manipulating ourselves to manipulate others

When writing this post, I was trying to think of big sources of manipulation that haven’t already been mentioned. I realized something that I don’t believe anyone has talked about is relationships. Boyfriends, girlfriends, hookups, etc. are all major sources of manipulation, especially in college. The way we interact with the people we are interested in revolves around manipulation.

“How do I get them to know I’m interested?”

“How do I make them interested?”

“What will they think if I say this?”

“Why aren’t they responding to my text?”

“Should I text again?”

Those are just some examples of the thoughts that run through many people’s heads. The entire thing is one big mess. It is all about people trying to manipulate other people to think what you want them to and as a result, have a certain opinion of you. Also, the whole process ends up manipulating you and the way you think and act. When you think about it, it’s all crazy. Why can’t we just take a breather and have confidence in the fact that it will work out the way it’s supposed to? All of these thoughts not only are for the sole purpose of manipulating someone else, but they then manipulate us to act in a certain way.  

Do we manipulate religion or does it manipulate us?

The Easter holiday drew my attention to the manipulation of religion. Raised in a Christian household, I attended church every Sunday and grew up believing in God. Although God is intangible, unreachable, and possibly not even real, the teachings of the Bible insist that the followers of Christ do not question his presence. We are told he is omnipresent. Growing up I believed this,  I had no choice not to. I won't go into further details regarding the Christian or Catholic faith, as I'm sure many of you have greater knowledge of it than I do. In this blog post, I hope to highlight a few forces of manipulation surrounding the idea of religion and religious holidays. 

There are various forms, practices, and types of religions. Some even supposedly originated from the same "God." If each religion is unique and individual, do all offer a different message? The same message? Conflicting messages? The short and sweet answer is that there is some overlap between the messages religions preach, however all are unique in their own way. Thus, manipulation is at work in the form of different religions. 

Next, Atheists do not believe in a God or practice religion. Have they been manipulated not to believe in a God or have we been manipulated to believe in a God? Do they believe in forces greater than themselves? Are there forces greater than ourselves not represented by a God?

Finally, Easter and Christmas serve as two of the greatest examples of manipulation. Both represent a major religious holiday in the Christian faith, however, both have been largely manipulated by external social and economic factors. The resurrection of Christ is associated with the arrival of the Easter Bunny, egg hunts, and obviously lots of chocolate. Our society has manipulated the religious holidays into something completely different than the original meaning. Even further, each family manipulates Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Halloween, by practicing family traditions, which are individual and unique. The meaning and enactment of religious holidays are driven by manipulation to be ever-changing. 

Ps. I apologize for failing to mention religious holidays outside the Christian faith. I hope to hear about some of them in class and whether or not they mimic or differ greatly in their forms of manipulation. 

Who's manipulating whom?

This assignment, and all the recent blog posts have made me start to think that we are being manipulated, by Janelle, to believe in manipulation.  This entire class has been focused on how we are constantly manipulated and Janelle has been drilling into our head that we need to open our eyes and realize this.  After everyone brought in their mediated artifacts I realized that these things, and Janelle, can only manipulate us if we allow them to.  We have complete control over ourselves, and the idea that we can be so easily manipulated by meaningless objects in our everyday life seems almost absurd.  Of course its not as easy to prevent yourself from all forms of manipulation, but I felt as though, after lengthy discussions concerning manipulation, it was worthing bringing up the idea that the concept of manipulation is ultimately in our control.

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.

Society: you lost.

I've been constantly looking for little bits of manipulation in my every day life to write something insightful on this blog. Then, in an insomnia-filled night, I realized that for a big part of my life I completely ignored all social manipulations and did my own thing. Especially when I was the only 15 year old who had the courage to tell my grandparents they were rude, and disrespectful, while everyone else sat there and took their rude comments and bottled them up inside. When I was 15 I also decided that I was moving out of my house. I told my mom I wanted to live with my dad and fought her until she said yes. In that two year process I had about four therapists tell me I had some other sort of issue because no girl should want to live with her dad. They claimed that if I were a boy it would all be different. I wasn't "by the books enough" for them to think that I was normal. Eventually, I managed to leave Argentina and move into my dads house. I can guarantee that I would not be writing this blog post today if I hadn't been such a hard-headed, anti-society 15 year old.
I had never thought about this part of my life as manipulation, but the truth is no one would let me leave because society said that girls should live with their mother (I don't know where this started, or who came up with it, but I disagree) and boys should live with their father. I had to threaten to take my mother to court to get what I wanted.
So, society, you failed. Sorry, but you did. I may follow many manipulations that society puts me through, many manipulations that my college imposes, but I sure was not about to follow the manipulation of some thousand-year old psychology book. And here I am. I'm at Hamilton, and I couldn't be happier.
There were only about five or six people who supported my moving to the United States, and I owe them the world. How else would I know that I was being manipulated in most aspects of my life if I didn't move? How would I know that I should challenge things and do what I want not what others tell me to? I wouldn't. But I do. So yeah, society, you lost dude.

