I will be honest right off, I do not know anything about gaming.  I play Texas hold’em on the PS3 but that’s about the extent any sort of game playing I do.  My son has delved into the gaming somewhat although he tends to just play the PS3 as well.  My boyfriend has been playing online games for years though so I asked him what the big deal was with it all.  I have always thought online gaming to be somewhat anti social to a certain degree, however, after reading the article by Jacobsson and Taylor I was able to see what some of the fuss is about.  Online communities become very important to people as they come to stratagize and form a sense of team spirit about them.  People from all over the world come together to accomplish the same goals and to interact on, yes, a social level.  from what I understand, there are very strong feelings of comadary and friendship that form as the groups “go to war together”.  Apparently, it is difficult to just join a group online and be accepted, you must build a reputation and even have connections to others in the group.  There is a certain resposibility to others in the group as the game progresses and there must even exist a level of trust between players in order to get the most out of the game.  The bonds created in these online communitites can be long lasting and true.  People actually meet eachother outside of the game and become life long friends, I thought that was only possible on dating sites.  Even though gaming seems on the surface to be more of a short term gratification, it in fact becomes something that people cherish because they feel they are a part of something that is bigger than themselves, I wonder if Durkheim would view gaming as ‘collective effervesence’?  It is defeinately a constructed social action, so I think it could follow Durheimian theory.  Any form of productive social cohesion is positive, thus “what is at least formally meant as simply a mechanism for experience gain in practia, becomes a social space in which people weave not only gameplay but offline elements” (Jacobsson andf Taylor).  

The portrayal of women on television as a topic is seriously becoming tiresome.  In today’s society we, as women, are far better off in the whole scheme of things than the generations before us.  Men no longer have the ‘legal right’ to beat their wives (although some think they do), and yet women continue to put themselves in that subordinate position.  They do this because the gender ideology has become so embedded in every society that the roles of women don’t really change even though we would like to think they do.  Women are to be pretty, petite and quiet.  Men are to be strong, intelligent, breadwinners.  This has come to vary over time yet it is still what both men and women see as what is necessary to full-fill their roles.  This is an ideology that has passed from generation to generation and has seeped into every aspect of our lives.  Through the media especially, which dictates how we should live, we can ask how it can be so hard to swallow that women are being used as “sexual objects?”  We allow ourselves to be, we willingly pose for pictures in porn magazines, we get paid to promote the idea that being skinny and beautiful is the way to “catch” a man.  We submit to this for profit and then complain about the inequality and stereotyping.  Every woman follows the “rules”, we all spend money on clothes and makeup and hair products that will make us more physically attractive.  We downplay our intelligence to a certain degree in order to obtain what we want, we can be just as manipulative as men by using the exact qualities that we express disgust over being exploited.  “Women are often represented as not being so intelligent as men, and having to rely on them.  A woman is either intelligent or beautiful; but rarely both (Ingham).”  Do you really think that Cameron Diaz is as dumb as she makes people think?  It’s all about gender roles and the fact that women accept what has been thrown at them for all time.  I am very glad that there have been advancements (thank you to the feminist movements) and I am all for equality in relationships and families, the fact remains though, that even when women are not depicted in the most ’modern’ light on TV and in ads there is a stigma attached that we all buy into.  Women realize this stigma and that it labels us as objectively ignorant, this is what makes us so brilliant!  We know that we know what we should not accept, yet we do.  The constant complaining about it is unnecessary because we have proven we are in charge just by going along with it.

         

  The interesting thing about advertising is that there is no way to escape it.  This type of propaganda is so engrained in our daily lives that we have no choice but to succumb to it.  Every corner we turn, every store we pass, every time we turn on the radio or the television, it’s there.  I almost see it as an attack on my conscience because it actually seeps into my subconscious, I dream about things that have been advertised to me as things that I desire and want more than anything else.  It amazes me that advertising can have such a powerful grip on my everyday life, yet that is the crux of consumerism and capitalism.  We in fact pay for the advertisements that are thrust upon us on average 3000 times per day, we pay for them when we buy the products being advertised!  I can’t decide whether that’s brilliant or deceptive, maybe a little of both.  Advertising is so embedded in our lives that children are main targets because they are now being brought up in a society where the more material items you have, the more successful and wonderful you are.  Vivian mentions the Advertising Standards of Canada and whether or not they are always followed in ads.  This is where I find some conflict.  We have ads that pertain to the standards of protecting our children in that “products cannot be shown encouraging use that may be dangerous.”  OK, so the use of dangerous products cannot be encouraged but the purchase of dangerous products can be and is encouraged (ie. alcohol, guns etc.), where is the logic here?  Advertising really only benefits the capitalists because we are no longer even in a position to enjoy what we have, they just make us want more.

