Merchants of cool!

This video doc. assesses the relationship between dominant corporations and adolescene. The video seems to stray toward the corporation side, so i'd say this is slightly bias in a sense. The video fails to draw the connection emotionally with its audience which are teenagers and talks about marketing techniques etc. to evoke our very intentions. Don't get me wrong, this film does a great job explaining the corporations methods toward their success but is one sided in my opinion. It is totally understandable though because i guess that was the stance taken. Beware Merchants of Cool 2, the methods behind adolescent madness or something ruther.

Merchants of Cool

I do think that teens have control over what is cool. Teens are cool's inspiration. We have the choice to decide if it's cool to us or not. Some of us think that ipods are cool, but some of us might think that any other mp3 player can be just as cool. ipods are cool because they have more features & so many of us buy it. If we all didn't own ipods, the media wouldn't consider it cool anymore. The media doesn't control cool - we do.

COOL: Temperary, but Permanent

Cool is temperary because whats cool now, wont be cool later. At the same time cool is permanent because there is always something that is look upon as cool. Cool is a game between the media and the people. The media see's a new look the youth has then takes it and makes it the next big thing. That sells for a little while. Then some young trend setter kicks down the media's door, and say's, "It's time for change. You want cool, well I'm cool." Then there is a new big trend that the media uses to sell. When something is different, it becomes cool. When it becomes cool, it becomes a product. When it becomes a product everyone has it, therefore it is no longer different. It attempts to make us all the same. So in the end, what is cool? COOL is what you make. If America became a nudest country, then the media would probably look for ways to advertise cool naked. Maybe body paint or nipple piercings. You never know, but you can be sure the media will not stop. So in the end the best thing to do is just live life.

cool man..!

DUUUHHHH!!! teens totally have control over what is "cool" and what is "not cool". i think that we have all this control over what is "cool" because we are the majority of people who actually care. so we are the ones who advertising people can market too. soccer moms dont care if sprite is "cool". they just drink it because they are thristy! if a can of Serria Mist was there in place of Sprite...i am 99% sure that soccer mom wouldnt think to herself..."hmmmm...i could drink this nice cold can of serria mist and quench my thirst but ya know what??!! its not as cool as sprite sooo...im probably just going to sit here and be thristy!"..NO! she would grab the soda and drink it! unlike a TEENAGER, who would actually CARE what was "cool". therefore, teenagers DO control what is "cool" because we care!
<3aSHLEy! XXxx
ps.
sprite isnt even "cool" but i was just going with the example that Merchants of Cool used...ya feel me??!!

Teens Control cool?

Well i think that teens do still have control over whats "cool". I dont think the Media or Popular Culture can change the way us as teens see "cool". I guess it can influence us to see "cool" there way, but in the end its up to us to agree or disagree. With the video "Merchants of cool" i do agree that they are trying to make us see "cool" their way. The video shows us how Corporations use teenagers to see whats "cool" and use it against us to make us feel like thats what cool is. They are using our teen culture to change it to a different one, a corporate teen culture. All corporations want is for us to get our parents to buy us things that we feel are "cool". Corporations are using teenagers to get to their parents money because they know that parents would buy things for their children. Corporations are using us as middlemen to our parents money. Does anyone agree or disagree with me?

STOLEN!!

I don't think teen have control of what is cool because the media steals ideas from the "cool kids" and promote it to the general population as "cool" or trendy. I think that some corporations have stolen specific teen cultures and used it to their advantage. It has exploited teens in the sense that twelve and thirteen year-old look like they are seventeen, they pay teens money to make a television show look "cool" and fun, and lastly they extremely exploit the parents because they are the ones paying for the merchandise that the teen population "needs".

Merchants of Cooooooool (=

Behind all of these advertisements are people who want to become financially successful. In order to do so, they have to have an idea to target the shoppers. They have to get into peoples’ lives to see what their brain is telling them. Advertisement agencies wants to see consumers’ view points on fashion, gadgets, computers, cars, and lots more! When they finally reveal that idea as an advertisement, people will think that the ads are relating to their lives, which makes the consumers feel like the producers really care. Yes, I believe that people control what’s cool. The technologies like advertising, T.V., billboards, computers, and many more- emphasize the whole idea. I did not agree when they said that advertisement has the force to make you buy these products. It is YOU who controls your life so when you go out there to shop, you can say "NO!" (especially when you’re spending too much). You probably know a few facts about advertisement and how it’s capturing everyone’s eyes to spend, spend, and spend. Analyze the truth in these ads like who are they really helping or if they just want to make money? Use the truth against useless advertisements respectfully. It will be easier to save a whole lot of money from mall therapy.

