Assignment 1-4-6

      I chose to analyze Facebook for my topic analysis. The theories that seemed to relate the best to my topic were icons, cult of the celebrity, formulas and rituals. I would consider the social network is an icon of popular culture. Facebook has become one of the leading social networking sites in just a few years and it is versatile which makes it easy to be used by people of different ages, cultural and educational backgrounds. Businesses also use it to create a demand for their products through advertising.

      Many users on Facebook use the website because it gives them a false sense of being celebrities themselves. For example, posting pictures of events they went to on Facebook and having lots of comments on them can make them feel like they are constantly being watched by others and that other users have an interest in their lives. Users also get this false sensation of stardom by having as much friends as they can on Facebook to follow their every move.

      The social networking site depends on formulas to maintain its success and to keep on growing. Formulas working on the backend of the website make it possible for posts to become public, for people to be able to block other users, for birthday alerts to pop up exactly at the right day, etc. the creators of Facebook also used a formula to create the website i.e.- idea, growth and development of idea, innovation of idea, survival of idea.

      Every Facebook user has a ritualistic habit of checking their notifications, weather they do it before they go to bed at night or the first thing in the morning. Personally, when I was on Facebook, if I went to bed without checking my messages and notifications, I would wake up and go check it. It has become a part of the daily lives of a lot of its users to where they cannot function without it.

      I find it interesting that Facebook is actually a celebrity. The name sells the image, Mark Zuckerberg will always be known as the guy who created Facebook and it seems to me like the website is an even bigger celebrity than he is! After all of the analysis, I still think it was a brilliant idea and I am still a big fan of how it was created and all the determination and hard work that went into the creation process however, at the end of the day, my account is still deactivated and I have no intention of reactivating it any time soon. Of course I have nothing against Facebook; I just think that the way people are constantly glued to it is a waste of precious time. It is a good tool of communication for people that are too shy to communicate face-to-face however.

       

Assignment 1-3-2 Journal Article Paper

Assignment 1-3-2

Journal Article Analysis

Louise Njie

HUMN240-H4WW

Professor I. Morris Schottenein

April 30, 2013

      For this assignment, I chose to analyze Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation by Richard Kaplan. In my opinion, this article is intended for a generalized audience and no specific audience in particular. The author analyzes how spider-man falls in love with MJ his one true love and how they met. He also talks about Spider-man’s childhood and his high school days. The author also briefly touches on the subject of the myth of super heroes and their love interests.

      The writer focuses on a few ideas in this analysis. Firstly, he talks about how not all super heroes are all hard hearted and rigid and emphasizes that they too can fall in love just like the rest of us. After all, they are humans just like the rest of the society that they protect. Richard Kaplan goes on to say that when it comes to super hero movies, love is not the first priority of the super hero, upholding their duty as the protectors of mankind is and anything else would be a distraction.

      The writer also touches on the fact that super heroes do not always have a happy ending nor do they always get the girl at the end of the movie. They have to make sacrifices just like the rest of us and they have to face the same challenges as we do when it comes to love. For example, Spider-Man had to give up MJ in the end to focus on his “public duty” of saving the world.

      The article focuses on gender roles and gender role socialization and how that plays an important role in our view of super heroes and what they should look and act like. Parker (Spider-Man) was not a “masculine man”. He wasn’t muscular nor was he hard. Instead, he had a soft voice and had a lean build and was not intimidating at all as we would expect super heroes to be. The writer mentions that MJ ends up falling in love with him however because of this very reason, because he reminded her of her mother’s nurturing nature.

The author of this article also gives his readers an in-depth insight into the early life of Peter parker (Spider-Man), which actually helps the readers understand the hero better from a psychological point of view. During his earlier years, Peter did not get adequate attention from his father and this made him feel rejected and angry. Due to the fact that he was slightly afraid of his father, he could not misbehave in school so in his mind’s eye, his father was the villain and he directed all his anger towards him. Peter’s father leaves and he is forced to live with his Uncle Ben and his wife.

