New Media (Response Essay #4)

New Media

            New media has been a big impact on society as a whole. It concerns almost everyone including, the 90 year-old grandma and the 4-year old toddler. Technology as a whole has grown extremely quick this past decade causing many new apps, social networks, blogging sites and online shopping etc. to emerge into something bigger. The variety of different things one can look up or do right at their finger tips has increase drastically. At a social gathering one has more interactions with their phone than the actual people around them. You can sit down at a party observing the interactions with new media around you. Look to your left and you see a group of girls taking a selfies then,  you look to your right and there is someone updated their  Facebook status. When you look in straight ahead you see someone uploading a video of something that just happened. They girl next to you might be checking her Snapchat  and your phone in your pocket is vibrating from a text you just received. New media is taken place almost everywhere and at anytime. The older age generation is getting pressured into having a cell phone for the younger generation to keep in contact with them or vice versa. If you take on the media away from those situations imagine how much more interaction would happen with people face to face. One of the effects with the new media is the impact it has on social interactions when people are in person.

            It's not unusual to be talking to someone about something you may feel is important then have the person listening pull out there phone and answer a text mid-conversation. Instead of being there and at least pretending to listen, it shows that even mannerism has taken a downfall. The real life connection with the world in front of people is drifting away, as the social-media world is reeling people in. World interactions can easily be missed by paying more attention to the screen in front of your face. The screen in front of your face, however, causes many different interactions in a whole new perspective. Now you have seen the pictures from last night's party, you know that Molly is finally engaged to Ben, and you just laughed at the funny Vine video. However, you  have just missed your sibling's story on what happened during their day, the funny joke your dad just told and that your dog just tore apart your shoe. By being so involved in the media people's connection, physically and emotionally, are detached from the actual movements and socializing that's going around them. As you open up your phone,  it's like opening up a portal to a whole different world. This is a negative affect because people miss out on important things that should be cherished in life. You don't have forever to get to interact with the people right in front of you, so it is important to not take advantage of it.

            We constantly meet new people in our daily lives. We interact with people we don't know too well when we go to stores, school, parties, work, and events. It's important to pay attention and have good manners when meeting new people. With our generation things can get awkward after saying, "Hi, nice to meet you".  Some people don't know how to strike up a conversation when it comes being face to face with someone. Being on the other side of the screen you have more options. You can even choose to not reply ever, or you have more time to ponder on what to say.

Response Essay #3

Friends

            As a little kid you can't wait to get older. You are barely in first grade sitting in your little chair and small desk. There is a pencil box at the corner of your desk and your name that you decorated at the very top. You can only imagine what can possibly be ahead of you. As you get older you can't wait to be in high school finally. To finally be able to drive, stay out later, go to prom, and start dating. Once you get to high school it becomes what you did or didn't expect and then it ends, in a blink of eye. After that, the next chapter of your life begins. It can consist of moving out maybe, getting new jobs, paying some bills, going to college, still figuring out the whole dating thing, saying bye to friends and making new ones. In America we are give these opportunities that once we start getting into adult hood we the power to literally do whatever we want. We can choose to go to college or just work full-time. We can also decide to maybe take a risk and move across the country or stay in just where you are. The decision making can seem like you're trying to count all the stars in the sky with a limited amount of time.

            With all the choices I've realized I've had to make while barely entering my twenties, make watching the television show Friends that much more comforting. This television show follows the lives of six friends who are trying to figure out most things young American adults go through. These six best friends all in their twenties, are trying to overcome the struggles of work, life, love and common mishaps or chaos for people in this age. Even though the show is taken place in Manhattan and in the 1990's it is still effective today and catches many young viewer's attention. The majority of the people that watch the television show are also people in their twenties making them the targeted audience. Although there can still be younger and older viewers like, my mother and sister, who also view it and seem to enjoy it. Since these friends are in their twenties it reels in other's in the common age group most because of the similarities of their lifestyles.

            One of the major popular culture believes are the stereotypes in the group of friends. There are three women and three men in this group. Out of the men, there is one who is sarcastic, funny and an insensitive man who is afraid of commitment who has a good decent office job. The other one, which is his roommate, is the dumb hot guy that sleeps with a lot of women who has big dreams of becoming a big time actor. The last man who is a hopeless romantic, is the one who always embarrasses himself  when talking to women. He also has had continuously failed marriages and has a kid with his lesbian ex-wife. He is a paleontologist which also makes him the smartest and goofiest of the group. In a nutshell this seems to sum up most stereotypes of men in America. The girls in the group also date some men which brings a broader variety of characters to relate to in the show. For some reason it's hard to put a man together that can be a mixture of all of them.  It is implied most of the time in varies way in popular culture that it's hard to find the perfect man who is smart, goofy, handsome, funny/sarcastic, shy, sensitive and with a great job. 

Friends

      Netflix has become my addiction more times than I would like to admit. Once  I see an episode of a show I became quickly fond of, I can't help but get hooked on it and watch every single episode as soon as possible. My most recent television series that I am absolutely hooked on is Friends.  It's about a group of close friends living in  New York in their twenties trying to overcome the struggles of life such as love, work, friendship, financials, and common life hiccups for people in that age group. I had seen some episodes before it was on Netflix but starting at one seemed to give me the whole scoop and give me satisfaction to my unanswered questions because of something I might of missed. The whole reason I knew it was on Netflix and started watching it is because some of my friends on Facebook were posting about and how much they have gotten addicted to it. Yes, I gave in right after I read the third post about it. I told my sister to start watching it with me and we made it sort of like a bonding time between her and I. We both can relate to certain situations and laugh because of the personality the actors carry. While watching it, we connect to the character's life and say stuff like, "That seems like something you would do, or Something so so would encounter".  The experience of watching Friends has been good. Each episode is 22 minutes and I get excited when I have time in my week to just sit on my couch and enjoy the "pleasure and escape" from my daily routines. 

         It gives me time to be sucked into their lives and realize that I'm not the only one not knowing what I'm doing with my life sometimes, or confused about a certain somebody or that doesn't like their job all the time. It leaves me craving for more because I always want to know what happens next or what they will do or react in the situation they just put themselves in.  I can put myself in their shoes and wonder how I would deal with it or how I have dealt with it.

          Entertainment's ability to provide pleasure and escape in popular culture creates a bond between reality and what's on T.V. Even though it's not always spot on to how society actually is, one can always find similarities with the Vampire on Twilight, the blue girl on X-Men, or the alien on American Dad.  These T.V. shows can bring people that don't really seem alike, together. It gives people entertainment in their lives away from their reality. Entertainment manipulates popular culture by showing things that are trending, cool, or situations that their targeted audience may be experiencing.