On a lighter note… Politics!

I have been bashing the media’s impact on our society over the past couple of posts, and I am ready to be a little more optimistic. Mass media has always had an upper hand when influencing us viewers; I think I have just been aggravated with the way the power is used at times. Picture emails with no advertisements or daily specials, no Baskin Robbins “Death by Chocolate” milkshake commercial causing you to drool on yourself, no magazines with the latest gossip, or better yet – no news to keep you posted on the most current events.  Imagining day-to-day life without the media just sounds insanely lackluster. Aside from how creepy “subliminal advertising” sounds, we need media to keep the globe spinning at normal speed. 

Let’s focus in on a subsection of “pro-social” media behavior for a second: POLITICS. As much as we are already sick and tired of seeing 2012 election campaign ads, they work!! How else would we know about our potential future leaders if we could not watch an E! Exclusive or follow their every move on Twitter? Websites are an easy access portal for political donations while staying cost-effective … we know those commercials can get pretty expensive during prime-time! Media has become such a part of the political world that every party (and their branches) has a main website, Facebook page, Twitter account, television network, radio talk show, and newspaper section. Here are two fun facts to prove the dominance media plays in the U.S. government:

• Twitter was so important to the Iranian protests after the Iranian presidential election in June 2009 that the US State Department asked Twitter to delay a scheduled network upgrade that would have taken the website offline at a busy time of day in Iran. Twitter complied and rescheduled the downtime to 1:30 am Tehran time.

•  On Nov. 3, 2008, the day before the US presidential election, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama had 2,379,102 Facebook supporters while Republican candidate John McCain had 620,359. Obama had 833,161 MySpace friends and McCain had 217,811. Obama had 384% more Facebook supporters and 383% more MySpace friends than McCain. 

Communication is the key to success. Politicians have to be on top of their game 24/7 in order to stay out of the tabloids and at #1 on the most liked Facebook group list! The “spiral of silence” has the capability of whirling out of control these days, but the media has the technology to cover it all and relay it to the public audience within seconds to affect voter turnout. Whether you are pro “red” or “blue” stay posted (literally) on the upcoming elections and take note of the advantages of media campaigning. Oh.. and make sure to “like” your most respected nominee to get them to #1!

Are you oblivious to the abuse?

"Children are learning to associate violent death with candy bars, 

popcorn, and soft drinks at the movies… children are being operantly conditioned to associate violent death with pleasure… the influence of mass media violence on children has led to more and more threats by school-age conspirators, many that are not publicized."  

 Lt. Col. Dave Grossman stated the above just last month, speaking about the impact of video games and the media on our society. You can read the rest of his thoughts here. Grossman, however, is not the only one concerned with the affects violent media has on children and their life down the road. According to “Media Now”, Straubhaar points out the fact that three-fifths of prime-time television is consumed with 4.5 violent acts per show. Roughly eight acts of violence are shown in an hour! Another side note to sink in: PG-13 movies include the MOST violence at thirteen violent scenes per movie!! Ironic? These few facts seem like they would be proof enough to correlate violent media with an increase in violent behavior right? If not, take a look at Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment video below for some educational entertainment. The Bobo Doll Experiment was performed way back in 1961 by Albert Bandura. His experiment was designed to prove his belief that all human behavior was learned, through social imitation and copying (aka the social learning theory), rather than biologically inherited through genetics. Read more about the experiment by clicking here. 

a little educational entertainment: Bandura's Bobo Doll Video!

From television shows to video games - movies, YouTube videos, music, and even the news - violence is prevalent. Violence is so prevalent it has become a way of life that does not even faze us anymore. This issue is a legitimate concern that has been researched on for over 50 years. I think it is time to set those parental setting codes on the computer, TV/TiVo, all of it!

Are you an IMPACT?

Is your world full of nothing?
Or are you the cause of another’s emptiness?

I just read the most disturbing post, 8 Infamous Cases of Cyber-Bullying.  I have heard that cyber-bullying is a huge issue, but have honestly never looked into the tragic outcomes until stumbling upon this blog that racked up 192 “Diggs”.  Cyber-bullying goes beyond the high school drama of who is dating who; social isolation, public humiliation and malicious gossip have long been the stock in trade of bullies. The “hobby” has become a core cause of suicide, coin phrased as “cyberbullycide”. One third of children are victims of cyber-bullying – that is 33%!  Dr. Justin W. Patchin and Dr. Sameer Hinduja believe that the most important fact they found in their research is that five percent of the youth interviewed are scared for their safety, not just emotionally upset.

“The world would be better off without you.” This is the message Megan Meier received from the boy she liked, but really it was a peer and her mother! Megan took this last message to heart before she hung herself twenty minutes later. This is one of the eight stories noted in the blog stated above. Seriously check it out. At the least it will remind you to think before you speak!

