On Sunday night, I playing a board game called "Things..." I don't know if any of you have heard of it because I hadn't until we played it, but it was hilarious! There are different subjects, such as, "Things you wouldn't leave open..." Then everyone writes down an answer on a piece of paper. There is a guesser who tries to match up what people said with them. The goal is to get everyone out and not have your answer guessed!
I have never thought of a board game as media, but I think it counts. It brought a group of us together and we has a lot of fun!
My family was out to dinner the other night and my little brother randomly quoted in his deep deep voice, "May your hammer be mighty.." from his favorite movie Hot Rod. My siblings and I all burst out laughing and my parents were just confused!
This made me so grateful for the media in my life. My family loves to quote movies and I feel like it gives us something that we can relate to one another--despite the age difference. It allows us to have something we all can laugh together about and have a good time!
I decided to write a letter to the headquarters of Abercrombie & Fitch concerning their advertisements displayed in their store:
Dear Headquarters of Abercrombie & Fitch,
My name is Nicole Lindsley and I am a junior at Brigham Young University majoring in Marriage, Family, and Human Development.I am currently studying media in a class for my major called Media, Family, and Human Development.I am writing this letter because I am concerned about the types of advertising your company chooses to use.I do not think it is appropriate for your advertisements to be so suggestive.I feel that your stores are repulsive to walk through because the pictures displayed on the wall are very suggestive and send very strong sex messages to those who view them.I understand that in our society, sex sells but it concerns me because of the customers that regularly shop at your stores.Studies show that sex sells to men because of the sexual arousal that is attention getting, but the regular shoppers in your store are usually adolescent age.
As I look back to Junior High and High school, I would look forward to the times when my friends and I would have the opportunity to go shopping at Gateway because it had Abercrombie and Fitch, whereas, no other close malls did.We would spend large amounts of time in there and I vividly remember many of the large pictures that were on display. After studying the media in class, I have learned the influence that these types of advertisements can have on adolescents.They often can diminish the self-esteem and bring those down who don’t feel that they are as sufficient as the models displayed.
I feel like there are alternate ways that you can advertise and bring in customers to your store that I would encourage you to look into.I think it would be very beneficial to your store to take these suggestive advertisements off of your wall and instead, display pictures of adolescents wearing the cute clothes your store offers.Scholars argue that materialism advertising is very successful, so using the tactic of displaying pictures that show off your clothes, rather then send a suggestive message will be beneficial to you.
So, last weekend I spontaneously decided to go to St. George with my parents to my little brother's high school baseball tournament. My parents live in Salt Lake so they just picked me up on the way down. As we were in the car, my Dad handed back his iphone and told me to pick some music. I was so confused why he would want me to choose from his phone when he didn't even have an adapter. Doesn't he get how ipod's work?!
I tried to explain to him, but he didn't get it. So I just picked some music to gave it a try. It then started playing through the speakers without being connected to anything. I was so impressed with my Dad that he knew how to play music through blue tooth from his phone. I have never even thought about doing that before!
So, my little brother is such a stud! He is the starting pitcher for Olympus High School and played such an amazing game today. We won 6 to 2. Being at those games makes me so grateful for the media because there is a scoreboard that tells the score, outs, strikes, balls, and what inning we are in. It makes it so much more convenient to watch sports when there is a scoreboard.
So, I have to admit that being in this media class, had made me notice the media everywhere! Haha I was sitting at Stake Conference yesterday and it occurred to me how much our church uses the media. There would be no way that we could have stake conference or even normal conference without it. The only people that would be able to hear the speaker would be those who gather close. Without the media, there would be no microphones, music, speeches...think about how different it would be?! The media is so beneficial to spreading the gospel and the words of our church leaders.
Today as I was walking across campus, I noticed that so many people walk around listening to music. It isn't a bad thing, but I would encourage everyone to take a day without it. I feel like people are more friendly and charismatic when they aren't listening to music because they notice those around on campus. This warm weather is a perfect chance to try it! Limit the music and say hello!! :)