      Spider-Man’s uncle is later murdered and this triggers him to start his quest to becoming a super hero, thrusting him into the “call to adventure” stage of his “hero’s journey”. The article later goes on to describe how Spider-Man falls in love with MJ and how he constantly must find the balance between playing super hero at night and a normal kid by day. The article concludes by indicating that women want “real men” to fall in love with. In the end MJ falls in love with Peter Parker, the man and not Spider-Man, the super hero. Women want a man who is understanding and caring, not just a tall, strong and handsome man.

      Personally, I think this was an in-depth article that gave an insight into the life of Spider-Man the super hero and Peter Parker the actual man behind the mask of Spider-Man. The one thing about this article that I didn’t particularly like was the body of the article and how the writer organized his ideas. The ideas did not flow into each  other instead, they were scattered all over the article and I almost had to read the whole article 4 times before I could grasp the concept of what the author was trying to say in each paragraph and worked really hard to connect the ideas together. In my opinion, the article was not very organized and it was difficult for me to read it because he didn’t capture my attention nor keep me interested most of the time.

      For the most part, I agree with the writer’s points. For example, he mentioned that “……this image of the threatening bad father should be comprehended as a longstanding, powerful, and pervasive image within American popular culture.” (Kaplan, Richard L. (April 2011). Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation. Journal of popular culture, volume 44, issue 2, p. 291-313. Retrieved from http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olink...issue=v44i0002). I agree with this statement. It goes back to the theory of nature vs. nurture, how a child was raised and what environment they were raised around during the first few years of their lives plays a vital role in how their belief system is shaped as they grow up. It affects how they see the world and themselves in it.

      I also agree with the fact that super heroes are humans just like us and they face almost the same challenges that we face in our everyday lives. Not all men are rigid and hard hearted and a man does not have to be this way to be considered a man. One last thing I agree with is that women want to fall in love with a “real man” and not an insecure little boy who hides behind a mask.

      For the people that are really interested in Spider-Man, this would be an important article for them as it can provide them with a detailed understanding into the various sides of the life of the hero, from how he was raised to how he became a super hero. Other than the fact that I didn’t like how the writer organized his thoughts, it was a good read overall and I learnt a lot about the super hero we all know and love.

References

1.      Kaplan, Richard L. (April 2011). Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation. Journal of popular culture, volume 44, issue 2, p. 291-313. Retrieved from http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olink...issue=v44i0002 

Assignment 1-4-5

A formula can be defined as a pattern that one follows to get from point A to point B. For example, one of the common formulas society uses to help individuals achieve success is as follows: graduate from high school + 4 year college degree= better paying job= ability to afford nice things and live well. A formula can be seen as a road map that helps us to achieve our goals that we have set up for ourselves.
      When it comes to Facebook, the social networking website uses a lot of formulas to achieve and maintain its success. There is a specific formula which allows posts to be visible to others when the user makes a post, a formula to limit the people that can see this post, a formula to prevent others from commenting on the post, etc. There are different formulas used to achieve different results.
      The formula for the success of Facebook could be defined in the following stages; idea, development of idea, growth of idea, retaining of idea, survival of idea followed by either life or death of the idea. The whole concept of Facebook started out as an idea that a college student had in order to help college mates connect with each other. He then developed this idea with the help of his other college companions and then word-of-mouth advertising helped the website grow in terms of users.
      Mark Zuckerberg was able to maintain the number of Facebook users by giving them a product that they had a demand for, which he did by helping old friends and families be able to find each other even though they have not seen each other in years. He did this using a formula that would create a “connection” between  Facebook users’ friends by matching one users’ friends to another on their network and this would enable the people to find each other. He also introduced free games such as fish farms to where you would have to log in everyday to feed your fish and clean the tank or else they would die, and this kept it interesting. None of the other social networking sites have this.
      Facebook is still able to survive in the mist of other competing websites such as MySpace because the company is always coming up with new formulas to add onto the site to keep it “fresh” and retain its users while growing its market share.
      The life or death phase of an idea is the final stage. At this point, Facebook looks like it is going to be around for a while however, other social networking sites have died out a bit, 2 examples are MySpace and bebo.
      After reading on formulas for this assignment, I have started to notice that everything has a “formula” to it and nothing happens randomly. From me turning on my computer and typing my password to navigating through online classes, every action has a consequence or a result because there is a formula built in somewhere behind the scenes that triggers a specific result if you perform a certain action.

