I thought the documentary was really, really interesting. Although the images of teenage males and females that they discussed (Mooks and Midriffs) are ones that I've recognized in the media, I hadn't necessarily seen them as products of the MTV-style advertising. It was interesting to see how the research the corporations did lead them to those models; when they were showing clips from their research interview with Jeff (?) and then they cut to the "Mooks" I was confused how they could make the jump from one to the next logically. The question the narrator posed, however, of whether MTV was trying to research Jeff as a person or as a consumer made the distinction clear: they create what they think teenagers want to be, which in turn creates the image teenagers try to emulate, and so on (not so unlike the consumer profiles the feed creates for each individual in the novel).
The narrator called this a "feedback loop," and the connotations of that, in light of our most recent reading, were almost too close for comfort. Isn't it a little shocking to find just how closely our reality parallels that of Anderson's novel?
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I completely agree with out that our reality parallels that of Anderson a little too closely. When I read the novel I could see us making the jump to the internet in our heads in just a decade or two. After that it isn't much further to create online profiles and to start teaching students nothing but consumerism in school...and that is definitely a scary thought.
ReplyDeleteI too found it interesting that the media banks on what they think teens want to be. Make a ton of products/celebs/music then do research in your target market to see which are trends. Those that are big get bigger and become a-listers or triple platinum records, thus setting a 'standard' for cool. Marketing schemes at their best/worst!
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