"Generation Like" the Corporation-run Generation

The following is a response to a question inspired by the documentary “Generation Like” which we watched today in class. Amazing documentary, btw.

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How powerful is the connection between the effect of social media and the structure of the Hunger Games?

           

So in the documentary they talk about the world of social media being just like the Hunger Games. A huge arena that is controlled by a bunch of people who act behind a curtain, where young teens are thrown in to fight in order to rise above each other. There’s also a large part of the comparison that is part of the whole idea that in order to survive in the Hunger Games you have to get people to like you. Which came in quite strongly, since the whole documentary talks about Facebook “likes” and likes in pretty much any social network are the key to success. In the Hunger Games this whole idea forces Katniss to act like a person who is the complete opposite of who she really is, in order to adjust to the tastes of the purposely disgusting people of the Capitol. The whole point of this comparison, though, is to put forth the idea that the internet is a horrible battleground. One where the youth of today is destroying themselves. But the internet is a disguised battleground. One where you don’t realize you’re being manipulated. One that isn’t hated by the majority of the population, but loved instead. One that’s seen as a field of opportunities and a chance to express oneself fully. The only problem is, that this field is controlled by people behind the curtains. People who monitor our every move and that are able to push us into where they want us to be. All with just a few clicks. The internet is one huge chessboard and we’re the pawns. Or if you prefer, the internet is one huge arena, and we’re the tributes.

To Be (Condemned) Human

The song “Ser Humano” from the now disbanded Mexican band Natalia y la Forquetina seems to have a deeper meaning than the simple lazy rock song it sounds like. The song’s title can translate to either “Human Being” or “To Be Human” and its lyrics carry a rather significant message about humanity, but when paired with its music video it could be interpreted in a rather depressing way that can show the rather pathetic state humanity is currently in. Even though the video can seem very simple at first sight, a deeper analysis of the images combined with the lyrics of the song, suggests that the song might carry a much more deep meaning than one might think.

Let’s start off with what’s not so obvious in the obvious. The video basically consists of the band performing in front of a huge crowd in a darkly lit space and the crowd consists only of inflated dolls that look like the members of the band. We’ll deal with the dolls later, for now let’s focus on the band itself. It’s quite normal for this band to do actions that seem abnormal and artificial, but in this case doing that portrays them as something that goes beyond just a band. In this video the band does nothing more than what a band does: play music. Not only that, but they seem to be devoid of much emotion while they do it and they just play on without showing much emotion in their faces, and most of the shots are too fast for the audience to be able to tell precisely what their facial expression actually is, since the lighting makes it hard to see anything. This automatically causes a detachment from the members of the band and shows them as something close to a bunch of robots just playing music and shaking their heads on an enlightened stage. This image is strengthened right at the beginning where the singer trots into the stage with a rather null expression on her face; and later on her hair covers her eyes most of the time, so it is too difficult to see what her expressions are.

The audience in the video is the point where anybody watching the video can see that it is indeed an unusual video. The crowd which would be a regular concert crowd where any contemporary music-enthusiast would feel identified if it were not for the fact that they are all just a huge mass of plastic, inflatable dolls with a ridiculed look and performing actions that are stereotypical ofrock-band fans, such as fainting when they see their idols. The chorus of the song says “I can’t complain, I’m a human being. I can’t complain, I’m condemned.” These lyrics, as well as the general themes that are mentioned throughout the whole song seem to express that humanity is a species that is fated to behave in the way that the plastic dolls in the video behave.

Moreover, in the video the inflated dolls admire the band, which could symbolize something bigger than what it is, such as perhaps the entire world of media and entertainment, which so many of us are attached to nowadays, or even so, anybody that we admire. In this sense it’s logical for the band to portray themselves as machines that simply carry out their work. This way they might be trying to portray how even the idols that we admire so much are also just “condemned humans” that, as the lyrics go, “dream the daily routine.” This conveys not only the “insignificant masses” as the condemned humans, but even the big and successful characters of our time as part of this condemnation.