Assignment 1-4-4

      Heroes are usually known for the good deeds they do in society. They are the protectors of the innocent and people look up to them. They usually are associated with having super-powers but there are also some modern day heroes such as soldiers and Vietnam veterans. A celebrity is someone that is publicly recognized and does not necessarily have any talents that will benefit society. The cult of the celebrity is the obsession we have with celebrities, especially the ones that are famous for nothing.

      Some people might say Facebook is a celebrity itself while others may refer to it as their hero because it brings people in different parts of the world together and enable them to be a part of each other’s lives. Celebrities use Facebook to increase their fan base or to keep in touch with their fans while heroes use Facebook to create awareness about their mission and the good deeds they are doing.

      Due to the cult of the celebrity, Facebook users try to friend request as much people as they can to build up their number of friends on Facebook so that they themselves may feel like a celebrity. It is quite sad how so many people go to extreme lengths to become celebrities but very few are willing to become heroes. I think that Facebook itself is a “cult of celebrity” because many of its users are obsessed with it and obsessed with posting about their lives and having people read about it.

      After reading about the cult of the celebrity, I can now understand the reason why people want so many friends on Facebook and why they feel like they have to post pictures about all aspects of their lives. Since we are living in a society that is all about being famous, by using Facebook, people feel like celebrities themselves.

Assignment 1-4-3

      Facebook has become one of the most popular social networking websites. It has a big influence over people’s lives and most businesses use it as a marketing tool

      I am not on Facebook anymore but when I was on Facebook, there were certain rituals I performed every day as a Facebook user. Some examples include checking my notification bar first thing in the morning and last thing at night before I went to bed to see if I had any new friend requests or any important notifications. This became such a routine habit for me that if I forgot to check my Facebook before bed, I would have to wake up, get out of bed and log into my Facebook account or reach for my phone and check it! Other actions I did routinely were logging into my account every morning and wishing my friends a “happy birthday” (which was a bad habit because unless Facebook alerted me, I would not know it was their birthday), I would routinely poke my friends back and forth and also post different things on their walls such as games or cards, all day long. If I went to an important event, the first thing I would do like clockwork, was upload the pictures on my Facebook page and tag my friends on it. I would also check my page numerous times a day to see if anyone has “liked” my pictures or if any of my friends had sent me an R.S.V.P to their events. Facebook also will automatically alert it’s users if any of their friends have had a change in their relationship status and it was a routine for me to comment on it to express my congratulations or my condolences every time I got a notification.

       As far as stereotypes go, Facebook users use stereotypes to choose who to send a friend request to and who not to as well as if they should accept or decline the request. For example, if a woman posts a picture of a beautiful “ideal” woman as her profile picture and people think it is her, she is very likely to have a lot of friend requests. The same way, if a Facebook user receives a friend request from someone they consider attractive, they will most likely accept the request. In a way, Facebook appeals to people’s visual sense because users are not communicating with each other  face-to-face so they are judged based on pictures, what they post and what kind of friends they have on their friend list. Another thing that people can use to judge others by is the device they use to make comments and posts, since Facebook will announce what kind of device (an iPhone, iPad or an android phone) is being used. People can use this to determine if you are part of the “in crown” that is up to date with all the “cool” stuff or if you are just an average person that they will have nothing in common with.

      My feelings on Facebook are still the same. I still think that it is a waste of valuable time but it can be a good tool for people who are shy to communicate and make friends. Businesses also use it to advertise their products and services and it is an important tool for public figures to create awareness about their views and beliefs. 

Assignment 1-4-2

      For this assignment, I chose to analyze social media, which can be defined as a means of communication for certain groups of people that share common interests. Examples of these social medias include magazines such as Cosmo, social networking websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Google +, social blogs such as Tumblr, etc. For the purposes of this assignment, I will be analyzing Facebook.