Agreed.

I agree with the main argument of merchants of cool. Corporate interests have, in one-way or another, taken over our choice of what is or isn’t cool. Teens today meticulously watch and copy what they see in the media so that they can, in return, regurgitate it back to their own group of friends as being cool and trendsetting. Even if we could decide what is cool on our own, we would still conform to the mold that society and corporate interests have already made for us in order to be accepted in society today.

I do believe that we are in control over what is "cool," but we don't have control of how we are being exploited. Teens are never going to stop watching their favorite TV shows, just like the whole world is never going to stop watching the Super Bowl. These commercials are suppose to be the best commercials of the year during the Super Bowl. Companies pay "beau coo" dollars to have their advertisements on during the 4 hour event. For "Merchants of Cool," I believe that it explains the answers to what people are asking once exposed.

coo

I think we do have control of whats cool, because we choose whats cool. since company's go out and find out what teens find cool by focus groups and they send out people to take pictures of teens and the types of clothes they wear. They even go to teens houses to look in their rooms and closets. then they produce it and sell it to other teens. By the time everybody has the merchandise it becomes uncool. After all the discussion in class i do agree that corporate has hacked into teens to exploit the teens and parents labor. Because the corporate does anything they possibly can to find out whats cool too teens and then sell it so they can make some profit out of it.

COOOoOooLLLL!

I agree with Merchants of Cool. We decide what's cool and it's us who buy things when we like it. The more we buy, the more it's on demand. But when everyone has it, it's no longer going to be cool. So we control what's cool in our society. Everyone's the same and I think no one is authentic when it comes to satisfying our needs. If you don't have what everyone else has, then your not cool. That's why I agree with the documentary. No one's original.

It's Our Choice!

Teenagers really do have control of what they think is cool, because if a lot of people are wearing things that we think is cool just because of the style it makes, we can choose. No one really can tell us what is cool to us or what not because they don't know us. Merchants of Cool was a movie designed to make us think that we want to be like everyone else and think that certain things were cool. They only chose certain people, they could have chosen everyone, because not everyone wears the same exact stuff the same exact way. So, they are really trying to trick us I guess by saying we should think that these few things other people are wearing our cool.

Do teens really have control over what is cool?

i believe teens do have control over what is cool and what is not. from watching "merchants of cool" they stated that teens are the ones driving most of our economy. That ties into the fact that they are probably the largest consuming age group in our nation. Thus, teens are constantly striving to find whats in and whats not and whatever that is in is "cool." If they didn't constantly search for new "cool" things then they wouldnt be the ones in control of what is cool and not. They have the power to continue on with the trend of being"cool."

no cool ._.

How about asking yourself, where do you get the “cool” styles from. I don't think that we teenagers have the power to control over what is cool, and to develop a trend of a certain “thing” to be cool, it needs cooperation of most dominated teenagers and the media. For instance, for a certain style, maybe punk or hiphop style; it might be unique when a person wears it, but when this style spreads off to other teenagers by the media, it becomes a trend, the “cool” is shared by a lot of people, and this doesn’t remain unique anymore. A person or teens can’t control over what is cool, only the media does. If we didn’t get the information from the media, would we know what’s in the trend now? Actually it’s all about the media who controls everything, us, trend, and defines what is “cool”.

I agree that the argument in Merchants of Cool seizes teen culture in order to exploit them and uses them for their profit. They are the media, they have the power to control over us, and we do follow their rules voluntarily. As we do want to be in trend, we intend to neglect the fact that we are the profit tools of the corporation and blindly follow what’s there in the media. However, this isn’t harmful to teenagers, this is what we are willingly do, it satisfy us and we’re just somewhat being used. We’re just being urged to help making their profit, a tool.

What is Cool?

