Growing Up Online

After watching “Growing Up Online” I did not really find any of the information presented in it surprising. Instead I more find that it is sad how so many kids today are growing up online and are so obsessed with the internet that they do not feel like they can live without going on it at some point in the day. It saddens me to see how much the Internet controls young people’s lives. Teens today seem to think that without the Internet they cannot be cool or in on the latest gossip. Even the fact that kids and teens will not go out and do something together before they end up talking to each other online to play a game together using electronics and possibly the internet. I do not think it is healthy to see so many young people using the internet to express themselves. Why is it that they feel they have to use the internet to do this? Why can they not find different ways to get their ideas out into the world?

As much as kids and teens do say they know not to answer people they do not know on the internet and even through studies have shown that this is true. I don’t think that the kids and teens understand still how dangerous it is to go out on the internet and just let people look at their information or pictures of them. So many think MySpace is safe and that no one can look at their information unless they are friends with them but what if someone hacks the system and then all the information you thought was safe is out for all to see. And going back to the comment on friends, why is it that people accept others as friends if they have never met them or have only met them once? Why do they have a need to have as many friends as possible? I know personally on facebook I only let people I know, friend me, even if I only know them a little bit. I do not ever friend someone that I do not know at all because I think that would be creepy and that that person then could find out things about me or look at my pictures, which is really none of their business.
I thought it was interesting that the mother of four wanted her kid’s passwords to their facebook or MySpace accounts. I know my mom had asked me also about my facebook and I do not let her have the password because I do feel it is my page and therefore I should be the only one who should be able to change things on it. I do however let my mom look at it when I am online at home. In all honesty I don’t have anything on my facebook, which I feel I need to hide from my parents. I do not put anything up on my facebook that is too personal therefore why should I care if I show it to my mom so she feels better about what I have online. On the other hand I do know many people who are afraid to show their parents their facebooks or MySpace pages because they know the pages have things on them that their parents would not approve of. I ask them what their relationship with their parents is and I seem to always get the answer that it is OK but not a great open relationship. It just seems like such a stressful thing to have to worry about your parents not trusting you. My parents do trust me because they know what I am up to most of the time. I mean of course there are things that I do not tell my parents but it is never anything earth shattering and if I do not talk to them about it I always do with a close friend who I trust.

I understand where the parents are coming from somewhat because I know when I become a mom I want my kids to be safe and part of keeping them safe will be knowing what they are up to. I want my kids to be able to talk to me about anything and know that I am always there for them when they need help with something in their lives. I know I am terrified that someone I know will get cyber bullied and then want to hurt themselves or god forbid kill themselves. And of course I never want that to happen to my kids.

I do think that kids today are taking the internet to lightly. They say they understand the danger and to stay away from it but when you really think about it part of the danger is how much they are staying on the computer and the internet. Some spend hours and hours online doing nothing important, I mean of course I can understand if people go online to work on homework or find out information they need like directions, but how much to kids and teens need to really do this?

In the end who knows what the future will bring. The internet will probably keep growing and more and more kids and teens will start using it. What can be done about all of this no one really knows I guess, the best thing to do would be to have teens and kids watch documentaries like this one in the hopes that they will learn more about the internet and really look at how much they are exposing themselves online for all to see.

Do campain producers give us what we want?

1. Where are we headed? What's the future? What are your thoughts on how far the techniques of persuasion might go?

1) After watching “The Persuaders” the answers to the questions “where are we headed?” and “what’s the future?” can be hard to answer. It is amazing how much advertising has grown over the years and now more than ever advertising has to get more creative to keep peoples’ attention. I think that the advertising world is heading for bigger and brighter things; the future of ads is going to be determined by new technologies and advertisements we make over time. I do think the harder it becomes to sell something and persuade people to buy it, the harder and more money advertisers are going to put in to do anything to sell their product or idea. The constant search to find what people want to buy will never stop and I think more and more personal space and privacy will be
violated just so advertisers can figure out what they think we want.

2. Is there something distinctive in the American character that makes us susceptible to this world of advertising and messages? "The Persuaders" program explores the idea that Americans are seeking and finding a sort of identity in buying/joining a brand. What is this about?

