The medias effect on self-image

Hey guys, over the last few weeks I have been gathering information together and are in the somewhat early stages of developing a research paper. I have just finished acquiring all of my sources and have analyzed the information provided. Originally my research question of focus was how advertisements effected people’s self-image both physically and intellectually. I soon discover that it was hard to find and articles that closely related the relationship between advertisements and self-image. So I changed the question to pop culture instead of advertisement. After that I decided that that question was way too broad and after reading related topics I have decided to change my research question to How does media effect men and women’s physical and psychological self-image. Since then my finding have been enormously great; in fact media plays a major part in how we see ourselves. The obvious effect is our physical appearance. For some seeing models displayed in the media may have a increased effect in their body esteem because it may be seen as motivation. For others there is an opposite effect of a dissatisfaction of our bodies. This can be seen more among women than men; but never the less it effect both. It can cause a change in our diet and exercise habits. Other effects include eating disorders, steroid use, and surgery. One of the major psychological effect is depression. This is a serious issue considering the death toll depression contributes to each year. Other effect that I have recently discovered and decided to include is the altered sexual behavior that media can cause among men and women. Because media can have negative effect on how a person views themselves this can cause discomfort in sexual activity. It has been shown that people that are dissatisfied with their bodies may avoid sexual activity all together. Through these finding I will organize my paper within these effect. First the physical and then the psychological. After that I will add in my finding on these effect of sexual behaviors.

self-image

My previous research question was how do advertisements effect peoples self-image? However after searching for sources through the database I found that I could not really find any articles or reviews that were about the effect advertisement has on self-image. There were plenty articles about advertisement and about self-image, but none that covered my specific question. Instead I have found articles about how media and pop culture in general have effected people’s self-image. Because of this I feel that I should modify my question from the effects from advertisements to the effects from pop culture. I understand that by changing this are of focus I have made my research question broader. For this reason I am going to narrow my focus by researching the effects in young adults rather than people in general. More specifically college students or 18 eighteen years of age to 30 years. So my question will read; how does pop culture effect self-image among young adults?

In class we have talked about how advertisements effects peoples view of their own body. That is why I originally wanted to focus of advertisement, but the truth is that it is more than advertisements. All aspects of pop culture have effects on self-image. And though some may have positive effects, but most if not many are negative. And like I mentioned before it is not just physical appearance, but also intellectual appearance. I believe that much of the pop culture tries to make us the consumers and viewer feel stupid. I don’t know if it is intentional or not but it is true. For example many people are singled out in “memes”. People make these “memes” and many times are very rude and put down the person or demographic pointed out. Though many times they are seen as funny; it does not make it any less rude. I still need to get a better base of examples to better support this topic. But this is what I have so far.    

vine careers

New Media is often thought of as being a new thing in today’s world. Instead new media can actually be dated back to the time of the creation of the alphabet. We have come a long way since this creation. In fact new media today can be defined by all of our technologies and how we use them to communicate, both directly and indirectly. People can talk directly to each other through text messages, Facebook messages, Instagram’s direct messaging, Snap Chats etc. We are able to communicate indirectly through the thing that we post whether that is updating a Facebook status, a tweet, a posted picture on your Instagram or snap story. All these communications have grown so much that they consume our daily lives from early in the morning to late at night. What is the first thing someone does when they wake up? Well for many they check all of their social network to see what is going on in the world, what is everybody doing? They go through the entire day doing that same thing, commenting on a picture, liking someone’s status, and watching videos. Then they stay up all night doing the very same thing and wake up to do it all over again. Because today’s new media consumes such a major part in many of our lives, it has allowed many people to make careers because of it.

Vine is a fairly new type of social network that has grown in popularity over the years. It was founded by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll in June of 2012 and was bought by Twitter for $30 million. It was officially launched on January 24, 2013. Vine is a social network that allows people to share short videos with one another. This social network allows videos to be separated into specific areas such as comedy, music, sports, news, food, etc. comedy being the most popular.

Through vine many people have been able to create careers from the videos that they post. As of March 2015 the vine user KingBach is the most followed user with over 11 million followers. That’s pretty popular if you ask me. Other well-known and largely followed users include: Curtis Lepopre, Logan Paul, Christian DelGrosso, Rudy Mancuso, Jerry Purpdrank and DeStorm Power. Focusing on KingBach, otherwise known as Andrew B. Bachelor, his job is to come up with new ideas for videos that will make people laugh. With over 11 million follower he is very successful with that. Vine has become his career. He get paid monthly based on the amount of followers he has and the amounts of vines he creates. He reportedly said in an interview, “I have my rate that I charge, which is $1,000 per 100,000 followers. So if I had 1 million followers, that’s $10,000 per vine.” With 11 million followers that is a lot of money. But it is because of us as the views that he makes so much. Because of his success on vine he has signed with UTA (United Talent Agency) and has earned a role in the tv show House of Lies. He has also become one of the members of the TV show Wild ‘n Out. This is just more money to add to what he already makes with vine.

Many people just like KingBach have made careers like this because we are so consumed in all of what new media offers. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it is just how new media has evolved. However there may be some negative aspects like: the way it effects our lives in certain aspects, and how is it fair that someone can get paid so much when others have to work so much harder.

