Assignment 1-4-6: Written Analyses-Analysis 5

Assignment 1-4-6: Written Analyses-Analysis 5

            To begin, I will discuss which theory best relates to Facebook in my opinion. In addition, I will mention what are the most interesting findings from my analyses. Finally, I will tell how I will think differently about Facebook based on my analysis in the future.

The Theory of the Concepts of Heroes and the Cult of Celebrity

            To start, I thought that the theory of the concepts of heroes and the cult of celebrity best relates to Facebook. This is because so many people that are considered heroes and celebrities are discussed on Facebook. In addition, I have mentioned how some people that are now famous have been discovered because of the access of YouTube and Facebook. I cannot even begin to tell the reader how many “famous” people post on Facebook and how many “followers” post on their walls. This gives each individual a sense of importance when they get to “chat” with celebrities and especially when they see these celebrities as their “heroes.” There are literally millions or maybe even billions of people that go to Facebook to make that connection with family and those that they consider their “heroes.” To me, considering someone a hero or celebrity does not mean they have to be someone noticed on the television or radio necessarily. Some people get to talk to people across the world that they consider their hero on Facebook such as a little child that has a daddy or a mommy in the army across seas. They might not be a famous person on television or the radio, but to these children they are their heroes. Facebook gives any person, like I said, an opportunity to make a connection with someone that is very important in their lives (Petracca & Sorapure, 2010).

 Most Interesting Findings

             I found that no matter how much someone is deprived in life, they can have a connection if they choose to. Facebook gives so many people the chance to reach out to someone and have that feeling of importance. This, in my book, is a great way to create friendships that can last a lifetime. All it takes is for someone to want to go to Facebook and reach out to people that truly do care and that want to talk to people to get to know them (Petracca & Sorapure, 2010).

My Thoughts about Facebook Based On My Analysis

            In conclusion, I will not only think of Facebook as just another website. Based on my experience as an avid user, I have made so many connections with so many different types of people. They have become my friends and I am going to try to stay friends. I want to get to know them better by learning about the rituals that they go through every day. I am going to try to get past the stereotypes that can exist between the different cultural backgrounds. Lastly, I am going to try to apply what I have learned in this Humanities class when I go on Facebook so that I can   understand any person that I come across better while I am at the website, Facebook (Petracca & Sorapure, 2010).

Reference

Petracca, M. & Sorapure, M. (2010). Common culture: Reading and writing about American         popular culture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Assignment 1-4-5: Written Analyses - Analysis 4

The Concept of Formula: Facebook

            To begin, I will discuss the theories that apply to Facebook focusing on the concept of formulas. Furthermore, I will explain how the concept of formulas such as analyzing can be accomplished through accessing Facebook and scrolling through the huge amount of material which can be potential intellectual material that is about Popular Culture. Lastly, I will inform the reader about my personal insights that I gained from applying this theory to Facebook.

Analyzing Material in Vast Amounts through the Use of Facebook

            One of the major problems when giving shape to inquires about Popular Culture is the lack of ability to obtain a vast amount of material and analyze it to gain more knowledge about Popular Culture quickly and efficiently. Even worse than this is the need for relating various perspectives such as aesthetic, psychological, historical, and sociological, which are used in investigations dealing with the Western, pop music, film, television, the spy story, and the comic strip. On another note, students of Popular Culture applied to a wider range of material the historical and critical methods of traditional humanistic scholarship. Considering this, more complex analyses of such popular forms as the detective story and richer, more carefully researched accounts of the development of various popular traditions have been conducted (Cawelti, 1972).

What Does Analyzing have to do with Facebook?

            Facebook is a huge website where many people interact with each other sometimes on a daily basis. Since there is a need for more intellect about Popular Culture, what better way to gain this knowledge than through the website called Facebook. Millions of people from different parts of the world get on Facebook and this could be a chance for different cultures to answer certain questions about their cultures if they feel comfortable enough to discuss them. I have personally been taught some things by people of a different country and we actually get along quite well. It is interesting and fun to get to talk to people from different places. In my opinion, Facebook is a great place to chat with people from different cultures (Cawelti, 1972).

