Mass Media's direct effect on Society

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2011/03/26/2011-03-26_more_people_get_breast_implants_today_than_10_years_ago_but_nose_jobs_lipo_are_o.html

So plastic surgery in America isn't quite as popular as it used to be. It's probably because it is no longer a hot topic in the news, so we don't have as much exposure to it as we used to. It's still "reported" on everytime a major celebrity is said to have had plastic surgery..... But it's no longer such a big deal.

(Except in the case of Heidi Montag, but that was truly a crazy transformation.)

It makes sense, how the rates of surgery goes down with the lack of circulation of the topic. But isn't it frightening how much our society is impacted by celebrity gossip? So much focus on the bodies of strangers makes us want the same type of attention (or less negative attention), so we strive to look as perfect as we think they are themselves.

"How are they doing it?" Celebrities seem to always get in shape quickly. We learn that the most drastic changes happen under the knife, so we too put our lives on the table just to "improve" our looks.

Breast implants will most likely be popular forever, but it does make me feel better to know that the rates of plastic surgery are going down. America has enough to worry about... I don't think we need to spend thousands on our chests.

Hi Speed What?

Even though I grew up in the time if the internet it still amazes me at the possibilities it brings. I was sitting in the student center the other day and one of my friends asks me if I had seen this music video? We start watching this ridiculous video of what looks to be a junior high girl. I told her I had never seen it before; we continue watching and I am amazed that this is real. I can't seem to figure out who would invest money in this little girl. My friend kept going on about how this video link was all over her facebook homepage and people were posting and commenting like crazy. When I started looking more into the video I found of that just a week ago the video had only recieved 4,000 hits, yesterday over 6 million hits and by today there have been over 9 million hits. When there is something that people want to share it gets around the internet fast. She has become an youtube celebrity over night. What are your thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0&feature=player_embedded

95 and an illegal immigrant?

Recently, 95 year old Leeland Davidson found out that he's not considered a US citizen, despite the fact that he's lived here his whole life and fought in the US Navy during WWII. Both his parents are from Iowa, but he was born in Canada, and they never bothered to register his birth with the government so that they knew he was a citizen. Now he doesn't know if he'll even be able to prove that his parents were citizens because they were born before the US kept records of birth certificates in 1880. Davidson wants to be considered an American citizen before he dies, but he's been told by his local passport office that if he raises too much attention, he could lose his Social Security, or even be deported.

This whole event seems pointless. Why are they even arguing over whether or not he should be considered a citizen? He spent his whole life living in America and fought for the country, isn't that enough? So what do you think? Should he still have to go through the process of becoming a legal US citizen, or should he automatically be granted his citizenship?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110324/us_yblog_thelookout/wwii-vet-discovers-hes-not-a-u-s-citizen

The mysterious death of Knut the polar bear

Some of you might know about the mysterious death of Knut the polar bear that happened on March 19, 2011 at the Berlin zoo. The death of Knut the polar bear was such a big deal because he was the first polar bear in 30 years to survive past infancy without his mother. His mother deserted him at birth and so because of that he was raised by zookeepers. The cause of death has not been found out yet. There is speculation that part of the reason for the polar bear's death might have something to do with him being in captivity for so long. Here is a video to help explain more his life and the controversy about his death.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmLfw2SjcMg

So the question is did him being in captivity for so long contribute to his death?

Time to start petitioning Dr. Fisher, stat...

We all could probably use this, from time to time...

Yale Law School To Counter Stress With A Dog

Chris Brown outburst after Good Morning America

Today I saw in the headlines that Chris Brown had broken a window to his dressing room at Good Morning America after being asked questions about Rihanna. In the interview he went on to say that “It’s not really a big deal to me now, as far as that situation. I think I’m past that in my life. Today’s the album day, so that’s what I’m focused on.” Chris Brown’s new album “F.A.M.E” was released today and was the top downloaded album on iTunes.

So did this incident this morning help him in his album sales? In my opinion, yes. The incident against Rihanna happened 2 years ago and Chris Brown plead guilty and completed everything the court asked him to. He basically disappeared for awhile to figure things out. I believe people are ready to look past what he did and start to focus on his music.

Do you think people are going to hold this against him or do you think people will start to look past it all and focus on his music?

