Kimberly+Dela+Cruz



**__Experiences with Media __**

Try going a day without interactions with the media. Today, this is hard because we are surrounded by media all the time. We live in a world where we don’t even notice how big media is in our lives. We were told to observe and write down experiences with media over two days. Here are a few experiences that I noticed while doing it; I wake up in the morning and I am exposed to media right away. The first thing I tend to do when I wake up is to check my blackberry for any BBMs, text messages, or Facebook notifications. Every morning on my way to school, I listen to 99.9 Virgin Radio. It was always so entertaining to hear the “Say it and Win” contest. The contest was advertised as: “We'll give you 10 seconds to say "Ninety-Nine-Nine-Virgin-Radio" as many times as you can - and we'll give you $100 bucks for each time!” I think the most I heard someone said it was about ten times. One experience with media that really fascinated me was one day in English class while reading Shakespeare’s //Macbeth// we came across a word that no one knew the meaning of – this word I don’t remember but our teacher told us to look up the definition on our smartphones. It caught my attention on how instead of her asking us to go check in a dictionary that was probably on a shelf in the back of the room but she asked use to use our phones. One thing that is pretty interesting to me is the use of BBM scan codes used in advertising in magazines and on billboards. I always scan them even if the ad itself doesn’t interest me; I like to see what link opens when I do scan it. What I never understood was the point to a poster in the subway across from where we stand in the station waiting for the subway - you can’t reach it and can you even scan it? I don’t spend much time watching TV anymore. I catch up with TV shows I watch on the internet. The internet allows us to watch TV shows, music videos, movies and do so much more. The number of advertisements that pop out while I’m on the internet or watching TV is too much to count. The one thing that I always remember about commercials is the song or tune the commercial has. There are ones where I think “oh what a good song” and then there are others where I switch the channel because the song is annoying. I find the Old Navy commercials really annoying. Personally I don’t buy CDs anymore I just download them from Youtube. I didn’t realize how much media is in my life but after observing it over two days, it caught my attention that it’s everywhere.

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 * //__Peep Culture __//**

Hal says, “Put a camera in front of us and we change.” What are we changing into? What are we becoming? I think the answers to these questions are simple. We change into what we think the camera or the audience wants to see. We shape ourselves to become people who entertain those we see us. People will do anything to get that fame they desire. Sometimes people don’t have to do anything extreme or interesting and still have people watching them. People are becoming fame-obsessed. People are basing their lives on being in front of a camera. I remember when taking pictures would mean to capture a special moment in life. Now, people take pictures to post them on Facebook or Twitter, just for the fact they want people to see. I am not saying that sharing these pictures is a bad thing. I do hear people say, “Let’s take a picture so I can post it on Facebook.” Today, the internet allows us to upload our lives. People start to act like someone, not necessarily themselves but someone that people want to see. There are people will act a certain way with the camera on them and act a completely different way when the camera is off. Others have no problem being who they are on camera but is that always a good thing. People become a character they have created for the camera in order to entertain.

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 * __Pop Culture __**

Pop Culture = Mainstream. From the things we wear to the things we watch. Pop culture is anything that is “popular” today. We are influenced by things that the media considers “in” and anything that consists with pop culture. We live in a society where we are told what to want. Music today is not what it was like before. Artists do have their own style and way of making music but nowadays if you hear mainstream music – it’s all the same! What happened to an artist’s ability to stand out from the rest of the crowd and have their “own” sound. Almost all songs on the radio are mainstream, the songs everyone knows the lyrics to and knows who sings it. I bet most people can start singing the lyrics to Rhianna's //We Found Love// or Maroon 5’s //Moves like Jagger.// Not everyone listens to mainstream music. I tend to listen to songs that no one knows or is not “popular” yet. People love to be able to say they knew about something before the rest of the world does. People do it with songs all the time. It’s funny to hear people say, “Oh wow! You didn’t know this song, it’s so old now.” Pop culture changes and that mean whatever is “in” or “popular” might not be in the blink of an eye.

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 * __Celebrity – The “Reality Star” __**

Who do you consider a celebrity? The definition of a celebrity is someone is famous or well known. Celebrities are anyone from a politician to a Youtube star. Celebrities to me were people that could be considered inspiring and have a special talent that could be shown to the world. There are still these kinds of celebrities today but there is also a different kind. The “reality star” is a person who “lives” their life and has it recorded to show the world. I’ll admit I do enjoy watching reality TV. There are celebrities that have their own reality TV shows to show viewers that they live normal lives like the rest of us. There also reality stars that turn into celebrities. One show that comes to mind is //Keeping Up with the Kardashians//. It stars the Kardashian family – Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Rob, Kris, Bruce, Kendall, and Kylie. What’s so interesting about this family that they have their own show? I don’t know. Yes, Bruce was famous before the show as he is an Olympic champion. But who are the Kardashians? Kim Kardashian is the most famous but how? What did Kim Kardashian do to become famous? Was it that infamous tape that was leaked? I never understood how this one family even got their “fifteen minutes of fame” that turned it into a reality TV show. Recently, Kim Kardashian got married to Kris Humphries. There was a lot of buzz on this wedding from the media. It was like the “royal wedding” of reality TV. Magazines, celebrity gossip shows, and the internet were filled with information about this wedding; many of them spilling secrets about the wedding. Kim Kardashian, famous for “being” herself had millions of viewers tuning in to watch her wedding.


 * __The Blackberry __**

About two weeks ago, the blackberry network went down. Blackberry users were unable to use BBM, Facebook, Twitter, email, and other applications that require data connection. I have a Blackberry and when my BBM messages had a check with no “D” beside it for delivered, I thought to myself BBM is down again. In the past few months BBM has stopped working randomly. It would be down from a couple of hours to a day. I wasn’t surprised that once again it was down. What did catch my attention was the fact that Facebook and my internet browser weren’t working. This made me wonder whether it was my service provider, Rogers’s network o if it was RIM’s network that wasn’t working. Of course I turn to the news at 6 and find out that RIM’s network was down in Canada and most of the world. For me, this made communicating with people difficult. One thing is that I have many of my friends on BBM but when it comes down to a phone number I don’t have most of my BBM contacts’ numbers. It was weird to have a conversation with someone and all of a sudden I couldn’t reply. I always loved how I could talk to my best friend who lives across the world on BBM. It was an easier and faster way to communicate with her. When BBM stopped working I found it weird not being able to talk to her. I found out when the network was working again that her blackberry was perfectly fine and her phone didn’t stop working. It felt as though my Blackberry wasn’t a “smartphone.” It was like when I had my old flip phone where I was only able to do things we consider “simple” with a phone like text and call. This made me realize how my Blackberry is such a huge part of my life and I consider my Blackberry to be my “crackberry.” When the network was down I found it very strange to have my blackberry - I couldn’t be on BBM, Facebook, or check my emails; I felt disconnected with the world.