Look Up.

"I don't use it that often! I only do it for myself. I'm not trying to please anyone. It's all for fun!" Stop trying to fool yourself. Social media has you hostage and you can't escape.
I recently watched an episode of Black Mirror on Netflix. This one was set in the "future" where what we do or property we can own or special treatments are all based on your rating. There are inserts in your eyes that allow you to see one's rating, and you can rate anyone you see. If you look nice, act nice, and be nice, people will rate you higher. It seems sweet, like this is the key to a kind and safe society. However, it's not real. People don't say what they want to say, and people only care about this number that people will judge you by. You don't have real friends, real encounters, real feelings. And if you do have real feelings, people will lower your rating. When your rating is low you can't do things or go to certain places.
The whole time I was watching this I was shaking my head and cringing at how obsessed people were with this number and their device. However, we aren't that far from this at all. When I post a picture in Instagram, all I can think about is how many likes I will get.  I think about the impression this will give people about me. I don't want to, but it's an addiction. Why do you even have an Instagram or a snapchat? It's not for some productive reason like selling something or running a business. It's because you want to see what other people are doing and wish you were them, and you want other people to see what you're doing and make them wish they were you. It's who can market themselves the best. We look like we are having so much fun, when it's actually just staring at a screen with the occasional selfie. This is so scary to me.
Perhaps people are only nice to improve this rating that people have in their heads of everyone. Impressions and opinions are seemingly so important and makes me wonder if that's all that life is about. Pleasing people and improving your rating? And isn't it true that if you're nice you get better treatment in general? I have noticed this after watching this episode, and really want to just stop trying to sell myself online. I just want to look up.

The Magic of Christmas

Angry mobs bombard the shopping mall.  $500 is spent in one night. An aroma of gingerbread, peppermint, and stress is ever present. Ah, the magic of Christmas.

Honestly, Christmas is not even Christmas anymore. It's not about spending time with your family, it's about spending money. It's not about the quality of the gift, it's about the quantity. Christmas is too commercialized to enjoy! The stress, the heartache, the money... it's all just a big rush to give people "things." It can be anything, as long as it's something. People have forgotten that one meaningful gift could mean the world. Instead, people don't think and just buy these silly presents for limited happiness. We are like children with our attention span. Adults reason with children and say they don't want to buy them that toy because they'll love it for a minute, then get bored. However, they aren't any different! This gets me to think why people buy each other anything if it doesn't mean anything.

My grandmother texted my mom the exact shoe she wanted for Christmas, then gave my mom a check for the exact price of the shoe. When my mom opened the check, she was flabbergasted. She asked why we even do presents if it's making no difference in our bank account, or if we could just buy the gift for ourselves on our own. And to that my grandma said through clenched teeth and burning eyes, "It's the thought."
What's the thought?! Sure, maybe for children the thought counts, but they aren't spending money. Why do we even give presents on Christmas Day? There are for sure historical reasons, however I also think the media and commercials make it seem so necessary to give as many nice presents as you can. In every Christmas commercial, there are people receiving gifts and a smile. Does this mean that if you don't give gifts people won't be happy? Pretty much. We tend to give gifts we would like to receive, but honestly these commercials make every present seem like the best thing in the world. Who wouldn't want to buy something that makes the whole family come together and laugh?! The only problem is that it's not real. These gifts will be forgotten in a month, but hey, it was fun while it lasted.
One year, I would like to not give or receive any gifts. Will I fell empty and incomplete? I think I will appreciate the true spirit of the season... but what is the true spirit?

Cross My Heart and Hope to Die. It's Real.

Trust. Believe. Have faith. Please.

When someone smiles at you or gives you a compliment, what would you think? Would you be grateful and think about how that person went out of their way to talk to you? Or would you immediately think of what they actually meant because they could not possibly be genuine? What is easier?

I'm hoping we all are grateful. 

However, I find that it's so hard for people to take compliments or react to nice things well anymore. We are constantly trying to find the alternate meaning or motive. As usual, I blame the media. For one, our whole lives have been lived through advertising tricks and double meanings. We catch on quickly and become immune to obvious ads. However, where we go wrong is when we apply it to actual life. Not everything has a double meaning! The media has caused us to be overly skeptical. We can no longer trust a friendly gesture or the words from one's mouth. 

