Second Life

BIGBOY BREEN

I choice to give my avatar casual dress. He's wearing jeans, polo, and tennis shoes. I wanted him to have the apperance of being laid back. I also give him a muscular build because thats kind of my body type, so i wanted to put a little of me into my avatar. Second life i found out is very interesting and hard to judge the people you communicate with if you dont already know them. Many times i started talking to different avatars and most times the people behind the avatar said that they were either in the 30's or young, like in highschool. I think Second life gives people something to do if there bored. It gets people out of there normal everyday life. I find it also entertaining because of all the different things that are possible. You can basically do anything in it.

TV Concerns

Televison plays a huge role in the lives of many teenagers and for the matter adults. Its a source from which they gather there information about the current issues at hand. So basically whatever is told or gets attention on televison is what people are going to know. Thats a huge concern for me because i feel its making our country as a whole dumber, less educated, and easily feed BS. Many people are agnorant to many issues and the issues they do know of, they know only one side. I personally dont watch that much televison because im so busy and envolved with different activities. There should be something done about this problem because i dont want a generation of mindless slaves to the televison just beleiving ever word thats said from it. We must think on our own and be smart.

Dear Aunt Mary

There are many social networks on the internet today. The two most popular ones would be Myspace and Facebook. Social networks are formed to connect people worldwide so they can communicate to anyone. They also are made so people can put there information on them and others can look for someone that they like. These networks also help bands and different companies adveritise there products. If i were to choose a network for you, i would choose Facebook. The reason for that is its less flashy and confusing, and its pretty simple to use. Facebook also targets older people, where as Myspace appeals to younger kids. I use Facebook to talk to my friends because its simple, fast, and when your on the go its the easiest to say "hey whats up, havent seen you in a while, call me up". So if you had a Facebook you could talk to me and all your friends. Thats my opinion on Facebook so i hope to see you on sometime.

Love,
John

Wikipedia:Bonnie and Clyde

I found this article very interesting to read. Even though i knew about them and what they did basically, going through this article taught me even more. In the discussion part of it, i found it interesting how the two main editors were fighting about the entry for away.Finally the one editor says hey we shouldn't be doing this for ourselves, we should be doing it for Bonnie and Clyde. Then the editor goes on about how hes had cancer and has done kemo three times and how life shouldn't be wasted. Also there's a discussion on split out popular culture from Bonnie and Clyde. It tells how we have made many movies and other things from this story.

Defining The News

News today is very simple, as it was thirty years ago. It only takes a few things to make news, News. The things that do this are whether its timely,compelling,shocking, and many more. You always see sad stories and and the death rate on anything because people are obsessed with bad news. Another thing you will always see is a success story or something like that because everyone always wants to feel good about something too. So basically you have to die or become rich or sometimes even safe peoples lives to be considered for the news.

One problem i see within the news today is conglomerates. That's one man or one company owning all the news stations or newspapers. That's bad because then only a few people can decide what to tell people and what not to tell people. But one thing that news does do for our country today is, its the watchdog. When i say its the watchdog i mean it keeps people in check and exposes the corruptness of people within politics and other things.

Wikipedia Blog

I feel that wikipedia does have some good guidelines right now, but some are to strict. Even though your suppose to say everything in a neutral non partisan way, some things should be said just straight out. For instance America being the only country to use the nuclear bomb. That's a fact so it should be said.So basically if i could change anything about wikipedia it would be just relaxing some of the rules and guidelines it already has, there always should be a little wiggle room for things.

For our in class wiki i think everyone should just do whatever they want. Even though this is an unorganized way of doing things, it gives people that are interested in certain things a chance to talk about them. I know sometimes when people are assigned to things that they don't like, they usually don't write or find out as much as they could about it. But if that system or way fails then we should be assigned a topic so that every category gets filled.

Wiki is sufficient for getting the information across. We don't need another social networking structure to get info around.

Print Ad Questions 1 &2

My message behind my print ad is very simple.Its my feelings toward the Apple ads. In my print ad theres the apple guy saying hes a mac and i have an UFC fighter saying hes a PC. Now if you knew nothing about apple or mac who would you go for?a nerdy looking guy or some tough guy. So my message is that you can sell anything as long as you get the right person to market it. I'm also making fun of the apple ads because i feel there dumb. This ad i feel would be effective to many because it would create humor. No questions other than will people understand this ad? came to mind as i moved from concept to design.

I've learned that when advertising is done correctly, it can be very effective. The parody was fun to do because whenever you make fun of something, it always funny. I've also learned that in advertising theres almost no ethics. People are always looking for new ways to create drama or jerk on feeling of some sort in any way possibly to get people talking. In good ways or bad ways, it doesn't matter to the companies as long as there being talked about.

