The topic I have chosen for my essay is childbirth. Childbirth is vastly different in real life than it is presented on TV. There are so many ways in which it is different, I don't even know where to begin.

    Of course, there is the all-too-common scene where a perfectly fine pregnant lady suddenly has her water break, goes into instant labor, and pops the baby out in the back of a taxi. It is so rare that that actually happens. It does happen occasionally, but labor is usually long and slower than that. It's also uncommon for the membranes to spontaneously rupture, it's much more common that they break during labor. There's also the idea that women go insane during labor and turn into sadistic maniacs wanting only to punish their husbands by yelling "you did this to me!" and squeezing their husband's hands until the bones snap. Again, this probably does happen from time to time, but it is not the norm. In fact, birth can be quite peaceful. Women who experience a natural birth, often in the form of water birth and/or homebirth, often report a euphoric feeling of bliss that helps them through the pain. Alternatively, women having medicated births in hospitals often have an epidural to help them through the pain. They don't all become screaming maniacs!

     Now, what is the harm of these inaccurate portrayals? Well, I guess other than leaving people with unrealistic ideas of what birth will be like they aren't really harmful. But there ARE some parts of real childbirth that are overlooked on film and TV which can be harmful. TV shows and films always show that beautiful moment after a baby is born when the mother falls instantly in love (and again, this often happens! I was lucky enough to have peaceful births and an easy transition afterwards, myself), but this doesn't happen for every woman. Some are too busy bleeding/being stitched up/recovering from days of labor, some feel disconnected from their babies. They love them because they are supposed to, not because they have actually bonded yet. Some are over whelmed by the Baby Blues, and others sink into severe Post Partum Depression. Two of my dear friends who I know are loving and adoring mothers suffered from PPD and had a hard time bonding with their babies for months. It's a sad reality that is overlooked by the media, which makes the women suffering from these conditions feel ever more ashamed and alienated.  Not to mention the fact that it is unrealistic to expect immediately after the birth to be handed a perfect, cherubic three month old, fully alert and smiling and cooing, as we see on TV. In reality, you're going to be getting a slimy, bloody, tiny little alien-looking thing. It's not glamorous, but it's true!

Reflections on Advertising

Advertising has a huge impact on our culture. We are exposed to it on a daily basis. When you stop and think about it, it really is insane just how much advertising there is! With new technologies, marketers find new ways to advertise. In fact, I discovered one of them the today. I went grocery shopping with my three year old son at Stop & Shop and I thought it would be fun to let him use the Scan-It device. If you haven't seen it, it looks like this: 

You bring the Scan-It device with you, along with empty bags, and you scan items as you go. It's a good way to keep track of your budget as you shop and save time at the check-out. It's also a good learning experience for little kids because as they scan they can read out numbers and gain some math/budgeting skills. It also occasionally makes a loud CHUH-CHING noise and suggests items that you should buy. I generally ignore it, but oh boy did it work on my son! Every time the thing made it's cash register noise he frantically announced "Mom! It says we need to buy crackers! Come on!"

That is just one specific example, but there are so many new and creative ways that marketers are getting into our brains. Computers especially have ads everywhere, and they actually use your search history and interests to suggest products to you that you would like.

Personally, my opinion on advertising is fairly neutral. Its not that I don't care either way, its really more that I consider it a grey area with both pros and cons. On one hand, I feel that laws that stop marketers from lying and being intentionally deceptive are important. On the other hand, I believe that marketers should have the right to influence people into buying their products, and its up to the consumer to research and be educated.

I'd like to pretend that advertising doesn't affect me, but it certainly does. I am fairly well informed on the deceptive and ambiguous terms that marketers love to use so much. I tend to make sure to read ingredient labels rather than trust the "healthy" and "natural" labels. I usually research a product and it's reviews rather than just trusting commercials. However, I love trying new things so when I see a new product advertised... well... I want it! 

