Fashion meets function

Many famous brands such as Rag & Bone and Michael Kors have started a new trend in fashion: fingerless gloves; they are seen in many runway shows and stores. The reason for such product is that people stopped buying and wearing gloves because we are all so used to multitasking that we need to use our fingers and its not easy to use them with normal gloves. Guess what? One of the tasks that we do most of the time is texting! Therefore, famous designers found a solution to this problem by designing fashionable, fingerless gloves. There are many types of gloves that are adapted for special use such as Harris Tweed gloves for men that thumb flings back so they can use their guns (it was for men using guns, or workers) or there are "biker gloves" that are for motorcycle users. Now, as constant texting is part of our thanks to Blackberry, "texter gloves" are invented! Fashion is adapting to new technology because technology is changing the way we live, and we need other parts of our lives to be adapted to that. Fashion is not just appearance anymore; more functions are added to it, just like new functions are added to new technologies all the time.

Good Grades = Free Phones

An interesting experiment was initiated in Oklahoma city to middle school students: if they get good grades and read more books, the program called the Million, will be giving free phones with free minutes and texts. It is a very controversial promotion, since it is believed that spending time in the internet and phone causes children to read books; and now it is expected to motivate them. Using financial incentives to motivate people to work harder is a commonly used method; however, it is highly doubted if it will work for 6th or 7th graders. In my opinion, I don't believe will teach students the true habit of reading a book and studying hard, but it will get them somewhere. Turning the obstacle on the way of education into an opportunity for motivation is not a bad idea, because no matter what happens, phone addiction in teenagers are not going anywhere. If this program is going to enable students to balance their time on the phone and on school work, it will be success and everyone will reach their goals.

Religion meets new media

As media grows and becomes an inseparable part of our lives, it affects our religiousness as well. First of all, religions are part of media, which are targeted for the masses and to bring people together. The Kuran, the Bible and the Torah can be considered as media artifacts that convey the message of each religion. The new media emerged and became a place where people meet to discuss and debate religious issues. There are many websites that provide information on religion so in a way they started t replace the religious books because it is much easier to find what you’re looking for. Therefore, media is used to bridge communication gaps and encourage heterogeneous relations between people. Social networking sites help religious communities to get together and communicate. When a celebrity passes away many fans put up discussion boards and pages; internet also changed the way people grieve. There are many applications for phones about religion all serving different purposes. There are TV shows where people read the Bible and discuss it. So overall, media opened up new ways for religion to spread and reach its audience. 

Smirting

As I was observing what to pick as a media artifact, I realized I was always focusing on technology, ads, TV shows or movies. However, these media artifacts rarely enable people to come together on a personal basis. Drinking is often considered as a social tool; it brings people together, and is often served in places where people go to have fun and meet others.  I realized smoking has an even greater impact on communication, of course to those that smoke. Smirting is a modern term that means smoking and flirting outside public places where it is illegal to smoke outside. This is true; many smokers always say that they meet so many people when they go outside to smoke. Although, it is a very harmful habit, smoking does bring people together and make them communicate.  Smirting was first identified in New York in 2003, and articles titled “Smoking ban lights up love life” began to be published. In fact, this concept is so common that, one study showed 25% of Irish couples had a relationship that started while smoking outside.  Overall, cigarettes are a very widespread medium that allows people to communicate and it is a proof how media is not just limited to technology.

Why People can’t think for themselves

                  Last week in one of my classes, the professor showed us a video of Tony Robbins, in which he is lecturing the rest of the world about how to be happy and successful. The title of the video is “Why we do what we do and how we can do it better”; he gives a 20 minute speech that is suppose to motivate and inspire the audience. For those who don’t know him, Tony Robbins is a self-help author; he is the author of several self help books on enhancing relationships, overcoming fear and other similar issues.

After watching this video, I started thinking how the self-help industry has been affecting our society. I am not against people learning from media; in fact, media has a substantial part in our learning. However, I have no support for self-help books, shows or lectures, whatsoever. It’s not just that I believe they are completely worthless, I feel it also pushes people to stop thinking for their problems and coming up with their own solutions. After all, I know myself better than Tony Robbins’ generalized comments. It should also be noted that Robbins is not licensed in any psychological sciences; so, what really makes Robbins superior than the rest of us? He wrote a book on how to make a marriage last a lifetime, and then he divorced his wife and got married to his girlfriend who is half his age. I don’t want to make any judgmental comments about his personal life, but as he’s not a trained professional, who would want help on marriage from a divorced person?

