Final Paper and Research Question

I decided to choose my topic on Pinterest.  I was planning on writing how Pinterest sparked creativity throughout society.   I know that it’s part of social media and is becoming a lot more popular throughout American culture.  Right now, I would say that it’s part of social media as we are so involved with social media.  I am going to write some statistics and look up more scholarly articles.  I’m planning on providing an in-depth reflection of how it affects popular culture, the demographics of the social media, and how it’s different than some specific social media such as Instagram and Tumblr.

Skype (response essay #4)

New media is introduced in today’s society as part of a world in the evolution of technology.  In general, social media has hit us so hard that it’s everywhere and in everyone’s life.  Specifically, one that isn’t mentioned a lot in social media is Skype.  Skype is part social media because it is expanding throughout the world.   It doesn’t have any limitation of who can use the medium, but it’s generally used by all ages except the elderly.  This might be because the elderly either doesn’t understand or doesn’t necessarily like technology.  Skype is becoming more popular as people are able to have “face-to-face” interactions and it has the ability to bring people closer on a different level.  Regarding Marshall MuLuhan’s quote: “The medium is the message,” this medium has the ability to get your point across in face-to-face interaction with another person.  The overall significance of this medium is because it’s part of social media; it allows people to connect through the Internet.  Skype is the “message” because as it allows interactions with different people around the world but yet let’s people communicate that is many miles away.

Skype has a wide range of operating systems that has abled people to talk for free.  The applications are on phones, the X-box One, and laptops (both Mac and Windows products).  It started in 2003 and in eight years was bought out by Microsoft.  According to their website Macs users who download Skype is able to get free calls, low cost call and texts to mobiles and landlines, video calls on Skype and Facebook, free instant messages to friends, family, and colleagues, and able to send a message you can see, hear, and feel with video messaging.   Skype lets their costumers get the most out of their use, (some have to pay for additional services), but it makes it worth while if a person is able to see the face of a friend, loved one, or family member.

First of all, Skype’s “message” is able to get a crossed by the ability to have face-to-face interaction.   This allows a person to speak to love ones, family, and friends who are hundreds to thousands miles away.  I actually have a family friend who lives here in Tucson but her husband is in the Air Force and is stationed in Turkey.  They stay connected and use Skype as a source of social media to be able to speak with each other.  Also, Skype lets a person to express a feeling or emotion.  This is definitely better than texting, instant messaging, and even calling especially when being away from someone in long distances can take a toll.  Speaking on the phone is still better than texting or instant messaging but a person can only hear their voice, which hinders a their sense of sight.  With Skype, people can speak with one another as if they’re in the same room and able to communicate better without having a problem with expressing themselves as they would in person.

Secondly, Skype allows a person to connect on a different and deeper level of communication with someone else either it being a friend or a loved one.  This makes it more personal than other social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Instagram.  Skype enables to person to share opinions of a TV show, discuss music, life situations, daily activities, local news happening where the person is, and much more, whatever a person wants.  Of course friends on Facebook can discuss things mentioned above but on Skype it’s on a more intimate level being able to speak face-to-face. 

NOTE:   I need one more analytical point of how Skype is impacting popular culture

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (Rough Draft Response Essay #3)

            Our society is fixated with entertainment as it brings culture from different countries around the world.  One part of entertainment, I believe, no one can go without watching and that is movies.  Movies are the highlight of television and the entertainment world.  I chose to pick “Corpse Bride” by Tim Burton; he’s made quite a few movies in his career.  Some of his nuterous work have been Frankenweenie, Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Beetlejuice, and many more.

