The Past is Back... Again

As you look around the world of fashion at the moment you see lots of different styles, most of which are good. To me, the items like "Daisy Dukes" and "bell bottoms" are all cool and something interesting to try out for the first time. However, most of the styles that millennials like me get advertised to be the next best thing are all things from the past that have been rebooted into something slightly different but are really the same as before.

One great example is cut off shorts, also known as "Daisy Dukes." This style of shorts was a huge hit in the '70s but after a few years they died off for a little bit. Then in the '90s, Cindy Crawford brought them back with the introduction of her Pepsi commercial. The surge of cut off shorts came back for a little while and then died off again. Now they are back and sell for ridiculous prices. They are advertised as the next best thing and the new, modern way to dress when in reality they have been back and forth in society for decades.

Another example of the past being coming back is in the new movies being released. With the release of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the soon-to-be-released "Rocketman" some of the secrets of the stars that were in the charts decades ago are finally being uncovered. These stars are getting a fame reboot because of societies fascination with the past.

Finally, the reinvention of the iPod. The device I always wanted as a child but when I was finally allowed electronics, was already way past its prime. Apple's big new release is nothing other than a reboot of the iPod which is a bit more high-tech and is now selling for between $199-$399.

As society continues to advance and push into the future, the past makes its way back, again and again, into the lives of those who follow the trends.

Cindy Crawford Pepsi Commercial

Analyzing Entertainment: Clueless

Clueless is one of my favorite movies out there. From the fashion to the lifestyle of the characters it is very appealing to me. However, it has a lot of unrealistic ideas in it.

For example, the main character is tall, blonde, and beautiful not to mention rich and popular too. She is what most girls dream of being. She seems to be perfect. Unfortunately, that is not reality or even close to reality really. Most people can't relate to Cher's outgoing lifestyle, just picking up friends to make themselves feel better. Most people can't convince two teachers to fall in love for the sole purpose of raising their grade.

But maybe its that lack of reality that truly draws viewers in. This movie does have a targeted audience and that is people that aspire to live like Cher. They show what life could be like and draw viewers in using persuasion. While it is not the kindest thing to do, why not do it if it helps ratings right?

Merchants of Cool

As I have gone from school to school growing up I have seen the way trends change. Mostly it happens with clothes, but changes also happen in electronics, habits, even physical features of a person.
People try to stay on trend but when most people finally have the ideas down, society has moved on to some other waste of money. This topic was brought up in the documentary "Merchants of Cool" where they talked about how big companies try to sell a lifestyle to kids and teens, most of the time making what is edgy and out there cool. Unfortunately, doing this makes the idea not cool anymore and completely ruin the trend much faster than it would have gone out had it not been publicized.
People like to be different. That is one reason teens rebel. It makes them stand out and get attention. Its why teens are so caught up in social media: attention.
As brands go on to take over these trends they will continue to trash them while making some bank in the midst.

Dr. Seuss

As I grew up my family had a huge fascination with the stories written by Dr. Seuss. The wackiness and peculiarity of his stories always drew us in. This love was mostly shared by my dad and me probably due to the fact that he is so fun and free-spirited. Dr. Seuss took his imagination and spilled it all out onto paper. He took the gifts of cartoons and youth and turned them into best-selling books for children.
With his inspirational quotes like, "Kid you'll move mountains" and others similar to that, he helped kids go out of their comfort zones and dream big. Dr. Seuss had amazing ideas and extraordinary imagination and that is what made him so famous. He never turned to the draws of money from social media or publicity, he did things his own way and never looked back. This made him so amazing. He didn't write for money or fame, he wrote to help kids branch into their own selves and become the best that they could be.
Dr. Seuss was practical yet not basic at all, a hard place to be it seems like in modern society. That explains why his stories aren't as well known anymore. However, they will always have a place in my heart and in my memories and he is by far one of the best authors out there.

Missrepresentation

As I’ve gone through my life I have heard about the gender inequality factor that is a common factor in the world we live in today. I have seen it in television shows and on social media sites as well. There are different types of advertising techniques also used to target different types of people and some use women as objects to get a certain audiences attention.

I recently did a report on the “Glass Ceiling” and I found out a lot. It was interesting to hear that men still make so much more than women. I think that women do a lot of the same work and pay shows be equal.

However I think that women should be willing to put in the same work and be willing to try for all of their accomplishments in the future just like the successful women of today, and not just expect it because they are women. Everything should be equal, not just leaning the opposite way.

Social media hurts women so much because of the way it portrays them as objects. This was just seen in the documentary “Missrepresentation.” It was interesting to learn new things about women in the field but it was disappointing to hear about how women get photoshopped so much and lots of other horrible things like that. This was a great documentary and I’m very glad to have learned from it.