Another cause of this would be the movies and TV shows of our generation. A show isn't a show without drama. The lying, back-stabbing actors are only playing lying, back-stabbing people. So many programs depict high school, which makes it even worse. Now, we can relate in a way. But it is not the same. Drama and conflict does not equal getting the guy. Life does not have to be filled with drama to be interesting. You don't have to have drugs and alcohol to have a good time. People are not always lying. Please do not think that is how the world is. Our reality is altered, thanks to the media. We get these false pictures engrained in our minds and want that picture to be reality so badly that is becomes reality. We don't even realize how skeptical we are. We don't realize how uneasy we feel when we see a smile. It is real. This is real life.

Focus!

As I watch my chemistry teacher sing in her choir, I can't help but lose track of all other worries and thoughts in my mind. It is so hypnotic. So meditative. Until... zzz...haha! The girls sitting behind me receive a message on their phone and giggle about it. I turn around and see the older woman sitting next to them begin to lecture the girls on proper listening etiquette. I feel a bit better. Five minutes later a bang comes from their direction and echoes throughout the whole chapel. They dropped their phone. I am embarrassed for them.
Reflecting back on this, it made me curious as to why teenagers cannot stay off their phones, even when they know they shouldn't have it on. And why is it that the previous generations have different priorities and are able to focus on one thing at a time?
We need to be overstimulated. We need to do more than one thing at once. More like more than three things at once.
We claim we are so stressed and overwhelmed, but we create that for ourselves. We love to be stressed and overwhelmed! If we wanted to, we could let social media go, let the television take a break, and let our minds realize what is truly important and needed to be focused on. However, we don't. And that is why we are drowning in homework, chores, and extracurriculars.
On the other hand, it is this need to do more things at once that will allow us to be innovative and save the world. We just have to know how and when to channel our abilities for the better.
Previous generations do not seem to have this need for constant stimulation. They seem to have a greater appreciation for the present and are better at focusing on what is going on at the moment. But also, it could mean their brains are lacking in mental capability. They never had as much technology, and were never exposed to as much stimulation. Their brains are done making mental leaps. In a way, this can be a good thing. Nothing frightens me more than seeing a one-year-old glued to their parents' iPad. It is something adults that didn't have that technology look down on. But perhaps, they can't do the great feats that this generation can and will do.
This need for stimulation can be both a good thing and a bad thing. However, people should learn when to control that, and when to embrace it. A chapel is not the time or place.

People React, Robots Think

"80% of our life is emotion, and only 20% is intellect," said Frank Luntz in the Frontline video, The Persuaders. When I heard this, my first reaction was denial. It should be 50/50, right? I thought he was wrong, but then I let the small amount of intellect within me speak up and I realized how right he was. My reaction was based on emotion! All of our history and decisions are based mainly on emotion. War and declarations were based on fiery feelings, some of which led to good, and others led to not so good. Only once we truly sit back and review the decisions and reactions are we making use of our intellect.
The fact that we have to force it, and be aware when we are using our intellect shows how unnatural it is for us.
When the people that control what we see, have access to how we think, they have the power to control what we think. When people like Luntz crack this code, we can either be aware of it, or let the words and pictures infiltrate our psyche and fall prey to the deception. What makes me think of it in such a negative way was his tone during the interview and the dramatic music playing in the background. He would speak as if he were doing something illegal or top-secret, and it makes me feel unsettled. This concept is just reification, but done very well. In the video, Luntz's testing people, seemed so robotic. He was alive and using words while these people thought they were aware of what he was doing, but in reality they were so lost. Is this how we are? Sure, we have an awareness, but do we know how to use it and when to apply it? How can we get past the skilled words-men like Luntz and be our own emotional self?
Sometimes it is a good thing, because without this driving force of emotion, how would we decide between the twenty different breads that all taste the same at the store? Besides price, there's how it makes us feel. Also, what some don't realize about emotion is that it is what moves us forward in life as individuals. We are fired up and motivated by setbacks or inspired by something we see, and those emotions propel us in life. We have been encouraged to be emotional and express our feelings since we begun to go to school. Perhaps that was all planned by the media to train us to fall for its words so we will economy stimulators when we grow up!

When I asked her, my mom's first reaction to Luntz's statement was:
"People react, robots think."
In this day and age, we are becoming more and more robot like. We let the robots feel things and connect to people so we don't have to. That doesn't necessarily mean we are becoming smarter, but we are slowly losing the amount of emotion in us. The ratio stays the same, but the quantity is decreasing.
After much consideration, I believe that humans are 80% emotion and 20% intellect.

