Written Analysis 5

A prime example of values is within the privacy settings of Facebook and the sharing of its user’s information with other internet sites, such as Yahoo! or Google, for marketing purposes. One thing that has created much controversy recently is if I were to ‘like’ an ad, say, for Reebok, on a random site, that information would somehow now be linked to my Facebook without my consent. By way of doing this, Facebook now knows what I like and can tailor their ads and marketing specifically to my profile every time I log-on. In essence, Facebook has now become the ‘big brother’ of the internet world, so to speak. Furthermore, within recent years, Facebook, in my opinion, has become immoral about its so-called privacy settings to assist in ramping up its marketing tactics. I have a private profile, however, what I may think can only be seen by my ‘friends’ on Facebook, may actually be seen by anyone that has internet access just by searching my name (employers can now use this as a hiring tool when interviewing potential candidates, just by Googling a person’s name). Easy fix, right? Just set my settings to disable people that are not on my ‘friends’ list. Sounds simple enough but, unfortunately, Facebook has loopholes where some of my personal information can leak through and it doesn’t seem so simple for someone who is not computer savvy. This value-added business profit for Facebook has resulted in backlash from the internet community because of the lack of social value to its users.  

Lastly, as we often times see, the media is always looking for a story…many times in places where not much of one exists but the news media twists the facts in such a way, or manipulates the headlines just right, to draw the reader’s attention in and, as a result, begins to create the right amount of ‘buzz’ to turn the article into a Breaking News story across the Nation. Facebook, being the instant communication platform that it is, is a breeding ground for these ‘so-called’ breaking news stories. Facebook is a means for individuals to jump on their soap boxes and, as a result, these headlines spread across the Facebook world like wildfire, further creating controversy among the users debating over the stories. For example, in recent ‘news’, Phil from Duck Dynasty was suspended from his A&E television series for his anti-homosexual comments. Subsequently, this created much outrage from the social media community and now there are petitions on Facebook to reverse his suspension, arguing freedom of speech. To bridge the gap here between business values and social values, should Facebook find a way to limit what type of content can be posted on Facebook, or, would that infringe on our freedom of speech, as well?

As demonstrated above, values play a significant role in my popular culture artifact, as Facebook is a constantly evolving platform for social media. Much like artists of today’s pop music (e.g. Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga), the brains behind Facebook are always pushing the envelope with what new use they can have with Facebook. Many times, this has not gone without criticism from its users, as well as reporting media outlets, and, while it is used by millions across the world, it is definitely a ‘love-hate’ relationship.

Weekly Analysis #4

This topic was a bit trickier than the others, since my artifact, Facebook, is not a movie, book, song or television show; however, based on our readings from this week, I would say both the convention and invention components of pop culture formulas can be applied here when thinking a bit outside the box.

Facebook, being a social media site for individuals, as well as businesses and other types of organizations, is used as a means for us to communicate with others across the world any time we want. As many know, Facebook was not the first of its kind, nor is it the only one in existence today, leaving room for others in the social media realm to have similar purposes. This is where the convention component comes in to play. According to our readings, convention is defined as, “those elements that do not change from example to example“ (Franklin.edu, 2013). The convention aspect of Facebook is that it is an outlet for others to communicate with one another via the internet. Facebook, like its competitors, such as, MySpace, Twitter, Google+, and various Yahoo! chat rooms, all have the same repeating theme among them, which is to communicate with others over the internet. In each of these social media sites, the expectations of its users is that we can go on any one of these sites, find someone we want to ‘talk’ to and do so in a matter of seconds without ever speaking a word to one another. With that said, however, though they all have the same purpose behind them and accomplish virtually the same thing in the end for their users, they all have their own unique way of displaying the information we share, as well as what, and how, we see others’ information. This would be the invention component.  

