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Why do boys like video games more than girls?

Girls, play with makeup

Boys, play with video games

Why is this? Why don't more girls play video games? Don't have it mistaken, I am the furthest thing from a "gamer." The last game I played was guitar hero on PS2 (which I must say I freakin rocked at.) Anyways why are boys attracted to video games more than girls? I don't ever remember thinking that I would want to play a video game. I was constantly around boys growing up. 5 of them to be exact, and one of them is the boy I talked about in class that played so many video games he thought he could join the Army. So I was always around boys and video games, so why was I more interested in dancing around the room while they all we're lost in the game? Are these kinds of things naturally more appealing to boys; Violence, war, chaos and problem solving? 

I know a lot of girls are going to think I am crazy for saying something so stereotypical. But boys are better problem solvers than girls. Is it because they are smarter? No. Boys have a natural instinct to not give up though. The very few times I would try and play a video game, I quickly became bored when I couldn't figure out how to move to the next level. I watched those boys work on one level for hours, they were relentless. They loved the chaos and the urgency to make it to the next level, while I was frantic when they were all yelling at me to find the silver door. 

Don't get me wrong there are girls that are probably more competitive than a lot of guys. But over all guys are more competitive and like to solve problems, which I why I believe boys like video games more than girls. 

Princess Culture

I am about to write something that is going to shock many girls in the class.
I, Sara Huntington, have never seen a Disney Princess movie. Yep, not one of them. I guess I was always so busy I never spent much time watching TV. At least that was my moms excuse. Now that being said it may be assumed that I was more of a tom boy.
Nope! I loved dress up, dancing and bossing my family around. I always wanted to be a grown up. I loved pretending to dress up for work and sit at my moms desk and pretend to be the boss.
You may be wondering how this all connects.
Well in class we learned that "princesses" make unreachable standards for little girls. But I as well had unreachable standards as a child even though I have not seen one princess movie. I wanted to grow up and get married and be pretty just like princesses do.
So Do I believe that the princess culture is what makes little girls act the way they do? Well of course not. I believe it's about how you are raised. My parents taught me that if I work hard I can be pretty and successful too. I may have been a little spoiled, which made me bossy, but I blame my parents for that; not the media.
So in my opinion there is not "princess culture." It's just culture.

Children and war games

With out recent discussion on war in the media I wanted to blog about how children are affected by war games. I have 2 nephews, 9 and 5. My parents raise them (we won't go into detail with that.) My mom complains to me all the time that they are obsessed with guns. At first my parents tried to ban guns in our house. So no cowboys and Indians, no games with guns in them and differently no shooting your brother with an nerf gun. But it seemed like the more they couldn't have them the more they found other ways around it. Making little guns with their finger, rubber bands and just being violent in general.

So is it true? Boys will be boys or were they still affected by the media so much that they would do anything to play war games. This is a question that I can't answer. I am so confused by it, I was always a girly girl. I liked to dance and play princess so trying to figure out why boys are so obsessed with war challenges me.

Now my parents have back off on the gun rule. They have nerf guns and play shooting games on the xbox. Does that mean I think they are going to go out and kill people or one day join the army? I really have no clue. As I've learned in class and real life experience some people do take these games and propaganda so seriously that they do make life choices because of them. Others, just play them for the sake of playing.

I called my oldest nephew today (yes, he's 8 and has a phone.) I said, "Adian what do you want to be when you grow up." He said, "Probably, A farmer." The only he farmer he knows is his other aunts boyfriend. That means this man that he sees once a month has affected him so much that he is making decision because of him. So I guess I'm starting to learn that everything will effect your career choice, not just the media.

So after learning about all this gun stuff and boys all I have to say is, I hope I have a girl! just kidding... kind of

A vicious cycle

So as we learned in class today we are all striving to be cool. This affects us often when choosing the clothes we wear. What style do we want to potray? What do we want people to think of us. Style is ever changing and always will be. Why? Because there is a vicious cycle in the clothing industry.

So the vicious cycle is basically what happens when a trend setter starts wearing something different to be, coincidently, different. There are 2 types of trend setters, celebrities and rebels. So for instance celebrities began wearing backless dresses to the VMA's and Grammys. It wasn't long before every girl had to have a backless dress or top. So in this case the celebrity was the trend setter and the cycle trickled down.

Vanessa Hudgens and long with many other celebs started this look. 

                                                     Then everyone had to have the "look"

In contrast the cycle can trickle up. Recently rebels began wearing high waisted shorts and band t-shirts to "stick it to the man." They wanted to be different and not play into what everyone else was wearing. That's when the cycle trickles up. Soon all the high schoolers start to rebel, then celebrities start conforming and wearing what is "cool."

So just a normal girl trying to be different and look homeless

                                        Olsen twins decided to accept the fashion and make it "fashionable" By the                                            way, we all know you paid hundreds for that ratty old shirt.

So basically this never ends. There are trend setters and there are followers and they will always be around. As soon as the followers start stealing the trend setters style they have to start something new. And since it is constantly trickle up and down the cycle never real stops.

Why I hate Twitter.

As an advertising major, I am constantly being told how Twitter is a key for all media planning. As we have been learning about Twitter in this class it has only made my hatred towards Twitter grow. Yes, I said it, I HATE Twitter. I'm not just a hater because I think it's making us lonely and depressed as many of the recent articles we have been reading address, I believe that is all social media. I hate Twitter for a number of other reasons.

First off, I hate all the Ads I see. You would think as an ad major I would appreciate the ads but when I am trying to see what my friends are up to but my newsfeed is being cluttered with Wendy's, Wal-Mart and Target ads it's hard to focus on what I want to see. It's like just to see 3 of my friends tweets I have to see 2 Wendy's ads for their new bacon deluxe burger (and no, I don't know why I get so many Wendy's ads, I guess Twitter knows me too well.)

Second is the peoples tweets I have to look at. I like to go on there and look at funny tweets. Twitter is used too often for people to make their boring day sound exciting. I do not care that you just ate a bagel and now on your way to class. If it doesn't interest me, then I don't want to read it. I like Facebook more now because it has steered away from the constant status updates.

Third and most importantly I hate reading retweets. I don't like when I see a tweet and I think, "I don't even know this girl, why is she on my news feed?' and then I realize one of my friends retweeted her tweet and now it's showing up on my wall. What's worse than hearing how your friends just ate a bagel? Hearing that some random person I don't know just ate a bagel. If I want to see someones tweets I follow them, I don't need you to retweet all their tweets for me. Especially when they retweet their favorite celebrity's  or comedian's, just because you think Kat Williams is hilarious doesn't mean I do so I don't want to see all their tweets.

So I said it, I hate twitter. I know many people don't agree with me but it's just not for me.