Actual Self vs. Ideal (virtual) self

When we discussed in class to describe out actual self our online self such as an avatar, and ideal self i had to at first question why we were doing such an activity.  I have always figured that people's ideal selves are who they wish to be and that it normally doesnt stray too far from how they look.  My online avatars are more than typically always a reflection of myself.  They always have a similar body type as me, blonde hair, blue eyes, generally wearing outfits that i would wear or representing colors that are my favorite.  In my opinion i just figured everyones avatars were a reflection of themselves as well.  In an MTV episode http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THM16t5Cm_4 a girl was afraid of living through her music in real life so she lived through her music in a virtual world where she felt the most comfort.  Her avatar is similar to the way she looks but it was interesting to find out that many people's online personalities.  But i guess we have to tie these reasons in with people identities and who they are trying to portray online and in a virtual world since its not their selves.  My biggest question is why people feel the need to do this?  I think alot of it has to do with their comfort level and how they feel about them selves.


This is a short funny clip from the office http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d_fqDcN1s  in which Dwight discusses his second life.

Television Viewers

Are we really classified in to two different types of television viewers?  The two are ritualized viewers for habitual use and use media as a diversion.  The second is instrumental or non-habitual use, useing media to acquire information.  I believe that almost everyone has to be a little of both.  Does it differ between genders is one gender more prone to use media in a habitual or non habitual manor? Everyone watches TV for different reasons, some to relax, as entertainment, information, ect.  When a few people in our class claimed to be non habitual users and simply rely on TV for informational purposes such as watching the news i find it simply hard to believe.  At least within our generation of students i find it very difficult to believe that American students are claiming to be non habitual TV users.  College life is so stressful i don't think that i know one person who doesn't like to sit in front of the TV for an hour or so and just relax and fade in to a world not their own.  With the current trends mainly relating to media its hard to believe that these students dont go to class the next day to gossip about what happened on Jersey Shore or talk about whos going to Hollywood on American Idol, and so on and so on in the reality TV land that our generation seems to belong to. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMa5F8JMli8&feature=related

An Example of some American family TV watching patterns LOL

Reflecting Sterotypes/Addressing Edutainment

The last discussion on terrorist and stereotyping left me trying to find a clip from the last episode of the new season of Weeds.  Here is a link to the website: http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/11/16/weeds-season-6-finale-recap/  

But here is the situation that is happening: “Between the half-baked attempts of the Botwins trying to live a Newman life to the feeble attempts at slinging homemade hash and brews, it was nice to see that the Botwins have a semi-sophisticated plan at fleeing danger. Armed with fake passports, the Botwin family circus finally made it to the airport.
Never one to pass up an opportunity to tweak the audience with an inappropriate racial stereotype, this show provided a helpful heaping of racial profiling. After noticing a man who appeared to be Muslim in the security line, Andy moved his motley crew behind him. With TSA agents effectively engaged with the could-be Muslim, Andy, Shane and Stevie made it through security.
Who would have thought that the ineptitude of TSA agents would actually help a family of criminals escape from other criminals?
Speaking of stereotypes: Why would airport officials ever be suspicious of a Mexican man who wants to buy two tickets "anywhere," with money being no object, no baggage and only one passport to try and flee the country? That would never happen in real life, would it? " 

- I thought this was a perfect example of the stereotypical attitude that we portray every day and most of us are not even aware of it.  After spending what felt like hours trying to find a short clip of the scene I gave up, but if you could find it, this would be a super example for another quarter.

In response to class discussion this week I would like to focus on the term we discussed in call, which is “Edultainment”, we described this is lecture as the use of entertainment to inform viewers of safe sex practices.  This term seems absolutely appropriate for many of the shows that we let consume our values and what exactly are our norms.  Reflecting to when I was growing up I can visually remember intensely watching the "sexy" part of TV shows wondering if that was what it would be like to be the sexually active person.  TV whether we like it or not shapes our reflections of what normal actually is and much of this is done through more adult entertainment programs.  When I was younger I would always watch TV geared for more grown adults because I knew that they would be showing me something that I was not yet familiar with, this ties in with social cognitive theory.  The characters on TV are not real life people (in many circumstances, unless a its a reality show) but they do play real life role models, and often for younger kids and teens who are the most impressionable.  The question I then pose is will the effects on media on our youth grow to worsen or will we be able to find a solution to block the more sophisticated adult networks, or do we even want these shows blocked? Is TV teaching our kids some things we cant???

Terrorist in Question..

In response to the video ad for anti terrorism, first I have to question is this a real video for a political run?  All three videos are just plain wrong, and have obviously been put together by a very ignorant person.  Stereotyping in our country already exists but to advertise the racial profiling all people in the airport is a lude crime.  

Stereotyping in my opinion can be quite harmful, in more ways than one.  I think its safe to assume that many people have been stereotyped in their lives in one way or another.  Being classified as a stereotype can be harmful to your self esteem (if its a bad or hurtful stereotype).  As a member of a sorority for four years I face the typical stereotype of needing to "buy" my friends, being stupid, or slutty... These are hurtful things that many people face in similar situations everyday.  They are becoming greater a problem with younger more vulnerable people, many teen suicide rates have increased especially among those of the teen gay community.  These tragic stereotypes can turn deadly when peers at school taunt teens with them.  The question is can we crush these stereotypes that exist?

When we discussed the terms gender blind, colorblind, and class blind my belief is that if we as the individuals worked hard to eliminate how we view people based on prior judgments these stereotypes them eventually we could become a colorblind, gender blind, class blind community.

class this week

I really enjoyed class this past Tuesday.  When thinking about the social construction of gender and media and the effects of both upon us is very interesting.  Yes we can tell a difference in sex by genetics are chromosomes, but is this the reason that we are the way we are.  Are there underlying issues that make us male or female? Many people do not characterize themselves by their sex, many homosexual or transgender males may feel more comfortable relating to themselves as a different gender than the way they were born.  Now weather or not they were born this way or developed these characteristics through their social life, family life, we can not pin point.  There have always been the sayings that men are from mars and women are from Venus, well what exactly makes us this way so different, yet similar? 
The Bem Adrogyny test we took was very interesting, i wasn't sure exactly what i would qualify as  feminine or masculine?  Upon my result i saw i was "nearly masculine" and kinda shocked by my results.  I never thought of myself as a masculine person, yes i may have a strong personality, but i am also sensitive in the needs for others how do my high scores in these categories make me masculine? 
I am excited to maybe learn some of the answers for the questions i have posed for myself in this blog.