In my Visualizing the Curriculum class, we talked a lot about the ways the media use images to make us think or feel a certain way about a product or a lifestyle. I can’t remember where I read it, but one of the articles posed the question: Who does this ad think that you are? I think that’s an interesting question. So, now, when I see advertisements I try to think about that question. For example, there was a TJ Maxx commercial on television today that began with a woman saying, “I get a rush finding just the right gifts.” Sigh. Who does this ad think that I am? Someone who gets a rush shopping, I suppose. Someone who loves buying things. And, they like to use that angle that you are buying gifts for others, but we all know that it doesn’t stop there. Or what about that commercial for Target’s Black Friday sale? You know the one with the lady is “training” to get the deals on Black Friday. She was a strange, crazed woman. Target’s sale went on for two days, so they were saying, you’re not her. You don’t have to be her. Well, who is her? Or, I love the ones with “scientific explanations.” Have you ever noticed how many times companies use the aura of science and technology to sell a product. If they can get a doctor to give some generic explanation for why we need something, then we believe it. Do we go do our own research? Not usually. Never mind that this guy (always a guy) was paid by the company and is noticeably reading his lines. Or, what about all of the ads for pharmaceuticals? Not only do the ads try to say that we are people that think we can cure most things with drugs, but also there’s the aura of science again. And the one’s that get me the most right now are the ads targeting kids for Christmas presents. Who does the ad think that your kid is? Companies are hoping that they are easily dazzled by “stuff” and will beg you to get “stuff” until they get it. Stuff, stuff, stuff. Merry Christmas!
Sometimes, we are more aware of an advertisement that is trying to tell us how to be or what to like. Sometimes, we notice what is going on, but those are the bad ads. The good ones do it in such a way, that what they think you are seems so normal, so natural, that we scarcely bat an eye. More than that, it starts to sink in a little. And, we are so inundated with these sorts of messages and images, that they just sink in little by little, until we can barely tell the difference between what we want and what advertisers want us to want. It becomes the water in which we swim. It’s kind of scary to be manipulated in such a way that we start to desire things that are unnecessary, unhealthy, and just ridiculous (like the wrinkle cream in my medicine cabinet. Why do I have wrinkle cream?! I am 28!). Or we start to desire to be something that is NOT what we would want to be, if we could just sit and think about it for a moment. Advertisers, and the society that is being formed by them (in many ways), want us to fall asleep. If we fall asleep, then we won’t realize the ways in which we are being manipulated. We need to teach ourselves, and our kids, to stay awake.
I’ve been thinking about the ways people stay awake, that they reject the default. I thought of my husband Dan and when I first met him. He listened to the most interesting music and liked the strangest (to me) movies. I had never thought too much about the music I listened to or the movies I watched. I just listened to top 40 and went to see blockbusters… the default. Why had I never thought about what I watched or listened to? I didn’t really know there were choices. I was being shaped by both of these media and I never chose them, they by their simple popularity, chose me. Dan did something different. The other day I asked him how he did it and he said that he found an independent radio station (97X, for those of you in Cincinnati, may it rest in peace), then he would find bands on there he liked and look them up online, find similar bands, talk to people that liked the same music, and find more. It was part community and part research that led him to something other than the default.
I was kind of amazed at his ability at an early age to think critically and make his own choices. This is not something we are taught in school, to seek out things we are interested in, to learn on our own. That’s why I was such a good student. I was interested not in any particular subject, but in doing well in school. Once school was over, I sort of felt like I lost a part of my identity. That was me; I was school (this is a continuous struggle, obviously). This is really why I took up marathon running. Because, while Dan had his own interests (he can fiddle with electronics from now until doomsday), one day someone asked me what my hobbies were and I realized that I didn’t have any. I was a teacher, I had a boyfriend and a great family, I watched tv, and… I used to be a really good student. I had just accepted all of the defaults of life and I had hardly shaped my own interests. In fact, I had no interests. I was asleep.
My new hobby led me to lots of new places and in some ways I think it woke me up a little (no one’s ever completely awake, I don’t think it’s possible). It led me to learn about something I had an interest in. I learned more about running, and health. I began to read magazines, books, and websites. I ran with a group and we talked, exchanged stories and information. The crazy thing about having an interest that isn’t the default (although marathon running is becoming pretty darn commonplace) is that people, without even thinking, try to sort of beat it out of you. This is what I first heard when I signed up, “Do you know how far a marathon is?” “Isn’t running that far bad for your joints?” My answers were, “Yes.” and “Isn’t sitting on your behind bad for everything?” But, the point is that people are very uncomfortable with any thing other than what is, well, comfortable. Being the same makes us feel like we can fit in and be part of a community. I want to feel like I’m part of a community too, but the thing is, is that the community (you know, us Americans) has developed some very uncritical habits (thanks in part, I think to our unconscious consumption of media).
This leads me to the reason I became a vegetarian. I became a vegetarian because, after reading Runner’s World and hearing here and there that it was a healthy way to live, I decided to read a few books on the topic and read forum posts by vegetarian communities on the internet. I then made the decision that this was something I could do, and that I agreed with. I didn’t think of it in this way at the time, but I was making an attempt to stay awake. The default American diet is full of processed foods and things we don’t really need to eat, but we do because we have since we can remember and we don’t think about it. Here again I faced some resistance because I was choosing something other than the default. This one was much more difficult than running. Food is part of culture and somehow me choosing not to eat certain things really offends a lot of people. I guess if I’m not with them, I’m against them (?). And I really don’t think that everyone should eat the way I do (I could definitely eat better, but those DQ commercials really work on me!), I just think everyone should think it over for themselves. Just stay awake. Don’t go into McDonald’s just because it’s there and it’s always been there and as kids we loved Ronald and the toys. That’s called cradle-to-grave marketing. McDonald’s has been very successful using that strategy.
I also think that very religious people are in many ways excellent at staying awake (though maybe we have different types of lenses). Many religious people reject much of what society wants them to accept without question. They are critical of wordly things and I think we can all agree that they get a lot of backlash too. I can respect what they are trying to do, and I think we can learn a lesson from them in how to be critical. For me, this is all important to consider with regard to education. How can we make sure that students today aren’t falling asleep in the overwhelming ocean of information that is the internet and that surrounds them in their daily lives? How can we make sure that they are thinking critically about the ways they represent themselves online? How can we help them negotiate the world without accepting the default? How can we make sure they consider themselves more than consumers? How can we help them become creative, interesting, unique producers of their own identity? Of course, this is personal too, because I still care too much about my appearance, eat Doritos like its my job, buy stupid things I don’t need, follow the herd, etc, etc. I hear Foucault again in the back of my mind speaking of “a thousand things to do.” Little by little, we can wake up and little by little we can reclaim that which we gave away too easily, unknowingly, or maybe that we never had… ourselves.