The lyrics also seem to strongly support this idea. The lyrics talk about a “small place where there is only green, blue, coffee, pain” which can quite easily be a reference to the Earth, since green and blue are indeed the colors that are normally used to represent the planet. The part that makes it problematic is where it says coffee and pain. Coffee is a drink that is used to “keep people going,” to prevent them from falling asleep during their boring and tiring jobs that don’t entertain them enough to keep them awake throughout the whole day. So in a sense, coffee in this song is referring to the artificial products that have been made to make our lives progress as if nothing bad is happening. Then the “pain” breaks reality in and shows how we are simply suffering from our lives. Combined with the images of the video, where we are shown just how pathetic we look when we are “having fun at a concert,” the music video manages to convey a rather depressing view on the current state of humanity.

The band is probably trying to portray this in order to try to try to get their view on the world out and perhaps see some improvement in the “condemned humanity.”

FOA Reflection - Ads and Mind Control

My Further Oral Activity was about how anti-advertisements reveal to us the fact that macro-companies are constantly attempting to control our subconscious mind in order to keep us spending. The whole idea was that through the analysis of anti-advertisements that are intended to turn people against the macro-companies and keeping them from buying their products people would be able to realize the fact I already stated: that big companies are controlling our minds and making us spend more money.

Overall, I feel that even though my presentation didn’t go too badly, it was not the best it could have been. I felt that, even though my speech flowed logically I didn’t stick to the plan that I had in mind. I forgot to use the statistics that I had planned to use properly and ended up reducing them to just a simple “fun fact” at the end of an analysis instead of being a part of my arguments and analysis. I also got some feedback from my classmates and they told me that I was speaking way too fast in the beginning, which I was actually planning on doing since while I was rehearsing it seemed that I was going to go over the time limit. If I had rehearsed it with an audience I think I might have been able to control that better since when I’m on my own I can’t really articulate what I’m saying too well. If I had known what it would feel to perform live in the first place maybe I would have been able to balance it out, because as a matter of fact I think that in the end I actually finished about two or three minutes below the time limit, so I could have used some better organization of time throughout my speech. All of this might actually have an impact in my use of language and organization criteria. Next time it might be a good idea to rehearse my speech much more and maybe even stick to a pre-written script, just to make sure that my organization is flawless and that my natural speech organization “imperfections” do not haunt me while I’m presenting.

The advertisement that I feel I did the best on was the first one about Christmas. I felt that my argument came out quite strongly for it while I was still able to analyze the language in the ad. My only issue with it is that I think I forgot to explicitly say that they used the second person in the ad to bring the audience into the “plot” of the ad and thus make it more personal for them. Asides from that, I’m quite satisfied with what I said regarding that ad.

The second advertisement I felt brought me down a bit. The advertisement did not really perfectly fit in with the entire concept of my presentation and I had to go to the point where I extrapolated the meaning of the ad to relate it to how that aims to keep you away from the myriad of advertisements there are in all those apps. However, nothing regarding advertisements in iOS applications was actually mentioned in this ad, so I might have gone to the point where I said something that was not truly meant to be said at all. I also spoke about how the word “addictive” was a weasel word in that ad, which actually felt contradictory to say, because since it is an anti-ad it should break the conventions of a normal ad and stray away from using such tactics, but that was not the case and I felt that that might have caused the ad to come across as weak and thus it took away impact from my presentation. I think at this point I also used the slang word “legit” when talking about all the Apple products that are mentioned in the ad, which might end u lowering my marks in the Use of Language criterion.

The final ad was perhaps the weakest of them all. In the end one of my classmates questioned me to the point where he asked whether my thoughts on it were accurate or not, so I’m guessing the things that I said might have not been as convincing. Most of the points I said regarding the ad had a good foundation, but I failed to deliver them in a clear and concise manner, which must have caused some confusion for my classmates. Asides from that, I don’t really feel that I missed much when analyzing that ad, now that I think about it. Maybe the fact that I never related the message of the ad to the title of the article it was in.

Overall, I would not say that my FOA went really bad; but I will say that it was not the best that it could be. Next time I will have to practice more and be sure to structure my language in a more effective way so that my Organization and Language criteria can be as high as possible. For this case, I feel that my criteria A and B were quite strong, but could also use some improvement; especially from the fact that these criteria could have suffered from my poor Language and Organization. As an overall improvement for my next FOA, I should spend more time practicing what I will say so that I make sure the message is conveyed in a clear and concise manner.