Here is a video that recaps what happened.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgVFwrXFEX8

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/22/people-chrisbrown-idUSN2218869520110322

It Could Be Worse

In a society that prides itself in our ability to speak freely through twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other various media it would be difficult to image a world of strict government censorship. Well China has strengthened its choke hold on electronic communications to maintain social order. Chinese government has target Google as a source of social unrest, even allegedly sabotaging Gmail. But it is more than mass communication like intercepted emails; China's listening ear even invades personal conversations on cell phones ending calls as it sees fit. So as we all groan at thought of teens singing about weekdays and denim, Chinese government has banned the search of the word "freedom"for over six months now.
Read the entire article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22china.html

Twitter Bigger Than Ever

Exactly 5 years ago, the Twitter sensation began. It is hard to imagine living a day without Twitter being mentioned, but not long ago days like that did in fact exist. Its growth was gradual, but amazingly there are about 200 million people that use the website today. These are not just ordinary people either. Even the President of the United States tweets. Just to put some of the numbers in perspective: If there are 140,000,000 tweets on a day-to-day basis, that means that 1,600 tweets must be completed EACH second.

Before it humbly started out as a status update type website, letting the people who starved for answers about what celebrities ate with their cereal. In 2007, it only boasted about 5000 tweets every day. However, two years ago it became a fully reliable news source and a venue for major stories to unfold. It has seen people across the world through major events, tragedies, and celebration-worthy occurrences. For example, the Hudson River plane crash with pilot "Sully" Sullenberger became public knowledge because of Twitter. People protesting in countries such as Iran and Egypt actually utilized the website to make plans and to organize.

While it is wonderful for its "democratization of information," according to Biz Stone (one of Twitter's co-founders), Twitter is also legendary for its incapability to contain the amount of information its users try to view/submit (especially with how often the "Fail Whale" makes an appearance).

Several shifts have occurred within the company, the latest of which was Dick Costolo moving from the COO position to the CEO position less than 1/2 year ago. Now his responsibility will mainly be the task of shifting Twitter to an actual business, which seems like the reasonable thing to do considering it gained $360,000,000 just in investments and has been able to hire 400 employees. At the same time, it has seen little profit on the sidelines.

Tweets need to accumulate wealth if Twitter has any hope of remaining a successful business. There is hope on the horizon due to companies like Google that offer payment to Twitter for its up-to-date postings and information.

Jack Dorsey, who was one of the original Twitter creators, said, "The big thing I learned from Twitter are these concepts of immediacy, transparency, and approachability."

What do you think of these three concepts? How have they affected communication today, and are these effects for the better or for the worse?

For more information on Twitter's 5th birthday, click HERE.

It's Sunday (Sunday, Sunday)

So after we were all shown that lovely video of Rebecca Black singing about Friday and the days surrounding it, I began to think about how terrible it truly is that her video went viral. She is a young girl, 13 to be exact, with her whole life ahead of her, but her legacy (unless she does something else as infamous...) will be this video. This said video went viral because everyone is saying it is literally the WORST song ever. I'm not sure anybody would want to leave that legacy, especially if they are expecting to be taken seriously in the music industry. It seems now that instead of having really any possibility of a credible music career, she will always be pegged as the girl with the worst song ever. What is going on with our entertainment industry? Has it sunk so low and become so desperate for money that it now resorts to exploiting young, aspiring entertainers? I'm sure Rebecca Black is loving the attention now, until she realizes its all people who are making fun of her. Is there any way that our entertainment industries will get back to the way they used to be? What is the future of that business?

Oh, and here is the "unplugged" version of Friday, in case you haven't seen it yet...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtVtSTr070

http://hangout.altsounds.com/features/127534-is-this-really-the-worst-song-ever-rebecca-black-friday-issue-1-a.html

Movie Rental Stores? What's That?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm one of those people that likes to walk into a Movie Rental and browse the shelves. That was part of family night at my house. There used to be four movie rental stores near my house. Now there's one and it's barely hanging in.

What could possibly be the downfall for these fantastic stores? I think it might be because of cable packages like ONDemand. I know that because I have that, my family doesn't go to the movie rentals anymore. My mom is obsessed with it and I have to say, it's very convenient. You don't have to go out anymore, but it doesn't give off the same experience for me. Technology has shown that, once again, it can improve, but is it worth an experience that used to be fun for most people?

I want to know what you think is the downfall of Movie Rentals and why? Which do you prefer?