What Is It With Uniqueness?!

u·nique

yo͞oˈnēk/

adjective

adjective: unique

1. being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.

   "the situation was unique in modern politics"

   What is it with uniqueness?! Why do we all want to be someone special? Why is there such a huge stress on being different? Is it even achievable? As teens, we seem to have this need to be unique and different, but as consumers, we have a subconscious need to follow the latest trend and be a part of the tribe. Which need do we want to satisfy more? Honestly, I think our natural tribal instinct is more dominant than our desire to be different. Sure, the idea of being your own person and standing out sounds great, but look around and see how many people actually are unique. And if you find someone that is unique, look at the phone they have, the clothes they wear, or even their mannerisms. Chances are their phone is Apple, their clothes are a popular brand, and their mannerisms are like their friends or their parents. Is there such a thing as unique? On the outside, I say no. It's pretty much impossible to be the only one in the world to have a certain thing. You know what they say, there's no such thing as original thought.  However, on the inside, there is no one in the world like you. No one has lived your life. It is so miraculous to think that every person on this planet has had a different experience...and yet, we all have a common goal. We all want to be unique. Why? If we are so unique already, why must we try so hard to be that way? The media. We see the ads telling us to be unique and to stand out, so we think we need to correct un-uniqueness, so we buy the product. But everyone will be buying the product so it's not unique anymore! But that's another reason why we buy it, to feel safe and in our tribe. We always go with what everyone else is buying, because we don't want to seem weird or uncool or unaccepted.  Once everyone buys the unique product, it is no longer about being an individual, but about tribes once again. Uniqueness is its own tribe! But now, since everyone has the product, another one comes out that will make you be really unique, and the cycle is repeated. Don't you think we are all trying to be different in the same way that everyone else is trying to be  different? Does that really make us different?

The Pipeline Isn't the Only Thing Being Denied

Before checking out a news story, I completely expected Fox to be very emotional and explicit in its writing, and my other outlet to be very composed and sane, but not without opinion. I was extremely surprised to find a bland and uneventful article on the Fox side, and an opinioned side for the other.

 

For my story, I chose the Dakota Pipeline reroute. I decided to compare Fox News and CNN. For starters, the Fox story's link had in bold: PIPELINE DENIED. I thought, this has to be good. "Denied"  is a pretty heavy word, so I wonder what they are thinking about this. What I realized too late was how tiny the link and picture was on the website compared to the other headlines. The title of the article described it as a "block," which is typically used in the case of not letting something happen. Connotatively, I think of something that isn't allowed, when you wanted it to happen. That can be some exposure to their opinion. I began reading the article, and wasn't nearly as entertained as I planned to be. There was nothing colorful or emotional. All that were reported were the facts. I was bored. Quite frankly, I think that this is because they lost. Fox is rather Republican, and the fact that the protesters and the Native Americans won is enough to make them change their tone in writing. They didn't want to make it into a huge deal, because it is not what they wanted to happen. What did intrigue me were the quotes provided. The only quotes in the article were talking about the concerns and tension that followed the stopping of the pipeline, and I know that wasn't on accident. We can tell from this, that Fox did not get its way. Other than that, it was shockingly dry.

 

On CNN, this was the biggest headline out of all the website. It had in bold: PIPELINE STOPPED. The title of the article was "Dakota Pipeline to be re-routed." It wasn't blocked, or denied, but it was re-routed. That was the most neutral way to put it. As expected, CNN reported the facts, stating both sides to the problem. I noticed that CNN quoted Bernie Sanders, a democrat (of course for the con side) and Kevin Cramer, a republican in the House of Representatives. Kevin Cramer said, "I hoped even a lawless president wouldn't continue to ignore the rule of law. However, it was becoming increasingly clear he was punting the issue down the road. Today's unfortunate decision sends a very chilling signal to others who want to build infrastructure in this country. Roads, bridges, transmission lines, pipelines, wind farms and water lines will be very difficult, if not impossible, to build when criminal behavior is rewarded this way." Criminal behavior?! Cramer sounded ridiculous, and this news station knows it. I think CNN chose to quote this man on purpose, because of so absurd he sounded. CNN knows who it is talking to, so it must satisfy its viewers in this way.

 

I have realized that each article and the content in it is specifically formulated and edited with great care to inflict the opinions on its viewers. Not only is the pipeline being denied, but our personal thoughts and our own opinions are denied as well. 