Are Kids Growing Up Too Fast?

As I’ve grown up my dad has told me stories of when he was my age. It really annoys me because it’s usually due to the fact that he is trying to make a point to me. His stories of childhood are very interesting and it seems like such a simpler time. Little to no technology, big open fields, school, homework, then play, that’s it. Nowadays though, are kids growing up too fast?

Well, yes. As kids reach their “tween” years they start to act more like teens. This means more in their phones and more and more attitude. I’ve definitely noticed this in my sister, and I have to say I think a lot of it has to do with her phone. I got my first phone in 6th grade and social media way later than even that. She got her phone when she was like 8 years old, though.

It’s not all just phones however. It’s also everything you hear and see on a daily basis. When you turn in the radio you hear songs about love or breakups and topics like sex or depression that I really had no idea about at her age but that she knows about. It’s crazy to me that you can turn on your television and a super sexual commercial can be playing. Media is filtered, but so much less now. This is causing kids to grow up way faster.

This does not mean that kids shouldn’t learn about these things or about responsibility, it just means that it is speeding up so much you have to ask yourself, “How far will this go?”

Social media is everywhere nowadays and while there are lots of good parts it also exposes a lot which takes some getting used to.

The Glass Ceiling

Women have been lesser than men for as long as I know. With all of the developments of the current times however, there have also been some developments with the social issue of men being more powerful than women. Unfortunately, women still do equally as hard if not harder jobs and it is proven that they get paid $0.79 for every whole dollar that men make.

This does however differ for age groups. Younger women have more similar of a salary to men than older women to older men.

One part of the issue of women getting paid less than men has been named "The Motherhood Penalty." This is due to the fact that some women have children and they seem to face different issues at the workplace than women with no children. This may be part of the reason why older women seem to have a harder time with their salary and their environment in the workplace.

Despite the differences in salary between younger and older women, there is still a bigger gap between men and women. This is called "The Glass Ceiling." What this term describes is that women can get jobs that pay okay, not great, but enough and they can see the higher level jobs from their place on the "corporate ladder" but they can never get to them because of this difficult invisible force names the Glass Ceiling.

While this is a huge problem that looks hopeless, it is being solved. By spreading the word and making the issue known equality can be reached. Word can be easily spread through social media. On social media, the news, advertisements, or really anywhere else, if the issue is spread enough more can be done to help it. This is one of the good parts about social media. Although the Glass Ceiling is horrible and unfair, its not helpless and all it needs is a little attention.

Persuasion Through Entertainment In the Media

I tend to watch a lot of movies and television shows. I like how they can take me to a place where I normally wouldn't be. For my entire life, my dad has been a huge fan of James Bond. He has a collection of all of the James Bond movies from "Dr. No" to "Spectre". However, while watching them, again for the ten billionth time on vacation with my family over spring break, I noticed how they have a lot of sly advertisements packed away in them.

For me its all about the cars. They really sell them. From the Aston Martin DB5 on movies like "Goldfinger", "Casino Royale", "Skyfall" and others to the Lotus Esprit S1 in "The Spy Who Loved Me", there are a lot of cars being shown off. This is advertising through entertainment. They never straight up say, "Hey, go buy this car!", but instead, they show it off and put them in beautiful locations with a cool guy and sell the cars that way.

They also sell the locations in that same way. They take a shiny, sleek, new car and race it through the city market or the winding hills and make you wish you could be there to feel what it's like to live a day in the life of James Bond, traveling the world in luxury and style.

Through entertainment, the media has found new sly ways to advertise products for big bucks and make profits for companies willing to take a risk skyrocket. This has allowed for advertising to be put inside of some of the most popular television shows and movies, even back to before the first Bond came out, without making a huge distraction.

Generation Z: Are They the Unexpected Brick-And-Mortar Saviors?

For years now brick-and-mortar stores have been fighting to stay in the shopping picture. With a new influx of technology taking over the media it has become so easy to order products online. This has caused millennials to have begun to order more online because they don't mind waiting.

According to a study done by Fluent Commerce, a consultancy specializing in retail order management, 47% of millennials are willing to wait for seven days for a package and 24% are willing to wait ten days or longer. This patience, and really just laziness, has begun to put brick-and-mortar stores out of business.

However, with the introduction of Generation Z to the shopping picture these stores may just be in luck. Multiple studies comparing millennials to Generation Zers have shown that while both hop online and go into stores, millennials are way more commonly found online while Gen Z prefers to go into stores. The reason for this change in preference has to do with many factors. One is the fact that they don't like to wait. They would rather drive to the store and get what they are buying that day than wait sometimes weeks for their packages to arrive. Another reason is the issue of cost. Not only are you buying the product online, but you are also paying tax and shipping and handling. Those are extra dollars that could be spent on other merchandise that is being spent on shipping something that you won't get for a while anyway.