Manipulated by You All

We're manipulated all the time, whether it be subconsciously or under our own awareness. This has been brought to our attention from the moment we walked into class on the first day. I've been making it a point to pick up on the countless manipulations I'm faced with every day. I'm manipulated by my friends, by my teachers, by society, by my coaches, by my schoolwork, by standards, and by everything else in between.

Today as I was reading through the blog posts, I realized that I am manipulated by my own classmates as well. I have grown accustomed to reading through my classmates' blog posts before I write mine. I like to see everyone's thoughts and interpretations before I sit down to compile my own. It occurred to me that right now I am being manipulated into writing about manipulation. Everyone else is doing it, so it must be the right thing to do, right? You don't want to be that one person that suddenly posts about something completely irrelevant to what everyone else in the class is talking about, or do you? Sometimes we must learn to take notice of the manipulations in front of us, and take a risk and go against what we "should" do.

The Targeting Approach

I've been thinking a lot about my media(ted) artiFACT because I have to present it in class tomorrow. Well, I've actually been stressing more than anything. I started looking at things I surround myself with and how I may be manipulated by them. After thinking deeply about my favorite things, and finding myself as clueless as when I began. My best friend from high school showed me these youtube videos last year called "Target Women," and they're hilarious. The premise of the clips is that Sarah Haskins, a comedian, goes on a rant/ spiel about products marketed specifically toward women. Her topics range from chocolate and yogurt to Broadview Security.

The chocolate episode hit me particularly hard. I love chocolate. Have I been manipulated to love it and believe that I need it? According to the evidence, I have. Can you recall a chocolate commercial not advertised toward women? I certainly can't. The commercials make chocolate appear like everything we women could possible ever need. I've been watching a lot of "Mad Men" recently. In the last episode, the agency pitches a campaign to Playtex, the bra makers. The entire concept of the ad was created by men and pitched to men. These men decide what women want in a bra. That to me is scary and ridiculous. This is how manipulation works. Some people get together in a room and pitch and idea they think will make me feel like I need their product. This is what I'll be presenting on tomorrow in class, but I thought I'd share the links with you now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPf5L3JE1_4

here's an actual chocolate commercial if you're interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwPwQ4S4op8

Manipulation here, manipulation there

I am currently being manipulated to videotape a live softball game. The manipulation started two days ago when my boss sent an email offering an extra pay to whoever volunteered to record today’s softball game. While reading the email, I remember listening to my friends talk about softball but I was not able to contribute because I barely knew how the sport was played so I thought to myself, maybe videotaping the game would be a great way to learn about this sport. Also the extra pay for recording the video sounded great.

When I got to the field, the video camera was able to capture the entire field so I did not have to do any work. I sat done to watch the game. It was an interesting  game but as I sat there watching the game I started to get nervous about my upcoming Organic Chemistry exam and within the next ten minutes I find myself practicing Organic Chemistry while recording a live softball game.

My boss was trying to manipulate her worker with the extra pay and my lack of sport culture manipulated me to take the job but at the end of the day the importance of getting a good grade manipulated me to study Organic Chemistry. 

Social Media

I think the mediated artifact that I could most relate to was Johns. I had never thought about pictures that way before but it is so true. We all (well most of us in this day and age) have a social media profile or two...or five and almost no where do you see another person you are friends with, or follow as the person they really are. Their pictures specifically aim to manipulate their viewers. No one posts a picture of the day they can't get their hair to look good or the day that their boyfriend breaks up with them. People post pictures of their good days; a smiling picture at the beach or the expensive meal that you didn't even order. Everyone chooses the way that they portray themselves to the world with this "snapshot" of their lives that is everything but candid and truthful. We all recognize that this is not the whole truth about the people in their profiles but that is almost encouraged. People who post negative Facebook statuses about not getting a job are self wallowing, people who post a sad photo are looking for attention. But where do these connotations come from? I personally know I feel this way anytime someone posts something negative or negatively thought provoking. We encourage people to only share the good aspects of their lives because the negative things are "too personal". Should we accept that social media is not a reflection of someones full character or be more understanding to those who share their lives more candidly on social media? Maybe there is no real way to create a profile that your friends will accept without some level of manipulation.