I think that, in general, we have pretty good laws regarding what kind of language advertisers can use. I do think there are some changes that need to be made. For example, I think "all-natural" should be a regulated term, just like "organic" is. There should be a set of requirements for what can be described as all-natural. As it is, that word is frequently misused. Technically, anything originating from the planet Earth can be described as "natural." Arsenic and cyanide are "natural" depending on how you define the term. Organic describes a specific type of farming, so I think that all-natural needs a similar set of guidelines. I think we need more regulation on products that are being marketed as healthy and nutritious. I got my kids' chocolate milk the other day as a treat and the bottle said "delicious and nutritious." It had 27g of added sugar; that is NOT nutritious (but it was totally delicious). Finally, I believe that GMO foods should be labeled. I don't think vegetables should be advertised as vegetables when they are actually Frankenfoods.

Exemplification Essay - Rough Draft

Jessica Davis


                Advertising is all around us. Our days are filled with a constant bombardment of commercials and advertisements; they are plastered all over the boxes of cereal we eat our breakfast from, blaring from our car radios during the morning commute, popping up viciously all over our computers, staring down at us from billboards on the way home, and interrupting our TV shows as we try to unwind from a long day of being commercial targets. Whether we realize it or not, we are so frequently exposed to advertisements that their affects begin to get ingrained into our brains and shape our behavior, habits, and desires. Unfortunately, advertisers have abused this power and continue to purposefully create commercials that influence us towards unhealthy choices. Advertising’s negative effects can be detrimental to consumer health by conditioning people in favor of addictive habits, creating unrealistic body expectations, and influencing people, especially children, to crave unhealthy foods.

                Addictive products are often advertised in ways that make them seem appealing. Many alcohol commercials show people drinking socially at fun outdoor events that appeal to teenagers. Another type of alcohol commercial features “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” a classy and sophisticated Dos Equis drinker who lives an exciting and glamorous life full of beautiful women and beer. Most adults already have established drinking habits, so these commercials serve largely to attract new young drinkers. In fact, alcohol drinkers are now starting their habits at a younger age than ever before. According to the study Trends and Underage Drinking in the United States, most underage drinkers now begin at age fourteen, down from almost eighteen in the 1960’s (News-Adeyi, G.; Chen, C.M.; Williams, G.D.; and Faden V.B. 7-8). Though TV and radio ads for cigarettes were banned in the U.S. in 1970 by the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, people are still faced with cigarette advertisements every time they pass a gas station or convenience store with windows and counters plastered with cigarette signs. Because few adults randomly take up smoking, cigarette advertising is aimed towards making children and teens become a generation of new customers.

                Advertising can have a dangerous effect on consumer’s self-imageand self-esteem by creating false images that perpetuate unrealistic body expectations. It is rare to find an advertisement with a model that has not been at least slightly airbrushed and altered. These digitally enhanced images usually remove every imperfection from a model’s body, and sometimes even remove normal features like collarbones, muscle contours, and curves around female hips. Frequently, images are so drastically altered that they show body proportions that are almost impossible, and certainly unhealthy, to obtain. The multi-national clothing chain H&M was recently criticized for taking digital model enhancement to the next level by photoshopping the heads of actual models onto computer generated bodies. Models are unrealistic even before the computer editing. In fact, the average female American model is 5’11” and weighs 117 lbs. whereas the average American woman is only 5’4” and weighs in at 140 lbs. Young women and girls are especially susceptible to the detrimental effects of these false body images, and often fall victim to conditions like bulimia and anorexia as they struggle to make their bodies look like the bodies of models that aren’t even real.