                Tony Robbins is just an example of the rapidly growing self help industry. There are self help books about anything in bookstores.  On TV there are reality shows that people join to face their challenges and the so-called experts on life help them get better.  Maybe there are people that find these books, shows or seminars helpful and inspiring; however, I just believe the industry manipulates people’s problems and makes it even worse by not giving them a chance to be strong enough to figure it out by themselves. 

TV and Tourism

Countries have been using media as a way to promote themselves and attract tourists; hotels and airlines have been using it massively. However, there is much more influence other than direct marketing to tourism than we realize. It happens all the time; a certain scene of a popular movie takes place in some restaurant, and that place starts booming. Either intentional or not, movies and TV shows affect tourism a lot. It determines the tourist profile that visits those places. For instance, I just came across a video about how Turkish soap operas have been affecting tourism in Istanbul, especially from the Islamic regions.

 Recently, many of Turkish shows have been shown in Middle Eastern countries; and since then, tourism from those countries increased highly. It is a hugely growing trend; many of these tourists never been to Turkey before but lately all the flights are full and hotels are packed. The video has interviews of people about how they decided to visit Istanbul and they all give similar answers saying that they’ve been seeing it on TV and considered it would be nice to see the country themselves. Those TV shows proved that they would be comfortable in the country since the culture is very similar but also more liberal. None of the other mediums portrayed Turkey to tourists the way those shows did. You cannot get that kind of information from the web, newspapers or travel agencies. TV is a culturally subjective medium, and it is different in each country. It has a substantial effect on people relative to other media; and it definitely has an indirect influence on the travel industry as well.

Is American culture obsessed with alcohol?

Portrayal of alcohol in media has a lot of influence on people and their drinking habits; media tells people when and what to drink. For instance, have you ever paid attention to the number of beer ads on tv, especially if a football game is on? They are repetitive and keep increasing in number. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with reaching the target market a business is aiming for.  But with continuingly streaming media, it is becoming much more than selling a product to the customer. It is affecting customer’s habits; today, people cannot watch a sports game without having a beer. This did not just happen because people who watch sports are also people who drink beer. Beer became a must have for some occasions. Think of barbeque parties as well; there’s always beer served.  There’s an alcoholic beverage that suits almost every occasion.  How did alcohol become a celebration drink? Weddings, birthdays, college parties or any event that celebrates something does it by serving alcohol.

On the other hand, many people discuss that too much emphasis is on positive aspects of drinking when negative effects are disregarded by media. You can’t expect any ad to show negative sides of a product. However, whether it is bad or not, American culture has become obsessed with alcohol and media has a big part in this. There’s nothing wrong about having alcohol ads on TV; the obsession factor comes in when the number of them increase and start affecting people more than convincing them to buy their products.  And, this is not just true for TV commercials, movies and TV shows do an indirect marketing of alcohol by portraying the glorified fun that comes by drinking. Overall, there’s barely any media that you cannot see alcohol.

The “Personal Stamp Ad”

A popular nightclub in India called Enigma, located in Hotel Marriot, stamps each of its customer’s hands with the phone number of the local cab company.  This is the most effective ad idea I heard about recently; it doesn’t only advertise the cab company but it also saves lives by possibly lowering the DUI cases.  The idea has been so effective that it is now taken up by other clubs and also the Mumbai police. This is a medium that no one entering the club can avoid; and its success comes from being at the right place at the right time. It proves how important location is for advertising or any media for that matter.  It reaches its target audience, and simply delivers its message. It also solves a problem for people to look for a cab after leaving the club. Rather than putting posters or handing out flyers that many people easily ignore, the ad is personalized by stamping it on each customer’s hand.  It is the most simple and effective ad idea that is actually useful for the customers. 

Are we addicted to the digital?

              Everyone that has been to a concert saw people lifting up their smartphones or digital cameras to mark the moment, distracting the people around them. In fact, they are so into capturing the show with their cameras, they don’t even enjoy being there and seeing it live. I came across an article in the WSJ titled “Is video killing the concert vibe?” that got me thinking about this issue. The article was a story about Natalie Merchant’s recent concert where she got so annoyed by her live audience watching her from their screens that she stopped the concert and said “This is live. This is where the show is.”