   

This week will be my favorite class by far.  I love music, well I love MY music.  Music is a personal issue, and yes I mean an issue because by MY music I mean that I feel it is the only ‘good’ music.  I will defend my choice in music to anyone and will not be happy until I have convinced someone who cringes at the mention of country music that it is so far from the stereotype it is given.  Society tries to dictate to us what we should listen to and therefore pop music and its ‘icons’ are shoved down our throats.  This is so wrong.  There are messages in everything and I am not about to say that music is not a form of art and expression, I just refuse to give in to the media frenzy that surrounds some of these ”artists”. 

In our chapter on Music, I was very upset to find that Vivian did not even mention country music as one of the most popular forms and he deduced the great Shania Twain to that of a “pop music star”.  Vivian leads people to believe that country music stems from “hillbilly” music, which has a negative label in itself.  This is the problem, country music is seen as just being about people singing about the woes of life along to some fiddle playing.  It is absolutely a false judgement and what causes me to defend it so passionately.  This is where lyrics play a key role in determining what great music is.  Country music always tells a story to which Ican relate some life experience (plus, cowboys are so hot).  The spiritual uplifting that comes along with country music is enough to get anyone hooked on it.  I wish people would just listen with their hearts, not even just to country but to any type of music that moves them.  I really believe that we listen to music in order to escape from the monotony that is our lives, this escape gives us things to dream about and hope for because someone is telling us that there is something better out there for us.  While I am all for freedom of speech and expressing oneself I do think there should be some boundariesin relation to subject matter in songs.  I have a hard time believing that people listen to offensive rap, (and yes it is offensive, there is no way to defend it) as a way of rationalizing their mundane existence.  Yet they attempt to because that is what the media tells us to do.  I say fight against this, we need to have some ray of hope that life is not all bad and if that comes out in a song then all the power to those ‘real’ artists.  I know I continually go on about the woes of our capitalist society and our need to reform to a socialist utopia but it is so true, especially when I sit back and look at what is out there in terms of music as a tool in deciding how we see things in the world.   Music has the power to make things better, but it also has the power to make people who they are not, we have to be careful and choose wisely what we allow to influence us.

 

  

I found the movie Manufacturing Consent to be quite fantastic.  I found Chomsky’s insights to be very much along the lines of Karl Marx in that he felt that people do not need to be just’ cogs in the machine.’  The fact that he promotes socialism to the degree he does make Chomsky one of my new heroes in the world of Sociology.  Chomsky says we need to “seek out forms of authority and challenge their legitimacy.”  I wish it were that easy, in order to successfully strike out against capitalism people need to be aware that they are buying into something that is the absolute opposite of democracy, even though we all delude ourselves into thinking we live in a democratic world.  “When people can’t control people by force, you have to control what people think.”  This statement says it all, thus giving justification to our collective “naive faith.”  I love Chomsky!!!! 

Going to the movies is vast becoming seen as something that people ‘used’ to do before home theater systems and pirating provided an alternative to having to gather with strangers in a crowded, noisy movie theater.  Russell Smith in his article in the Globe and Mail, Why Movie Going Sucks, has voiced his opinion on the movie going experience and has deduced it to being a type of sick ritual that people engage in order to entertain themselves.  From beginning to end, going to the movies is somewhat of a ritual in relation to the fact that one knows what to expect from what snacks and refreshments are available and how high in price they are (which we pay anyway), to the half hour of ads and previews before the movie begins.  It is this expectation factor that not only keeps movie going alive but keeps it as a key player within the realm of individual entertainment.