Nominalism

   For my philosophy class, we recently read an article called "Making Up People" by Ian Hacking.  The entirety of the article was based around the idea that societal definitions and distinctions are self-fulfilling processes - after the definitions/distinctions are created, people act according to their definition (whether purposefully or not).  Hacking says that "our spheres of possibility, and hence our selves, are to some extent made up by our naming and what that entails."  He is saying that we manipulate ourselves and others through nomenclature and definitions.  I don't personally have a strong opinion on the matter, but it's an interesting question: do we create and then define, or do we simply choose one of many predetermined roles?  Or is it a combination of the two?  And what implications does this have on the free will question?

A Heart Divided

As we approach the end of this course, it's apt to start to look back and evaluate what we have learned. As part of this reflection, I think it's important to remember that not all manipulation is bad. Janelle made a point of this in class last week and I think it's a good point to make because it is certainly easy to fall into the mentality that all manipulation is bad. This course has cast light upon forces that are constantly at work upon us and we feel deceived because we have never realized it until now. This deception has left a bitter taste in many of our mouths (myself included), but let us remember that not all manipulation is bad.

The best example I can think of right now is my experience spending the Easter weekend with my friends and family in Connecticut. After spending months on my own away from my family, I had forgotten how much I missed them and how happy I am when I'm around them. I forgot how funny my brother, sister and I can be when we're around each. I forgot how crazy yet hilarious my grandmother can be. And I forgot how nice it feels to go back to your childhood home and spend time with the ones who love you most. And now, with a hectic week ahead of me, I realize who precious my time is with them.

But it's not just about missing my family. It has to do more with where I stand in my life right now. As the summer swiftly approaches, I keeping reminding myself that I have so much to be excited about. I'm doing biochemistry research--something that I've dreamed about doing for a long time--and I'm training to be an OA leader. I'm doing things that I absolutely love. However, after this weekend, part of my excitement has faded to apprehension because now I see how I've jumped head first into the world almost forgetting about the people I love most and how hard it really is to see them so infrequently.

So you see, I'm caught in the middle of two powerful forces, one being my drive for independence and to pursue what I love, the other my love and care for my family. You know what they say, home is where the heart is, yet my heart also lies in research and volunteer work. How can my heart be in two places so distinct from one another? Obviously, these are not negative forces, but nonetheless, they are sources of manipulation pulling me in opposite directions. Moreover, just because they manipulate me doesn't mean I rebelliously foreswear them out of self-righteousness (How terrible would that be though? I mean, it's my family). Rather, my job now is to find a middle ground, a compromise between the two, where I can take the best of each as I move forward. 

But God knows how I'll manage to do this. It's so much easier said than done.

Mediated Artifacts

I think the mediated artifact assignment really made people realize how much we are being manipulated. The entire semester we have been hearing from Janelle about how prevalent manipulation is in our society, but this assignment made us pick out specific examples, and therefore recognize its full extent.

From class, the mediated artifacts that stood out to me were Megan's shirt and John's pictures. Megan's shirt reminded me of Martina's blog post last week, which I could relate to. I think the idea of the significance is labels has a huge impact on high school and college students. As for John's pictures, I never thought about the notion that they are just another source of manipulation. But, it makes so much sense; the image is what the photographer wants you to see, and is manipulated to present a specific image or idea. This also relates to any type of art, like paintings or drawings, poetry, music, and literature. The finished piece has been carefully crafted to convey something specific to the viewer or reader. This just furthers the idea that many things in our society have been manipulated or are manipulative in some way.

New Year's Resolution

As talk of summer and the end of the semester slowly slip into conversations, I wonder how a class like this might impact our perceptions of and reactions to the world in the future. My initial response to this thought and others just like it is a very positive one. I expect that it I'll continue seeking out manipulations around me, making choices based on whether I approve of the manipulations. This thought process has caught me off guard on many occasions. After a New Year's Resolution or a supposed life lesson I promise to myself that I'll act differently.With time I remember this promise, but do little to keep it. Similarly, I worry that my awareness of manipulation will likely fade. Eventually I'll acknowledge it and over time, perhaps, will slip into some new mentality, one beneficial to my current state. This might become a life philosophy that I stick to when convenient for me and eventually drop for another one. Although this paints me in a very negative light, I am merely attempting to describe a situation devoid of awareness of manipulation. In doing so, I am manipulating you into believing that the obliviousness is a bad thing. Many of us, though, have been just as happy, sad, angry, etc. while manipulated unconsciously as when consciously manipulated. Why is the awareness promoted in this class important then? I find that it puts me far more in control of my choices. I feel that I am made a product of my decisions and not those of the sources of manipulation (even if my decisions include abiding by certain manipulations).

