Google has created an impatient world where nothing else seems to be fast enough and we have lost the capacity for patience and perseverance.

2.) The first comment that I disagree with is where he comments that before the Net he was a scuba diver and now he's skimming the surface on a jet ski. If we can think back when the internet was invented we were all scuba divers taking our time exploring the vast diversity of the internet which was something to be valued and now has been lost. Jet skis are loud and annoying.

The second comment that I disagree with is that the internet is used for everything is our life: Our TV, information, news, phone, etc... I don't agree with this. While I do feel that the internet is one of the most abused inventions given to society there are plenty of other tools that affect our lifestyle in a potentially negative and demeaning way. I personally think that the cell phone is the worst thing that could've been invented because it isolates people. I don't use my phone through the internet though because I think that the idea of a separate cell phone is conventional enough.

The first comment I agree with is the one Bruce Friedman makes in regards to the fact that he has lost his ability to read longer more in depth articles. I fully agree with this comment. With the speed and compacted summaries everywhere online our minds have slowly undeveloped the ability to patiently fully understand and tolerate the lengthier more informational resources.

Maryanne Wolf also makes a very interesting comment that I agree with that says "when we read online we become decoders of information. I fully agree with this. Sure with the evolution of text messaging and online chatting we are reading a lot but not real in depth literature. It is a constant stream of short and for the most part simple concise comments that bear no true meaning or need any sort of thought to process. Are minds are drones.

February 9, 2010 7:43 AM

Section 5
I was blown away by the subliminal messaging/seduction advertising drive. The fact that it was deemed to be a hoax interested me because I have always heard of this concept but had never read anything about it. The idea of seeing skulls and humping donkeys flashing very quickly in and out of an alcohol commercial was very bizarre to me.
This quote also interested me a lot: "Medicine is in some ways the foundation of modern advertising." This is a very powerful statement however in the 1800's medical advertising exploded. Today medicine ads litter newspapers, magazines, the TV, and the internet. It was cheap to bottle, no one knew what was in it and due to the high alcohol content or other drug content it made people think they felt better when in fact they were just loopy.
My question is..Is there a difference between subliminal advertising and
just regular advertising? Are they not both trying to seduce the viewer/reader/etc.?

Section 6
I really enjoyed the short exert on the naming of SUV's and RV's because it's true. These vehicles are generally named ridiculous powerful names and are driven by people with a slightly enlarged ego.
My question for section 6 is...how is it possible for the largest corporations in America balancing our money and weighing our balances to have such a lack of security?

2.)
A: Twitter is a very useful communication tool but is one of many in today’s rapidly developing technological world.
B: I agree that these types of resources are useful in rapid communication especially the format in which Twitter operates.
I also agree that Twitter is a source of advertising much like any other resource such as myspace or facebook. Using these sources companies can post things all over the place based on your current status or your personal info.
I disagree with the fact that Twitter is arguably the most interesting alternative search/share tool next to Google. Google is unsurpassed because its the easiest and most widely used search engine today solely based on shear simplicity. Twitter requires accounts and can only relay information to other people with accounts and in this day and age Americans are far less responsive to resources requiring accounts and personal information than they are to free and anonymous search engines.
I also disagree that every major channel in the future will be twitterfied. There will always be people who like the old fashioned books and newspapers and there will always be the technologically superior snobs that require the latest and greatest gadgets. To say that everything will be twitterfied is ridiculous because this form of streaming information is simply a stalling tactic until they can come up with a faster more efficient method.
c: I do not use twitter so I have no affiliation with it however if I were to use it I would say that I would only use it for personal uses. I feel that professional matters should be left to more private and secure sources such as business emails, private accounts, and voicemail boxes. Twitter is a great way to check up on your friends but I would not use to it set up a business meeting.

February 23, 2010 8:33 AM

zach williams said...

5 Things from "The Merchants of Cool"

1.) The amount of money teens have at their disposal to spend.
2.) The marketing companies ploys in their attempts to be cool so as to be on the same level of coolness that the teens think they are.
3.) Aggressive powerful messages sent in advertising to teen boys and sexual beauty messages in the advertising for teen girls.
4.) Advertising companies spent $20,000 to a website based on teen trendsetters in order to find out what they should be saying/pitching in their ads.
5.) The concept of advertising has no limits now. Through teens they can put ads on clothes, shoes, signs, buses, anywhere really that teens will see it, it's there.

February 23, 2010 8:45 AM

It did not take me very long into this book to realize that we as a civilization need to seriously rethink our life choices and how we function as a society. On page xii the quote "America is a multi-trillion dollar brand. America^TM" and is a "image sold to consumers world wide." This to me was extremely scary because it makes me think of quick sand. The harder you fight being subjected to the American brand the quicker you sink into the abyss.
The part about The Ray Ban glasses that Tom Cruise was wearing also spooked me a little bit because although I myself don't seem quite as affected as the author there are definitely aspects of my life and my characteristics that have been warped by common media images especially in the ski world. Everything that I wear skiing has been influenced by what I have seen on TV and on the professionals. It's a scary realization that affects almost everyone around us.
The part about the Environmental image in the Mind of the perfect town, USA was really disturbing because I feel that Vermont is completely subject to this theory. Many farming based towns in Vermont have all but dried up and been forgotten thanks to corporate producers and massive grocery markets. It's a scary reality that I have witnessed growing up in Vermont.

