Andrea's Blog

Karen Sternheimer wrote Media Phobia about panics and how, rather than solving our problems we often panic about them. Sternheimer writes, “Panics about popular culture ebb and flow throughout history. They are often masked attempts to condemn the tastes and cultural preferences of less powerful social groups.” What she means by this is that we are easily able to criticize these groups rather than trying to understand these groups. Sternheimer also says,  “…Popular culture is frequently used as a proxy for hostility, and so we condemn a group’s cultural preferences rather than openly express it towards the group.” What this kind of makes me think of is the recent school shooting that happened in Florida. People hear about school shootings and panic and jump to the conclusion that gun control is the ultimate salutation to ending these repetitive recurrences. If the media took a step back and looked at the situation at hand they would see that this is a mental health issue rather th...

In the video it showed us how Technology takes over our social lives and our lives at home because we are together when we are using our phones and our computers but were really not together. You saw this in the video when the College student was talking about how his friend was on his phone during one of their conversations but it was okay because he knew he was going to do the same thing later in their conversation. Later on in the video you see the people at the World of War Craft convention. For some of them they had never met but of other's they fell in love through this game and got married. There are good and bad things that come from technology. Some of these pro/cons are saying that social media made them friendships but some say social media ruined their friendships. ( New York Magazine, Relevant Magazine ) There are some of the pro/cons that say social media is a great platform for business and others say they don't use it at all because it causes problems. (acog.or...

Technology has changed the way people interact with each other because technology is all around us. In Sherry's TED talk she talked about how her and her daughter both sleep with their phones right next to them. This didn't happen 10 years ago. She says "They not only change what we do, but who we are.". She's talking about our relationships. She talks about the parents at the breakfast table on their phones and their kids complaining about not having their parents full attention. How hypocritical. You know those kids are doing the exact same thing to each other when they hang out together on their own time. I think we use technology to hide from others and from ourselves. Sherry talks about how she's seen people on their phones at funerals to get away from their emotions. I can actually relate to this because sometimes when I'm walking somewhere I'll look at my phone to avoid talking to someone or even making eye contact with someone. I think our rel...