Yvan Cruz
March 13, 2012
Essay #2

Many of us have one in our living room, kitchen, bedrooms and even the garage of our homes. No family can live without one. Can you guess what it is? If you thought of television then you are correct. Nowadays, television is the media’s most powerful influential tool throughout the world. On the one hand, television is used for entertaining; encourages family gathering and it is a great way to socialize with friends. In addition, television is very persuasive, has limited points of views, and has negative repercussions. For instance, in her essay, “What’s the Matter with Kids Today?” Amy Goldwasser claims that young people are strong critical thinkers when it comes to the manipulation between the media and them. On the contrary, Naomi Rockler-Gladen’s essay “Me Against the Media” states that young people are being easily manipulated by tons of consumer advertising from the media. At the same time I believe Goldwasser’s claim that we are strong critical thinkers, I also believe that the manipulation keeps progressing through people’s lives. We as human beings have the choice to let the media manipulate us however, we also have the choice to stop the manipulation. Not only has the media used television to manipulate us, it has also used the Internet. The Internet is much more powerful than television due to all the social networks on there. Literally, it seems like many people have forgotten the fun of being outdoors because they are too occupied being on the Internet or television. According to Goldwasser, “we’re talking about 33 million Americans who are fluent in texting, e-mailing, blogging, IM’ing and constantly amending their profiles on social network sites…” (237). Although, she did not specify the age group of the 33 million Americans we all know that it is teenagers who fulfill the description in all the categories she mentioned. With all the new technology, social network cites, and new reality television show being created by the media, we as teenagers want to be the first ones to have it all. For instance, before I deactivated my Facebook account I asked a question that said “When you turn on your computer what is the first thing you do? Go straight to homework or check your Facebook?” I was stunned and shocked with all the responses that I received. In total I received 45 to 50 comments all saying the exact same thing, which was “go on Facebook for about an hour then start homework.” Facebook has become so addicting along with Tumble, Skype, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube that people tend to spend hours on these particular cites on a regular basis. How are theses social networks cite so successful and addicting? The answer is that they have incorporated famous people to use these cites so others can follow into their footsteps and use them as well. Goldwasser sees the Internet as a resourceful tool because it is a positive connotation among teenagers, among us. For example, she strongly believes that the “Internet has turned teenagers into honest documentarians of their own lives-reporters embedded in their homes, their schools, their own heads” (238). In other words, Goldwasser views the Internet has expanded teenager’s minds when it comes to school and themselves because of the knowledge they are learning from these social networks.
For instance, teenagers tend to know plenty of more resources than the previous generation because they now have easier access to get the information by using simply the Internet. Furthermore, she states, “Once we stop regarding the Internet as a villain, stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become the next great voices of America (240).”
This is very important because this shows that once we embrace the Internet for all its good the world will be a better place by having access to information. By having the Internet, teenagers and anyone else have unlimited access to any information from all around the world. Many teenagers take advantage of the Internet for educational purposes to better their schoolwork. I agree with Goldwasser because the Internet can be helpful in many ways and helps us become more critical thinkers by learning something new everyday with all the social networks cites. On the contrary, Rockler-Gladen believes the opposite. Unlike Goldwassser, Rockler-Gladen views the effects of major advertisements on young generations and what it creates. In her essay she begins talking about her experiences while teaching consumerism to her students and how she tries to make them “more aware of how the media naturalize especially through advertisement, product placement, and especially through advertiser-friendly programming (285).” She sees how easily young people are targeted the most from the media to look, talk, and dress a certain way through the usage of products, commercials and internet. For example, she observes “they shop at Wal-Mart because its cheap, and buy coffee at Starbucks because they like the mochas” (289) I agree because it is true that we want to buy the cheapest things out there and if Wal-Mart has them best believe that we will go and shop there. Moreover, she stresses that advertising does not necessarily affect the individual; it does affect society as a whole because our generation does not realize that we are affected by advertisements but ultimately our society is taking a different turn by not taking interest in politics by overflowing the streets with protesters. For example, the famous Kim Kardashian is viewed as a role model and if people see her shop at Target or eats at Subway then people are going to want to shop there as well. Why? Well because she is famous and if she’s famous and shopping there then it gives relation to her fans and herself. Rockler-Gladen knows how the media manipulates young people and she mentions that “When my students fail to show concern. These corporations become all more powerful (285).” Students, and society are being blinded from the media’s corporations because they are powerful and they don’t realize that. We should not be followers to famous stars but instead become leaders. In conclusion, both articles have a strong argument about the manipulation that the media has over us. Essentially Goldwasser focuses on how the Internet can be misinterpreted in many ways. Though her argument is that being on the Internet can be very educational and we should not see the Internet as a bad influence. At the same time, Rockler-Gladen sees the media and their corporations such as Nike, MTV, VH1, and many others have potentially focused on teenager’s era and have manipulated them by creating products, how they should dress, what they should buy, what kind of music should they be listening to, and more. Teenager’s do not see this because they think it is just mixture of advertisements with no meaning but Rockler-Gladen disagrees because the more the corporations create these advertisements the more the teenagers get blind sighted and listen to them without even realizing it. This is why we have to stop feeling obligated to buy the finer things in life and stop the manipulation running over us.