iPhones. What are they to us.

 When you think of a phone, what comes to mind? Not some kind of flip-phone, but an iPhone, a phone where you can do almost anything a computer could, all within the confinements of your hand. These phones define the standard within our society of what is cool and what isn't, and when you look at how many people are attracted to the company that started it all, it becomes obvious that an iPhone is a love mark, something iconicly important to us as a society.

Apple phones are so common, and so many like it, including Android phones and Samsung smartphones, that almost everyone has one. Personally, I don't have a smartphone, but evident with  myself, I feel awkward having my phone out when everyone else has the smartphones of today. So easily is it seen how important these things are to people and the way they affect others that it has created a bond in people's lives. To most, they have a stronger bond with the apple company then the people they love that it intervenes with their lives. The video below is a good example of such. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIBT8xG12zA

 

Thus, it is easy to see how easily these products affect people's lives and how they view their society and the world they live in.

The Scariest Game?

When you think of horror, what comes to your mind? You may think of movies with serial killers and excessive torture. But do you really ever think of video games, especially video games set in a pizza place made to look exactly like Chuck E Cheese? That's Five Nights at Freddy's 2 for you. Next to this, the first of the series, Five Nights at Freddy's, is nothing, but the basis is still the same. The story goes that you are a night guard working at the pizza place, managing animatronics that roam the halls at night. The problem with that is that they see you, notice your not in "suit," and try to stuff you into an animatronic suit stuffed with metal wiring and other gadgets, basically killing you.

When you first play through the game though, you'll realize it is so much worse than you could ever imagine. This game is a straight no no. It stresses you out to the max, giving you so many things to look at at once that it is impossible to manage everything, and will scare the crap out of you if your not bracing yourself for the imminent scare, or the scares that you can never predict. This game scares  you in the worst ways, using quick scares, pressure, and drawn out scares, where even if you know its coming, you. Everything about this game is just a no. The trailer does not do this game any justice, but still, you can get the gist of the game from the trailer.

 Basically, this game consists of everything that ruins your life. It scares you and stresses you to the max, with no breaks ever in between each part of what your doing. One of the best ways to see what the game is really about and get scared out of your mind just watching the play through is the video done by Markiplier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60wLvPWXCCc. But watch out, there's some curse words that may corrupt your mind!

Affordable Health Care Act vs. Obamacare

In our society, language and how we portray as well as interpret things makes a key role in our everyday activities. Just in the names alone, the affordable health care act, or Obamacare, has a huge impact on the way people interpret its meaning and the way the view it. Between ABC news, and the New York Times, widely different language is used to express their different opinions on what is working in the health care act and what myths their are regarding the system. Within the NY Times article, the author writes that the Affordable Health Care act has successful helped reduce the number of Americans without health insurance, but that is the rawest form of the answer. Looking further into it, ABC talks in more detail about how Obamacare has greatly reduced the number of people without health insurance in a different approach, by busting the myth that the plan hasn't been working. ABC talks about how more and more states have been given working access to the site, and that more and more have been receiving insurance plans, shown within California, which received 95,000 applicants for the insurance plan. As shown in the picture, people without insurance have begun to drop from the health care plan, no matter how each news system illustrates it.

 

 

As shown, as of 2014, the uninsured have begun to drop, no matter the language used to say so. The main difference in language between each; however,  is how they talk about the future for the health care plan. The NY Times says the plan promises "big change" and is going to "eliminate the problem" of the uninsured. However, the ABC news video embedded within the article talks about how the plan is going to cost huge amounts to support the site, as well as continually support the insurance plans of others. The correspondent mentions that, " $4,000,000 alone was used on a site that remained non functional for awhile, making it unable for people to follow up after signing up for the plan. Visible between their similarities in language, you an see that the health care plan offers a drop in the uninsured, but without fixing finances, the future of the plan is going to deteriorate in the eyes of one, but in the other, it is going to succeed in the future, whilst eliminating the unemployed, without referencing the cost of the plan.

 

Here's the link for the NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/27/us/is-the-affordable-care-act-working.html?_r=0#/affordability

And here's a link for the ABC article and video: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obamacare-truth-myths/story?id=20650455

 

 

 

 

 

Media Blog 1

Media is something so driven into the minds of societies that it becomes something most people cannot live without. So many times do we pull out our phones, or check for anything that pops into our heads on a search engine that it has become something we need to do. As for me, I haven't been exposed to some of the higher qualities of media that are so important to people's lives, but I have still had my fair share of information.

In terms of technology that keeps you connected to all media, I don't have a smartphone, and almost never feel the need to use the phone I have. But really, the only reason it never crosses my mind to pull it out is because society has set a standard for what it is to be "cool" within social media. It's always the same questions," What is that," and," Does it not have any apps." Society has so firmly driven into our minds the importance of these objects that it is weird not to have these things. As for a computer, that is completely different media wise for me. My computer is what keeps me linked to everything going on; I can talk to my friends, I have access to all the knowledge I could ever think of, and can communicate with anyone, anywhere. Like people with smartphones, people with lesser computers always feel like they have to be secretive about it because it is embarrassing to not be able to keep up with the growing standards of technology. Media has made these things out to be the driving force for who is popular, and who isn't.

Just as much as those devices are connected to media, television is another important part of the media's crushing grip to define what societal norms are. Within television, thousands of shows are playing, defining lessons of what they believe to be right and influencing what we believe. As well, hundreds of ads play, advertising their products, and while informational in some contexts, why the heck would I want to buy a play-doh molding ice cream machine. These things are some common throughout our lives, that we are almost used to just seeing these ads over and over.

As you can see, media plays an important role in people's lives, delivering lessons to be learned and influencing our consumer patterns. Media within my live shows how important