Unit Two, Lesson 5, 142-158

 

S. Craig Watkins, “Fast Entertainment and Multitasking in an Always-On World”

One. How is pop culture like “snack culture”?

Because we devour smaller and smaller bites of entertainment and information so that our brains’ attention span gets smaller and smaller and we become in a way dehumanized consumers of superficial junk food tidbits.

Easy consumption turns us into mindless and dehumanized consumers. We’re deluded into thinking our gadgets and technologies, the conduits or windows for these “snacks” are uplifting us and bringing us into a super candy store but in reality we are losing our brains, minds, and souls.

Old media guard sees this addictive behavior and wants to get in on the act so big networks are creating bite-sized media for the new human creature of our Tech Era.

Ted Talks are the “great lectures,” which last 18 minutes.

Twitter has small word allowance.

Jerry Seinfeld’s new website has interviews that last about 20 minutes or so.

YouTube videos that are 2.9 minutes are most popular.

Two. How do we consume more and less at the same time?

Because we consume more videos but they videos are shorter and shorter. We can’t focus on anything too long. We’re restless for more and more irrelevance that feebly “fills us up.”

Three. How has our culture changed in the new Snack Bite Era?

Our homes are now “wire castles,” centered on gratifying our snack bite lusts.

“Candy store” media provides maximum convergence of opportunity to indulge our snack bite taste buds.

Children spend one-fourth of their lives on multiple media (146).

Four. What does multitasking do to us?

In short, it makes us stupid and feeds the false promise of getting more and more done in a shorter period of time (148). We suffer from “dual-task interference.”

The real term for multitasking is “scattered attention,” a dehumanized state (150).

We now suffer from information overload and wisdom deficit (151).

Writing Assignments for First Research Paper so far:

Page 96, Reading the Signs, Number 1

Page 151: Reading the Signs, numbers 3 and 5.

John Verdant, “The Ables vs. the Binges” 152

One. What characteristics define the Ables?

1. The Ables represent the Conscientious Consumer of Uncompromising Convictions.
2. They are utilitarian, consuming those things that are useful while eschewing those things that feed vanity and point to social status.
3. Consumerism is a non-emotional, practical concern and is never driven by “passion for things.”
4. Consumerism must always be put in the context of waste and recycling.
5. Research, not commercial hype, is at the center of consumer choice.
6. Connecting with community, not Internet shopping, should be first priority in making consumer choices.
7. Being considerate to local merchants by avoiding credit cards and therefore sparing merchants credit card fees is part of the Ables’ Moral Code.
8. They buy “lifetime products,” which must be maintained and serviced, not replaced if possible.
9. They keep meticulous records of warranties and receipts in order to spare themselves of being stuck with a defective product.
10. Consumer choices and boycotts are opportunities to express moral and social convictions.
11. The Ables are pro-labor and will start protests in large chain stores if the manager won’t let the workers discuss their labor policies with the Ables.
12. The Ables buy organic food since its expensive price tag is still cheaper than going through the trauma of cancer.
13. The Ables eschew cosmetic purchases. Beauty is in the soul, not a clown makeup façade.
14. The Ables choose to work as much as they like in order to minimize their taxes owed to the government.
15. Because the Ables are not enmeshed in the consumer bingeing cycle, they are more content than their consumer neighbors.
16. The Ables treat consumer debt like the Mark of the Beast, Satan, and the Devil. “Don’t let that evil creature in our house.”

Two. What Characteristics Define the Binges?

1. They are gullible consumers who are getting punk-fed by the Man’s Advertising Machine.
2. They feed their consumer lusts by watching lots of TV.
3. They rely on consumer debt to indulge their consumer appetites.
4. They are attracted to poshlost, banal vulgarity posing as grandiosity.
5. They feed off lowbrow culture or the Ignoramus Consumption Machine: chain restaurants, HomeTown Buffet, NASCAR races, malls, movie theaters, etc.
6. Insecure in their vanity, they engage in impulse buys of fashion, hoping these sartorial accouterments will make them more popular and loveable.
7. They are gullible and helpless to alleged department store “sales,” which are in fact marketing manipulations designed to control the spending habits of ignorant people.
8. Their house is a cluttered, chaotic mess of “old and new crap” that they don’t know what to do with.
9. After a shopping splurge, their curb on garbage collection day will cluttered with big shopping bags, electronics boxes, Styrofoam inserts, and other wasteful displays, which are inimical to the environment, a fact they are ignorant and apathetic about.
10. They don’t maintain their own home functions but rather rely on the big chains to service their plumbing, electricity, rain gutters, computer repair, etc. In other words, they are helpless to fend for themselves when it comes to maintaining all the crap they buy.
11. Their self-image is dependent on what they wear, designer labels, and big-name products. They buy a best-selling book and leave it on their coffee table so everyone can see they have the “hot book” even though no one in the family has read it. They are philistines, ciphers that can only define themselves by the things they buy.
12. Their friendships suffer because for them consumerism is an ugly form of aggressive competition against “their opponents.”
13. They buy cars every year or so to “resurrect their self-image” that are marketed with gimmicks. There are always ranked dead last in Consumer Reports because they’re too lazy to do research.
14. They have no original thoughts or passion about ideas; rather, they parrot what they saw on American Idol or some other fatuous TV show. (Ah, the American Dream!)
15. Because they need second jobs to pay for all the crap they don’t need, they’re too busy to cook and instead frequent chain restaurants.
16. Their children no nothing of maturity or values; as a result, the oldest daughter has already been married and divorced twice. Their eldest son is always “changing his look” to alleviate his existential vacuum. The mother “stinks” of heavy sprays, perfumes, and other chemical products that she lavishes on her fat body. She also reeks of cigarettes and is scarred from junk-food-induced acne. Her muscles have atrophied from lack of exercise so she looks like a fat tomato with four toothpicks sticking out of it. She is a failure of a role model to her children. Also it should be pointed out she hasn’t eaten a vegetable in over a decade. Sadly, her daughters also aspire to the More Makeup Is Better philosophy and are trying to conceal their disintegrating souls with monster applications of stinky make-up products.

 Which family would you rather be in?

Essay Options for first Research Paper

Reading the Signs, Number 5, page 151

Watkins claims that "we have evolved from a culture of instant gratification to one of constant gratification" (para. 9). Drawing upon Laurence Shames's "The More Factor" (p. 90), write an essay analyzing whether "consuming media on the go" is a twenty-first century extension of "the hunger for more."

Reading the Signs, Numbers 3 and 5, page 158

Using Joan Kron's "The Semiotics of Home Decor" (p. 128) as a critical framework, write an essay in which you analyze the meanings that material goods hold for both the Able and the Binge families.

Drawing on Laurence Shames's "The More Factor" (p. 90), analyze the Binge family's attitudes toward consumption. To what extent could they be said to be suffering from "the hunger for more"?