Week 5: Response 2

All these anti-drug adds are trying to focus on teenagers, and are trying to catch them before they try drugs, or do something bad while on drugs. The “courage: the anti-drug” is trying to specifically target teens to talk to their friends about drugs, and to get teens to tell their friends that it is a bad idea but they need to stand up to their friends because it is the right thing to do. The “regret: the anti-drug” is trying to show teens that while under the influence of drugs, you do not have complete control over yourself and that you are more than likely to do something that you will regret. Though it doesn’t have to be something as bad as killing someone, but they are trying to show the worst case scenario in the hopes of scaring teens away from drugs. Lastly, the “I am: my anti-drug” adds are trying to show teens how doing drugs will affect what your future is, and how doing drugs will affect you and the activities that you enjoy doing. Each label for the anti-drug add is connected with the visual image it is labeled with. The “courage: my anti-drug” shows a woman and her boyfriend standing next to a building, it is trying to show us that although you may care for someone and you don’t want to lose them, that you need to talk to them, and get them away from drugs. The image with the bicycle wheel shows us how it has been damaged and that it looks like it was involved in a wreck, with the caption you realize that it was a little girl who was killed by a person driving who was under the influence, this add links a visual image with the word regret to show us that you may regret whatever you do while you are under the influence. That last three images for the “I am: my anti-drug” shows three different people, where at first glance you may think them to be people who use drugs, but their statements prove otherwise. To me, this shows that just because you may dress a certain way or look a certain way, it doesn’t mean you have to act how other people think you should based on what stereotype you look like.

Week 5: Response 1

Tannen gives us some good examples of different mother/daughter discussions, and how different phrases can be taken different ways. I believe she is trying to show us how mother/daughter communication is often difficult because when you have talked to someone for years, you can begin to catch on to the metamessage in your conversations with them more easily than someone you just met. I believe also that she is trying to show us how past experiences with a particular individual can affect what metamessage you pick up from them. Like how a mother may comment on what her daughter wears to dinner, as Tannen used for one example. I do agree with Tannen on how past experiences with a person can affect what message you pick up from them, even if it wasn’t the intended message. I believe also that mother/son communication can run into the same problems, especially if the son was closer to his mother than his father. Though sometimes I believe these metamessages will go unnoticed more often in a mother/son conversation, because men sometimes ignore, or do not recognize this metamessages as often.

Week 3 Response

In Lamott’s essay Shitty First Drafts, she explains how writing bad first drafts is natural, and the technique in her essay shows us how your first draft is supposed to not make sense but rather just to get your thoughts onto paper. In the beginning of her essay she has sporadic thoughts, though towards the end of her essay, her thoughts become more concise. I believe that Lamott provides some good examples and reasons as to why someone should not worry too much about their first draft, but rather just to get your thoughts onto the paper. I believe that this is a good idea in order to start your paper, so that you at least have something started on your paper and begin to organize your thoughts within your paper. When you begin to write any and all thoughts down onto paper, then you can start to weed out the irrelevant points, and instead concentrate on those that are your strongest arguments.

Week 2 Response

In Sea’s essay, he points out how modern commercials have been displaying what is considered manly and what isn’t considered manly and even how the commercials have been punishing what would be considered unmanly. I believe Sea is trying to take a different look at commercials and rather than look at how they show women as sex objects, to instead show how commercials are trying to show how men should act and behave. When you look at other TV shows and even magazines, you can begin to see how other stereotypes are supposed to act. TV shows us how gay men should talk with a lisp, be good at home decoration, and even dress well. Republicans are expected to be pro-guns, and pro-choice, and if you state that you are a republican, then it is assumed that you agree with these statements. The downside to stereotypes like this is that it gives people an easy way of judging others. You cannot judge someone and assume what their beliefs are and what they think is right or wrong just because they state they are gay or a republican, but instead you should talk to them and find out what they really believe. It is these stereotypes and others that are keeping racism and hatred between people of different beliefs alive, and Sea is helping to show us this by providing us with another example of how the media influences our lives and persuade us on how we should act and think.