                Perhaps the most severe negative health influence stemming from advertising is on our diets. Once again, children are the most susceptible to this. Kids’ TV programming is full of commercials for sugary junk foods and highly processed fatty snacks. Even healthy foods are repackaged into “fun” and convenient on-the-go forms. For example, instead of eating a healthy apple, consumers have the option of buying pre-sliced apples which come with caramel dip. Supermarket breakfast cereal aisles constantly have the plainly packaged healthy cereals up high, and the sugary cereals down low at children’s eye level, plastered with fun and colorful characters and mascots, easily recognizable from their commercials. Brand recognition is a powerful influence over eating habits. Fast food franchises like McDonald’s offer the comfort of familiar food in a quick, easy, and affordable manner, while at the same time tempting children with toys and playspaces. In his study, “Review of Research on the Effects of Food Promotion to Children,” Professor Gerard Hastings states that advertising influences children towards a diet that is less healthy than the recommended one, and that advertising influences children’s’ preferences regarding what they will consume (3-4). Furthermore, food products are often misleadingly labeled to make them sound healthy. Empty terms like “new,” “improved,” and “lite,” are thrown around constantly with little meaning behind them.  William Lutz describes these in an excerpt from his book, Doublespeak, titled “With These Words, I Can Sell You Anything,” as weasel words. “…Examine weasel words closely and you’ll find that they’re as hollow as any egg sucked by a weasel” (1).

                Advertising is so much more than just selling a product. Marketers strive to change society’s opinions, habits, and preferences, and to affect each and every person on such an extreme level that new habits and beliefs get ingrained deeply in us from childhood. These subliminal influences have led to a cultural acceptance of addictive substances, harmful ideas of body image, and poor eating habits. In an essay titled “The Language of Advertising,” the author explains the importance of being informed consumers. We are not required to buy products just because we are surrounded by their commercials, but we should be aware of the effect that they have on us. We must pay attention and do our own thinking, instead of mindlessly trusting advertisements (O’Neill). Most importantly, we must be aware of the harmful effects of advertising on our health, so that we are prepared to avoid them. While advertising may be extremely useful for companies to sell their products and create vast legions of loyal consumers, it is dangerous to the well-being of society as a whole. 

  

                

ENG 101, Social Media post

It's amazing how quickly social media grew, infiltrated our lives, and became so commonplace that it is now almost essential for day-to-day life. For most people, it's the first thing we check when we wake up, and the last thing we see before we go to bed. It has had a huge impact on the world, and it certainly has affected me!

The largest impact it has had on my life is as a mother. I am connected to a huge network of parents, some I know in real life and some I have never met (and a few that I met only because I first met them online!). We chat every day, share photos and videos, post rants, raves, and reviews, and ask for advice. It has opened to doors to so many ideas, practices, and concepts that I had never thought of before. In so many ways, it has made me a better parent. I've had such an opportunity to learn from other people, and I have gotten to help teach them as well! The internet is great for seeking knowledge, but with social media you really  get to pick the brains of other people. You can learn everything from new recipes and home organization tips, to marital advice and home medical remedies. It's also great just to have other adults to talk to, when you spend your days having pretend phone conversations with a bunch of toddlers, and discussing Sesame Street. The dark side of social media is how time consuming and even addicting it can be. Sometimes it's difficult to peel yourself away from a good conversation on facebook to go wash dishes or play a board game with the kids. The time it takes up is by far the worst part of social media. Occasionally I stop and ask myself, "WHY am I still sitting here, flipping through instagram and looking at pictures of peoples' lunch?! There's a whole world out there! Pull yourself away from the computer screen, woman! Go for a walk!"

I think social media has had a huge impact on our society as a whole, and I think it's had both positive and negative repercussions. The positive side is a connectivity with people who we don't see regularly. When I've bumped into old high school friends from the store, I actually knew what was going on in their lives and it didn't feel like it had been quite that long since we'd seen each other. Unfortunately, I think the dependence on social media has bred a deep desire to avoid actual human interaction. People text whole conversations back and forth, when it would be easier just to call and speak. I think it has also led people to share things you would consider "TMI" with other people. If you and I worked together for a few months at some job years ago, I don't really want to read about how great your sex life is or how much your gout is flaring up, and I certainly don't want to see your duck-faced camera self-shots in your dirty bathroom mirror! Furthermore, for a society of people who are more and more relying on text to communicate, we sure have forgotten how to spell and use punctuation! And what's with all of the crazy acronyms? Omgwtfbbq!

Ultimately, I'm glad that social media exists and I will continue to use it. I must admit though... I do feel a bit dirty using facebook, knowing that it is full of subliminal advertising that is slowly brainwashing me into buying all of the "thneeds" of the world that I don't really need.


TTYL! ;)