Virtual Citizen Brainwash

Watching, “Not Just a Game” in today’s class, it talked about how military always has involvement with the NFL. Honestly I’m not really all that surprised, and was kind of aware before viewing the film. However, what bothers me is the whole using it to train us when we are trying to enjoy the game. It shows that even though we want to use sports as a time to bond us or just to witness sport, there is always someone or something trying to manipulate you in some fashion. Mostly apparent in video games.

Now, I’m not against honoring soldiers being honored in any fashion. What really agitates me is training the audience who is blind or unaware to what they are doing. Volunteering out of your own free will is something that is completely acceptable, but constantly trying to acquire new recruits through “Virtual Citizen Soldier” is what really bothers me. Friends of mine back home, play video games such as NFL, NBA 2k, or Call Of Duty, and I constantly warn them of the stereotypes or brainwashing effects these type of games have on you. That they need to seek to play more insightful and thought provoking video games that allow you to grow and learn from them. The response was always, “that takes to much time and thought, I would rather play this when its focusing on beating my friends, or it takes little thought.”

Seeing my friends are taken advantage of with this brain washing bothers me when they decide they want to enlist in the military. Not because of them enjoying the military, but because I feel like they see it as it’s the only thing they think there capable of doing. Which is a flat out lie. Your life is what you make of it, what you get out of life is what you put into it. The only reason they feel this is the one thing they can do is through playing these video games, and honestly not focusing on their education. This is by no means the only reason, I’m saying people join the military; this is just what I see in my own friends.

Don’t fall victim of this. Get out of your room, go out, meet people, experience life and have freedom. Learn more of the world and not fall victim to this brainwash bull.

Nerd Culture and Women's Acceptance

Last week, with Caleb’s guest lecture I found a lot of valid points in his presentation. However, I feel there were some flaws in what was being said in the discussion amongst everyone. I believe the whole “what’s cool” factor might have a hand with this in shaping what is that we see.

If you look online and do some quick Google searches, or better yet, just look at any popular television show, such as The Big Bang Theory. You will see that the expectations of “nerd” have become more of a look or identity that is associated with it.  We see well dressed men with big stylish glasses or men dressed in flannel with facial hair with large framed glasses that are classified with the term, “nerd”. These are not truly what nerdom is. It’s more than just a fashion statement, it’s having a devotion or familiarity with a connection to something they enjoy, whether it be video games, a television show (Doctor Who fans I’m looking at you), or comics. It’s much more than just a fashion statement.

I don’t necessarily see women dressing up in sexy cosplay as a weakness or threat to a Geek women’s role in fandom. Women are merely just playing the cards they are dealt with and making do with what their present situation is in today’s world. It’s empowering to them, when you want to see Wonderwomen or Starfire you don’t want a man to dress up, you would want a woman doing it. What’s the deal with dressing a little sexy? They are still able to celebrate their fandom and enjoy what’s being offered to them, while still being able to dress in cosplay! If anything it shows them embracing the powers given to them and allows them to prove they have their own special place in that world. The problem lies in the men who are so set in their ways. I would even go as far as to compare to as people come to terms with people of opposite color. With each passing of generation, our former ideals or set of ideas, will evolve and become more accepting. This holds true with women in nerd culture.

Individual Growth Through Video Games

Video games do have a profound impact on the individuals that do play them, but I would disagree with the notion that we need to spend more of time playing games in an effort that it increases a person’s role in solving world problems.

For example, in my early years I spent every spare moment I had, from when I was in middle school up until high school graduation just playing various video games. Among these games include the likes of Final Fantasy, MMO’s such as World Of Warcraft and Guild Wars, to fighting games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. What appealed to me was the plot driven video games that focused on character development and an entertaining, having a rich story arch throughout the game, games such as Bioshock, Final Fantasy, and such were the ones that always stuck out to me the most. These games taught me many things that I could not learn in school, traits such as humility, friendship, caring for others, and it even helped me become more understanding of difficult language and foreign concepts that must children my age didn’t have to even think about.

Not only that, but I attended a high school that did not have a very safe and careful learning environment. Especially with children on the bus constantly making meaningless death threats, to teachers not caring about an individual’s problems, to constant family issues at the time, it all takes a toll on a young teenager’s world. It felt better to be able to escape for a couple hours and get lost into this world of fantasy and just learn from these virtual avatars that I couldn’t learn in this awful environment.

Yes, I argue that from video games I was able to learn some life skills and receive a better understanding of the world through them. However, I did not feel the need to suddenly get up and solve the world’s problems, if anything it gave me a better understanding of why things happen the way they do. It provided an escape from my problem’s and develop role models that never actually existed, which is why I developed such a parasocial relationship with these non-existent characters. Video games have the ability to teach us many things, but I do not think they have the ability to change the world like the author for our article today suggested.

A Proper Role Model

Growing up, my father left my family when I was of the age of fourteen, therefore I never really had a father figure in my life. Leaving only my mother to take care of the family, we were mostly baby-sat by our television. Without a father, I didn’t really have a sense of direction as to how a man should conduct himself or treat women in general, surely my own mother couldn’t be the one to do this, she was a women. However, she is the one person in my life who I have complete trust and faith in and look to for advice on just about anything in life.

Being baby-sat by the television I grew to love shows from the 90’s such as “Rugrats,” “Hey Arnold,” “Cat & Dog,” “Angry Beavers,” “Courage The Cowardly The Dog,” “Ed, Edd, and Eddy,” and “The Fairly Oddparents.” However, all these shows depicted the male leads, or the father figures as idiots who couldn’t even remember their wife’s birthday or they were to whiny and consistently made fun of fact that they showed any emotion or care to anyone out of the ordinary. My mother being the awesome person that she is, would instruct me that these were not people that I should look up to and that it was ok to express yourself no matter the consequence. She would teach me and help me learn that these male leads did not make for a good inspiration of how men should treat their wives or how to act in person. It’s funny to think about, but I owe it all to my mother.

Here is this person I thought couldn’t teach me how to be a real man, but it’s because of her that I learned to properly treat a women. She taught me how to properly share my feelings and how communication and passion is key to a successful relationship. My own mother, and not some idiotic father figure on a 90’s cartoon. When, I’m praised for how I treat women or how I’m such an older soul, I always give her thanks; it makes me wish that there were more people that had someone with a similar upbringing.

"What is Popular Culture?"

According to our textbooks, the definition of Popular Culture is defined as, "everyday objects, actions, and events that influence people to believe and behave in certain ways." To simplify that even more, it's what we consume through music, television, movies, and advertisements that tell us what we need to think is acceptable or undesirable to us.

For example, back in earlier times, our culture use to value women or men who were slightly heavier than others. However, that is most certainly not the case nowadays with many different women being portrayed as ridiculous skinny in magazine ads, film (although this has definitely decreased in recent releases), music videos, and etc. Our book even provides an example of the small island of Fiji that only had 6% of women dieting and obsessing over their weight, however when the island received access to cable television that number rose dramatically to 66%. Women's image has been harshly criticized in recent years thanks to popular culture that surrounds them.

Even this is present in men in our culture. Many women are shown these slick, muscular, scruffy looking men in magazines, movies, and pop stars, causing many of them to see this as the example of a "hot" male. These portrayals however inspire so men to become that image in order to attract women, but in other cases, it also mentally damages them. Myself, struggled with mental depression throughout high school and into my early years of college over my body image, and only in recent years have I been able to find comfort in my own skin. Even today, I still crack from time to time and find myself down over my body image.

Popular culture has the power to do many things to us without us even realizing it.