Final Project: A Dose of Greek

Just copy and paste the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrtSfHnoKc&feature=youtu.be

11:55 - Reflection on Hipsters

I cannot start this post without letting out the biggest possible sigh. This topic is the dead horse that has been beat by so many comedians and satire specialists and just normal people that it is almost not worth covering. However I believe that as over the top as hipsters may be, without them, culture would be stagnant. I like the thought of cool hunters and these people that create culture because it is so far out of my realm of thought it isn't even funny. Hipsters to me are just like inventors. It has just gotten to the point that these people are combining culture in ways that I have never even thought about before. I am hesitant to believe anything they have to say but still will hang on every word.

11:50 - Reflection on Social Media

Social Media is not activism in my opinion. Despite the very educated rambling a of Biz Stone I believe that he is wrong in this regard. Activism is defined as the process of using vigorous campaigning to impose political or social change. I would be hard pressed to find anytime that social media is referred to as vigorous. I love the internet and I have a very hard time taking anyone seriously on the internet. The internet at this point is so full of trolls that the process of sorting through the fake to find a real story is very tiring. In addition, the fact that it is now acceptable to just "like" something instead of actually talking about it. People find that just passing by something on Facebook is activism? That is not a cultural picture I want to be a part of. It will create a very sad and a very dumb world. I do not want to support a society that supports stagnation and no improvement.

11:45 - Reflection of Parasocial Relationships

For this five minute chunk I would like to dive into the topic of parasocial relationships. I am well aware of the increasing frequency of the topic at hand. I personally identify with several people that are professionals in a lot of the fields I am interested in pursuing as a career later in life. I present this as an argument to most people saying that these lopsided relationships are bad. I actually find that these relationships are more goals than distractions. I use all of my parasocial relationships as career stepping stones. Once I meet one of my idols in my off shoot as culture, that connection could carry me to a more successful job later. I whole heatedly believe that if enjoyed appropriately, parasocial relationships can be helpful as goals and heroes. I conclude by saying that if you have a lot of parasocial relationships, you will always have a friend on the inside. (

I just hope they are not fictional...)

11:40 - Reflection on Food-onomics (Food Inc.)

Continuing with my eleventh hour of reflections, I would like to discuss the food cycle discussed in Food Inc. This terrible cycle is brought about by a series of very unfortunate events that lead to a cycle of trying to cut more corners to make food cheaper and quicker in order to outsell your competitors but harming the entire business culture as a whole. I believe that this is both detrimental and necessary for our current economic society. It is detrimental in the fact that it is a spiral of downward quality and coinciding cost. The quality is terrible to consume and worse for our environment and culture. However it is necessary to have the declining cost due to the increased hardships on our society. Plus all of these factors are causeing technology to progress much much faster than was initially anticipated. This is good for the fact that the quality is actually starting to improve with the increased demand on organic products. This means that we can actually go back and create higher quality foods in the cheaper model that is currently being designed. It is an interesting thought that the rapidly decreasing quality toward rations and then could cause a quality of food we have never imagined. Only time will tell.

11:35 - Reflection of Girl v Geek

This was a hard lecture for me to sit through. I identify almost wholeheartedly with the identification of the geek culture. I am in deep with graphic novels, card games, and video games; just to name a few. Although very few girls identify with the geek culture, I have never personally known any of the people in my circle to not be accepting of a member into our circle, regardless of gender. No matter what group you join however, there is almost always an entry test. I did not get fully accepted into the group I played MTG with until I won my first match. It is nothing against me, but until you win that first match, the player has no credibility. It is not a matter of me having the same reproductive organs, it is just a rite of passage. That is the biggest thing I have to say about these groups. The instructors spent the entire class vilifying the men who idolize this culture without looking at it from a rational point of view. No one would let me play professional baseball player unless I was good enough. That all starts from finding the game you love and practicing hard enough to get the treatment that you deserve. 

11:30 - Reflection of Violence in Video Games

The connection between violence, video games, and war culture has been ever present since the creation of the home video game systems in the late seventies and early eighties. This is actually one of my favorite persuasive topics to speak about and also one of the most feverishly debated, as new consoles loom in the distance. I have read the articles presented about the use of games to recruit to militia and also the effect it has on gender roles. In the research I have done on the topic I have learned that the connection between the games and violence is nil. However, when I used the new feminist point of views that I have leaned to use from this class, I noticed something different. Even though the tie to aggression is not the biggest factor, the tie to macho behavior might be more detrimental to the player. I would be interested in doing research into this topic at a later date.

11:00 - Intro and Advertising

Welcome to the eleventh hour. I am typing this on my phone due to an internet outrage in my place of residence. While sitting here I have a computer open on my lap, a projector overhead, a TV on the right, and an iPad to my side. As I stare into my iPhone screen it makes me realize how advertising can attack our senses on every side. Even with the internet down I have advertising built into programming through product placement and it really makes me realize how spot on the arguement was about everyone being brainwashed my advertising. This sort of realization also shows how Cultivation Theory probably isn't a theory. It takes a massive amount of storms to knock out my internet for me to slow down and think about it but it does make perfect sense. I will expand further into my views of Cultivation theory and how that takes form in my group project. It is now 11:05.