Corpse Bride is an animated and humorous movie, which the target demographic is a younger audience.  It can be a little frightening for some children because the nature of the characters.  In this Tim Burton movie, he uses people’s curiosity of the dead and the after life to tell us a story of a man, Victor, having an arranged wedding with a woman, Victoria in attempt to save her parents from the poor house.  The day of the rehearsal Victor kept on forgetting his vowels so in embarrassment, he walks into the forest trying to remember.  As he walks further, he says his vowels correctly and not knowing, he put the ring on what looked like a branch.  Of course, it wasn’t.  It was actually a corpse who was buried under an old oak tree.  She says, “I do,” and she takes him under the “real world” where people that have died live together.  He founds out that she was swept off her feet by a newcomer in town and her father didn’t approve.  So, they planned to meet in the woods to run away together and she woke up dead and all her jewelry was gone. Victor suggested to visit his parents but ended up lying to the corpse bride, Emily, in which he actually visited Victoria.  Victoria’s parents thought his scandal of Victor running away couldn’t happen so a newcomer came the previous day and he suggested to be married to Victoria.  They agreed.  In the end, Emily figures out that Victor would have to be dead in order for them to be married.  He agrees to do it because Victoria got married to the newcomer and they planned their wedding “upstairs” in the land of the living.  They go up and the dead reunite with their living relatives.  Everyone gathers at the church where Victor and Emily are getting married.  Victoria sees many people walking to the church so she follows and stands behind a pillar looking at the back of Victor.  As he’s about the drink the poison to end his life, Emily stops him and says, “I had my chance at love and now it’s your turn.”  Now, Victoria’s husband, Lord Barkis, comes into the church and Emily recognizes him as her murderer.  Everyone is shocked and wants to get revenge.  He gets in a sword fight with Victor and he eventually drinks the poison.  He poisons himself and then the dead are able to get their revenge.

One narrative that comes to my mind is how in the beginning of the movie Victor is drawing a butterfly.  Throughout the movie, this butterfly is seen quite a few times.  The meaning of the butterfly is about being free.  As the movie reaches the end, Emily, the corpse bride, walks out of the church and with the moonlight shining down on her, she turns into many butterflies meaning she’s free from heartbreak and able to move on.

NOTE: I’m going to most likely cut down part of my “brief” description of the movie.

I’m planning:

·      On to connect the curiosity of the dead with the “All Soul Parade” that happens here in Tucson in November.

·      In the movie there is a lot of crows in the forest and the “underworld”, so try to analyzing why that is

·      Promoting the harmful or beneficial views of the movie

·      Why this movie is part of popular culture (fascination of the dead and afterlife of when someone dies)

·      Possibly how humans react being heartbroken

I’m going to watch the movie again so I understand it a little more.  So, there’ll probably be more things I can analyze.

Individual Targeting Through Advertisments

Companies that target an individual consumer through advertisements are a little scary to think about.  I believe that companies don’t have a right to break consumers’ privacy.  I don’t want companies knowing exactly which websites I’m viewing on the Internet, including Google or a link to another website from a social media website.  I feel that I can’t go unnoticed without some company targeting me for advertisements and try to get me on board with buying their products.

However, advertisement tracking makes life easier and more convenient for a consumer to purchase products online.  It provides a bigger picture of the Internet and the advertising for a certain company.  For instance, I was on Facebook a few days ago.  An advertisement was featuring Urban Decay (a makeup brand) that everything online was 20% off.  Since I’m interested in their product, I browsed their website.  I was hesitant about buying something even though I really wanted it.  Later that day, I went on Facebook again, and clicked on a link that led me to another website.  When I got to the website, I was astonished to see a banner advertisement of Urban Decay’s 20% off of everything deal.  As I watched the Wall Street Journal’s “What They Know” video, it all made sense to me how these advertisements were specifically targeting me.  They figured out that I had previously looked at Urban Decay’s website.  Previous to watching this video, I was clueless what cookies were and how they worked.  By watching the video, I now understand about third-party cookies and how they play a part in the advertising world.  In that case, it was interesting for me to notice how advertisements on social media websites and others are all connected together.

In a generation with technology all around us, both of my points contradict each other but are somewhat useful.  As we were talking about in class, most people know about Internet tracking and companies advertising their products online.  Most parents only say to be careful of what you put online.  But, only some people will go in depth of both the Internet tracking and an advertisement individually targeting a person.  Individually targeting a person through advertisements is essentially making them aware of their surroundings on the computer.