I think teens can have control over what's cool, but at times they can not. Teenagers are all about peer pressure. They will feel uncool if they are not wearing the latest trends and fashion. Teenagers can have an opinion on what they think is cool, even if it may or may not go against "what's in." There are some teenagers who do not care about the latest styles and create their own unique style and those teenagers have made a choice about what's cool. Ultimately, their choice was to do the "uncool" thing and make it cool. I do believe that corporate interests exploit teens and their parents, but you can't blame them. So I guess I'm half and half on this question also. The purpose of "cool hunting" is to increase profit, so who can blame someone who wants to make money? I don't. Money goes 360 worldwide and it always will.

I do think that teenagers have control over what is "cool". Each person has their own view on what "cool" really is, whether or not it's going out to parties or just staying home to study, because "cool" is what one makes of it. Something isn't created "cool". It's "cool" because of who makes it cool. I have excepted the main idea of Merchants of Cool, but I dont necessarily think that the media CONTROLS what teens think is cool... But it does incourage certain images of "cool".

uncontrolable cool

I do not believe teens really have control on what cool really is after watching the merchants of cool. Everything kids do, wear, and act like is based on what they see on t.v. and movies. They are the way they are because they believe what they are watching on t.v. from their favorite celebrities are cool and they want to be considered cool themselves. All fads are started when kids see a certain style that they like they want to copy it so they feel cool themselves. They find these styles on t.v. and from what other that they consider cool are wearing. Even if they try to control cool the big companies will try and take it and it will eventually not be cool anymore. IT is a never ending cycle that can not be stopped.

too cool

The average teen will never have control over what is "cool." it will always be that merchant of cool who is selling you their product and if you stand out too much from the normal, you aren't "cool" and the peer pressure will conform you.
I accept that the corporations have hijacked "cool" from teens and it will never be given back. Because the companies are making WAY too much money to change their ways. Until the teens change, which seems highly unlikely, then the corporations will stay the same

Pop Culture (Merchants of "Cool")

"Cool' cannot be controlled by any one teen or any group of teens for that matter because No matter who you contact and who you try to get to go along with fighting the merchants of cool; there will always be a way for them to spin whatever you are trying to sell them. All you can really do is just go along with it because it is never going to stop. The funny thing is, there is almost no point in doing what they are doing because by the time they find the coolest thing out there, there will be something else that catches the crowds eyes and the cycle goes round and round. As the old saying goes, if you cant beat them, join them.

Impossible

It is impossible for teens to control what is cool. The media controls what is cool and what is not. People take what they see on tv and internet that they think is cool and get it. And if you are someone trying to avoid what the media shows you and try to create your own style, you are still taking something that has been out on the market and thus giving your money away to the media. We cannot escape the cool "loop", as the media shows us new things, people will always continue to buy it.

can cool be controlled?

It is impossible for cool to be controlled. Things that are "cool" were decided a long time ago and the kind of "cool" we have now is just the recycled version of how it really started. You can't pinpoint where "cool" started. Nothing is original anymore, it's all just reused. We can't control "cool" because it is always being changed and made better.

People do anything for money. So of course the media is going to exploit us for ours. Why wouldn't they? They don't know us, all they see are teenagers looking out for are the newer and better things. They see how easy it is to exploit us for whatever we have so that we can get whatever it is we want.

Cool?

I believe that teens don't have any control over what is cool. This is because although there are a few individuals that create a new cool, they cannot stop the media from exploiting that cool, thus after the cool hits the media (it eventually will happen no matter what) it is controlled by the media. I believe that the corporates that hijack teen culture are actually sort of aiding teens; this is because most teens out there can't stick out for themselves and usually follow the main trends that these corporates advertise.

This Week's Prompt

All blog members need to respond to this prompt with a post by the end of this week. You are also responsible for commenting on two other posts on this subject.

Do teens really have control over what is cool?

Do you, after all of our discussion in class, accept the main argument of Merchants of Cool that corporate interests have hijacked teen culture in order to exploit teens, their labor, and their parents' labor?
Do you agree that this is detrimental to teens?

pop culture

it pretty much depends on the mindset we all have. we dont have to follow all the trends and such, and we're made to be individuals so we can be different than everyone else. i guess it's just something to follow for fun, material possessions to have to be envied. but overall isnt it all overrated? originality is that something we should all attempt to achieve because that is what defines us, and not the trends that come and go.

pop culture

"television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other"
i think this is a pretty true statement, because a lot of the time people would rather watch their favorite show than hang out with someone. It is terrible that people do that but i guess that is just how it is now. i really enjoy the company of others rather than the tv, but thats just me

