Lasn seems to be talking about many different sub issues to an overarching dilemma: That the consumerist, capitalist, materialist tendencies of "American" culture are unhealthy.
What do you think he means by unhealthy?
Given that he wrote this in 1999, choose at least one point/example of his that you think is relevant to 2009 and explain why. Then choose at least one point/ example which is not accurate/ too generalized/ or irrelevant to 2009 society and of course explain why.
Include examples/ observations from your own lives concerning his theme and indicate whether or not you've been able to observe a change in the past 10 years or not.
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“An awful lot of people are feeling down and they don’t know why. Something is draining their energy, addling their brains- but they don’t know what (Lasn 10). The issues of consumerism, capitalism, and materialism are contributing to making us American’s physically (and mentally) ill. This is what Lasn means by unhealthy. The media has taken over our world. Advertisements are no longer only just on the T.V. and in magazines, but are almost everywhere you look. Urinals, busses, posters, cell phones, are only a few of the obscure places we find the media interjecting into our lives. This is a clear reflection of our current society, and our priorities.
ReplyDeleteAn example that is extremely relevant in 2009 is the relationship between exercise and the media. Lasn touches upon this topic in The Ecology of the Mind section of Culture Jam. No longer are citizens concerned with getting exercise and breathing fresh air. Instead, they’d prefer their exercise to be opening up the fridge in a break from the television. This is a “media fed fantasy”. Citizens believe that it is acceptable for exercise to be at minimum and brain stimulation from the television to be at a maximum. All of our new technology and media conglomerates have almost brainwashed our society into being lazy, and less active. We see this very often as young children enjoy playing video games with friend instead of being outside and playing baseball, or basketball. My younger brother used to love playing outside with his friends, but has now been drawn into this video gamer world, enticing all of his friends (and him) to solely want to play wii when they get together. This almost takes the fun out of the old term ‘play date’ because all they do is glue their eyes to the TV, instead of playing outside. This factor is most definitely correlated to the amount of obesity in our country. As technology seems to increase, this issue is only getting worse. In the past ten years, we have seen a huge change. Ten years ago, TV’s looked different, had many less programs and was not as intense as they are today.
A point that I think is less relevant in our society is “information overload”. Though I do agree that sometimes we are overwhelmed with information it is hard to narrow it down, I don’t believe this is an every day occurrence. When I’m writing a research paper, I am overwhelmed with information because we have so much to choose from. For example, we have a variety of libraries to choose from, all of which have catalogues of books, and can also access ones from other colleges and from the Internet. There is never too little information in these situations. I don’t believe that the information has lost its value, just that its made it a little more difficult to access the correct information that you may be looking for because of the plentitude of it, even though in my opinion one of the benefits of all of our research and technology is that amount of information that we have access too. I think that we should be focusing on this as opposed to the negative connotations of information. In the past ten years this “issue” has only grown, because of all the more information we have available to us.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam. New York, NY: First Quill, 2000. Print.
In Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn talks of how our consumerist, capitalist, and materialist tendencies in America are unhealthy. By this I think he means that the new things that are conquering our everyday lives (television, advertisements) and the negative effects are outweighing the benefits.
ReplyDeleteAn example that he used when he wrote the book ten years ago and is still relevant today is the problem of watching the television during dinnertime. If anything, that is becoming an increasing problem. In our busy lives, dinner is a time set apart from school, work, and other business, to share with family and bond. It is not a time to zone out in front of the boob-tube and mindlessly stuff ourselves with T.V. dinners that have been designed to make money off of an act that is unhealthy to our society. By eating meals in front of the television instead of sitting down around a table and talking and sharing stories, it is putting the television as a priority above family. The communication between members of the family may fail to be adequate because they don’t use it during a crucial time of day when sharing stories, problems, and discussion usually occur. I am so thankful that dinnertime was so important to my family. We always ate as many meals together as possible and talked and grew closer. I think it is a main reason why my family is so close, because we value our time together.