With the impact it has made, how can cyber-bullying continue to exist and expand? One word: ANONYMITY. Like the cowards they are they hide behind their computers. Unfortunately the internet is fair game and there is no magic formula to block the predators from their prey. Overcomebullying.org suggests the following steps to take if cyber-bullying is a personal issue or someone you know afraid to speak up:

1.       Do not respond to cyber-bully’s attacks.

2.       Don’t delete information related to the cyber-bullying.

3.       Report the cyber-bullying to ISP (internet, instant messaging, or mobile phone provider), police, and schools.

4.       Be aware of what your child is doing on the internet.

5.       PAY ATTENTION to any unusual behavior, and ask questions!

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” – Jackie Robinson

What are your thoughts on cyber-bullying? Do you think there are ways to decrease the issue other than the basic “parental settings”? Most importantly: What is your impact on others?

Are American children fit enough to climb the food pyramid?

If the alarming increase of obesity in American children has not impacted you, take a look at these statistics :

• One out of every seven low income children in America is obese.
• More than 70% of the obese youth are at higher risk of heart diseases.
• Hospital costs for children were 35 million in the 1980s and these have increased to 127 million today.
• Type 2 diabetes has reached to the levels of 8-9 %; a two-fold increase from the early 1980s.

Why is this? Does the media have any blame in the obesity increase in our youth?

A study, The Role of Media in Childhood Obesity, funded by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, focused on the relationship between children and the time they spend using media.  A prime reason for obesity in children is their malnourished eating habits – processed foods – desired by most American households due to target marketing and advertising (a child is exposed to about 40,000 ads per year on TV alone). Another contributing reason to obesity in children is that previous generations used to spend their extra time playing outside with kids in the neighborhood, but now video games, watching television and online chatting are more popular. Although these activities can do wonders for the imagination and intellect (as long as you are watching Discovery and not the Real Housewives), they are sedentary.  The study states that children spend an average of 5.5 hours a day using media, and found an obesity increase of 2% for every additional hour of television viewed.  Even if children say no to sweets and sodas, low physical activity can cause health problems down the road.

S.O.S… anyone?

Several groups have set up campaigns attempting to spread motivation and amp up the physical and nutritional value in the lives of our youngest generation. Here are just a few of these trailblazers:   

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the “VERB™ It’s what you do” campaign. It was a national, multicultural, social marketing campaign coordinated Social marketing campaigns apply commercial marketing strategies to increase and maintain physical activity among the tweens,  ages 9-13.
• Nickelodeon branded the “Let’s Just Play” campaign. Their hope was to mesh the media message with  real, physical activities to get kids more active after watching the shows on their network.
• In 2010, the FCC joined the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity and released a report to the President, entitled "Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation." The Commission worked closely with the FTC, the FDA and HHS in the food marketing section of the report. Let's Move! is a program developed by First Lady Michelle Obama to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.

Show your support for this cause by reading up on these references and helping our youth. Feel free to share any ideas or links to other wonderful organizations promoting health!

Ringxiety, fauxcellarm, phantom ring syndrome... Is cell phone attachment driving us anti-social or just plain insane?

Has your cell phone become, what researchers are now calling, your fifth limb? No?? What is the first thing you do when you are abruptly awaken by your alarm every morning? If you are anything like me, which I hope is a normal human in the “tech-age”, you immediately grab your phone with hopes of a notification. Starting at 0700 your phone is attached to your hand. If it was water-proof, it would go in the shower with you too. There is an overwhelming feeling of anxiety that comes over us all when we cannot find our phone, even when we do not need it! I recently travelled abroad to Ireland for a week. I nixed the international plan idea and chose the no-phone route. The trip was even greener and luckier than it would have been had I allowed my phone to consume me the whole time, but I could not shake the “phantom ring”. I felt like my pocket was continually vibrating, even though my phone was turned OFF and zipped up in my suitcase at the hostel. Talk about a walk-up call.  The phantom vibrate… really?? #selfdiagnosis

Even USATODAY and The New York Times find this syndrome worth noting:

Click me to view USATODAY article! 

Click me to view NY Times article! 

So I am really working on getting rid of the whole phantom ring syndrome thing. People watching is hands down my #1 guilty pleasure. As part of my therapy, I walk across campus, stroll the grocery store aisle, or sit in a meeting and watch those around me focused intently on nothing other than their phone. I wonder what in the world is more important than where we are at the moment. I am tired of others bumping into me (never using their manners to say “excuse me”) or asking to repeat a topic in a meeting or class because they were too busy texting about something less valuable than my time! The convenience of our phones should not be taken advantage of. Those before us lived without them and turned out just fine, why can’t we? If an issue is so important, step outside and make a phone call, or better yet – don’t come to class! I know I am not perfect, but I promise you all I working on it – and for those that know me, call me out if you see me focusing on the wrong thing and wasting the precious time we never get to relive. Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present right?  

YOU and I are NOT ALONE. We are all guilty of getting lost in the deep black hole known as our phone, but I am on my knees, absolutely begging you to not end up like this woman: Woman Falling in Fountain .

So the question of whether we are creepily obsessed with our phones is obvious: YES, we are. The real question: Are we so obsessed with our phones that we are not even living the life we constantly tweet about?

Think about it. Let me know what you think!