            To compete with one another, each of the social media sites above need to have their own ‘inventions’ to distinguish themselves from the other social media players. For a while, MySpace was a big hit and Facebook was not very well-known, since it limited the type of users in its early days. Now, however, it has expanded its user-base and is the leader in the social media world and MySpace has fallen by the waste side in recent years. To distinguish itself from the others, Facebook created what is known as the ‘newsfeed’ and the ‘wall’. Other social media sites may have similar versions of these features but these terms are somewhat synonymous with Facebook – it is one of their inventions. Other notable ‘inventions’ of Facebook are Fan and Community pages, the ‘like’ and ‘poke’ functions, and the various pop-up ads that users see in their newsfeeds. These inventions help set Facebook apart from its competitors.

            I get on Facebook every day and up until now, never thought much about the strategic aspect of it; that is, how developers methodically lay out their website to entice its users and keep us interested. After going through the readings and applying these theories to my pop culture artifact, I believe these formula concepts can be applied to just about anything in popular culture. There is always a theme among competitors, known as the convention component, but it is the invention piece that sets one another apart and determines who the leader is in the market.

 

 References

"Learning Outcomes: 5.1 Conventions." Web log post. My.Franklin.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. <https://my.franklin.edu/myfranklin/GetCourseView.do?sectionId=35546#course-object-1328640098683>.

Written Analysis #3

I feel the concept of heroes applies most to my artifact, Facebook. As I have mentioned previously, Facebook can be viewed as a platform in social media for a variety of things. One use of this platform is to promote individuals that society feels may be considered a hero.  With Facebook being the face of communication these days, it is the fastest, and easiest, way for people to be heard across the world, so it is becoming the most likely means of sharing one’s story with the world.

Anyone that has had a Facebook page, at one time or another, has seen an image appear in their newsfeed saying something to the effect of, “I survived cancer, how many ‘likes’ can I get”, then see a million-plus ‘likes’ underneath the image. In my experience with these, often times that image is of a young child. In addition to these random photos, Facebook users will also come across Facebook ‘fan pages’ for individuals that may be struggling with a terminal illness. Often times, what may start off as a way for the family to keep other family members informed of their loved one’s progress, turns into an internet/Facebook sensation. Because this is a very well-known way of getting someone’s heartfelt message out to the world, there are almost too many these days to keep up with; however, many of us might find a hero in one of these stories. One of them for me is Talia Catellano. Her message did not begin with Facebook, however, many within the Facebook community ‘passed’ her story around after she had passed away and I know she touched many peoples’ hearts with her story of bravery and courage. To many, she could be viewed as a personal hero.

I feel Facebook and other social media sites, such as Twitter, are great ways to not only promote these types of individuals’ stories, but also give others someone else to look up to for strength and courage. These types of posts are becoming increasingly common among Facebook users and some of them, unfortunately, may not have the best intentions behind them; however, you never know whose story you might come across one day and what inspiration they may provide you. Talia’s story is just one example of a personal hero but I know that I have seen many others struggle with life’s curveballs far better than I could ever imagine and if Facebook can be used as a platform to provide others with a hero to look up to, then I think that is great.

Journal Analysis 2

Stereotypes can easily be applied to my popular culture artifact, Facebook. Within the world of Facebook, any user of it could easily generalize the people that flood their newsfeed into several different stereotypes. Many of the following stereotypes are consistent among all users in some way or another, no matter what part of the world you may be in. Some stereotypes include the ‘habitual status updater’ who either post updates throughout their day, every day, and is the first to comment on your status or photo; next are the ‘attention seekers’, that constantly post ‘selfies’; the ‘gamers’, who are the individuals that play all the Facebook games and have their scores posted regularly to their status updates; and the habitual ‘proud parent’ poster, who only seems to post adorable photos of, and silly conversations with, their toddler.