2) I think the fact that we are Americans definitely has an effect on how we are susceptible to the “world of advertising and messages.” If there is one thing Americans are good at it’s wanting and buying things we do not need. For some reason the need to have all of this “stuff” has taken over and this is why the advertisers probably love selling to Americans. It can be tied into the last special we watched in class, everyone wants to be “cool” and because of this, many will buy their way into what they think is “cool”. The American culture will definitely always help advertisers because we are also not afraid to give feedback on how we feel about an ad or products. When “The Persuaders” talked about how Americans are looking for an identity in buying or joining a brand, I think this is talking about how people will buy a product because it is the kind of person they are and want others to see them as. For example people will buy a certain brand of clothing because they see it as the clothes “showing” their personality and want to show that off. When advertisers are trying to gear towards a certain type of “idea” or “style”, they want to make sure it will be to a large group that will want to buy their products. Many advertisers also try to sell to as many people as possible, showing many sides of a product. Take iPods for example, those commercials and ads all go towards many different types of music but will still use the same idea to keep the advertisement looking the same and therefore more recognizable.

3. What are the common elements in the persuasion/selling strategies of advertising and marketing? And how can we move about in this world with a degree of self-awareness as to what's happening, especially since all these messages are increasingly trying to move us to act and make choices on an emotional level?

3) Common elements in selling strategies come down to knowing what the person buying wants to see, wants to hear, and wants to show off when having that product. Like we saw in “The Persuaders”, advertisers are all about finding what people want to see and hear about in a product. We can see this in the fact that advertisers pay people to find out what words to use in an ad, what will make it more catchy to the people. Also we saw Clotaire Rapaille talk about how companies want to learn from his idea of figuring out what people want to buy. As he talked about how people don’t really know what they want, it is something deep down inside of them and the key is to find the “code” to what they want to buy. I do think that people need to become more self-aware about what they buy and how ads influence how they feel about buying a product. I know that advertising pulls me in a lot of times but one question I always ask myself before buying something is “do I really NEED this?” The answer to this question many times is no I don’t need the product and then I will not buy it. I think more people need to start THINKING about what they are buying and not just buy it because they like it or it is on sale. Advertisers are trying to touch us on an emotional level because they know that will affect us, and our thinking. The only thing any of us can really do is step back and ask ourselves, am I in control of buying these products or do they control me? I think everyone needs to start asking themselves if they really do need to buy something before they do or better yet people need to ask themselves did I really want to buy this. I hear that answer a lot when it comes to people buying - they say they bought it because they wanted to, but really did they want to or did they just have an emotional connection to the product and therefore, they feel they need to buy it. There are some questions we will never know the answer to when it comes to advertising and buying products. All we can do is try not to give into advertising and think about what we are buying before we really do it.

“The Merchants of Cool”

What are your opinions on the tactics and techniques of the marketing media who are targeting teenagers? Have they gone too far?

When I think about marketing media and the tactics and techniques used to form how teens feel about products I think two things, wow that is annoying but at the same time wow that is smart. It is amazing to think about how many people work every day not just to try to understand the American teenager but also try to understand what they will want to buy and become obsessed with. When I think about the American teenager I think about how so many look to the media and the commercial world to find out what is “cool” just like how we saw in “The Merchants of Cool”.

I do not like to see how much “cool hunters” do to try to find out what should be sold to teens. The fact that they go into kids homes or ask to take their pictures to go on a website just gives me this weird feeling. And yet it seems to work because the best way to get inside a teen’s head it to let them be who they want to be, or think they want to be anyway, and sell it right back to them in a mass form. I also don’t like how these cool hunters become all about selling not seeming to care if what they are selling to teens is healthy for them. Looking back again on what we saw in the video today a lot of what is sold to guys are products all about being crazy and fun when for girls is all comes down to your body type and sex. In a way the media is willing to poison young minds because they do not care about how it affects the teen, they only care if they buy it. We always hear how things are not all about the money - but what is media marketing telling us other than that it IS all about the money. I think about how many things are sold toward teens on the internet now. Websites label sections of items that are "What's Hot" or they show "hot" models wearing the clothes. Companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle are all about selling their clothing through these methods.

I think as much as I hate all this and wish the media did not market products to teens like they were animals to be fed, they do need to do what they do because selling to teens is their job. This is just one of the only good reasons why I understand why marketers are selling the media the way they do. And as much as I hate to admit it, the marketers are winning the battle most of the time, even if we don't like how much they influence what we think about a product and make us want to buy it, we have to admit marketers are good at selling with the media’s help.