Myspace mini-ethnography

(This is my online persona-Bea Complexx, who I guess looks and acts much like a powder puff girl)
So what do I have in common with my 9th grade students? Well despite being way too old, I have a myspace account. I don’t really know how it started but I got sucked in and have wasted immense periods of time on it. Since I am familiar with the subject, I decided to do my mini-ethnography on social networking sites, specifically myspace. As I peruse the pages of my top 8 I notice several things. One, everyone has listed their favorite activities, music, movies and books. People are volunteering information about their (gasp) personal lives, such as aspirations and goals, hero’s and respected influences. Filling out this information isn’t required to have a myspace yet everyone complies and dutifully fills out the lists. I suppose leaving it blank would defeat the purpose of myspace, which is basically an online advertisement of one’s self. Hey pick me! I like the same stuff as you! Put me in your top 8! However, most of my friends aren’t really there to meet new people. I can’t think of any that “accept” friend requests from people they don’t somehow marginally know. My friends use it more to communicate with each other. I know with my brother and husband it is a constant competition of who can put the most ridiculous video on the other’s site. Another way my friends use myspace is to advertise activities they are involved in. My sister and her fiancé have a site for their kickball team, my friend’s band posts songs for people to play on their own myspace site and my friend Graham sends out bulletins when he has an art show. They use myspace not really to advertise themselves but their interests and projects. It seems pretty effective too.

More and more we are communicating in short and impersonal ways. Now if I want to tell someone something, I don’t have to “deal” with the actual communication part, I can leave a comment on their myspace. I don’t have to be inconvenienced with actual speaking, but can text on my phone and I don’t have to waste time with actual words, because I can just use letters (LOL, BRB). As an adult I don’t see too much harm coming from these sites. I’m too old for the perverts now and, as an adult, I would not be taken in by a sweet-talking, or should I say sweet-message leaving manipulator. However, I am concerned about my students. They have such a different concept of privacy. I recently set my profile to private because several students had “found” me and wanted to be my friend. There would be many things wrong with that idea. And even though this is contradictory, there are parts of my life that, despite putting it on the internet, I do not want my students to know.

Postmodern & Feminist Anaylsis

“It’s the combination of narcissism and nihilism that really defines postmodernism."
-Al Gore

I don’t really think that Al Gore is the expert on postmodern philosophy but I did like this quote and thought it appropriate for the 2 media texts I’m looking at. I picked the movie Clueless because I just really like that movie and then a clip from the TV show, The Hills, a show I have never watched. I thought the 2 texts would be interesting to look at together since they are supposedly portraying the same population. In the trailer for Clueless, the main characters are represented as vapid, self-obsessed, rich and beautiful. It appears that their lives revolve around shopping, going to parties and talking their way out of doing whatever it is they don’t want to do. Narcissism and apathy at its best. In the montage of The Hills, the main “characters” lay by the pool, shop and have cell phones permanently connected to their faces. There also seems to be an awful lot of crying, because I’m sure the shopping and the IMing gets to be a little much. The girls don’t seem to have much depth. There are many differences between the 2 texts; Clueless is clearly a satire of that culture, where The Hills seems to be celebrating it. Or marketing it to teenagers. Clueless, which is loosely adapted from Jane Austen’s novel Emma, finally redeems the characters in the end when Cher helps out with the Pismo Beach Relief Drive and begins to watch CNN instead of Ren and Stimpy. I’m not sure how The Hill’s girls turn out. I know from the tabloids that the 2 main girls Lauren and Heidi are no longer friends.

I thought I would examine these texts through the feminist lens as well. In both examples, the girls are very interested in physical appearances. Cher has a computer program that perfectly matches pieces from her giant wardrobe, so she can have the ultimate outfit. When she invites her crush over she sets a lighting scheme so she is constantly bathed in good lighting. When the girls are upset they go to the mall and shop. With The Hills, the main character works in the fashion industry. She and her friends worry about what to wear to the big events. They make sure to lay out and get a good tan and to hit the gym to stay in shape. This portrayal feeds into the idea that girls are only interested in looking pretty. In both examples friendships with other girls is also portrayed in stereotypical fashion. In Clueless, Cher’s nemesis is Amber, who is always trying to copy her. In The Hills, the feud between Lauren and Heidi is what counts for entertainment news these days. Both conflicts seem to stem from competition between the girls. Whether it is over guys, clothes or status, the girls show that women can’t be friends because the other is a threat to one’s identity or relationship with a guy.

Media Representations of Work

What does it mean to work in America? According to the media it sucks. I suppose many might say that is redundant, that no one likes to work, but I don’t believe, like the media suggests, everyone hates their job. In most media representations work means putting on a suit and sitting in a cubicle for 8 hours a day doing something completely uninspiring and seemingly unnecessary. Office life is dominated by technology and is often isolating. Workers sit and stare at a computer all day long. They communicate via email and text and fax and phone, rarely in person, and when they do its over drinks after work. It seems that workers have no relationships outside of work and their only way to have a romantic relationship is with their fellow co-workers. Work is also portrayed as white-collar, where everyone is able to make car payments and go out for drinks at happy hour. Work is clean, sterile and usually unsatisfying. There aren’t a lot of shows or films where the principle characters are construction workers or fast food employees. And if they are, inexplicably they are still part of the upper-middle class. I thought these commercials were clever but contributed to the image of all office workers hate their jobs. Also I have a mini-slide show with some photos of “work”

Careerbuilders.com Commercials:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-En-JrsBBc

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