Rituals can also be applied to my artifact and the first ritual that comes to mind is birthdays. Facebook announces whenever someone on their ‘friends’ list has a birthday. I know of many people that habitually, and ritually, wish everyone on their ‘friends’ list a happy birthday each year. Many of them always seem to be the first to post their ‘Happy Birthday’ wish to that person’s wall. Because of this feature, Facebook has eliminated the disconnect between people by setting reminders for its users whenever there is a birthday coming up. Nowadays, it’s a simple click of a button and a few typed letters, and bam, you just told someone on your ‘friends’ list ‘Happy Birthday’ without having to talk, text or send a card.  The last ritual that I think of is not within Facebook itself but instead, its users. Many users cannot get through their day without being on Facebook at least once. I know for me, it has become my morning and bedtime ritual to scroll Facebook from my phone while I am eating my breakfast and then also just before falling asleep. I do this every day and I am sure there are many others that have a set time in their day when they typically are on Facebook.

With stereotypes in particular, I think Facebook can easily be compared to one’s high school class. Initially, Facebook was designed to be an online college year book. Now that it has expanded to much more than that, we ‘see’ people on our ‘friends’ list daily and within those friends, just as in school, we’ve created stereotypes, like the ones mentioned above. As for the rituals, it is just another reminder of how powerful Facebook has become. It continually brings things to users to make their lives either simpler or more interesting, and as result, society relies on it more and more. 

Journal Article Analysis

The article I chose for my journal analysis was, Carless Girls and Repentant Wives: Gender in Postwar Classroom Films. This journal was written by Megan Stemm-Wade and in it, she discusses the social hygiene movement of the 1940s thru the 1970s and the impact it had on popular culture at that time. Social hygiene is described in the reading as an innovation of its era to “regulate the social behavior of the viewer” (pg. 1).   The argument made by Stemm-Wade was that the social hygiene movement specifically focused on young women during a time in history where their influence on, and contribution to, society was considered minimal, or temporary while the men were at war.

The author’s main key points are broken up into four sections: Mental Hygiene – From the Battlefield to the Classroom; Repress and Deny: Films on Dating; Learning to Be June Cleaver: Films on Marriage; and The Office Wife: Career Training Films. To briefly summarize each, the ‘mental hygiene’ section discusses how the social hygiene movement came about. The author notes that as men were returning home from WWII, their children were rebelling, so to speak, with dancing, drinking, and young marriages causing a spike in divorce rates. Not knowing what to do with this ‘lost generation’, educators resorted to the original mental hygiene that was used on soldiers of WWI to teach them “how to remain ‘clean’ morally, as well as ‘physically’” (pg. 4), by establishing the social-hygiene myth. The belief behind this was that it would create a ‘well-bred’ young person. The ‘repress and deny’ section talks about the types of films created and the messages they delivered to their audience.  For the next section, ‘learning to be June Cleaver’, I think the message behind it is implied in the name. In this section, Stemm-Wade discusses the message behind the films and how they were applied to a woman’s role in marriage. In the last section, ‘The Office Wife’, discusses the films, known as ‘marriage readiness’ and ‘career-training’, which were part of the student curriculum to teach and prepare young girls for their minimal roles in society as secretaries or subservient wives. In this section, the author points out that these films ‘showed their audiences that submissiveness disguised as courtesy, and emotional repression masquerading as etiquette were the path to career success” (Stem-Wade, pg. 13).

