The first couple of chapters we read in culture jam really seem to illustrate the fact that we have lost our connection with nature and that our lives have become almost completely consumed by the media. There were a few sentences that really stuck out to me on pg 6 that said "Something has gotten into our brains. Now the most important task on the agenda is to evict them and recover our sanity." I feel like those two sentences seem to sum up the 5 pages I had read before I got to them. I also feel that these sentences highlight the larger picture the author is trying to get us to see: That the media is affecting us more than we realize. The author is trying to tell us that we are not acting like ourselves and we HAVE to do something about it. That sentence really made me think. It makes me think of the question "Are my thoughts really my own?" "Is the media effecting how I think about things?" Those few sentences on pg 6 scared me a little, the choice of the word "evict" I feel really makes the sentence powerful. It makes me think of something crawling in someone's brain and literally taking over their thoughts. It makes me think of the book Prey by Micheal Crichton that we read in Biology class, which if you have not read is a book about nanotechnology taken to kind of the extreme. The technology they created was a "nanotechnology" that formulates a kind of camera that is inserted into the body so doctors can see inside small spaces of your body. However it backfires and the nanotechnology becomes a huge swarm that the doctors can't control and it starts to hunt them, takes control of them, kills them and uses their body as a sort of nest to create more nanotechnology. They are being hunted by the own technology they created. Both of these books seem to be somewhat related in my opinion. Both of these things, the sentences on page 6 and Prey, make me realize that maybe we do need to watch what we are getting ourselves into. I certainly don't want the media and things to come back and bite us in the butt like the nanotechnology came back and attacked the creators of it. Maybe we should think seriously about the things that we are "creating" in the media.
I believe the two sentences with the author's opinion in them from the previous paragraph can be backed up when the author says on pg 18 "Similarly, I have no hard proof that daily exposure to media violence shapes the way you feel about crime and punishment, or affects the way you feel about that guy standing next to you at the bus stop. What I do know is that my natural instinct for spontaneity, camaraderie, and trust has been blunted. I used to pick up hitchhikers; now I hardly ever do. I rarely speak to strangers anymore." The author in this sentence is reiterating the fact that the media is basically in this example manipulating the way we feel about people, how we feel in certain situations or how we feel when certain things happen. I agree with the author that we need to reclaim our mind. We need to get back to that place when we formulated our own opinions and thoughts on things and a place where we learn things in the real world rather than trying to learn things about life from movies, TV and such.
Another point that I think the author makes very clear is the fact that we have been detached from nature. For example he says: "Abandon nature and you abandon your sense of the divine. More than that, you lose track of who you are." That is a very clear statement of the author's opinion. I agree with the fact that in some ways we have been detached from nature. However I feel like that it is not a complete detachment for all people. For example, the author brings up the family that goes camping and basically doesn't know how to act in that type of environment because according to that author that is not virtual life but real life. I feel like this is a generalized opinion. I feel the amount that you are detached from nature depends on the way you were raised. My family and I went camping a lot when I was younger and we liked it a lot and were fine with the disconnection with technology and media. I also feel that the amount you are detached from nature depends on how much you were and are exposed to the media. Some people in the camping atmosphere may feel little to no dis-attachment with technology and media, where others may; that is why I feel like the book tends to make some generalizations. Despite those generalizations I feel that she makes some excellent points.
Altogether in the first couple chapters the author is trying to make us realize the effect that media has on us.
You make a very valid point, our degree of "detachment" or whatever, is closely linked to our exposure to the media. As parents, grandparents and older siblings, the adults in our lives should be telling us "No" if they don't agree with what is being shown or advertised. If the adults aren't taking a stand against the "wrongs of the world" then surely the children won't.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your perception of the media. We may think that we are in charge of our lives, but at the same time, do we really like that shirt or do we like that shirt because "they" are telling us to? Sometimes we have to take a step back and re-evaluate what is really go on. Most of us follow suit and do what is expected of us because we don't know any different. The people that choose to go against everyone else is looked at as different. So how are we suppose to feel? Follow and be cool, or go against and be an outcast. I'm pretty sure this will always be a debate worth looking into. - All thanks to the media.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your evaluation on a detachment from 'nature'. I have been thinking about what the author exactly means by nature however. I don't think he means exclusively the gritty, surrounded by trees, kill your own food and collect your own water kind of nature. I think he also means nature in terms of the way of life that we most naturally fit into. For example, I think one of the ways that technology detaches us from nature is through communication. We are communicative beings and texting, email, even blogs, deface the natural conversation. Forty years ago this type of conversation would have had to take place in a common space where we could all feel the emotion behind eachothers response. This, too, is nature.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you've said. Especially with your points about how the media is affecting us more than we actually realize. I think that's pretty clear. You have girls looking at magazines trying to look like some of the models and you have older woman trying to look younger. I think for some people it really is the media that has taken over their thoughts and how they look at things and other people.
ReplyDeleteI think that you connecting the camping experience in the book to your own really put the chapter into perspective. I couldn’t help but recall my own experiences with my family such as camping and in doing so I didn’t feel detached. I enjoyed my time. I definitely agree that it is up to our elders and siblings to tell us “no” if we are becoming too detached.
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