Act like a lady think like a man

Act like a lady think like a man is a movie that released in 2012, staring actors/actresses such as Kevin Hart, Michael Ealy, Megan Good, and Regina Hall. The target audience of this movie ranges from young adults and up. This movie is about four women who are hopeless when it comes to getting their men to do what they want; until they come across a book that gives them advice and explains how to manipulate their men. It works for a little while but when the men figure out the secret they turn the tables in order to get what they want. This ultimately causes their relationships to weaken.

A myth associated with this movie is the idea that men have an owner’s manual that women can use to their advantage and vice versa. The book used in the movie is the manual the women use to change their men from an undesirable man to a “woman’s mans” desirable be many women. This could send a negative message to both men and women. No two people are the same. Everyone is different, you cannot expect people to react to a certain thing the same way. This movie could possibly cause young women to think that men work like a simple equation and all they have to do is plug in numbers to solve it, in order to get what they want from this. But we all know math is much more complicated than that. This movie can also cause men to think that they can pretend to give their woman what they want in order to receive what they want. And well this may work for a little while but will eventually fail. One thing that happens as a result of this manipulation, is that each of the relationships become weaker. I believe this is one thing that is realistic within this movie. You cannot be someone you are not or want a person to be who they are not (in other words being someone fake) and expect a real relationship.  

I believe this movie is providing and exaggerated insight to our reality when it comes to relationships. They use different scenarios of relationships, however they are still typical. It is obvious that men and women are different. This movie show a woman’s woman (being independent and strong) with a “man’s man” (being less focused on a relationship and more focused on being a man like hanging out with the boys and just doing what they want). Like in man relationships the woman want their man to be better, yet the man does not really care. The women want to take their relationship to the next level, but the men are fine where they are at. The women want the man to prove themselves to them and all the man really wants is sex. Of course not every woman and man is like this but these are come themes when it comes to relationships. And many can relate to them.

Going to the movies

I have found pleasure and escape through many pop cultural things like watching a specific television show or reading a book. But I seem to find the most pleasure and escape by going to the movie theater. I probably find this to be most pleasurable because of the entire experience as a whole. Not that long ago I went to the movie theater with some of my friends to go see Annabelle. I feel the overall pleasure and escape is more intense when watching a scary movie. You are there with your friends or maybe you significant other; you get to experience it all together. I usually never jump out of my seat when watching scary movies. But for this movie I intentionally let my guard down because it’s fun to get scared. It was also fun to watch my friends get scared as well, but more than just your friends you get to see the reactions of everyone watching the movie. It’s almost like it’s a community bonding. I got to see everyone scream and jump out of their seats and we all just laughed it off until the next scary scene comes. I also feel that this “community bonding” is strong with comedy movies as well. I went to go see The Wedding Ringer and I got to hysterically laugh with everyone that was there. The experience as a whole is fun, and that is why I find it most pleasurable.

Find peace with ads

Many consumers are under the notion that they are becoming less and less in control of their privacy. This seems true considering the fact that companies are able to track your internet use, giving them access to information that consumers may not wish for them to have. But the real truth is that we are in control of our own privacy. We are the ones giving these companies the information. So for those who do not like the idea of internet tracking the real question is how willing are they to give up internet use. Most likely they are not going to be very willing. Today’s society has made the internet such a necessity, which makes it harder for people to refrain from using it. But for many others, internet tracking is a non-issue.  To them internet tracking serves as an aid. They view sites that they like, and then later find ads for the same sites. The ads can show specials or even coupon that allow us as consumers to save money. When you think about it the information that these companies are receiving are the things that we like. And with this information they can personalize the ads that we see. We are all going to see ads anyway, why should we see ads for things we don’t care to see? It make more sense to have the ads personalized to us. But even with that said, the ads provided may be for things we like, but it is not guaranteed that the ads shown are going to send the best message. Many ads send harmful values to the viewers. They can make many feel insecure about themselves. In a way they belittle them. But these types of ads work because they send notions of pleasure by giving the impression that the product will make you better and that is all you need. But there is no way of getting out of seeing ads. They are literally everywhere, so you might as well enjoy the ads you see just don’t get caught up with to harmful message that may come with some of them.  

The Ugly Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xocyXiFeCXY

The truth campaign has made many advertisements opposing tobacco use; all of which have a certain level of effectiveness. Overall I feel these advertisements are very persuasive. In this particular advertisement a series of causes of deaths along with a bar representing the amount of deaths are provided. Tobacco happens to have the biggest bar, meaning it causes the most deaths than the other causes of deaths shown. If that is not already bad enough the ad proceeds to say that “big tobacco’s products kill more than shark attacks, Yeti attacks, fires, floods, sky diving Accidents, car crashes, and murder combined.” Not only does tobacco kill more than these other causes of death but even when you combine them all together it still does not compare to the amount of deaths caused by tobacco. It is quite scary to think of. But that is the feeling that this ad is trying to convey. And because they are using actuals facts, it make it seem that much more real and terrifying. Though the mood is lightened by them using the ridiculous cause of death by a Yeti, the ad is still meant to frighten viewer to refrain from tobacco use. Many may look at this and will not feel any different about cigarettes, chewing tobacco etc. but many on the other hand will change their thoughts about it. Many ads including this one have contributed in the decrease percent of teenage tobacco use. I believe it used to be that 23% of teens used tobacco and now only 9% of teens use tobacco.