Lasn explains how advertisements are polluting our society. He says “Every day, an estimated 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials, and more than 200,00 TV commercials are dumped into North America’s collective unconscious” (Lasn 19). Not only have these numbers mostly likely significantly rising since 1999, but another huge venue for advertisements has been added to the mix: the Internet. Practically every web page you open has advertisements, or pop-up adds everywhere. In the current times, when you hear the word “pop-up”, I’ll bet you think of an annoying little window about Netflix or Nokia rather than an innocent children’s book with illustrations jumping off the page. Why? Because we seem to be on the Internet more than reading books. Advertisers have taken advantage of that, and strewn their promotions all over the Web. Just the other day, I forgot to turn my “Block Pop-ups” back on, and when I went to exit Safari, I had three other windows open wanting me to buy their products. We are bombarded by advertisements everywhere.
I have seen little changes in the past 10 years in our world. Although, since I was only 9 years old ten years ago, it is rather difficult for me to really compare. A thing that comes to mind about a different world then was I remember watching my mom send some emails on the computer. I remember the screen was all blue, and the letters were all white and a very different font than I was used to in the books I read or signs I saw. When I think of how I check my e-mail five times a day and am able to do so many different things with it and how everyone I know has it, the thought really blows me away how it has changed and exploded in such a short time. This, along with many other things has changed in the past decade, and we just have to remember that our brains are built for social interaction (Trumpey), not technological interaction.
Trumpey, Joseph. Art Design Perspective 3: Technology and the Environment. Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor, MI. Lecture.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal
Consumer Binge--and Why We Must. New York, NY:
HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1999. Print.
Lasn strongly believes that modern American culture is unhealthy, in that Americans have lost themselves in a lifestyle driven by consumerism and material objects rather than by natural human interactions. While Lasn’s views were written ten years ago, the majority of his observations are still very relevant today. The general population still watches an over abundance of television, has too many clothes in their closets, and keep track of their lives via computers and cell phones. I’d say the unhealthy American culture that Lasn speaks of is only getting worse. As Lasn points out, “Our culture has evolved into a consumer culture and we from citizens to consumers. Gratitude for what we have has been replaced by a sharpening hunger for what we don’t have. ‘How much is enough?’ has been replaced by ‘How much is possible?’,” (63). Corporations are always throwing new products at us with clever advertising that draws us in. Since 1999, new technologies have come about that have isolated people even more: iPods, Blackberries, Facebook, Twitter, TiVo, and On Demand have all made people more glued to digital screens. The advancements have allowed the everyday citizen to tune out the real world, and publish their every move online, all while being able to watch their favorite TV shows at their convenience. The internet is no longer new and exciting: it’s now an essential part of one’s every day lifestyle. And it’s not always for the good: as Lasn indicates, it is far too easy for Americans to stay glued to the screen.
ReplyDeleteWith Halloween festivities taking place this past weekend, I paid attention to the costumes I saw. I was amazed when I realized how many costumes were depicting characters from TV shows and movies. And hardly any costumes needed an explanation for the average college student to understand who the person was dressed as. Even more so, inanimate object costumes were nearly always given some sort of label: a crayon was a Crayola crayon, a bottle of ketchup had to be Heinz, and so on. Now thinking back to past autumns, this is a trend that has remained rather constant throughout my life. I admit that while I was deciding on a costume, the majority of the ideas I had were all TV or movie characters. Why do people put in so much effort to be some odd character from the screen? Because our culture is far too obsessed with what we watch.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge—and Why We Must. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1999.
One of Lasn’s main issues that he discusses is the blowing up of corporate America and how industry and large-scale companies have essentially taken over society. While this globalizing economy may be looked at as menacing and perceived in a downbeat manner, in the year 2009 such a booming consumer nation speaks positively to the changes that have occurred throughout the years.