The Insights that I have gained from Applying this Theory to Facebook

            Until this particular assignment, I did not really stop and think of how many people I have talked to that came from different cultures. I have been on Facebook for about 3 – 4 years faithfully and I have had the opportunity to chat with people not only in the U.S., but I have chatted with people from Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, and other countries. We got along quite well and they do help me understand them and I help them back. Facebook is definitely a great way to get past the barrier of limitations of accessing larger amounts of material that can further knowledge about the Popular Culture of different countries. In conclusion, I can say that I am definitely an example of a dedicated Facebook friend of many people from different cultures. In a way, Facebook could be a successful way to learn more about the different cultures (Cawelti, 1972).

Reference

Cawelti, J. G. (1972). The concept of formula in the study of popular literature. The Bulletin of     the Midwest Modern Language Association, 5(2), 115-123.

Assignment1-3-2: Journal Article Analysis-Journal Article Paper

I Have the Whole World in My Hands…Now What? : Power, Control, Responsibility, and the Baby Boomers in Stephen King’s Fiction

            This essay will contain the summary of this article and the article’s main points. I will thoroughly analyze this article and state what it is about. I will discuss why I agree with Stephen King’s main points of this particular article. Furthermore, I will describe why this article is important in my opinion.

Article’s Summary and Main Points

            This article is about the similarities between Stephen King’s characters in his movies and novels and the generation known as the “Baby Boomers.” The questions concerning social consciousness and activity involve four primary steps: the call to take action, the acquisition of means to accomplish a particular end, considerations of potential failure, and rationalizing the motivation for involvement. Through these four categories, or lenses of analysis and interpretation, the pattern that becomes evident in Stephen King’s fiction is that several of his characters face extraordinary circumstances that create significant actions that are to be fulfilled by those characters. Even though the characters may face abuse, death, or the destruction of the universe at any stage of a decision-making process, Stephen King’s characters are confronted by evil that somehow haunts their lives. They are given time to make a choice and take action. Then, they think whether or not they should get involved, all the while contemplating failure. In conclusion, the choices that are presented to those characters that are created by Stephen King reflect the choices that the Baby Boomers had to make in that particular generation (McAleer, 2011).

Analysis of This Article

           This article is that about an interesting author known as Stephen King and his generations of novels and movies such as Pet Sematary and The Dark Tower. The article does mention how King relates his characters to that of the people in the generation known as the Baby Boomers. It states that King used his writings as a way to be a critic that condemns his generation, which is the generation known as the Baby Boomers. King mentions that his generation made up horrors to cope with the real ones of that day and age (McAleer, 2011).

Why Do I Agree with Stephen King’s Main Points that are Present in this Article?

            In my opinion, Stephen King’s main points are somewhat true. We create delusions to deal with horrific events that occur every day in the world. If a person can prepare themselves for disaster and fear, they then can maybe face the bad that unfortunately occurs every day in the world. The more one faces their fears of the unknown that is present in fictional novels and movies, the better that they can cope with those fears in real life (McAleer, 2011).

Why is this Article Important?

            This article is important to me because to me facing my fears is very important. I am the type of person who likes to face those things that scare me over and over if may be, until that fear subsides. Why would I want to live in fear and let that fear consume my life? Fear is a part of life and in all reality, man creates fear. Mankind is not born to fear, we are taught how to fear. Consider this, if we are taught how to fear, can’t we be taught how to not fear? According to Stephen King, we can be taught how to not fear those things that was taught to us in the first place to fear. According to me, this makes sense and this is why I feel that this article is important to those who want to learn how to overcome those things that fear them (McAleer, 2011).

 Reference

McAleer, P. (2011). I have the whole world in my hands…now what? : Power, control,    responsibility, and the baby boomers in Stephen King’s fiction. The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(6), 1209-1227.