Social Networking

Social networking within Facebook and Myspace i feel does have a huge effect upon the political campaigns during this years election. This election is very different from others in the past because of all the new technology, blogs, and all the networking among people. These types of networking are very important because millions of people go onto them everyday. If they see advertising and endorsements of a certain candidate every single time they log on, it will start to stick in there head.

In Facebook theres so many options that categorize people. You have all the personal preferences of people within there profile. There race,religion, age,where they live, and even there political views. With all this information I'm sure that campaign mangers see that and try to target people through the use of this social networking tool. Also many people on these networks blog and talk about politics and why they feel one is better than the other.

Since Obama is so popular among young people i feel that these sites are helping him out more than ever. Lets face it young people talk a lot and like to be heard, so natural they will get it out fast because most older people don't take part in this social networking called Facebook.It should be an interesting anyway this November to see how everything plays out.

Advertising Inventory

When i think of advertising, i think of it being everywhere. I'll list four places that i spend the most time in, and name things that are trying to market towards someone.
1)My Room:
-posters of bands
-red wing hats/football hats
-all my clothes have logos on them
-my computer has a logo
-Cologne
-books
-i have a U of M blanket
-belts
-calendar
-bottle of water
-shoes
2)School U of M:
-clubs to join
-posters everywhere saying something
-people everywhere talking about anything and everything while wearing an ad to something
-things to buy at the stores
-the food court
-everything you look at is something
3)McCain office i work in:
-everything is political
-everything is republican
4)My buddies apartment:
-posters everywhere advertising drinking and girls
-games/movies everywhere
-beer
-Western ads
-random people passed with stuff on them
-ha ha many interesting things from the night before

Just from some of the places i go to on a regular basis, you can see how much is being advertised and marketed towards me/anyone. I see many of these ads and don't think anything of them mainly because i run into them everyday so I'm kind of immune to them. But i do believe that early on these ads did play a role in what i thought was cool or not.Now thinking about it, they still do. If anyone is to ask you what a normal typical college student does, right off the bat people will say PARTY. This fits the mold of what we as college kids are excepted to do and be like.If i were to say i don't drink of go out, all i do is study and work. Many people would think there's something wrong with me or I'm just a dork. So in my conclusion i do feel that the media is responsible for how people act.

Tim Kiska

I thought that Mr. Kiska was very informative and knowledgeable about everything were covering. He pretty much answered all the questions i had and cleared up a lot of stuff for me, regarding blogs in general. It was interesting to hear him talk about how the TV writers and actors don't drink and the movie stars only do. Also i never knew how much power a blog could have, if you used it in the right way. So I'm glad he came in and told us about it.

Question #3

The writer Richard Florida does have a valid point about the youth of today. Everyone does want to be different and creative in there own way. If you walk around a college campus or even through the halls of a high school, you will see many different looks and styles. From preppy looking rich kids, to jocks, and even to the Gothic looking kids. Seeing kids with ipods in there ears is a very common thing to see, so when Florida says youthful people want to be different and creative that's not always the case. Many kids just conform to what our society excepts them to be like. Since we our constantly being bombarded by advertisements and shown our TV how we should act i feel many just go with the flow and don't really do what they want. Even though Florida says kids want to be creative still at work, i don't really see that. I know many young men/women that are one way, but when it comes to work there the complete opposite. So my suggestion for Richard Florida would be to survey some college kids and actually see what there thinking.

Cultural Inventory

A normal Saturday usually goes something like this. First off its mixed with tons of different cultural things. When i say different cultural things i mean that throughout the course of my day, i run into different things whether it be driving somewhere to meet up with someone, or using the Internet, and even walking somewhere. Just from rolling out of bed i am already in tune with my cultural age group from what i wear and put on to how i style my hair. After that i listen to some loud music, so I'm up for good and not a zombie the rest of the day. Eating breakfast usually doesn't happen until at least 1pm on Saturdays. I call up some friends and we go to IHOP or the Pancake House. From then on we wont have to eat for a couple hours so we usually go somewhere and hang out. So from just my morning I'm already using some devices such as an Ipod to wake up, a cell phone to call people up and communicate, and a car to get around. Saturdays are also workout days for me so i usually go to the gym and meet up with some guys and start pumping the iron. In a gym you will also find lots of advertisements on whats the best workout, which supplements work, and the guy that always walks around trying to tell you about something if not telling you that your doing it the wrong way. Than i go home, take a shower, and get ready for the night out. Usually we go to some sort of party that's either about to get busted by the cops or its real sweet and we stay for awhile. From then on, i or my friends are trying to get with the girls that we might know or not and that's it.That's a normal Saturday for me. After that we usually talk about it the next day and compare stories and see who did what. I have now realized how many different elements of our now day culture i actually run into. The answer is, way to many. We are being constantly influenced and targeted by corporations.