The Smart Phone is an item that makes a statement in current day pop culture. This is an

item that is in demand; it is a statement of how well a person is doing and how successful they

will be. The Smart Phone symbolizes success in today’s society; it is a high tech. toy that is in

demand due to the image it conveys to people in society.

The problem with the Smart Phone is that it is new technology and it has flaws that most

people overlook due to the image it gives them. These people are relying on this phone so much

that most of their lives are programmed into this phone. This means that if there is a problem

most people lose this information, and then they do not know how to function without this

information. People have had breakdowns over losing the information that was stored in the

phone. This does not make sense; after all, with all the high tech. toys available, most people

back up all their information. Those that are using the Smart Phone do not seem to be doing this

and it is creating stress for many people.

The Smart Phone also falls into the rituals that current pop culture follows. All one has

to do is to walk down the street to see people using their phone; many people have set patterns as

to when they do certain tasks on their phones. These patterns are being done on the regular

basis, it then becomes part of there ritual pattern for their daily lives.

The Smart Phone also falls into the hero category. This happens easily when you have a

hero like Iron Man, as Tony Stark he uses every new technological toy that is available for him.

This then creates fans that treat him as an idol and a hero; this then sets the ground work for

everyone desiring the same equipment that they are seeing there hero use. This is there chance

to feel as if they have something in common with there hero. It gives society a chance to escape

the realities of life and succeed in making themselves into something more than they are. This

can be a great way to eliminate stress; however, this can give a false sense of who someone is

and it can cause problems for a person who can’t separate there dreams of being like there hero

from the reality of who they are. (Lee, 1963)

The Smart Phone is a perfect pop culture item, it has all the desires and images that

society craves today. It fits in with daily rituals as well as fitting in with the images society

wants for its hero’s. The Smart Phone can be a great asset; however, it can cause major issues

when it malfunctions. This is the problem when people have to have the newest high tech. item

on the market. There are always technical problems that people need to be aware of, yet people

seem to be ignoring these issues. The Smart Phone can be a great asset but people need to be

prepared for the problems to happen and have a back up in place.

References

Stan Lee, Iron Man. Marvel Comics Universe, copyright March 1963

            The Smart Phone can play a role in all the formulas as long as the media is focused on current day, or high tech. technology.  The smart phone is a tool that everyone can use to help them be organized, be professional, and be successful.  This makes it an item that can appear in any media type as a source that helped them become successful. 

            One example is Iron Man; you have the successful Tony Stark using all the high tech. equipment like a smart phone to keep him organized and to help him be successful.

This creates the demand in the media for the Smart Phone, yet it seems to fit with the image of Iron Man.  (Lee, 1963)

            The Smart Phone is an example of what is new, what everyone needs to strive for.  This means that it will be used as a symbol to say how successful you are; the Smart Phone will set the standard that people must work for.   This can be a positive influence or a negative influence on today’s society; it all depends on how the media is used to market this new device.  The manufacturer will take advantage of what society is looking for; they will develop the product to meet the desires of society.  The manufacturer is not interested in making improvements to society; they just want to sell their product.  It is up to the media unit that is using the product to decide how they wish to feature the product.  They are the ones that have the access to use it in a positive or negative way.

            Popular culture items or topics start off as a basic item or a basic theory, it is then up the media unit to use it in a certain way to either appeal to society or to help influence society.  This means that the development of our society comes down to how the different media units decide to manipulate the items and concepts they have chosen.  This shows how much influence the media has on society, and how little control society has on itself.  This is not a comforting thought; how little control we actually have on society, yet how much control the media has. 

            The society of today needs to determine its cultural beliefs and make the media meet to their standards as opposed to society adjusting to the media’s belief.  People need to learn to stand behind there beliefs and not let others influence them.  Society in general is too concerned with what others believe and think.  This thinking sets society up to fail, society needs to be strong in there beliefs so that all media units attempt to meet the standard set by society.