            After arriving at the theater with my three children and their friends I was informed as I pulled out my notebook that I was a “loser” and they would not care to sit with me for the duration of the film, especially since I was doing homework, “God Mom, get a life.”.  It was not lost on me that this insult was overheard by others in the theater, thus I began my note taking drawing great observations from the curious stares I received.  It is assumed that prior to the show people will entertain themselves with idle chatter and that the less exciting people will listen in on their conversations in an attempt to be a part of the group that they will be spending the next two hours of their life with.  The fact that they will never see these people again and really probably don’t care what they have to say is a very interesting concept from a sociological standpoint because it begs the question as to why they listen in the first place.  I have to say though that the young woman who decided to discuss the different sexual diseases that exist and those which she herself had been tested for brought sexual education to a new level for my children.  Who says you can’t learn anything by listening in on other people’s conversations?  This pre movie banter can actually be seen as a confirmation of the shared societal norms and values which is really very positive in its effects.  For example I know that everyone in the theater shared the same opinion of the group of teenage boys who found it necessary to comment on how hot every actress is and whether or not their breasts were real or fake.  This is where the flexibility of movie going comes into play.  Even though some behavior is ‘frowned upon’, it becomes a part of what people expect and on a strange level look forward to, therefore it becomes more tolerable as it becomes a part of the entertainment.  Smith says “you think that there is a merciful God when the lights finally dim because the movie is about and save you from the insane boredom of your surroundings.”  There was nothing boring about the surroundings as far as I could assess and I would conclude due to the laughter around me others felt the same way.

            Smith asks the question “Why do we pay to have ads broadcast at us at insane volume?”  We do this because we collectively accept the ads as a part of the entire process and even come to enjoy them.  When the ads begin it gives people a socially acceptable opportunity to finish talking and adjust themselves in their seats as they prepare to enjoy the film.  The ads are really for the most part ignored as they are in a sense the last chance for people to get comfortable in their surroundings.  As people settle in “they have the concentration of chess players, of athletes before contests, of the starving (Smith).”  It’s amazing how people who do not know each other come to be in the same room and draw from each others emotional reactions to events on the screen.   Going to the movies is like being part of a temporary extended family.  These people we are surrounded by at the movies annoy us, irritate us and listen to our ‘private’ conversations, yet in the same token we eat with them, laugh and cry with them and even feel some sense of cohesion as we all delve into another dimension while we watch the film.  Smith notes that “no one seems remotely uncomfortable or bored.”  Going to the movies conveys a level of comfort that is not duplicated in any other social setting, and this comfort (or at least acceptance) has been engrained in anyone who has gone to the movie regularly. 

            We are a society in which life is monotonous, tedious and for the most part unfulfilling, therefore any type of release from our self made prisons is welcome, and movies provide this release.  That is the sheer genius of movies; it is this escape factor that will keep people going to the movies for a first date and a night away from the kids. In the end it doesn’t even matter if the movie is ‘bad’, all that matters is that we can enjoy the ‘experience’ itself that is the fun and exciting part and the part that outweighs any negative aspects of movie going.  This is capitalism and consumerism at its best; we keep going back for more because we have over time convinced ourselves that we love it.  Smith says that “it has happened by osmosis, you are so immersed in it everyday like a nacho chip in a tub of yellow goop that it has seeped into your pores.”  Well of course it has Russell; any type of ideology will do that.  There is no escape because we do not want there to be.  I watched my children and their friends laugh hysterically at Ben Stiller and his various comedic antics in Night at the Museum and I realized that I was immensely appreciative of the whole movie going experience because they were enjoying every minute of it, (except my four year old who said it was boring and had to ‘conveniently’ use the washroom about fifteen times).  Smith asks at the end of his article “why do we pay to have productive hours of our lives removed and replaced with the sameness, the predictability, the boredom of the grave?”  I have to wonder as to whether or not Smith even likes other human beings.  If what Smith says is true and going to the movies is such a horrifying practice then why do we continue to willingly engage in it?  Apart from being a recluse, extremely obsessive compulsive, a germ phobic etc., people are never going to stop going to films, including Russell Smith himself (nice try though).  The rest of us are not deluding ourselves thinking that going to the movies should be more than it is. We do it because we love it, plain and simple.  I’ll see you all at the ‘trough in the pig barn’.       