March 23, 2010 9:13 AM

Letter:

To Walmart executives or whoever it may concern,
My name is Zach Williams and I have recently been enlightened with a new look at what you do and how you do it. I would like to start off by saying how disgusted and appalled I am that such classy people such as yourselves have such low morals that you will do literally anything to make an extra dollar. Sure money CAN make life easier but at what cost? I am writing this letter in the hopes that I can change your mind on how you conduct your businesses so that we may live in a world that values people for who they are and not what they buy or look like.
After reading the book Culture Jam several issues stuck out that pertain to corporations exactly like yourself. The name Walmart is a brand name just like NIKE or COCA COLA however these names are cover ups that are secretly eroding our country from the inside. But guess what? Even you can be consume by the monster that is the brand name America. "This multi-trillion dollar brand" (xii) is the mother load composed of all corporations that have cast a dark and potentially fatal shadow over us. You are consuming all of the smaller businesses until only you remain. This is convenient for many people that they do not realize what is about to come.
The people that own these businesses can't help but buy what stores like yours have to offer due to variety and price however the products that they themselves carry are sure to be of better quality. You should be ashamed with your advertisements. Almost everyday I see some flyer with coupons in the newspaper for Walmart and the great savings but all you are doing is getting the chip you have embedded in peoples already clustered minds to track to your store to make an extra dollar. Your store is full of robots walking around programmed to purchase what you want them to and they don't even know how badly they have been duped.
Your probably whispering "Oh no not another complainer" but I have news for you. Complaining and diminishing is the thing of the past. The future is change. There is hope for change thanks to a new breed of people. They are a "growing band of people who have given up on the American dream" (112). Through reading about these people I have realized that instead of chipping away at the pyramid from the base I'm going to knock it down from the top. Instead of ridiculing people for not recycling we will "give the courage to let go of their old orthodoxies' and to 'bring revolutionary consciousness and contestation back into the modern world by standing up and boldly announcing to the world 'We will wreck the world" (121).
Now I am not saying that we are going to come burn down your building or kill someone. I am simply saying that you need to seriously reconsider the ways in which you conduct your business. It's your wife and your children that will suffer from the take over of corporate America. Help them help you. It's better for everyone. Sure you'll make a little less money but isn't a nice subaru just as good as a 7series BMW? Not for your image but for the ground on which you stand on it is. Or maybe you'd like to be looking good on your tumble into space once the planet which you are destroying through greed and corruption is gone.

March 30, 2010 8:32 AM

zach williams said...

Corporation:

Surprise: The end of the video really took me by surprise because after slamming down the current situation with America it shed a little bit of light on the future saying that there is in fact hope. It hits you hard with constant information about issues here and problems there and then right at the end gives the mood swing and finishes with a lighter but still heavy air. I did not see that coming.

Agitation: I was appalled at the fact that media companies such as FOX covered up certain stories. I always thought that FOX was far too media induced however this is just repulsive. The corporations are higher than the people that report our news. Have I been watching lies?

New Learning: The fact that these corporations had faces and were considered people blew my mind. It's weird and strange to think about going to a store and have it being like I'm going to visit one of my friends. This is obviously the sense of feeling that they want to bestow upon anyone lonely person they can find. Come here I'm your friend! Shop here!

Question: How can I convince people to change? After reading Culture Jam and watching this video I have found new ways in which I myself can make a difference but how about others? I could show this movie to everyone I know but that wouldn't even make a dent. We need to find a way to spread this knowledge without getting frustrated? It is incredibly difficult to get people to change there old ways but we can do it.

March 30, 2010 8:45 AM

Chapter 8: I was blown away that there are over 60,000 toxins and chemicals in sewage sludge. I knew it was bad for you but wow. How is this reusable for farming let alone farming plants that we eat...

2.) In Florida 10,000+ acres are routinely fertilized with "sludge" even though on the label it says not to use for food-producing soil. This makes me want to buy local.

3.) The EPA encourages communities to use sewage sludge even though they know the harmful effects. They need somewhere to put it and are "lulling" people into using it.

4.) New York Organic and Merco haul over a thousand tons of sewage sludge a day out of New York City. This is absolutely disgusting. Where is it all going? And for $634 million? crazy...

5.) The test sludge in Sierra Blanca in 1994 showed over 35x the level of fecal coliform bacteria and Jon Masters said it wasn't a problem and that the test results were often inaccurate. Even in the full on confrontation these people continue to lie.

Chapter 9

1.) There are more PR practitioners in the US than there are reporters. The power has been given to PR executives to completely dictate what is shared in the media. We are powerless to hear the truth.

2.) The reference to Environmental activists being "eco-terrorists" made me chuckle simply on how ridiculous it is. Yeah right. How can someone say that ecological crises don't exist.