  

  

References

Stan Lee, Iron Man.  Marvel Comics Universe, copyright 1963

The Candy Shop Culture: How Adults can Affect Tween Consumerism, the candy shop is a reference to how a child feels when walking into a giant candy store.  The child has those wide open eyes just begging their parent to allow them to make a purchase.  With today’s culture it is not so much the candy store but the Apple store, the iPod is a great example of the new type of candy.  The culture has turned the reasonable priced desires from $.99 to $99 dollars; this has changed how marketing is focused. 

            This article is focused on how the tween society is being manipulated by business and different industries.  The article is showing how different entities can influence the tweens and how important that influence is too many different businesses.  It also shows that parents need to be more proactive in helping there tweens make good choices based on information not on desires.

            Today’s young consumers simply can not afford all of the intriguing items proffered to them.  They depend on their parents.  American tweens, whom they define as eight-to twelve-year olds, spend about $11 billion independently each year, although some of that sum actually represents allowance, while parents themselves spend around $176 billion on their tweens annually.  Tweens as current consumers, future consumers, and influences of other consumers, is now a focus for marketing.  Marketers who capture tweens’ interest can gain immediate revenue, long-term brand loyalty, and even walking advertisements tailored to a family. 

            While marketers see the potential for profit from tweens, many parents and cultural critics raise concerns about exploiting a population bombarded with messages about cool products and mainstream attitudes.  Marketers have assembled an arsenal of approaches they can deploy on tweens, a fairly defenseless segment of the population.  This is why parents and cultural critics have raised concerns over this practice.

            There are companies that try to gain the interest of the tweens and then keep their interest as they become adults.  Abercrombie and Fitch, is an example, they glorify the youthfulness of its customer base, then they have expanded that base with the spin-offs Hollister, its surfer-inspired brand for teens aged fifteen to seventeen and Abercrombie, its preppy line aimed at kids aged seven to fourteen.  Tweens who like the look of Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister can shop for clothes in their sizes, and parents can avoid the loud music and dim lighting of the adult store.  The power of brand extensions lies in their ability to appeal simultaneously to youth and their parents.

            Indeed, youth participation in the world of technology has advanced beyond the occasional sugary indulgence of candy.  A sack of jelly beans provides temporary diversion, but a backpack stocked with a cell phone and an iPod affords extended personal entertainment, often to the exclusion of other activities.  While technology has the potential to absorb tweens to a disturbing extent and may facilitate kids’ exposure to adult content on the internet and in video games, it can be a powerful learning tool as well.  Considering the “cool” factor of so much new technology, I wondered if students would get distracted from the work itself in the course of using computer programs to prepare reports.

            Parents, of course, can provide another source of support by engaging their kids in conversation.  It is important for parents to explain that they have a choice in what you surround yourself with and any thing that has influence on you.  Although the ever-stronger pull of the adult world invites kids to become young adults in the space of a few years; however, students can mold counter to the dominant culture with the correct guidance. 

            In today’s candy shop culture of consumption, glossy displays in mall windows and shiny gadget screens have replaced crinkly cellophane bags of candy; the indulgences within have changed from the likes of Juicy Fruit chewing gum to Juicy Couture sweatpants.  Candy represents things desired, but perhaps today’s society can accommodate a wider perspective in which a park and a library flank the candy shop. 

            I truly liked the way the author pulled so many different aspects of life and of culture to show the abuse of tween society.  This article helps people to understand how important it is to be aware of what our children are doing and how these things can influence them whether they are good or bad.  I felt bad not using more examples but this analysis would closer to eight pages if I would have used these examples.

            This article is important for parents to read as they are trying to raise children in today’s society and culture.  It really helps to explain the good and the bad about all the desires that are being pushed onto the tween society.  The parents can now help there tweens make better decisions and help guide them to a better life.  The article can also be used to make the tweens aware of how they are being manipulated by industries, businesses, and other social endeavors. 

References

Marissa O’Connell, CANDY SHOP CULTURE: HOW ADULTS CAN AFFECT TWEEN CONSUMERIAM http://www.americanpopularculture.co...merism.htm#top copyright July 2010.  Retrieved February 12, 2012

The use of the Smart phone in relation to the cult of the celebrity is a bond that is easy to follow.  The celebrities are walking bill boards for any company that wants to market and item.  The way that people follow and even stalk celebrities creates an easy marketing tool for any type of product, the company just needs to find the right role model and offer them enough to be seen with the product.  This is how many celebrities get free products, they are asked to be seen with the product and to endorse the product in exchange for the free use of the product. 