" in feature films the director is God, in documentary films God is the director."- Alfred Hitchcock

Many times when we watch t.v we are bound to believe many messages that come across the story lines. For example, the moral messages that come across in movies and stories in general. Regardless if the show is a feature movie or a documentary we are bound to gain some knowledge of something that has been shown to us. Movies produced by directors that feature ghosts and spirits are bound to have some effect on the viewer. I know i became a victim of those effects. After watching the Blaire witch project at a young age i became terrified about witch spirits. even if the story was true or not either way it made me feel like there was some sort of extra life form living in my world. Directors in movies have the power to do anything in the movie. They can include aliens, ghosts, and even mutants because they have the power to do so. Unlike documentaries directors have no power in telling how nature is going to change in the next 10yrs exactly. They have no power in how everything is going to turn out. They only have the power to capture what God has created and edit it to some spectacular feature film.

adding to TOny's train of thought school is more associated with hard work, not being lazy, and keeping awake! this is def' something we try to avoid because having fun is way cooler!

pop culture

sooooo......it is kind of funny how we are more interested in things that are less important than school itself unless it has to do with entertainment in popular culture...just wanted to throw that out there who agrees?

Feature films=Director / Documentary films=God

"In feature films the director is God; in documentary films God is the director."

In documentaries God is the director because everything that has evolved came from God and what he put on this Earth. Like on the discovery channel there are documentaries on animals and how they mate and choose who they mate with. That is an example and proof that God is the director because animals were here from what God made up. God makes them so they know who to pick and how to hunt.

In feature films the director is God because the real director tells them what to do, what to say, and how to act. Since God has so much power over all the world and he can't really be there for some feature films the director takes charge. Basically, the actors in the film have to do everything the director says in order to succeed.

Thank You

Here

Here is my back feed
What i colored in turquoise - wrong word
purple - explain better/confusing
orange - strong but could develop more
It is my back feed so you can do with it what you will & hopefully it
will help & others can give you their opinion.
I will not grade this or explain your essay b/c of time.
Unfortunately, not exactly-but i have allot of hw and my essay to complete.
somthing's wrong-cant get color-i will put*

Mr. Maxwell said he would give 5 points to who ever grades my essay since I wasn't in class on Thursday. I would also appreciate it =D

Everybody is a sucker. Everyone gets tricked or played at least once in their life. Whether its *threw the Internet or just walking down the street, its going to happen. People are not the only ones who get suckered, animals do too. People always play tricks on their pets. I do it to my dog all the time.

One example of something being suckered is my dog. Whenever she wants to play with a ball or a toy of hers, I always trick her in one way or another. *The most common one thing i do is the fake throw bit, she always falls for it. Another trick I play on her is telling her that my mom or dad has her toy. Once I say that she will run off to whoever i say and wait for them to give her the toy. The final thing I do to mess with her is saying the word walk or squirrel when she is eating something she is not supposed to. Saying those two words work because she loves to go for walks and knows what it means. When I say squirrel, she thinks there is one outside and runs to a window to bark at it. Tricking my dog is fun for me and her, but its the opposite for a human to human suckering.

Another example of something being suckered is people. It happens everyday to millions of people. With the Internet being as popular as it is, it is a main source of trickery. You can receive an email saying if you do what is says, you will get money or something else. You can also be tricked when buying stuff online, specially from eBay. I have seen a picture of a purchase of a PSP box. The buyer thought he was buying the actual device, and bid over three hundred dollars for it, and won. So he just spent three hundred plus dollars for a box. This shows that you have to be careful and know what your doing on the Internet, but these kind of things can also happen on the streets.

The final example of something being tricked is a person just walking around. Anyone can be suckered while walking down the street, hanging with friends or even just sitting at home. It happened to me while I was getting gas. A guy comes up to me asking for money saying hes needs food for his kids. So I give him a couple bucks and then I see him walk in, then walk out with cigarettes. The same kind of thing happened to my girl friend. She went to the movies with a couple of friends, and a guy came up to her saying he had no money for food. So she gave him a few bucks, and when she sits down in the theater, she sees the same guy. After the movie was over, and she walks outside, she sees the guy again, but this time he is smoking a cigarette.