3.) Corporations giving money to organizations such as the Audubon Society. These are the same corporations that are trashing the planet however if they are seen giving money there public image is environmentally friendly people? How do people buy this crap?

4.) Mcdonald's sued a tiny group in London for criticizing it's policies because they were undermining the company's cultivated image. THey are to this day one of the most environmentally harmful corporations in the world.

5.) The Wise Use Act is really really scary to me especially when there goal is to "wipe out every environmental group, by replacing it with a Wise Use Group" and they're closely involved with the PR industry. Talking about giving National Park development to corporations. Wise Use groups would be the perfect liars corporations would need to steadily trick Americans into handing there land and water over to the PR industry.

My Question is..Moving forward...Is it possible to organize a large and non-corporate funded organization that will be "allowed" to progress successfully without being "replaced" by groups such as Wise Use or other organizaitons?

April 6, 2010 9:36 AM

A: The thesis of this article is that Facebook is yet another step in converting our world to a completely corporate controlled cyberspace universe.

B: I agree with that rather than connect us, Facebook isolates us at our workstation. Tom points out that instead of drinking, chatting, and dancing with our friends we are sending them cyberspace messages that don’t even make sense. The actual physical interaction is what is valued in a relationship, not little messages between screens. I also agree with the following quote: “Share" is Facebookspeak for "advertise". Sign up to Facebook and you become a free walking, talking advert for Blockbuster or Coke, extolling the virtues of these brands to your friends. We are seeing the commodification of human relationships, the extraction of capitalistic value from friendships.” This quote solidifies the advertising spam that controls and intertwines with Facebook. It is mind blowing how Facebook has enabled corporate america to strengthen its stranglehold over us.

I disagree with Thiel’s thinking in terms to referencing a worker’s revolution and taxes. He believes that the worker’s can’t unite an take over the bank if the bank is in a place like Vanuatu. It is this kind of thinking that gets most powerful politicians and economists into trouble. Thiel’s intelligence and lust for success are also his two inhibitors in being a fully rounded and successful business man. I also disagree with the fact that Tom thinks that Facebook is uncreative. In fact I think it’s genius. Why? Because it has worked so successfully. To me anything that takes off like Facebook did is obviously a well though out idea. Now I think that morally Facebook is terrible but from a outside perspective its genius. Indiscrete advertising, social networking soon after the outrages of Myspace, and easy use. I don’t like Facebook but I have to say that its a hell of an idea.

2.) A: I thought that the concept of media literacy was very interesting because I think that many people in this day and age are completely media illiterate making it impossible for them to succeed in our media controlled lives. I also think its really scary how these massive corporations operate. For starters they are pitching the products that they are then going to turn around and sell to you. Secondly they go after you on an emotional level. Marketers have so narrowly pinpointed their respective markets that they can heavily sell certain products for different types of emotional and mental states. The last thing that I thought was really bizarre was the company that owns CBS and that is Viacom. Since 60 minutes is probably the most watched newscast in the country weekly, I was under the assumption that CBS was perhaps the most decent and straight to the point channel however after learning that the same company owns MTV I was shocked. All of a sudden that Janet Jackson boob doesn’t look like much of an accident after all.

3.)a:

-Looks are the most important value to a young woman developing into our twisted society. Advertisers design their ads to make girls feel guilty that they don’t look like the models. I thought that this was really twisted and bizarre.

-The ad with the woman as a bottle also stuck out. It adds to the cultural climate where woman are objects rather than things. The interesting point Kilbourne made was that this demeaning of a person to less than human is a direct course to violence.

-The concept of black women in ads being dressed and treated like jungle animals. Not only demeaning to women but incredibly racist as well dawning them with skins and furs.

-The fact that most women lost feeling in their breasts after implants solidifies the notion that they are simply objects for the man to play with and no longer belong to the woman because she can’t even feel them.

-Only 5 % of American women look like the sexy and desirable women from advertisements. This number blew my mind.

-I also wanted to comment on the ad “the more you subtract the more you add” because this train of thought is so detrimental to young women all over.

This is my environmental art project. Its a biodegradable tissue box with a little metal man dropped inside the box (the television set). He is trapped inside and can't go out and play because his brain is ensnared by the droning voice on the TV. This is a very common ocurence with youth today.

Hey Becky who's that guy?

My name is Zach Williams and I was born and raised in Burlington, VT. Over the vacation I worked a lot and skied however there was a few media experiences that stuck out. My most interesting one was downloading a DJ program to my friends iphone which allowed us to play around with different sounds while our music was playing. This technology is yet another step in the stairs of technological advancement and is part of the competitive drive to create newer, faster, and better media tools. I like this drive a lot however at the same time it is incredibly problematic the old style of social interaction. With the advancing of media technology down goes the level of social interaction which is a fundamental part of life. I love the outdoors and although could see myself working in media my ambition is to work in the mountains either in ski area management or for park services or another organization of that nature. Helping save the forest one species at a time sounds pretty good to me.