ReplyDeleteThe “unhealthy” that Lasn speaks to relates to the dependence on such a materialistic society. Today, people are consuming more goods than ever and more goods are being produced and shipped from our ports to nations around the world than past precedence has shown. Being reliant on big-scale industries to stabilize the economy is unhealthy and perhaps not sustainable in the sense that it is blowing local production away. However, our changing world calls for goods to be mass-produced and sold for a great product.
On page 69, Lasn talks about how the ideas of the American Revolution have disintegrated because of the coalition of government and businesses that are ruling the nation. However, in the year 2009 such a bold statement seems a little outdated. As we have seen by the recent stock market crash, when global industries started to crumble and go out of business our entire nation suffered. When the auto-industry, which essentially dominated the economy of the state of Michigan, fell, so did the entire economy and stability of a state. Our nation depends on big-scale companies to help sustain the economy.
What is relevant though, is the issue of large-scale companies such as McDonalds and other fast food chains that have changed not only the health of our nation, but also the way that people are living their lives. While fast food has provided a way for people to eat quickly and for cheap, it has also contributed to our nations obesity epidemic. People are sacrificing their health for convenience, which is an issue that needs to be addressed.
I’ve been able to witness a change in the consumerist tendencies of America. While I do think it is important that we have large-scale companies to help finance the economy, I think that many of these large industries have marketed themselves away from what they stand for. In my opinion, the entertainment industry used to market actual performs and entertainers. Now, I feel like the popular stars are simply brand names as opposed to actual talent. Figures such as Miley Cyrus are faces on plates and party wear at Party City…. wasn’t she supposed to be a singer? Examples such as this show the transition in our society to making images marketable in any means possible.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.
Based on Lasn’s references to “American” culture as a brand and analyzing our consumerist tendencies he has pointed out that it is unhealthy; unhealthy in terms of imbalances in physical body condition, mental stability, and spirit. Watching excessive amounts of TV has lead to childhood obesity (Lasn 12). I can attest to this in the difference in my cousins. Elliott was the one who was always outside and Adam was the one always watching TV and playing computer games. Adam, age 12, is now overweight and has been trying to diet.
ReplyDeleteMaterialist and consumerist tendencies are leading to depression and suffering from plentitude (Lasn 11). American’s have what impoverished people strive for but are surrounded by so many consumer goods that they feel incomplete. Lasn describes the vicious cycle we’ve fallen into: work, shop, eat, watch TV, sleep, repeat. There is no sense of completion in this cycle - no end and no limits. It doesn’t help that the depression caused from excessive consumption has become validated through the advertisement and invention of prescription drugs (Lasn 10).
The idea of consuming more products to fill a void reminds me of a story my step-mom told me: her daughter had called her crying from an extremely stressful day of finals in P.A. school. My step-mom deposited $200 into her daughter’s checking account to go out and buy some new clothes. New clothes are not going to alleviate the stresses of school but it did make her daughter feel better. But when the newness of the clothes wore off, she was still in that exact same position.
Lasn discusses how American’s are allowing their spirit to die by letting themselves be removed from nature. It is best exemplified when displaying the stages of grief and loss of the children forced to go camping in the woods (Lasn 4). They cannot appreciate the beauty around them and feel completely surreal with out the comforts of the buzzing television and office work. It made me realize that I had also lost myself in middle school when I discovered Internet chat rooms. I was so wrapped up in a life that didn’t matter that being around my family at my Grandma’s cottage in the woods was difficult. I didn’t know how to engage with real people and was so uncomfortable with the bugs I couldn’t appreciate the untainted land. It was easier to pick and choose new “people” to talk with than to work on the relationships I had at hand. Now reading Culture Jam I realize I started to develop the tendencies of a “surfer” or like the girl who would loose sleep over missing out on conversations (Lasn 44). Luckily that family reunion got me off the computer and into the woods where I realized that actual human interaction is more important than maintaining a connection with a curser on a screen. Reverting to nature rekindled my spirit and reconnected me to the real world.