            Those people that follow that celebrity want to be just like them so they tend to buy the same products that the celebrity carries.  People look at this as a way of being like the celebrity that they idolize.  The celebrity has the life style that everyone wants to have and by at least having some of the same items, people feel like the life style is not out of reach.  The possibility of having even part of their lives similar to their idol is usually enough to make people feel better about themselves. 

            The Smart phone fits into this situation perfectly.  The celebrities like to have all the newest technology and all the new toys.  The Smart phone is a great example of high tech toys that a celebrity would enjoy having.  This means that the more celebrities that are carrying these Smart phones, the more people are going to demand access to these phones and start to use them. 

            The celebrities have now become marketing tools that can easily sell items just by their reputation.  All the celebrity has to do is get their name associated with the product and their fans will buy the product.  This makes marketing items very simple, give free samples to a celebrity that fits with the product image and watch as their fans purchase the product just so they can appear to have the same things as their idol.   

            One can see that the creation of idols, heroes, and celebrities creates desires in others to be like those that they idolize.  This type of idolizing creates a great marketing tool for many different types of companies but it can also cause many problems.  The people who idolize the celebrities may not be able to afford these products, this can cause people to feel inferior, and it can lead people to steal so that they have the product and can imitate their idol.  The concept of the theft is forgotten in the fact that they must have the product so they appear to be as great as their idol.    

            People need to learn how to respect those idols, celebrities, and heroes without having the desire to possess everything they do.  The concept of heroes and celebrities can be a good way to make people feel better when the response to these heroes are controlled and realistic.  When these responses to heroes, idols, and celebrities become uncontrolled and start to become fantasy is when there are problems.  It is okay to fantasize, but people still need to be able to come back to reality and function correctly in society.

The Smart Phones are easily linked to stereotypes, and for some people they can also be linked to rituals.  Stereotypes are a generalization of a type of person, they are very seldom correct and they can be either positive or negative in nature.  Rituals are the actions of these stereotypes; if you have a stereotype of a religious person then the rituals they would follow would be to preach to you, to offer to save your soul, and try to get you to commit to God.  That was a very basic description of how a stereotype and a ritual can be linked together. (Browne2005)

            The use of Smart phones is linked to the highly successful person, and to the high tech. society.  This causes people to want the phones just because it gives the appearance that they are successful in their lives.  This causes a positive stereotype, anyone who owns a Smart phone is considered successful, a leader, a professional, and someone who understands this high tech. technology. 

            The rituals that develop around a Smart phone can develop into a major issue.  There are people that have so much of their lives programmed into these phones that if there is a computer glitch with the phone or a lost or stolen phone happens that their whole lives are turned upside down.  These people are on the phones 24/7, they check their email, they do internet searches, and they have passwords hidden in them.  The loss of the phone means they have nothing, they have lost all contact information, their itinerary, their passwords, and for some their sense of being.  The phone must always be at their side or they don’t know how to function, they rely on the phone entirely too much.

 

            There are people that as soon as they get up they have to check the phone, they do this before any morning routine.  The use of the phone is a constant with these types of people; everything in their lives depends on them having access to the world through these phones.  This might seem silly to many people; however, I have seen people that were so devastated when their phone failed that they had a nervous breakdown over the loss.  The reaction I saw was actually worse than when the person had to deal with the death of her father. 

            You can see how stereotypes and rituals can be brought out by the simplest items, yet they can have devastating effects on people’s lives.  There is no way to stop these things from happening but people can be aware of how these issues affect them. Stereotypes happen to everyone, they can be right and they can be wrong; people need to understand this and be willing to accept either scenario.  The rituals that people fall into can be good and they can be bad, the people need to be aware of the rituals and understand how these rituals affect their lives.  They also need to be prepared if for some reason they can’t follow their normal rituals, how that will affect them and deal with the results.

References

Browne, Ray.  Profiles of Popular Culture, The University of Wisconsin Press.  Copyright 2005.