*People and animals alike can be suckered in their everyday lives. No matter what you are doing, someone is going to try and sucker you into doing something for them. Whether is buying them something or giving them money, its going to happen. It is impossible to avoid. It is a way of life for some people, and has been for a long time. The art of suckering is one that will be around forever.

Please Grade

Mr. Maxwell said he would give 5 points to who ever grades my essay since I wasn't in class on Thursday. I would also appreciate it =D

Everybody is a sucker. Everyone gets tricked or played at least once in their life. Whether its threw the Internet or just walking down the street, its going to happen. People are not the only ones who get suckered, animals do too. People always play tricks on their pets. I do it to my dog all the time.

One example of something being suckered is my dog. Whenever she wants to play with a ball or a toy of hers, I always trick her in one way or another. The most common one thing i do is the fake throw bit, she always falls for it. Another trick I play on her is telling her that my mom or dad has her toy. Once I say that she will run off to whoever i say and wait for them to give her the toy. The final thing I do to mess with her is saying the word walk or squirrel when she is eating something she is not supposed to. Saying those two words work because she loves to go for walks and knows what it means. When I say squirrel, she thinks there is one outside and runs to a window to bark at it. Tricking my dog is fun for me and her, but its the opposite for a human to human suckering.

Another example of something being suckered is people. It happens everyday to millions of people. With the Internet being as popular as it is, it is a main source of trickery. You can receive an email saying if you do what is says, you will get money or something else. You can also be tricked when buying stuff online, specially from eBay. I have seen a picture of a purchase of a PSP box. The buyer thought he was buying the actual device, and bid over three hundred dollars for it, and won. So he just spent three hundred plus dollars for a box. This shows that you have to be careful and know what your doing on the Internet, but these kind of things can also happen on the streets.

The final example of something being tricked is a person just walking around. Anyone can be suckered while walking down the street, hanging with friends or even just sitting at home. It happened to me while I was getting gas. A guy comes up to me asking for money saying hes needs food for his kids. So I give him a couple bucks and then I see him walk in, then walk out with cigarettes. The same kind of thing happened to my girl friend. She went to the movies with a couple of friends, and a guy came up to her saying he had no money for food. So she gave him a few bucks, and when she sits down in the theater, she sees the same guy. After the movie was over, and she walks outside, she sees the guy again, but this time he is smoking a cigarette.

People and animals alike can be suckered in their everyday lives. No matter what you are doing, someone is going to try and sucker you into doing something for them. Whether is buying them something or giving them money, its going to happen. It is impossible to avoid. It is a way of life for some people, and has been for a long time. The art of suckering is one that will be around forever.

the TV babysitter

“I think that parents only get so offended by television because they rely on it as a babysitter and the sole educator of their kids.” Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park

I find these true because most families have a TV for each person in their house. With Comcast, and satellite TV people can spend over three hundred dollars a month on just TV. So why wouldn’t parents want their kids to watch it. If you spent three hundred dollars a month wouldn’t you want your money’s worth, and if that meant watching TV when you get home, when you’re eating diner, after diner, and then when you’re sleeping you leave it on just for the sake of it so be it. Why wouldn’t you want your money’s worth I have even seen people with TVs in there bathrooms. Also I really do not think that parents want to constantly spend time with their kids, they want to spend time with each other or with themselves. So since the TV is around kids can sit on their couches getting fatter as they watch Television leaving there parents to spend some time alone and jest not deal with them.

"Pop culture is not about depth. It's about marketing, supply and demand, consumerism." -Trevor Dunn

What I think Mr. Dunn is saying is that if you want to find what you're really looking for, you have to look further than the mainstream. His main idea is that the greatest forms of entertainment aren't available to us in modern pop culture, only the most popular and (currently) trendy.

But because pop culture means popular culture, the majority of people who follow it and try to keep up with current trends will be sucked in to enjoy what they see, hear, or read. This gives corporations a perfect advertising opportunity. Whether it be endorsing their products using celebrities, false advertising, or clever commercials, they know that if their product is targetted towards the right age group, the product will see huge sales boosts.

Check out this Carl's Jr Commercial:


As you can see, it has nothing to do with fast food. Paris is all soaped up rolling around on top of a car with sex music playing in the background and at near end of the commercial, she takes a bite of a huge burger which she probably spit out afterwards, and the screen goes black with white text in the middle "The Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger....That's Hot." Right...so because Paris is such a good role model and because supposedly she's attractive and eats six dollar burgers, you should eat at Carl's Jr, too.