Throughout the reading, the author argues that social hygiene was developed for, and directed toward, teenage girls. The author supports this argument through discussing the various films that were mentioned under each of the sections listed above. The author first supports this argument by drawing a correlation to the era in which they were first introduced. According to the reading, the social hygiene movement came about when the men went off to war and the women were left behind to fill their shoes. The decade prior to the introduction of social hygiene films in classrooms, there was an influx in the number of women entering the workforce and dominating roles that were previously held by their male-counterparts; however, once the war was over, she argues that women’s roles were diminished once again because the men were now home from war, but, ultimately, the women did not give up their role in society so easily. She supported this argument with the statistic that, “by the end of the 1950s, 40% of women over the age of sixteen held jobs” and the remaining women that remained home, “were not content with simply retrofitting their newfound independence to family life as it had been before” (pg. 2). Educators were fearful of this changing culture, so to curve this downward spiral, she argues that social hygiene films were created to deliver a similar hidden message, which was to teach young girls that their current and future place in society was to be submissive to men in all things but sex and be the attractive, non-working housewife that a woman should be.  Stemm-Wade claimed that most films under the ‘June Cleaver’ section carried the same three main messages, which were: “Being attractive is essential to catching a man; once caught, it is solely the wife’s responsibility to keep the marriage running smoothly; and nothing will sabotage a marriage as surely as a wife with a career” (pg. 8). I have never seen one of these social hygiene films, myself, but it is interesting to compare what she is describing with television shows of that era. Popular culture at that time was based on this ideology that the wife stays home to maintain order in the house, while at the same time, wearing an apron, skirt, low-heeled shoes and maintaining perfectly kept hair and make-up. It is evidenced by shows like “Leave it to Beaver” and “I Love Lucy”.

Another hidden message in these films, and the connotation Stemm-Wade claimed they had, were that females should “repress their sexual desires” and it’s their responsibility for “making the mature choice by turning down the male ‘in a friendly and appealing way’” (pg 5). Example of this can be seen in such films as, Name Unknown and Girls Beware; both produced by Sid Davis. In these films, it is made evident that if the female acts on her desires or seeks them out through less-wise decisions, if she were to get raped or killed, she would deserve it. No blame would be placed on the male, as the male is more or less doing what is expected of his kind. The following is pulled from the 1961 and 1971 version of Girls Beware, which further supports the author’s claims: “Edie dates an older guy who ‘has problems with girls his own age’ that knocks her up under a tree in the park. She is soon sent off to juvenile hall for getting herself into trouble where she will have ‘plenty of time to think about whether a few minutes of showing off or feeling sharp is worth a lifetime of regrets!’” (pg. 6).

The author continues to relate these curriculum films of that era to the repression of women’s roles in society. “In a culture that was not thrilled to have women in the workplace, career-training social hygiene films showed them how to be the proper kind of workingwoman. Whether through office training, lessons on marriage, or dating instruction, the roles of women in social hygiene films were hard to miss” (pgs. 12 and 15). Stemm-Wade’s article may seem cynical throughout but she is simply stating the facts of the perception and ideologies of popular culture of that time and provides support through various excerpts of these films. She supports her claims through examples of the films created and how the roles of both men and women were depicted. At that time in history, these social-hygiene films supported the myth that a woman’s role in society was minimal, at best, and subpar to her life partner’s. Much of the American dream back then was that the man worked outside the home to support the financial needs of his wife and kid(s) and the woman worked inside the home to support the emotional needs of her husband and children. Educators saw that popular culture was quickly changing (or a better term, evolving) on the heels of WWII and to head it off, they created these films to try and keep it in check. Today in popular culture, the majority of households are dual-income, or many are single-income with the woman working outside the home and the husband in. In popular culture today, if these films were shown in our schools, there would be equality issues, especially with regard to teaching the female to be subservient to her husband. Today, popular culture is striving more and more toward equality among all and, despite the attempts of educators and film makers of that era, women are just as much a contribution to today’s society as any man is. Though learning about these films some 60 years later, I think it is important to see what was driving pop culture of that time and see how it has evolved since then, especially being a woman. I just heard on the evening news last night that the first three Marine women ever just graduated from infantry training. I wonder what the educators of the 50s and 60s would have to say about that.

References:

Stemm-wade, Megan. "Careless Girls and Repentant Wives: Gender in Postwar Classroom Films." The Journal of Popular Culture 45.3 (2012): 611-27. Franklin University Nationwide Library. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olinkserver.franklin.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/StemmWade_Megan.pdf?issn=00223840&issue=v45i0003&article=611_cgarwgipcf>.