Over all, I think Lasn’s definition of unhealthy would be closely related to imbalances of the mind, body, and spirit. He sees health as being connected to nature and having control over the information we receive. The consumerist tendencies are similarly described as pollutants and diseases. While the book is a very extreme I found it mostly relevant. The only things that were outdated were the examples: I have no idea who Claudia Schiffer is (Lasn 23) and only vaguely remember seeing tabloids of Princess Di (Lasn 40). I did disagree with becoming shockproof (Lasn 23). I don’t think we will ever become completely devoid of emotion. Even though scrolling death tolls constantly float by during the news when I see the cell phone videos submitted of dying people in the Middle East I am still deeply distraught.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How To Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999.
Kalle Lasn discusses in his book Culture Jam how now a days people have been shaped by the media environment and not nature anymore. People are always in front of the computer or TV, unable to really live their life in reality. I think this is one thing that Lasn sees making “American” culture unhealthy. Children no longer go and explore outside they use fictional characters in video games wandering fake woods. People live their lives through characters in TV shows and no one goes for a walk outside without their iPod. This obsession has lead people to rely on the people on TV or the constant sound of technology buzzing in our ear. To be honest I am one of these people. I was an avid TV watcher as a child, and I like to sleep with my iPod in my ears. I am learning that there is appreciation and attention deserved elsewhere and my habits have been changing, but I think this addicted to the man-made objects in life and little attention to the importance of nature, is something that Lasn sees as unhealthy. The world has, since he’s written this book, has only thrived on the business of entertainment and technology. More people are now using the Wii to exercise instead of going out and taking a jog around the block. Another tendencies of “American” cultures is our selfishness and our constant want for more. “Plentitude is American cultures perverse burden. Most Americans have everything they could possibly want and they still don’t think its nearly enough. When everything is at hand nothing is ever hard-won and when nothing is hard-won, nothing satisfies. Without satisfaction, or lives become shallow and meaningless.” (pg 11) People are constantly thinking of new things to make peoples lives easier, making the population lazier and lazier. One huge example is food. People used to have to make a large meal from scratch, right down to killing the chicken, but now we can have a full meal ready in 2-5 minutes. People no longer have a sit down family dinner, but a quick run to the drive through. There are a few good things that come out of the demand of the people, like more research or cures for illnesses. If technology did not advance, there would be less medication for illnesses.
ReplyDeleteLasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999.
When Kalle Lasn talks about the American culture as being unhealthy I believe he means this in a number of ways. Lasn mentions that today in America, people have their basic needs and beyond, yet most of the population is unhappy. Being a consumer leads us to feeling that we are products, that if we own something then we will become the people in the advertisements for a product. Being tied so tightly to our meaningless material objects leaves us satisfied for a few hours or days, maybe a year if you are lucky. This leads us to believe that if we are fully functioning people in society we need to go out and shop for new things to make us happy. Everyone has done it, when I notice something I own is now an old model, and there are better versions of it out there, I want to upgrade.
ReplyDeleteThis idea that we need items to make us happy only feeds into capitalism. Certain companies are gaining so much my making new things and advertising it as so much better than the previous version. Cars, computers, cameras, cell phones, the list goes on and on. When these companies realize that they have sold enough models, it is only a matter of time before a new version is realized and bought by the public. There are also companies that fail in selling their products, forcing places to close and leave people with no jobs. When one company collapses, it affects people because they can no longer buy themselves happiness.
Because of all this upgrading, there is a massive about of waste produced. Things are being shipped all over the world, packaged, and bought, thrown out. The fact that we need these new things not only hurts us in the long run, it also is killing the planet we live on. Because these things have short life spans and are made all over the world, the amount of waste produced is unimaginable. Our need for things is very unhealthy for the world we live in. It seems as if the only ones gaining anything are the companies that continue to sell products.
