Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Video Game Motivations

Jane used games as stress relief. At one point she considered suicide when she was recovering from a concussion. She says she was recovering from a concussion. She says that creating "Jane the Concussion Slayer" was a great way to help cope with the symptoms of her ailment. Other people even said it helped them cope with the pain.
In her game "Superbetter", Jane uses goals, challenges and rewards to motivate people. She has people do these activities, with the reward of 7.5 extra minutes to live. Another reward that people get is the bonus resilience points given in the game. The resilience categories are physical, mental, emotional and social. She says that if you do this you can add 10 extra years to your life.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Football High

Sports are one thing in life that can give you the greatest feeling of pride and the worst feeling of failure. Sink a hole in one and you'll remember the glory of that moment for the rest of your life. Miss an easy shot to win the game, and you'll also remember that for the rest of your life, but for a different reason. Sometimes athletes can become a little too wrapped up in these sensations. One example is the athlete who suffered the heat stroke. He suffered a potentially life threatening injury, and was back out on the field 6 months later because his team was a state championship contender. This is a perfect example of BIRGing. He probably shouldn't have been out there, but was because the team was successful.
Another example is Kiehl Frazier. Everyone wanted to have a piece of him. He was being recruited by the best schools in the country and his parents even hired a sports promoter to further his career. The documentary put a big focus on him because they obviously thought he was going places too.
Everyone was BIRGing Kiehl and this probably put a lot of pressure on him. As we know now, he never lived up to these expectations, and now has little to no chance to ever make money playing football.
Though the video spends a large portion focusing on Trinity's success, it does spend a little bit of time talking about the 80-26 beating they took from a team from texas. They only spend about 5 minutes talking about this however, because failure is a less attractive outcome. No one wants to watch a documentary on a team that goes 1-8 on the season. This is a good example of CORFing. They cut out the negatives and emphasize the positives in an attempt to make the story better.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Sexual Objectification in Advertisements

http://static0.therichestimages.com/cdn/568/551/90/cw/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/burger.king_.bk_.super_.seven_.incher.advertisement.picture.jpg
This first ad seems to perfectly fit the bill of sexual objectification. This woman has her mouth open, with the "Super Seven Incher" on the way into her mouth. This ad is as close to selling oral sex as it legally can be. First off, the sandwich is obviously supposed to be representing the male genitalia. She looks surprised to see it coming towards her mouth. Another sexual reference is in the name. "Super Seven Incher" is an obvious reference towards penis length.

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/503d3d1e69beddc26000000a/mentos-pure-fresh-gum-gets-dirty-with-these-sexy-ads.jpg
This ad is almost comical. Some ads that use sex to sell at least do something to incorporate a meaning to the sexual reference. In this ad, they literally just put gum in front of a woman's behind and say "look we have gum!" She's also pulling her underwear down because apparently gum makes her want to get naked(?) They pretty much just use this woman's body so that you are kind of forced to look at their gum.

Duke Porn Star

Everyone does it differently. Some people get help from their parents. Some people get help from the government. A lot of people do it on their own. Of course what I'm talking about, is paying for college tuition. It must be paid for someway and there's many different ways of going about it. One Duke student happens to do it just a little bit different than everyone else. She makes money doing porn.
My favorite of the segments discussing this students actions was The View. They actually had the student on the show to give her own story about how this has affected her personal life. She says that she does it because there's no way she could've paid for Duke without doing this and it works well because she's a very sexual person. The hosts on the show are surprised that she was introduced to pornography so young, and they express their condolences for how this has affected her personal life, with some people going to extremes like sending this girl death threats.
The CNN video focuses a lot on her take and how it has changed her life. They discuss how she does it as a job for enjoyment and two guests on the show talk about how brave she is and give her some praise for becoming halfway famous doing something she loves. In her note she says that she gets empowerment from it because she can control the situation and her sexuality, but they point out the fact that she hasn't even told her parents about it.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Sports in America

America's obsession with sports is funny because, I would be willing to bet that no one would've ever expected them to become this big. Originally, sports were meant to be something that people did for entertainment and exercise. Now, in 2016, sports has become a multi-billion dollar industry. But as money for the sport has increased, the focus of the sports has shifted away from the athletes to the fans. You could argue that nothing is marketed more in America than sports. This can take a toll on athletes, as it's easier than ever for fans to directly harass athletes via social media. Sports has become such a big market that it now has submarkets that are becoming million dollar industries, one for example being fantasy football. I played in 3 leagues last year and spent more money on it than I probably should've. I won that money back, but that's not the point. The point is that sports has become a force that is as close as they come to unstoppable.
One thing that the sports in America deserves credit for is the new age of player safety developments. Particularly in the NFL, studies have begun to show that ramming your head into other objects over and over again is not good for your health (shocker). The NFL has made strides recently regarding player safety, trying to eliminate hits above the shoulders and below the knees from the game. These were needed, as severe lower leg and knee injuries, along with concussions had been rising steadily in recent years.