What do we do, then, to keep from slipping away from out this hyper alertness that we may have developed? Doing nothing appears to be the clearly wrong option, but one that is not all that far fetched. Humans tend to be creature of habit. With summer we'll fall back into our routines - lazy days on the couch, vacations, camps, perhaps internships, and whatever else may come by. Why would we think of this class? Would reminders of this class maybe keep us from falling into undesired manipulation? I doubt it. Humans are creatures of habit. We write well, play sports well, think well, because of practice. We see the world through lenses of physics or economics or English or art, because we dedicate large amounts of time to these subjects. Practicing this awareness, particularly now, while the practice is especially encouraged, is then essential in developing awareness in the long term. Choosing to wholeheartedly accept the manipulation that is this class requires practicing it constantly.

Some Thoughts on Manipulation in Photography

            My original plan was to bring in a camera tomorrow, to speak on the powers of manipulation and deception that photographers can wield. Last class, John pretty much covered it all, so I realized I would have to pick another object to bring in. I figured I’d share some of my thoughts on the deceptive aspects of photography in my blog post instead.

            A photographer captures a single moment in time through a photograph, one that can even be edited and twisted to become something completely different than the original photo. One instance in which this happened was during a family vacation to Europe a couple years ago. We were at a little lookout over the beautiful city of Zurich, and it was a perfectly sunny day. My mom wanted to snap a couple photos of my brother, my sister, and me. One of these photos was chosen to adorn the front of our annual Christmas card. It depicted the three of us smiling, with a quaint European city in the background. A perfect family right? Little do many viewers of that card know, that we had been arguing the whole day about various little disagreements. In fact, I had to try pretty hard to force a smile for the picture, and I’m pretty sure my brother and sister were in the same boat.

            A more recent example occurred on a climbing trip to the Adirondacks. Right at dusk I snapped a photo from the clifftop, depicting beautiful mountains seemingly stretching on forever and the great Sacandaga River below, all bathed in the pinkish light of the sunset. Again, that picture does not tell the whole story. On my way up to the mountains, I got pulled over for speeding. The approach to the cliff was longer than my partner and I had anticipated. On our third climb, my partner cut her hand on the rock, leaving her unable to climb for the day. We had to hike back to the car in the dark, and ended up doing a very unpleasant bushwhack through thick pines in the dark to return to the car. Anyone who simply views that photo of the mountains is completely clueless to the real story of the day.

Following Directions and The Life of A Southerner

All my life, I have been raised to defer to the wisdom of my elders; to follow their directions, whatever they may be, with the assumption that they are imparting knowledge (even though I may not realize it). With all of this talk of “manipulation” I cannot help but now apply this lens to following directions. Is it possible that my parents could have just been having me do their biddings? Tasks such as washing the car, or cleaning up the yard? I can’t help but ask myself, were my parents just manipulating me into doing certain things? Anytime a child is told “follow the directions” is that not another way of saying, “do what I tell you to do”, and therein by that definition, just blatant manipulation? With this in mind, “following directions” is just a guise for overt, prescribed manipulation.

Coming from the south, respect and deference are preached ad nauseam; proper manners and a desire to warm the heart are two of the lifeworks of the South. Although in the scope of manipulation, it certainly appears to make manipulating a southerner much easier. We are apt to follow directions and do what we are told, given that the requests come from someone of authority (elders, teachers, etc); it is all in the upbringing, I guess.

****Allow me to take this moment, though, to clarify the fact that I am no complaining. I absolutely adore the upbringing and adhere to, even in light of situations such as these, the values instill upon me. I do think that respect and deference are paramount in certain situations, however, it is still necessary to address the idea that these two character values can foster manipulation.****

Quote Yourself

 

            I’ll admit that I had an exceptionally difficult time deciding what to write about for this week’s blogpost. After mulling it over for a night, I’ve decided to blog about the first thing that came to mind. Last week, Amelia wrote about being the main source of manipulation in her life. It was extremely refreshing to read because when I personally hear the term manipulation, I don’t like to picture myself as the manipulator. It’s always some outside force cloaked in darkness (a dementor maybe?), hovering over me, telling me to eat more chocolate or buy the bungee chair. Of course, when I take a step back I realize that manipulation isn’t always a bad thing, and that it can even be a good thing. But if we’re going off gut reactions, yes, I do associate manipulation with a negative connotation. But anyways, that’s all beside the point.

