- Downsize your thighs in 5 moves
- Dance your way to a flatter belly (that's what I'm doing as I type this post)
- Find a therapist
- Heart Attack Risk
- Test your stress lvel
- 16 ways to protect your identity
- Hwo to fight spam, junk and sales calls
- 10 snappy responses to questions while you zoned out
- Million-dollar salaries
Monday, October 10, 2011
Rationalism: take one
Consider the following headlines that have recently appeared on msn.com. What do they reveal about the needs, fears, and desires of our society?
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The society of today is obsessed with looking and feeling better because that is what the media wants us to do. We fear that we would not be good enough for each other or the world so we must go out of our way to make ourselves look good. That's why there are so many makeup ads; the women want to look better and that is a quick fix for their problem. Recently, I have seen on the local news health segments that are used to promote the better you. All our society wants is a quick fix and an easy life, but this cannot be achieved by get (insert adjective here) quick ideas; it can only be achieved by hard work and the idea that you want to be a better you, not the media's idea.
ReplyDeleteI know this may seem like an oversimplified explanation of this but what I see when I look at this is that the underlining cause of every problem here is stress. For example studies have shown that stress causes people to become fat (and then people get stressed about being fat). Also, when you are constantly under stress you have a higher chance of having a heart attack. Furthermore, people are stressed about losing money thus the 16 ways to protect your identity add. Moreover, people under a lot of stress usually want a therapist thus the therapist add. And finally most Americans goal in life is to be a millionaire so they can finally have a stress free life. Also, we are constantly pressed for time which explains the adds for getting rid of sales calls. In conclusion, most of these things are caused by stress because in the Information age we are constantly bombarded with information, tasks, and Hollywoods toxic idea of the perfect culture. This is why heart attacks and obesity is rampant in America, which is why we all need to stop and look around at our lives before we suddenly reach retirement and wonder what impact we actually made during those 60 years.
ReplyDeleteThese headlines exemplify the fears of being inadequate in any small and varying way and the needs of our society to a quick and easy answer to these fears. Each of these are centered around bettering oneself, whether it be physical or mental, in order to meet a specific standard in the set society. Everyone who looks at these ads is attracted to them because they want to be skinnier, less stressed, smarter/sharper, etc to seem like a better person. Of course, because American are in fact human, these goals are set and never attained. The headlines above are so perfect for our fears, needs, and desires because they offer a fast fix. Notice how none of the headlines are even 10 words long, that is how lazy and short-attention spanned we have become.
ReplyDeleteAll the needs, fears, and desires of our society coexist and revolve around the image of a perfect life and what it would entail. These headlines show these needs by appealing to common struggles most everyday people face; creating a strive for perfection. The titles claim to help you go against the things you encounter which creates the illusion that you can achieve perfection. Also, the fears of our society are revealed by every headline. Every headline is composed of a common fear of our society: weight, health, identity,inturruption, inattentiveness, and being unsuccessful. All these fears are centered around self image which displays our society's focus on self image. Another societial conclusion that is drawn by these headlines focuses on our society's desires. We strive again for that error- free, successful lifestyle which is pretty much unattainable. These articles again claim to assist society and help battle these "roadblocks". A perfect life is what our society is centered around and the headlines of msn display this in need, fear, and desire.
ReplyDeleteEach of these headlines represent how or soceity today is so ventured around the media. When the public today sees a headline such as one of these we are used to taking it as a truth automatically without question. We are always looking for the ideas that allow us to believe that we are perfect or ways to make us perfection in the media. We are centered around the idea of being the barbie sized women and the models for cover girl they we see km television every day.
ReplyDelete*centered
ReplyDeleteHeadlines such as "Downsize your thighs in 5 moves" or "Dance your way to a flatter belly" are directed mostly towards women and their DESIRE to look slim and in shape, their FEAR their appearance is not good enough(for example a woman feeling insecure about her thighs or not-perfectly-flat stomach), and their NEED to look this way for men, other women, and in order to get rid of their guilt about their appearance.
ReplyDeleteAs for the headlines addressing heart attack risk, stress level, finding a therapist, protecting your identity, how to fight spam, junk and sales calls, and 10 snappy responses to questions while you zoned out; I can relate these all to popular cases of society's stress or fears in daily life. Society will always FEAR and stress about heart attacks, identity theft, zoning out in school/work and not knowing what to say, and stress itself(ex: thinking you have too much stress can be a likely cause for needing a therapist). Society's NEED to feel, think, and behave "normally" causes headlines to appear as they do, addressing popular and controversial fears, causing you to read the articles on the problems you are personally most interested on, which are filled with the media's idea of how to solve the problem. After reading the article, you DESIRE whatever product/service/advice the article is trying to sell you.
As for headlines such as "Million-dollar salaries", this addresses the NEED of society to be successful and DESIRE to be well-off (salary wise) in life. It also addresses the alternative-the FEAR of being poor and limited. In the big picture, these kind of articles tend to say: "If you don't have enough money, you will not be happy. The key to a happy life is enough money. With a ton of money, you can do whatever you want, and, therefore, will be happy."Although the articles might not go out and say that straightforward, that is what they are implying. As we know, money will not necessarily make your life forever happy and carefree(It is actually said those with an excess of money are unhappy, giving them more to worry about-like their money being stolen). These kind of articles reflect and enforce society's need to have high salaries, and do not focus on what is actually important- working hard at their job to better society, not for money or a raise for themselves, but doing their job to their best of their ability for others.