Representing ourselves: blog task

1) Read the article and summarise each section in one sentence, starting with the section 'Who are you?'

All active decisions that are made by us are a way that we attempt to construct an online identity for ourselves and that the choices that we make are a way that we want people to perceive how you are while viewing the content.

I think, therefore I am

Pre-digital world we had used our identities, class, religion and predetermined roles to construct the social roles that we had but in the digital age we are able to stand out and raise their voice, as prior men would be thought of the men of the house while women would have patriarchal roles due to their class.

From citizen to consumer 

Post-industrial consumer boom people were made to begin to become a passive consumer that would be done through advertising and marketing strongly to make people consider what they wanted against need. This made consumer needs an easy way to market a product. Sigmund Freud had argued the about the idea of an id which was the un-evolved part of the psyche that influenced decisions of the needs and wants of consumers. This allowed advertisers to begin to take advantage of the idea of influencing consumers on what they needed to buy to increase sales.

The rise of the individual

The 70's and 80's had an uproar of the significance of brands and the status that came with them. This led to advertisements that linked with images to become an associate with real-life clothing and lifestyle. The idea of people having the right to his or her identity. Products were seemed to be able to communicate a person to others.

Branding and Lifestyle
The 70's and 80's saw the rise of lifestyle marketing and the brand association of a "personality" rather than the product, the media also came together to begin to reflect the importance of identity and role models. Also, media also began to make different types of personas to the lifestyle of individual. 

Who will we be?
Through the breakthrough of the internet the way people represented themselves became digital and all personal as you can choose how you want people to view you. The self-identity is lost and we as people are able to form our own image of what we want people to see. 

2) List five brands you are happy to be associated with and explain how they reflect your sense of identity.

Apple
I am happy to be owning apple products as they shown some elite profile where you can show others that you have all these different forms of premium products giving me a higher social status and makes me feel a part of a group of people that own the product not making me feel left out.


Sony PlayStation
I am extremely, happy to associate myself with this brand as I have owned every PlayStation since number 2 as the creativeness of their products as i've seen it develop over a long time making me feel connect with play station as i have brand loyalty to it. Also being a console I feel that it represents me well.

3) Do you agree with the view that modern media is all about 'style over substance'? What does this expression mean?

Style over substance is the statement of the way or things a product holds is more important than the ability of the product (hardware over software). I agree with the statement of style over substance with a prime example being the MacBook, it holds this thought of being a premium product that is recognized by many, but the product is recognized as a statement. While a MacBook right now only has one port, meaning it does not have the basic ports needed for a laptop. Therefore even if people cannot have basic ports they still buy a product at a premium price.

4) Explain Baudrillard's theory of 'media saturation' in one paragraph. You may need to research it online to find out more.

Baudrillard's theory revolves around the idea of hyperreality (Division between "real" and simulation has collapsed) in celebrity culture and a video game culture. In celebrity culture, this is the idea of people not being able to realize that they are living in a persona and therefore normal people attempt to replicate this. Also in video gaming terms, it is how games promote violence that leads to people doing violent actions in real life. The research of the Bobo doll is a large indication of this and how the media influences audiences to act differently.

5) Is your presence on social media an accurate reflection of who you are? Have you ever added or removed a picture from a social media site purely because of what it says about the type of person you are?

I think that what I upload is mostly always thought about and is thought of what people may think of me, while this is what I see, I do think my small social media profile is a representation if me as it does reflect what I enjoy and do. however, i do delete some posts as in the moment it feels right but later i wont feel the same as i did about it for example on snapchat, a quote or picture.

6) What is your opinion on 'data mining'? Are you happy for companies to sell you products based on your social media presence and online search terms? Is this an invasion of privacy?

I think companies such as Facebook and Google that use cookies to mine data to sell to advertise products or videos with an algorithm. I prefer the way Snapchat does the date handling of deleting the data after 24 hours.