            The recorded media is changing the patterns of ownership in the entertainment business; for instance, the movie business has been fighting against piracy and copyright infringement ever since recorded media devices became available to the public. But it is not just that. Digital media is manipulating the limitations of time and space. Things that are becoming more cyber rather than digital are not just objects but people themselves too. While being physically there at the concert, people are not really there to enjoy the moment. We don’t appreciate live or real anymore, as much as we do the digital. So we end up with our videos saved in our laptops, without having any memorable, lived experiences.

Apple's 1984 Commercial

          1949, George Orwell published his most popular novel called “1984”. The novel is set in a dystopia where there’s a strict ruling party that the “Big Brother” dictates. This Big Brother has the control over all of his people through technology. There are telescreens everywhere that monitors citizens. Everybody is the victim of “the Party’s” rules, and everybody is basically the same.

            In 1984, Apple introduced its first Macintosh computer with a powerful commercial that was referring to Orwell’s novel. You can watch the video below. 1970’s were the times people were becoming familiar with the concept of personal computers. Thus, to convince them that this product is much different than other technologies, and that it’ll be a “personal” product, the marketing strategies were towards this idea.

            What’s so unique about this ad is that they never show you the product. This proves the significance of marketing to get the customers attention; it is not solely dependent on the product itself. By promoting this lifestyle and the idea of computers that are “personal”, Macintosh introduces a revolutionary product. Another important point about this ad is that it suggests that it will free people by selling a mass-produced product. However, today, we say that everyone’s becoming identical and too reliant on these technologies rather than being unique. 

1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

What is Media?

                                                           

           As we landed on Jose Marti Airport in Havana, Cuba, me and my three other friends were having mixed feelings of excitement and anxiety; it was our first time in a communist country and we knew nothing about it. We could not book our hotel beforehand since there was no proper websites for hotels, and we were not even sure if we would make it to Cuba. We tried turning our cell phones on but we did not have service. After settling in some hotel that the cab driver took us, we found out that their credit card machines has not been working for a while and we had to pay cash. There were no TVs in the rooms, or nowhere in the hotel for that matter. There was one ancient computer in the lobby which was very slow and almost all websites were forbidden.

            Cuba is a socialist country where everything is owned and controlled by the government including media. In Havana, they have few local newspapers, not many households have TV or radios, very small percentage of people have cell phones and they barely use them. In 21^st century when we cannot even breathe without media, there is a nation that has never been introduced to it. Media is a way of communication between masses; it is social, cheap, amateur and unstoppable. Today, it is heavily dependent on technology. Although Cubans do not have the technology, it does not mean they do not have media. They created media in their own way. Each community has created media depending on its needs and way of life. Everywhere in the world media has the same purpose: communication; but what it is depends on the standard of living of that community. There are no websites or guides about Cuba for tourists to check the best restaurants, there are no advertisements or TimeOut Havana magazines. I observed that their best media tool is the word of mouth; all the information is conveyed through one on one interaction with people. Another most significant media in Cuba is music; wherever you go there are groups of people singing and dancing. In the capitalist world, media used to be for professionals to broadcast messages to amateurs; but technology has changed the way we consume media. Today, the professionals reach public and public can communicate directly with one another as well. Media is not just professional anymore; the former audience is now an active participant. Undoubtedly, internet has the largest role in changing the nature of media. It opened up new job opportunities; blogs enhanced the notion of free speech. Another thing I detected in Cuba was the limitations on communication; it is true that they have media in their own way, but it is not enough to reach the outside world, or even outside the neighborhood. Life without a cell phone or internet is not impossible it is simply very limited. These mediums expand our worlds; enable us to reach to more people and information. There is always a way to express yourself, such as music in Cuba, but it only reaches to people that are passing from the street at that time. It is not the same medium as music we know it: a recorded medium that is distributed to masses globally. Media they have in Cuba is cold whereas for us majority is hot media.

            Mcluhan states “The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts, but alter sense ratios or patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance.” (Mcluhan, 9) I do not agree that media changes our lives; we develop and shape media as our lifestyles change. Prior to establishment of metropolitan cities, smaller families, people used to live in communities where communication was very easy and people knew everything about the neighborhood.  Privacy was an issue at that time as well, since it was such a small community. Today as people started living in large cities, communication got harder and need for other ways was naturally expected. Internet and other media have enabled people to feel like part of a certain community; sense of community is shifted from being physical to being cyber. And as our lifestyles continue to change, it is inevitable that media will change as well.