            My point is, that in writing my defensive paper for my chapter addition, I realize just how capable I am as a manipulator. In a typical English paper, we draw quotes from other literary texts to bolster our thesis. We choose our quotes carefully, insert them strategically, and expand on them in a way that best supports our argument. In using our chapter additions to support our papers, we are manipulating ourselves. We use what we have already written to create our point. Even when I was writing my chapter addition, I already had certain quotes that I knew would add to my paper. Or even when I didn’t have specific sentences in mind, I at least had an idea of where my essay would eventually go. In this sense, I held all the power to manipulate my self-written text—more so than if I were to draw evidence from Fuentes or Montgomery.

            Acknowledging this power is both liberating and terrifying. I don’t like to believe that I am a manipulator, let alone my own manipulator. On the other hand, it’s nice to know that I have this control. After all, I know myself as a writer and as a person better than anyone else. So, as awkward as it might be to quote myself, I definitely appreciate this assignment because I’ve never been able to quote, draw from, and manipulate my own writing in such a formal way.

First Manipulated, Next Responsible

I think discussing manipulation through our mediated artifacts is really interesting because we are admitting to our manipulation and our implicit and explicit acceptance of that manipulation. And being manipulated is not always bad.  For example, Barbara was talking about her incredible bungee-chair.  She didn't think it was particularly comfortable, but she still thought it was great and decided she wanted it regardless of whether it was the most comfortable or the most practical.  

Through our discussion on manipulation, we are placing the responsibility on ourselves for how we are going to deal with this manipulation because we can no longer pretend it isn't there.  In effect, I think this allows us to be adults and choose who we want to be.  Because we are understanding more about the forces of manipulation around us, we cannot hide behind ignorance any longer.  We have to make decisions and accept that our decisions may help or hinder us.  We can choose to stop buying products that hinder the environment or hinder our bodies.  Or, we can buy the products we already buy, and understand that we may be hurting the environment or ourselves.  But it is all up to us.  The responsibility is now on our shoulders, and we have to figure out what we want to do with it.  

It's All Manipulative

While listening to the mediated artifact presentations on Thursday, I found it interesting that some manipulative artifacts were products such as shampoo and shirts, but also that some artifacts acted as a springboard for stories that were about manipulation and the artifact was simply a launch pad for these stories. My artifact was simply a launch pad for a story about manipulation and so were Sydney’s and Ben’s artifacts. These difference artifacts helped me realize that there is even more manipulation in my life than I had first considered for this project. I had been thinking more about stories from my past that had manipulated me and I had completely skipped over simple examples such as my clothing and toiletries. I absolutely fall victim to manipulation when it comes to clothes and beauty products. It is so easy to read labels that claim superiority to other brands and be manipulated into thinking that you must buy a certain kind of beauty product. For example, I looked up Neutrogena face wash, and the first thing I read on the website was, “A superior choice in gentle cleansing.” From the second you look at their website, you are being manipulated into believe that Neutrogena face wash is better than any other face wash. Then I looked at Aveeno face wash and the first thing I read on their website was “Award-Winning Ultra-Calming Foaming Cleanser.” Award-Winning and Ultra grab your attention and manipulate you to believe that they have the best product. Companies will say whatever they can to manipulate you and try to get you to buy their product. These artifacts helped me see manipulation in my life and from my simple everyday products to memories of manipulation.

A Snapshot into Manipulation

When we were doing our mediated artifact discussion on Thursday, John’s project about his photos really interested me. His thoughts reminded me of a discussion we had in my introduction to photography course last year. My professor showed my class a picture of rubble with a Mickey Mouse doll in the forefront of the war scene in the Middle East. This picture caused an eruption of emotion worldwide, but not for the reason that we all had thought. Apparently, the photographer put the doll in the scene, in order to change the feeling of the scene, so it would bring out emotions of sadness and sorrow in all of its viewers worldwide. This demonstrates that a photograph is simply a scene that the photographer wants us to see. He/she manipulates us. He/she chooses the scene: the lighting, the angles, and the subjects. The viewers are simply like puppets and the photographer is the puppeteer, he/she moves us in the way that he/she desires. Do the viewers ever get the freedom to see a completely unbiased picture? I do not think so. Every photo is taken with a specific purpose, and therefore, every picture has a bias, no matter the intensity. I believe that putting the Mickey Mouse doll into a heated scene war scene of the Middle East is completely unethical. The photographer lied in order to control his audience. I think that this example illustrates that the power of photography is endless, because it continues to show the photographer’s story, rather than the “true” story.