Who honestly thinks that she would even touch that burger. Hell, she probably would not even go inside a fast food restaurant. It's almost as believable as Michael Jordan using Rayovac's rechargeable batteries. Don't you think he can afford the real ones?

Pop Culture

"i think that parents get so offended by television because they rely on it as a baby sitter and the sole educator of their kids" -Trey Parker and Matt Stone, south park

i think this is true because now days kids just sit in front of the TV all day long and the parents don't have to watch them because they know that the kids art glued to the TV, and they aren't gonna go any where else. also kids learn a lot from TV from watching the kids shows like Nick Jr. there are shows that kids learn from like blues clues, and Dora the Explorer. shows like that teach kids things like math and shapes, things like that to get them ready for school.

sadly true

"our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch on movies"- Ryan Seacrest

I agree with this statement because numerous people mold themselves after their favorite actor or actress. People strive to one day become the person they watch in this or that movie, but in the end they need to realize that these people are playing the roles of a character.

this isn't brain surgery; it's just televison

I think David Letterman is saying that people tend to look to ddep into television. I tend to watch television for what it is.....entertainment.

popular culture

our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch on movies"- Ryan Seacrest

it's all true people are crazy about t.v i mean i know most people are educated but after watching too much t.v they become like everyone else that watches t.v and believe the things that they see on t.v. people won't change unless they try themselves and most likely they will keep believing the things that they see in t.v for years.

"MTV is the lava lamp of the 1980's."

MTV was one of the best programs on television out there. Back in the 80's, MTV was all about music; 80's Rock, breakdancing, pop-blocking, clothes/fashion, etc... there was a whole lot of culture besides "the music." It was a way for artists to show their personality on a video. An awesome video is the video with "Aerosmith & Run DMC - Walk This Way." I believe that this is a classic 80's video. It shows two different types of genre that showed the world that rock and hip-hop works togeather, it's MUSIC.
Now you have MTV playing all this garbage on the channel. Real World, TRL, Sweet 16 b-day, and the list goes on and on. They don't play the music videos anymore. And when they do, it's only for a short time. It sucks and I don't watch it anymore. I guess it's like the lava lamp... it's fun to look at, and it amazes how you can just imagine how carefree it is, but eventually you'll get bored. Enjoy the video!

bart

"damn.. T.V...Ruined my imagination and my ability to...ummm...ya...you know..."

I personally think that although Bart Simpson was trying to make a joke out of this but this is one of societies problems with children. People think that it's ok for they're child to watch t.v for several hours without them thinking anything bad is going to happen to them. They're imagination fades away nd the idea of them being unique also fades away. Everything that is shown on t.v is shown to millions of people throughout the world so it doesnt give people the chance to be themselves or even think for themselves.

There's never a new fashion but it's old.

I think that the author of this quote is trying to tell us that theres nothing that hasnt been done before. That even though you think that you are being original somewhere out there someone has already done it and that we have to anticipate it. There were only so many options we were given and in the however many years we've been in existance our predeccesors have already done it so i think that he thinks that we should all just calm down and not take life so seriously anymore because it has all been done before.

popular culture

"our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch on movies"- Ryan Seacrest

This quote is 100% right in my mind. The world is the way it is today because of what people see on televsion and in the movies they watch. Young people see people on t.v. that they believe to be cool and want to be like. They want to become more like the people they idolize on t.v and the movies. Everything young people do today is based on what they see and believe to be cool; the way they act, dance, talk, etc. All fads are started this way as well. People see a new style and they copy it, then someone will start dresses like that person and it goes and on. I'm not going to lie as much as i like being original , alot of the what i do or dress like it because of what i see on t.v. Our popular culture is based with what people see on t.v. and movies. I do not like Ryan Seacrest but for once with his quote, i think he makes a good point.

pop-culture Ryan Seacrest

" our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch in the movies." -Ryan Seacrest

I agree with Ryan Seacrest statement because it is so true. Poeple spend money on magizines just to get the lastest gossip, and who did what? People should not really care about what they do, but its hard whenyou turn on the t.v. and most of the shows are all gossip t.v. like E-news,
Entertainment tonight, ect.