       In terms of exposure, Facebook is a good advertising tool that businesses use to create awareness about products because nowadays everyone is on Facebook. Although the younger generation uses it more, there is still a diverse market segment for every kind of business.

      In the case of economics, Facebook doesn’t directly cost its users any money, just their time and the cost of internet connection. The company however is able to make money by means of advertising, trading of stock, games on the website, etc.

      Education determines the kind of content posted on Facebook by its users. For example, a high school student will most like use the website to post information about their activities of the day whilst a PhD graduate will most likely use Facebook to share their views on the current economic state, business opportunities, etc.

       Facebook allows its users to publicize their emotions in an acceptable environment where they will receive an immediate response. This satisfies the human need to feel like they are being heard and that someone actually cares about what they are feeling.

      I think the American dream myth best describes the phenomena of Facebook. This myth says that anyone can move up the social ladder no matter what their current social class is through hard work. Facebook was actually started by Mark Zukerberg (a college dropout) along with 4 of his college mates. This is a good example of how hard work can help bring about results that can thrust anyone up the social class system.

      Facebook has become an icon in popular culture ever since its launch in 2004. My views on Facebook hasn't changed, I still admire how the website was created and made popular and after watching the movie “The social network” which tells the story of how it was created, it gives me inspiration to chase after my dreams, after all, Mark is human just like me, and if he can realize his dreams through hard work, then so can I. Personally, I am not on Facebook but I do not have anything against it either.

Assignment 2-1

For this topic, I chose to analyze Oprah Winfrey, the Harry Potter film series and Smart-phones. Oprah is an American talk show host, actress, philanthropist, producer and business woman who has been active since 1983. The Harry Potter film series is a British film series based on the books written by author J.K. Rowling and Smartphones are mobile phones that are capable of more advanced functions than just a regular phone.

                              

Courtesy of :    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

Oprah has revolutionized the TV talk show industry. She has had a lot of influence in people’s lives because unlike most talk shows during the time she just started her talk show in 1986, she was not limiting her guests to celebrities but also invited regular people to her show to talk about real life issues. Oprah is an inspiration to all because she overcame a difficult childhood and managed to become one of the richest people in the United States. She manages to encourage people to improve themselves and stay positive about life and is constantly giving to the needy. Oprah was called, “arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and Time.com, "arguably the most influential woman in the world" by the American Spectator, "one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century" and "one of the most influential people" from 2004 to 2011 by TIME. Winfrey is the only person in the world to have appeared in the latter list on all eight occasions” (as cited from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey ). To me, Oprah Winfrey is an icon because she proves that no matter where you are from or the challenges you had to face in life, you can still end up as a success story if you keep moving forward, continue to work hard and have faith.

Courtesy of:

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/harry-potter/images/30442619/title/harry-potter-wallpaper-pictures-mixed-up-wallpaper

The Harry Potter film series has grown into an estimated $15 billion franchise over the course of 12 years. It has made the fantasy genre “cool” and not only that but modern day people that practice witchcraft can do so openly without fear of prosecution like in the olden days where people were burned at the stake if they were suspected to be witches. The Harry Potter book series has also encouraged people, especially high school kids to read more and build their imagination. The books also paved the way for producers and directors to welcome the idea of making young adult books into movies. To me personally, The Harry Potter books helped me build my imagination and improve my reading skills. The movies provided young adults with something educational as well as age appropriate to watch while shielding them from the vulgar things in life.

Courtesy of:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/smartphone-market-expected-to-soar-in-2011/

Smartphones have transformed society in many ways. Firstly, people are able to do almost anything with just one touch of a button. For example, I can check my account balance on my phone, play games, check my email, etc. In a few worlds, smartphones have made society more efficient and businesses can also use it as an advertising tool (for example the pop ups that you get while checking your email). Smartphones are such an important part of our popular culture that you can hardly walk down the street for one mile without seeing someone operating one. Even though this is a good thing, it has also diminished our communication skills, as people prefer to text nowadays rather than talk and kids rarely know how to spell properly because of this. To me personally, having a smartphone is extremely important because I use free applications such as Viber, Whatsapp and Skype to call and text my family members abroad while I'm on the go without having to be at my laptop or at home.