Consuming Kids

This week in class, we watched a video which proves how much the media really influences what kinds of things we want, and sadly our own character. From watching the video I learned that we are influenced by marketing from the moment that we are born, and most of us don't even know it. We are compelled to want things. We are constantly being advertised to from all of the electronic connections that we have. We see thousands of advertisements in just one day. From Tv, to your cell phone, and magazines, we are constantly surrounded by ads which throw the latest things in our faces. The sad thing is that really young kids today, have and are doing things that the previous generations did not do when they were that young. Watching this video and understanding it was a little bit scary to think about. Marketers have so much control over what kids are going to want and it teaches them that they are not good enough if they don't have all of these nice things, and they do this just to make money. It makes me think about what I would do when I would have kids. I see millions of advertisements on a daily basis. One day I actually decided to count how many ads i had seen in one day, but I eventually lost count because there were too many. It's crazy and a little bit frightening to know that these marketers have so much control, and are able to worm their ways through our brains and completely deceive us, and most people don't even realize it.

Feral Children

This week in class we discussed some pretty shocking things. On an episode of the Oprah Show, the case of Danielle was discussed. Danielle was a feral child, meaning that she basically lived like a wild animal. Danielle was discovered in a tiny bedroom of a small house. She was in an extremely awful condition. She was not able to walk properly, talk or chew food. The reason that Danielle was in this condition was not because of anything biological, but instead because of the absence of human interaction while growing up. Danielle was abandoned by her own mother at a very young age, which drastically impacted her development. Danielle was not able to do many of the things that we do daily. Mostly everyone is born with the ability to do most things. This is called an aptitude. With a lack of interaction, sometimes children are not able to learn to use those skills. Danielle's case really made me think about how lucky I am. I grew up normally with a loving family. Because of the interaction and connection i've had in my childhood, I've been able to learn these basic things and able to live a normal life. Luckily,  Danielle was adopted and is now getting the love and interaction that she really needed. Learning about Danielle really shows how important human interaction really is in a human's development.

Tuesdays With Morrie-Love

I absolutely loved the movie Tuesdays With Morrie. This movie was so jam packed with amazing and valuable and deep life lessons. Morrie was an incredibly wise and admirable man. In the movie, Morrie says, "we think we don't deserve love, that if we let it come in, we'll become soft. " I do think that Americans are afraid of loving and showing that they love someone. They are afraid of showing love because they fear that the person they love is going to hurt them in some way, or they are afraid of losing this person. They are also afraid to care too much because sometimes the other person might not care as much. People are afraid to grow closer and build emotional attachments with others because the possibility of losing this person is too difficult to bear. Love is built on trust, and sometimes we fear that this trust will be broken and it is painful to deal with. I've had experiences where I've had my trust broken by people that I thought I loved, and it became extremely difficult to finally let people in again. Real love and romantic love are two different things, but I think that romantic love can turn into real love however, I do agree that romantic love is not as long lasting as real love is. Romantic love begins with infatuation. Real love is unconditional. Real love is a commitment and it requires lots of time to grow. Real love is based on eternal dedication, a desire to spend your life with, and care about someone no matter what the situation could be.

God Grew Tired Of Us & Time

This week involved a lot of laughter in class as we learned more about culture shock, and learned alot about the values and the norms of cultures. It was hilarious to see things like the crazy streets in Italy or India, or the Lost Boys making a meal out of smashed Ritz crackers and milk.
We find these things funny because we've all grown up to do things differently, in the ways that we view as normal or our "norms" I really enjoyed the movie "God Grew Tired Of Us." It was sad but it was a little bit funny too. The Lost Boys were determined to come to America in order to support and provide for their lost families back in Uganda. The Lost Boys had drastically different lives and values in the refugee camp that they lived in compared to how they lived in America. For example, their lives in the camp involved always being together and doing things with each other. However, when they were in  America, they felt that people were unfriendly and it felt isolating for them. One of the guys actually even went crazy because of the culture shock of the loneliness he experienced.Another concept that really stood out to me was our value of time. I never realized how much we value time on a daily basis. We ask things like, "What time is it?" Or "Is it time to go yet?" We even freak out when we are late for something. Time is something that we obsess about constantly, but we usually don't realize it. Learning about time has made me stop to think and realize that the only reason I care so much about time is because it is in our culture. An example where I really thought about time this week was when I woke up late and missed my bus. Of course, I freaked out and acted quickly to get a ride to school. When I got to school I realized I still had a few minutes left until class began and I was relieved. its so weird to think that time controls so much of what we think and do, and it controls our emotions as well. This discussion about time has really got me wondering, what if one day time disappeared and it wasn't there to control us? Would we appreciate that? would we panic? Or, would we still go on with our daily lives even in the absence of time?