Advertising

I spend most of my time in my room, UMD campus, my basement, and my best friends house. I believe that advertising is extremley pervasive in our culture. Easily put, advertising is everywhere. Advertising is located around our driving, walking, watching TV, surfing the web, playing games online, etc. It surpised me that $800 billion every year is spent in advertising, however when thinkning about it this shows that advertising is very pervasive in our culture.
There are multiple items in my room that represent advertising and how wide spread it is. Advertising such as JBL speakers, Apple, Dell, Hawwaiian Tropic, Claritin, Right Guard, Reaction, Plymouth soccer, Univeristy of Michigan, Lawson products, Logitech, Adidas, Community Fianancial, Swisher Sweets, At&T, and many more. Logos are everywhere, thus supporting the fact that advertising is pervasive.
At UMD campus I see logos and advertising such as Subway, University of Michigan, car logos, different sorts of t-shirts, music, Dell computers, ect. The advertising is different here because much of it I see doesnt affect me. For example, I may see many car logos at UMD, however at the end of the day I still have my same car. The advertising at UMD is more directed to sell a product, while in my room I already bought the product so it affects are different.
The amount of advertising in my basement does not go much further than my room. There are multiple game posters such as Madden Football, Grand Theft Auto, and Xbox 360. There are also logos adertising HP computers, PS2 gaming, The Sims, Xbox 360, ect. Again the addvertising is differernt in my basement than UMD because the product is already purchased, meaning one may pay less attention to that logo, while in the city that logo is selling a product and becoming familiar with its viewers.
Overall advertising, whether visual or audio, is everywhere in our culture and every day life. By simply looking at where we spend most our time and the advertising located in those areas, the amount of it is amazing and does nothing but support the pervasion of advertising. I believe that advertising is growing and more money will be spent in advertising evey year. We are consumers and advertising does nothing but show us the product and make us beleive our life is harder with out it.

Blog Choice

Based on Kiska's presentation, Clay Shirky's analysis of blogs, my own reading of the political blogs, and our class discussion, I choose The Daily Dish to follow the 08 election. When first visiting this page I was impressed with the professionalism, layout, and organization. Andrew Sullivan, the blogger and author, seems to be a very reliable source. He is constantly adding to the site with videos, pictures, updates, and blog entries. This tells me he is interested in what he does and dedicates much of his time to it. I further understand my information with the use of more pictures, rather then words, which is supported in The Daily Dish with the numerous amount of pictures and videos. The fact that Mr. Sullivan uses videos tells me he has proof for his information and thus is a reliable source. Andrew Sullivan is not the only author on his site, however he does a great deal of the writing while also posting writings from others. An article which I enjoyed and remembered by Mr. Sullivan, tilted "Goodbye to All That: Why Obama Matters", where he points out aspects about Obama many may not know. He takes a look at Obama outside the campaign and simply proves he is normal, not a saint, or a celebrity.
The Daily Dish is a blog that stood out to me when comparing the others. This blog looks professional, has many videos, numerous pictures, and most importantly the authors and information seem reliable. I also enjoy the way Sullivan writes in that he not only looks at the facts but also outside the facts. He again goes above and beyond by constantly updating every piece of information to keep his followers up to date. Overall I am choosing to use The Daily Dish to follow the election of 2008.

Question #3 on Text Messaging

I agree with Florida's generalization that this generation is a very creative one. With the constant uprising in social communication, technology, and styles one would have thrown out many years ago, believing his generalization is easy for me. Florida also states that youths feel the need to constantly change and change what is normal. New trends in clothing, music, and free time activities are created by these busy youths. To contradict this, Conner says that youths feel the need to follow others. That there are still those who feel the need to change the normal just not everyone. I agree with Conner in that I also think there are two different groups of people in this generation. There are those who follow, often many more, and those who are creative and want to change the norm. There is nothing wrong with following, shopping at the same store, listening to same music, etc. But I dissagree with Florida in a sense that every youth does not feel the need to change the norm. Overall I agree with certain aspecs with both Conner and Florida, and I aslo dissagree with some points.

Collage

When looking at this I first noticed the pink color covering most of the collage. In addition, I also noticed the African American woman whose head is covered with multiple items. I like how the collage is not perfect, in a sense that everything is not cut to square and aligns up correctly. I think the use of multiply colors, shapes, and items causes the collage to stand out more and ultimately become more appealing. I dislike the overlapping of multiple items in the upper right hand corner. This part of the collage confuses me because I cannot clearly see every item. I am not sure what this collage represents or is trying to say. This may be an African woman's religion or vacation visit to her home country that shows all her encounters and experiences. Overall I think this collage is very interesting and strikes my curiosity.

Exercise #1

My alarm clock wakes me up with the same old buzzing noise to get my day started. I check the days weather on my phone and pick out cloths to match the temperature. Using my electric tooth brush, I brush my teeth and watch the ESPN for sports updates on the TV. Afterwords, I rush downstairs to grap something to drink and my stuff for school. To avoid the most traffic, my cell phone chooses the fastest route to my college and step by step directions to get there. Waiting for class to start, I text my best friend to see when he gets out of school. While texting I make plans to hang out with him after school and possibly go see a movie. During my drive home I synced my Ipod with my stereo and listened to my favorite music. My friend and I decided to play catch with the football, play some Madden on xbox, download some the new songs out, and later that night go see the new movie "Righteous Kill." We both thought the movie was intense and awsome. Following the movie I texted my mom letting her know I planned on staying at my buddies house for the night and I would be home tomorrow afternoon. Driving home in his new Ford Fusion, we played the music louder then usual and enjoyed every minuite of it. At my buddies house, we played some more Madden, used my laptop to update our Ipods, and fell asleep watching "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel.
After finishing my day I quickly realized how my usual routine and favorite activities completly revolve around technology and popular culture. By simply waking up to an alarm clock, watching TV, listing to popular music, texting, hanging out with my friend, or even checking the weather, I am expressing popular culture. My daily interaction with popular culture is impossible to erase and will never end. I also now realize that popular culture is truly anything and everything we do. In response to a question from the book "Text Messaging," What isn't popular culture?, I believe everything is popular culuter.