BIRG & CORF

In the video "Football High," many examples of BIRGing and CORFing were used. An example of of BIRGing is when while watching the video and looking up into Shiloh's football stands, you see that they are jam packed and everyone is wearing their school colors and team apparel. An example of CORFing you see in this video is when the coaches are so focused on success rather than failure that they risks killing their players practicing in the 100+ degree heat. Also, risking their players well-being and physical state by putting players back into the game with concussions just so that they can win the game. Another example of CORFing is when the quaterback's family moved to a different school so that their son could be on a more successful football team. The quaterback, as well as his family especially, didn't want to feel like a failure just because their old team was one.

Media Phobia

    Karen Sternheimer explained in the reading "Media Phobia" that people (parents to be more specific) are becoming more and more afraid of popular culture. One fear was that technology destroys our kids, and brings them places so dangerous that our parents can't do anything about it. When I think of this, I also think about the video we watched where the Korean kid didn't interact with her mother, he only played video games, and then was sent to a camp to help with this problem. In both, children are becoming addicted and too reliant on these technologies, which scares parents.
   
    An example of a fear coming from parents not mentioned in the reading is the use of birth control in teens. Parents fear this because they see how social media influences sex and think that this influences their children to have sex as well. They think their kids are too young and are scared if they do put their kids on birth control, that they will start having sex.

Pros and Cons of Social Media

One of the pros of social networking is that social networking sites facilitate face-to-face interaction. People use social media at in-network events and get to know people before personal business or other meetings. (1) I can agree with this statement because more times than likely, the first way of communicating that goes on between me and someone I'm interested in but never met before happens on social networking firsthand. A con of social networking is that social media causes people to spend less time interacting face-to-face. The percentage of people reporting less face-to-face time with family in their homes rose from 8% in 2000 to 34% in 2011. (2) I see more and more of this in my home as well. Most of the time when my both my sister and I are home, we spend more time on our phones then actually socializing with each other or our parents. I also see a lot of social media usage at the dinner table, and my parents are guilty of this as well.

My second source connecting to the con of social networking, in my opinion, is the most reliable of the two. I believe this because it is coming straight from a schools website.This means that the data was probably student based and tested, not just random numbers thrown out. My first source seems like its reliable based on how well I can relate to it, but I am not for sure how good of a source it actually is.

1. Morgan, "5 Ways Social Media Can Facilitate Offline Networking," www.sociableboost.com, May 8, 2012.
2. USC Annenburg School Center for the Digital Future, "Special Report: America at the Digital Turning Point," www. annenburg.usc.edu, January, 2012.

Celebrity Culture

What is celebrity culture? Celebrity culture is when you make someone popular based on events or their immoral behavior or the way they self promote themselves. Some people even try to get famous just by dating famous people. Benefits of celebrity culture includes all of the nice gestures that some celebrities for for the less fortunate. For example, Ellen is a great example of showing this. The amount of money and presents she donates to people of lesser fortune is unbelievable. Another Benefit of celebrity culture is that is provides us with entertainment, like with reality show stars such as Jon and Kate Gosselin. With benefits of celebrity culture also comes its obstacles. Some of these obstacles include celebrities who encourage drugs, alcohol, and any other illegal substances to their audiences or any one who follows them. For example, Lindsay Lohan, who is only famous now a days for the amount of drugs and alcohol she abuses.