Ann Landers gets right to the point

"Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other."-Ann Landers

I have to agree with that quote. T.V nowadays shows a lot of unimportant events and programs just to gain viewers attention. And we, the people who pay for cable T.V turn our devices on and make the images from the silver screen our company for the morning, afternoon and evening. Our favorite characters are better than friends because they do not talk back, do not fight with us, do not complain and are always there when we need them- all we need to do is turn them on by the remote. Many relationships suffers because of the importance of T.V in ones life. And that is so true that we watch just anything-I am sick of the Brit-Paris-Nicole news but I always watch E!channel just so I won't loose the truck with current (unimportant)events. That could be a time I spend with my roommates talking and cooking together. Television is a very powerful medium and even though we think that it shows a lot of junk ,the programs that are on the air were chosen based on our opinions and public surveys. That is a shame that our personal relations are less important than the ones we have with the remote controller and TiVo.

So True

"Our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch in the movies" -Ryan Seacrest.
I agree with his statement about all that obsession our society has about celebrities from television and the movies. There is so much random junk and gossip that spreads like wild fire through the media. Go get a life and stop praising them.

RYAN!

"Our culture is obsessed with the people we see on television and watch in the movies" -Ryan Seacrest.
I agree what Ryan is saying here. Everyone is infatuated with celebs today. What they are wearing? what they are doing? who they are doing it with? but really, why do we care? We have our own lives and our own dramas but for some reason we still care about why Paris and Nicole are fighting or how Britney is handling motherhood. Even I am a victim of obsessing over stars. Believe me I tune in every Monday to see what is new with Lauren and Hedi on The Hills. So I agree with Ryan Seacrest and think that everyone is OBSESSED with people in the entertainment business!

bart simpson

Damn T.V......ruined my imagination and my ability to....um...ya...you know....
this is true on so my different levels. TV is ruining many people's opinions by telling them what to think. They networks decide what you will watch and what they think is important from their point of view. TV is ruining people's ability to form their own original thoughts

Blue Jeans

MTV is the lava lamp of the 1980's

mtv brings alot of new and old music so the things we missed out on mtv we can see it like all the oldies that my parents listened to we have a chance to listen to it and we can also listen to the music of today

1st - post

Popular Culture.
This isn't brain surgery; it's just television. -David Letterman
Television is for entertainment as is for educational purposes.
It has more depth in it, i think it does.
like another world outside of the real world such as movies.
To live another world than the one we have or wish to have.
T.V. could also be an addiction such as family time being t.v. time.
Propaganda is widely used for the viewers to be influenced to buy,
think, or do something.

An E-mail that i got this mornining.

i received this e-mail this morning, no joke!

From:	"Major Howard" Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject:	Hello
Date:	Fri, 7 Sep 2007 02:19:53 -0500

Hello
I am. Howard Miller, a British soldier attached to
UN peace keeping force in Iraq, the commanding officer of the First
Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, as you may know, everyday there are
several cases of insurgent attacks and suicide bombs going on here. We
managed to move funds belonging to some demised persons who were attacked
and killed through insurgent attacks.
The total amount is US$15 Million dollars in cash. We want to move this
money to you, so That you may keep our share for us until when we shall
come over to meet you. We will have 70%, my partner and I while you have 30%.
Just help us move it out of here, Iraq is a war zone. We
plan on using Diplomatic courier to ship the money out in two large
metallic Boxes, using diplomatic immunity.
If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find
a reliable partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can I trust you?
When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your
interest including your most confidential telephone/fax numbers for quick
communication also your contact details.
This business is risk free. The boxes can be shipped out in 48hrs.
Respectfully,
Major. Howard Miller
N/B If you are really interested you should reply via this my alternative
email address (howard_miller@myway.com)

Some things are really fake..

Bill Gates is NOT sharing his fortune.

A blue whale does NOT produce 400 gallons of sperm when it ejaculates, causing the saltiness of the sea.

A great white shark did NOT attack a helicopter.

disney perverts?

thats bull! to imagine that artist, who create cartoons for little kids to enjoy, are putting sexually explicit material on their movies, is just plain sick. thats not right. people arn't supposed to be doing that kind of stuff. especially when the audience is children.

???

soooo....what do we do on this thing?

-ashley! <3