There is also the idea that it is nice to try the product you are buying on in store. for example, makeup is a huge product that millennials buy, and they would rather test it on themselves in the store than wait for it to get to them only to wait again to return it and buy something else.

Since the realization that brick-and-mortar stores were going out, they have tried to reinvent themselves. A perfect example is Nordstroms. According to an article by Forbes, Nordstroms has put in minibars and stylists that you can interact with and get specialized help from, and that is just something that you cannot get online.

As times change so does the media. People are starting to see how technology affects us but that doesn't change that media still hypes up online shopping, causing brick-and-mortar stores to go out. However, some of these stores have begun to advertise their stores just as much as their product making their stores more desirable and helping their businesses succeed.

Coachella

Many of the people who live in California have heard of the music festival by the name of Coachella. That is because it is a huge deal, especially in the world of celebrities, and is posted majorly by thousands of people who get to attend. However, not many people know exactly what Coachella is.

Coachella is a humongous music festival held in Indio, California. It features many huge artists, most of which are different each year. These celebrities are the main draw. However, the artists only play small parts of each day. While there aren't major artists performing the entire time, there is always less known bands performing. There are also multiple different tents set up with different types of entertainment to keep the guests happy. This should be the case due to the fact that the tickets cost anywhere from $429 to $999.

Coachella started in 1999 when the band Pearl Jam got into a fight about the prices of their tickets. When no agreement was reached, they went out and performed at an event in Indio, California, starting the famous event Coachella.

Coachella doesn't do much of its own advertising. This is where it starts to tie in with the media. They put up the bright lights and colorful attractions and pay for the acts to be there, but in reality, the whole festival is a huge advertisement. Not only do celebrities perform at the festival, but even more, celebrities also come to enjoy the festival. This is their chance to enjoy the hot desert sun, some good music, and crazy fashion. They take all of these fun things and post them all over their social media, bringing in more attention from each of their fans. This contributes to some of the diversity seen at Coachella. From the fans to the A-listers anyone who goes to this festival posts about it, bringing in attention from millions of new people.

The Language in the News: Donald Trump

Donald Trump is a very big part of conversation these days. His presidency is a very hot topic and causes arguments all over the place. However, recently it has been noticed that most of the news posted about him is written in a negative light.

In two articles written about Trump and his impact on America’s economy, we see the impact of a difference of opinion very clearly.

In an article published by CNN, they point out all of his flaws thus far. They use adjectives such as deflates, when describing his numbers compared to Obama’s, and then describing Trumps presidency as “efforts” compared to Obama making “extraordinary measures.” They use degrading words to describe Trump while using words like “gift” and “extraordinary” to describe Obama and his presidency. They go on to say that it is “hard to compare Trumps and Obama’s job creation” because Obama helped the country when it was struggling very much. By saying that you really can’t compare these two jobs isn’t fair because by saying this it makes Trump look like he has don't significantly less than Obama making him look worse.

In another article published by The Washington Times, we see a different view of Donald Trump. They use words like “growth” when describing his impact on the economy. They write that he has created “robust jobs creation and rising wages” that Obama could not deliver. They also refer to him as “Mr. Trump” which is a step up from some of the other things he is described as. It shows respect, rather than the idea that he is below them.

Different sources of news in the media have different opinions on topics discussed socially. The more popular the topic is, the greater the opinions differ and the hotter the arguments get. The language that news outlets use impacts the idea that comes from that source.

 CNN Article
Washington Times Article

My Relationship with the Media

My relationship with the media is one that has been forming my whole life. Right around the birth of my generation media boomed. This of course connected with the booming of technology. I wasn't allowed to have any media accounts until about middle school, but from then on it has been an almost daily ritual.

As I have grown older and older I have gotten even more connected to media as well with things like Snapchat and Instagram. Now I don't even sit at a dinner with my family without taking out my phone. My parents don't like it, but they don't take it away either. this is due to the fact that it is a huge part of their lives as well. lots of my schoolwork is done online now and even books are available through the web.

I choose not to be a big part of politics because I just find it annoying and as something to fight about, however, I do love hearing about what is happening in the world. my phone tells me some of the stories of events that happen around the globe, but honestly, I don't do that much research independently.

I do love to watch shows and movies using sources such as Hulu and Netflix and most of the things I watch incorporate modern day issues into their storylines. there are also advertisements on TV and each of my social media accounts that tune me into what the media shows us.

My relationship with the media is deep and has been growing my whole life. As time progresses it will continue to grow as long as I let it, but as long as I do let it be such a big part of who I am, I need to be willing to face the consequences whatever they may be.