I believe that Lasn was a bit ahead of his time in most of his writings. In just ten years, a lot has changed. Not only do we get information from television, books, newspapers, and magazines, but also internet and cell phones. In the past ten years the internet has become part of everyday life. Considering that he spoke about people on computers for hours then, I can only image what he would have to say now about our obsession with internet media. We can watch and read about anything and everything. A company sponsors most things on the internet, and avoiding the influence is impossible. Another thing he mentions is our obsession with celebrities, crying over their deaths, as if we knew them personally. I think because we are more exposed to celebrities through not only internet, but also reality television shows, we have become more obsessed with them.
I think that Lasn could write another book about internet and how it has changed our culture over the past ten years. There are more facts about people and their internet use now because it has been around for a longer period of time. Because the book was written in 1999, I feel as if the information about internet is almost outdated. I know that personally my spelling skills have not improved at all in the last few years, because I write on computers and can use improper grammar and spelling when writing to my friends, but if I need to write an e-mail to a professor, I can use spell check, and I will be fine. But when I have to write in class, on the spot, it is not as easy to write because I have to make sure I am following correct grammar rules. The fact that people are using the internet for so much means there are more issues that can negatively influence our lives.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge—and Why We Must. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1999.
Lasn clams that the consumerist, capitalist, materialist tendencies of “American” culture are unhealthy because our lives have been transformed from the basic needs of living into the lives run by giant corporations. Our media is infiltrated with advertisements every couple minutes on the TV, every other page in a magazine, and on every block in a city. “Every day, an estimated 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials, and more than 200,00 TV commercials are dumped into North America’s collective unconscious” (Lasn 19) As we talked about in discussion, advertisement is a giant business. Every massive corporation in the world spends absurds amount of money to get their products and services out into the consumers heads no matter what the price. Its as if we are treated as items and not people, a reason why the world we live in is unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the book Lasn writes about the family that tries to go camping to reconnect as a family. The kids are bored because all they want is TV and without it they are doomed. Ten years after this book was written the same situation is relevant but some of the elements have changed. Instead of the TV kids are sucked into the internet. I spend the majority of my time awake doing something with my computer; its my best friend (sadly). Technology advancements have made it almost too easy to be attached to the world wide web. People are constantly looking at websites and checking their e-mails. Corporations are well aware of this which is why every webpage is plastered with adverisments. These advertisements become smarter and more powerful than the ads on TV. They can get in the direct was of what you are looking at, forcing you to interact. Or they are repeated so many times through out a web browsing that the image of the ad is subconsciously ingrained in the viewers head. With a shift away from the TV into new technological trends the corporations follow.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.
kristin adamczyk:
ReplyDeleteI think ‘unhealthy’ is a great way to describe our consumerism, and if anything it has increased, and become more accurate in the past ten years. To say the way society consumes things is unhealthy is directly related to the fact that consuming becomes a basic need to people. It becomes a ‘want’ that needs to be satisfied, yet as we discussed in class, is it truly ever satisfied? Or is it we are reaching for something, we will never reach? When you get in the mindset that you want something, and do everything to get it, do you feel satisfied? Maybe, but for how long? Until the next something comes out that is better, faster, cooler, and then you’re not satisfied until you get that. It’s a vicious cycle. And this is how it becomes unhealthy; it’s a desire that is prioritized ahead of other basic needs and wants. People who worry too much about it spend their life trying to make a certain income, always increasing, always wanting more, then neglecting the things they don’t have to pay for.
In 2009 we are more bombarded by advertising and consuming than ever, and it is dumbing down the public. I literally feel less intelligent when I watch TV or look through a magazine. Why have we allowed our media to treat us this way? It is almost as if we have lost control and just become drones to their increasing wealth. Maybe if they treated me like I had an idea of what was going on, which I do, instead I am talked to like a second grader. But maybe that is because as a whole population, we are getting stupider. Or we care less. It might be easier to switch on autopilot and just let this higher ideal influence our every move.
It would be very generalized to say that we are victims, to say we can’t do anything. Of course that’s not the case, if an advertisement or franchise pisses us off we can simply choose not to support it. We have the power to say “No’, so why aren’t we?
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.