was very sad and depressing to see the amount of work these people put in to making these things. In the film you see people shuffling through garbage, kids searching through sharp metals and dangerous objects just for us. It also makes me thing twice about what we spend on some of these things don't even cost a third of what we pay for them. There is not enough profit being made. It also makes me think about the unnecessary things I spend money on then later throw out. When those items are thrown out, they go right back to china, and then those people have to go through all that hard work again for nothing basically. I just thought that this was a very sad and depressing video.
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