Hayley's Blog: January 2014

Privacy and the media

http://www.itproportal.com/2014/01/10/ces-avg-uses-facebook-social-graph-innovative-privacy-app/

In this Article, we see the AVG has developed a program called PrivacyFix designed to help Facebook users with their privacy in their account. It explains the pros and cons of the user's privacy settings and what they can fix. It also informs the user which websites have sold their personal information to companies and block further companies from tracking the sites you visit. The program is also available on PC, tablet and phone.

I believe it is absurd and crazy that in this age nothing is private on the internet and that companies can buy our personal information is truly scary ! Nothing is private on the internet anymore and companies can literally find out everything about you through your accounts on various social networks. Identities can be stolen as well as your finances can be ripped away from you as your credit card number has been entered on some websites such as Amazon or Ebay. I personally believe everyone on the internet needs a crash course on what not to post on the internet for their own safety.

Trends and Culture

What does the popularity of a current fad, trend, and/or product suggest about society/culture?

All over the world there are ads for weightloss. Such as the one below.

In this generation, it has become a fast growing fad to be thinner and thinner. For a world to be so interested and fascinated by weight loss and thin bodies and the many crazy fad diets it portrays the world as being obsessed with body image. We too often judge people by whats on the outside and not whats on the inside. It says that this culture tells the new generation that body image is everything and if you're body is not perfect then you need to do something about it, thus leading to the millions of diet recipes and diet pills and diet delivery services. Society has become engulfed in body image and body perfection.

Representations of Teens in the Media

Teens can often be misinterpreted in the media. New television shows and magazines are portraying teens to often be out of control and wild . For example, the popular UK television series, Skins.

The series, broadcasted in the UK, portrays teens in the show as out of control, wild, using hard drugs and sexually active. While some teens are like this, the majority are not. It also shows that teens are reckless and cannot make right decisions or they do not know right from wrong while this is inaccurate, in fact at the age of a teenager, is when most of us starts making major life decisions such as what we're gonna do for the rest of our lives and what University we wish to attend. Also, when adults tend to watch these shows they instantly classify all teens like this which could be potentially bad as, say a young responsible teen applied for a job but the Boss viewed skins and instantly classified her as 'reckless' and 'irresponsible' and not grant her the job. I believe people need to really meet a teen before simply putting them all in one big group classifying them as reckless.