Assignment 1-4-4: Written Analyses-Analysis 3

Heroes and Celebrities on Facebook

            This essay focuses on the concepts of heroes and the cult of the celebrity and how these apply to Facebook. Furthermore, I will discuss how these concepts describe Facebook.  Finally, I will mention the insights that I gained from applying these concepts to the website, Facebook.

Heroes and the Cult of the Celebrity that Apply and Describe Facebook

            To begin, there is quite the audience when it comes to Facebook. Not to mention there is so many people posting about their life and just wanting to reach out to all those interesting people in the world. Take for instance, Justin Bieber. I can’t recall how many times my son has sang the song, Baby. The great thing about the internet is that anyone can record themselves and post it to YouTube and from here, it can be viewed and posted to anyone’s wall on Facebook. Furthermore, this is how Justin Bieber was discovered. As of now, he is a famous young, pop artist. He succeeded at reaching fame and fortune from the people of one of today’s famous websites, YouTube. I am guaranteeing it was viewed by the many people of Facebook and the posting of comments swamped this website. This leads to my point on how these concepts describe Facebook. Anyone can become a hero or a celebrity because they reach to the public by going to websites and posting anything. This is a long shot, but by the example mentioned above and the success that he gained proves that it can happen. Until I started actually getting into talking to people on Facebook, I did not realize how successful this website was when it came to reaching out to the multitudes  of  people. Now, I am a avid user of the website, Facebook. I have conversations to many different people and I have gained knowledge of all the opportunities that Facebook can bring into one’s life. In my opinion, free advertisement is the best kind of advertisement. I guess it is up to the public if they decide to take advantage of the technology that is out there (“Songfacts, n.d.).

Reference

Songfacts. (n.d.) Baby by Justin Bieber. Retrieved February 1, 2012, from

            http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=18300.

Assignment 1-4-3: Written Analyses-Analysis 2

Facebook Stereotypes and Rituals

            This blog will discuss some of the stereotypes when it comes to the website, Facebook. In addition, it will explain some of the rituals that people go through everyday pertaining to Facebook. I will state how these theories describe Facebook. Finally, I will mention the insights that I gained from applying these theories to Facebook.

Facebook Stereotypes

            There are many stereotypes that people have against Facebook. For instance, Facebook might seem unsafe when it comes to children logging on. This is untrue. There is a program that you can run so that a parent can track the people that go on to your child’s wall. Additionally, some people might think that Facebook exposes their information to the public without their approval. Again, this is untrue. The only way people can see on your wall is if you let them. There are settings that one can set to limit certain people from accessing the information that one does not want them to see (Petracca & Sorapure, 2010).

Facebook Rituals

            There are rituals that people have when it comes to Facebook. First, each person haves his or her own preference when it comes to the games that they play on Facebook. For instance, I like a game called Farmville. Each day, I try to log on to attend to my farm duties. I know this sounds funny, but I know people who do this every day. Some people even spend their hard-earned cash to buy items for their farms. Of course, I do not take it to the extremes. In my opinion, there are no differences in doing this than when one goes and buys a video game from the store for their gaming systems. These are free games and they are fun. Furthermore, I do have a tendency to go YouTube from Facebook and post music videos on my wall. This is a ritual that I tend to do almost every day. I love music so this is a big part of my interests and I like to post to my wall to inform people of my interests (Petracca & Sorapure, 2010).  

Insights on Stereotypes and Rituals

            I never really thought of the stereotypes and rituals when it comes to Facebook. Now that I have had a chance to actually stop and think about it, there are many stereotypes against Facebook and many rituals that people have when it comes to Facebook. Considering this, Facebook is still a great website to have fun and get to know each other and our differences.

 Reference

Petracca, M. & Sorapure, M. (2010). Common culture: Reading and writing about American         popular culture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Assignment 1-4-2: Written Analyses-Analysis 1

Analysis about Facebook

First off, what does popular beliefs, myths, and icons mean? Popular beliefs are often made up of all the influences and experiences that surround us. Our beliefs come from our heart and our mind. Everything that touches our lives does leave an imprint of some sorts. Sometimes there can be a tendency for a group conformity and mentality that can be a threat to our individuality. Our beliefs can be self-created or it can be drawn from an outside source. On another note, my perception of a myth is an invented idea, story, or concept or an unproved or false collective belief that is used to justify a social institution. Furthermore, an icon is an image, sign, picture, or representation that stands for its object by virtue of an analogy or resemblance to it.