 



 

The Era of No

Gluten-free.
GMO-free.
Fat free.
Sugar free.
No preservatives.
No nitrates.
No high fructose corn syrup.
No added hormones.
The Era of No.
Why does everything seemingly healthy require a series of "no"s on the label of the product?
I recently saw an old food label for peas, and all it said was what the product was. There was nothing special about it. It only included what was in it; nothing more, nothing less. Then, I looked at a modern-day pea label, and the first thing that stood out to me was "non-GMO." Why did they have to tell me that? If your parents were to come back from vacation after leaving you home alone all weekend and the first thing you said was, "I didn't throw a party!" what would your parents be thinking?

Everything on the labels used to be "made with," but we have transitioned to naming what it is not made with. What is even in our food anymore?! My theory is that it is because there are so many harmful ingredients, marketers decided to put what's not in it. From the looks of it, this strategy is doing very well. Have you ever wondered what it means to be "gluten free"? That label was created because 3 million people in the world suffer from a disease where the protein, gluten, attacks their intestine. If you are able to consume gluten, you can eat gluten-free products, but there is no nutritional benefit, whatsoever. But people see the word "free" and are drawn to the product. Marketers have realized this, and started raising the prices of gluten-free foods, which is not fair to the people that actually benefit from the food.

Another common phrase would be "real ingredients," but what does that even mean? It is so vague. But we have these connotations with the word that makes us want to buy the real food. The happy people, bright colors, and a fun font lure us to the checkout counter and the next thing we know we've made an unnecessary purchase. But hey, at least it has real ingredients.

An additional tactic includes hiding the ingredients. Sugar can be named in 61 different ways. In a way, this is a type of double-speaking. We don't know many other names for "sugar" so we are misled by the product, and end up buying something we didn't know we were buying. Another reason we buy sugary foods (or food in general) is because of how it is presented. We see people eating sugary foods, and they are happy, so we buy the product to be happy like them. In reality, it will not fill that hole in us, so we must buy more! The cycle just keeps on repeating. We project how we want to feel based on the products we buy and the words that describe the product.

It's not fair. Some people need to eat certain products or lack of products for health reasons. Do the makers of the products want to kill their consumers?! Or maybe, they make harmful products because they are working with other companies that will be able to cure the customer. They know what you will buy, what it will do to you, and what they can do to help you. It is systematically calculated, and you are constantly being controlled.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/truth-behind-these-7-common-food-labels-and-why-you-should-know-difference-289294

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20599288,00.html

Meet Manic Media

My relationship with media could easily be compared to teenagers and their hormones. To teenagers on a good day,  their parents are the best people in the world. On a not so good day, their parents are close-minded, unfair dictators.  On a good day, the media is this beautiful endeavor for discovery and inspiration. On a bad day, the media is a censored, filtered, and systematic lie.

I've always seen the media as something harmful, as something to get away from. This is probably because the first word that comes to mind is social media. And when I think of social media, I think of addiction! I for sure have a negative connotation with the word.  But the true definition is what relieves me. I have tried my best to stray away from excessive use, but I find that my own classes are encouraging it. Papers are being turned in online, studying is most effective by computer, and even this blog is done online. We are of course prone to distraction and exposure of advertisements when on the computer. Aside from that, it is revealed how necessary the media really is.
I know I don't have a strong connection to my phone, however I know that I have some connection. That scares me. During the week, I probably use social media for an hour a day. I am required to spend more time than that, for school. That probably adds another hour. The world is so virtual now. That scares me. Our life is one huge target that the media is hunting for. We are prey, and the media is the predator. That scares me. And advertising is all around us, it is virtually inescapable. That scares me.

As scary as it is, lately, I've realized it is not such a bad thing. Everyday I find myself inspired and excited from everything I see. I would not have many of the passions that make me, well me. In a way, the media has allowed for me to branch out and find a part of myself I would have never known.
Because I have accepted that it is impossible to truly escape the media, I have decided to look at all the good it provides, rather than hate on something that will always be here. I truly believe it is inescapable. Our thoughts are shaped and heavily influenced by the media. Even in nature, everything is one big advertisement. Animals and plants look a certain way to attract a mate or lure a predator. It is needed for  survival!

I was surprised to find out that media includes songs. Music is such a huge part of my life. It has united, created memories, and almost acts as a timeline for my life. I cannot imagine a world without music. So, I guess that means I cannot imagine a world without media.

Because of these conflicting views, opinions, and ideas of media, I called my blog Manic Media. It really is wild and exciting, but can also be insane.


Just another Manic Media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsmVgoXDq2w