After reading Russ Kick’s article Hugo Chavez is Crazy, I had a number of questions running through my mind.  The News is a medium which in general people consider to be laden with facts about what goes on in the world around us.  We need the news to deliver to us an accurate account of what is happening around the globe.  I was very frustrated to realize that Kick was right, frustrated in the sense that I have fallen into the same trap as every other person who likes to keep abreast of world events, the trap of deception.  No one likes to be deceived, therefore we all just bury our heads in the sand and like the good cogs in the machine we are, we just believe everything that the media feeds us.  The News is the deepest betrayer of the publics trust yet end up being the most praised for it.  I have many times heard people say that they don’t watch the news because it’s ”too depressing”.  This is true, and it is true because we have conditioned ourselves as a society to react to negative events.  The news has such an immense opportunity to mislead and misrepresent what really happened in order to make it ”easy to discredit (Kick)” people and create this element of negativity that people are so horrifyingly drawn to.  People see what they want to see and will react accordingly to what they have been programmed to react to.  This deception will continue, that’s the nature of the beast in terms of the news, the one with the best story gets the highest ratings and therefore are seen as the most credible, this is where the frustration comes in.  Who is telling the truth?  Who is a reliable source?  In reality we can’t know everything that is going on in every country with a total degree of accuracy, but we can at least demand  some level of unbiased journalism.  “If you want to get accurate news in the United States, you might want to learn a language other than English(Kick).”  Kick does mention that Canadian news is more accurate than US news, and as a Canadian who is very concerned with our countries continually rising “Americanization”, I am very apt to agree with Kick on this point.  i guess that we will have to start relying more and more on the news reported by real people on line. 

I find it amazing that everything in our social world can be traced back to the theories of Karl Marx.  The interest of the dominant class has always been represented in the News and it continues to be that way.  The inequalities within the class structures in our society stem from Marx and are applicable in relating the accuracy of the News delivered to people not just in north America but around the world.  Capitalist interests prevail and set the stage for a very dismal future when we are faced with decisions that affect our nation in terms of what we actually know.  The oppressed do not have a voice because of their subordiante position and therefore in fact they just do not care.  As more people get to the point that they find the News to be nothing more than fabrication to benefit the dominant classes, unless they are a part of that class they will continue to not care because in reality they have their own despair to worry about.  On the flip side, those who do buy into the reports they are handed by the News are more likely to be the ones who are the most ignorant as to the state the world is in.   

I would like to thank everyone who commented on my last blog.  I really appreciate those who invited me to join their groups, my anxiety level decreased immensely after reading those.  I was actually approached the next day by someone in the class and personally invited into their group, which was an amazing feeling, and the fact that I can contribute without having to do the public speaking has really turned the tables in my thinking on this project.  Thanks again to everyone, especially Ann, you are a real sweetheart, and thanks to Paul for the whole ‘blogging’ thing, I have never felt so free to express myself, this is fantastic!!!  See you tonight everyone…Happy Valentine’s Day!!! 

  

I am very concerned about having to find a group.  I feel like I’m in grade school again where the hardest thing to do was find one friend so I was not alone at recess.  I am an intelligent, grown woman with three children and I am an outgoing person, so why am I so terrified of this group project?  And why am I  more than a little embarrassed to have to ask Paul to put me in a group?  That to me personally is mortifying.  Does anyone else feel this way?  I hate being singled out especially if it is for something that I see as negative.  I seriously would almost rather get a zero on the group assignment than get up in front of everyone, especially after I had to be placed in a group because no one asked me to be in one.  Wow, I could really use some feedback here as to how to get over this fear, I mean I am really struggling with this.  Do I get drunk first?  Do I picture everyone in their underwear?  I don’t know, I have always managed to avoid public speaking…I need some help.   

 

  

Everyone should really try to attend classes!  Paul really clarifies the readings in a way that is beneficial to getting the most out of what is being talked about.  I realized tonight that I misinterpreted a reading to a certain degree and that I had “decoded” it in a way that did not really coincide with all that was intended by the author.  By going to class I was able to ‘learn’ what was being addressed…hence the whole point of taking the class in the first place.  I find it really hard to get top grades by relying on just my interpretation of things.  Just thought I would throw that out there.  Plus we got to watch Seinfeld..what other class can you do that in?…Long live Festivus!  Have a great night everyone.