In my opinion, it seems that all the theories above do apply to my popular culture topic, Facebook. The theories (popular beliefs, myths, and icons) describe Facebook as being a successful world-wide communication and entertainment internet website that connects people from many different parts of the world. Many people from different countries and cultures take advantage of the access to this website so that they can communicate and have entertainment that might not necessarily be accepted into their cultures. In conclusion, the insights that I gain from applying the theories such as popular beliefs, myths, and icons to my popular culture topic Facebook are that beliefs can be subject to change by the access to Facebook and the connection with different cultures, there can be myths about certain cultures that can be discussed and the truth becomes known through communication that is provided by such websites as Facebook, and due to the increasing amount of people logging onto Facebook makes this website an icon of some sort because icons are not only people but objects, or should I say websites, that influence people’s life in some way.

HUMN240-E2WW Assignment 2-1: Icon Analysis

 Icon Analysis

There are three icons that I hold in high esteem. They are Mahatma Gandhi, Stephen King, and American Idol. These three icons are dedicated to the entertainment and fulfillment of mankind.

To begin, Mahatma Gandhi is a well-known philosopher. He provided the world with many speeches and writings about his thoughts on (to name a few) peace, nonviolence, truth, love, GOD, and the practical techniques which he adopted. There are 100 volumes of his works available to the public to view about his thoughts. He is considered one of the most revered souls of the Twentieth Century. The book that I favor most by him, The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, is about his dedication to the liberation of humans. His life encompassed the compassion of Gautam Buddha and the passion of Christ for service to humankind. Several scholars have described this book as being the new “bible” or the new “gita.” On another note, Stephen King is also one of my favorite authors. His writings started in his sophomore year in college when he wrote articles for the campus newspaper, The Main Campus. He was active in student politics and he was against the war in Vietnam. In 1970, he graduated the University of Maine with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on a high school level. After graduation, a draft board examination found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. He was unable to find a job as a teacher and was forced to take a job as a laborer at an industrial laundry. He started writing short stories for men magazines and made a little profit. In the fall of 1971, he took a teaching job at Hampton Academy. In the evenings, he wrote short stories and novels. In the spring of 1973, his first novel, Carrie, was published. This novel, including many others written by Stephen King, is a thriller. The money he made from this novel provided him with the means to eliminate the teaching career and write full-time thus being the start of the decades of novels and movies produced by Stephen King. Lastly, American Idol is a major icon for people who are musically-inclined. This television show provides an opportunity for struggling artists to “make it” in the music business. The music business is a harsh and competitive market. This television show is not prejudice against any person who tries out, but they do pick the entertainers that they feel will succeed in the music industry. There are three judges (Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, and Randy Jackson) and the audience that determine the singers’ fate when the actual competition starts. Furthermore, American Idol has won the Emmy Award. This show was created by Simon Fuller who was a judge but has moved on to work on other entertainment shows. In conclusion, American Idol is ranked number one amongst adults 18-49 for the past seven consecutive seasons and is currently ranked the number one television show for 2010-2011 season.

I chose these three icons to discuss because I love to read about the different philosophies that are produced in the world, particularly by Gandhi. In addition, I love to read novels that are considered “too scary” for the public and that test the boundaries of what is considered “acceptable” in society. Finally, I love music. Fortunately, my family is musically-inclined and this show does capture my attention because of this factor. I love the competition and I love to see new, determined musicians “make it” in the music industry.

In conclusion, I grew up reading the many works by Gandhi and Stephen King. They have increased my knowledge in many different areas of my life. When it comes to music, I love all of the different areas of music. Whether it is rock, pop, jazz, gospel, bluegrass, hip-hop, country, opera, heavy-metal, death-metal, alternative, and so, it is all great entertainment to me.