Monday, April 21, 2014
It's a Two-Way Street
As I've been reflecting on everyone's mediated artifacts, it's hard to adopt an optimistic attitude about all the influences brought to our attention and how change our lives everyday. Each item represents one small piece, but as they begin to add up it's not to feel like more than that. Our cars are built to fall apart, our foods are filled with disgusting chemicals (and apparently cocaine…), our shampoos are destroying the planet, and people with authority can make other people feel like shit without any consequences. When these add up, it's hard to think that my life isn't just one giant sham. This was not exactly what I was hoping to get out of the activity, so I decided to come up with as many positive forms of deception as I could. While susceptibility to peer pressure can lead us astray, it can also be a strong force in the opposite direction. For example, if you are attempting to help a friend who openly refuses any direct advice, it is possible to manipulate them into doing something for their own benefit. Hypnosis can sometimes be used as a form of treatment for mental illness, behavioral disorders, and addiction. This course in it of itself is a prime example. It has manipulated me in more ways than I am even aware of, and yet, I feel no worse off for it.
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I do agree with you that manipulation is not necessarily has to be negative. Like the spider chair, which was clearly a mediated artifact and was not functionally a proper chair however, it was a great conversation starter, which would not be possibly for a plain old couch bought for the sole purpose of sitting comfortably. We will live in a society where mediated artifacts surround everything we do. However, these manipulations are not necessarily bad, I am advertised into believing that most of the cereals are healthy for me, even though it may not be true, the cereal tastes great and I am okay with eating a great tasting cereal and believing it might be a little healthy for me.
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