orwell and huxley

The comic was suggesting that Huxley hit the nail on the head. The things people take comfort in are ruining society rather than what they loathe. Things like television, video games, and media are ruling our everyday lives.  It distracts us from things that are important in life and sort of sucks the life out of us. I liked the presentation of this article because it compared and contrasted the two books side by side and with pictures rather then with just words. It was easy to follow and simple to understand in the web comic format. If the comic had comparisons without illustrations it wouldn’t be as effective. I felt the pictures helped describe the meaning behind each point. In a nutshell, the comic drew my attention and made both arguments clear. 

social identity

im doing my identity project over Facebook.

reality tv

Both the suicide tape and honey boo boo prove that people just don’t care what their watching as long as it’s of some entertainment value. When I watched honey boo boo for the first time today I was kind of mad. Not only cause the show was bad but mostly because of my thoughts about the girl’s future. I mean her mother hypes her up on red bull and mountain dew every pageant. I know that isn’t healthy for a girl her age. On top of that the mother had no plans for her daughters future. And it only gets worse with the suicide video. Why upload a person committing suicide to the Internet where everyone can see? I’m not to surprised or upset as Mitch Albom, but I do find it unsettling to watch things like this.

            Television is a mystifying creation. It just seems like people are drawn to something different. We watch these videos purely cause it’s the next new thing. Most of the time, I watch these things to see what the buzz is about. I know for a fact I wouldn’t know or care about half these shows if someone or something didn’t call attention to it. I suppose reality television is sort of making Americans apathetic as we cease to wonder about the whys and move to what will happen next. However, I feel that’s expected. This hasn’t been the first time stuff like this have been leaked. In this generation, it’s just normal to watch exploitation in some shape or form. It’s just what entertainment has evolved to for better or worse. Not many people really stops to think about what they’re watching anymore, it’s just simply entertainment. 

Reality Television

After reading “The Reality of Reality Television” by Mark Greif, I can say that reality television in the 21^st century shapes how we as people interact and approach situations. It creates role models or shows what we as ordinary people see in our everyday life. Television shows such as “The Real World” or “Teen Mom” portray the lives of ordinary people experiencing hardships. In the real world, seven strangers are put into the same household and forced to make amends and teen mom shows the ordeals a young mother goes through with a child. Both “The Real world” and “Teen mom” show situations in real life and show how people interact and deal with adversity. The difference is that people on these shows are on camera and shown to the nation. We as a society choose to watch these shows and learn from them, but not everything we gain from television will necessarily be true in real life. In a sense reality television is surreal in that a camera in the show could influence a persons decision over rationale. In doing so, it is reasonable to assume that reality television isn’t always a beneficial influence to viewers, but does a good job at relating to someone’s ideals.

Reality television is also misconstruing actual reality by created ideas that people would “want” to do rather than what should be done. In shows like “Jersey Shore” the characters are constantly partying and ravishing the moment. People feed into this reality rather than their own substituting reality for entertainment.

The influences of reality television shows are powerful in that people do watch and experience the same situations. It is interesting to see people keeping up with the next “The Hills” episode rather than pay attention to problems dealing with politics and this nation. Television shows can make people more confident with themselves or cause controversy in a persons mind. Ultimately, a person should try to make decisions on their own accord rather than grasp what they saw on MTV. The development of Television continues to grow and the amount of viewers increases with it. Viewers should be weary of what they watch and how they want to perceive a show. In doing so, reality television could be helpful to people by building ideas and subconsciously shaping the society we live in today in a positive way.