Whats Good About the Web--Advertisement's Various Attacks

Robin Hafitz “Will the Internet Become a Significant Advertising Medium?” Slate. Sep 20, 2009. http://www.slate.com/id/2076621/

The internet is a very effective advertising medium. Online advertising is effective because in our generation today everyone is online all the time. This online advertisement has begun to get too cocky in a sense that they believe they are the only effective means of advertisement. What must be realized is that this advertisement is only successful as a form of repetition of advertisement. Advertisement is successful because there are multiple forms of advertisement attacking the consumer at all times. Ads on the internet, therefore, are just a repetition of something that the consumer has seen before dozens of times. This online tactic just provides a more convenient way for the consumer to obtain the product, buying online. No form of advertising can survive without the others, interwoven to support each other. Although at times we feel like we are overwhelmingly bombarded with ads and only one means of advertisement would be sufficient, these multiple advertisement tactics are what sell the products.

I agree with this article in the sense that if we are going to be convinced to buy something, it has to be something that we have seen and heard time and time again. We need repetition of a product that attracts us so that every time we see an advertisement for the product we get one step closer to purchasing it, and we do so when the purchase is most convenient. We are a technologically advanced age and as a result our generation is online at all times. Therefore it is probable that the most effective form of advertisement could be online. This effective form of advertisement, however, is not solely responsible for the consumers purchase, but rather the constant repetition of the ad that made us buy the product. We see advertisement in billboards, on the radio, on television, in newspapers, and in multiple other ways as well. It is these multiple different modes of advertisement working in unison things get sold, and only with various styles of advertisement can the merchandise be sold.

"Television at an End"--the result of insufficent advertizement

Stevenson, Seth "Is Television Over." Slate. 13 Sep. 2009.http://www.slate.com/id/2224464/pagenum/all/#p2

Television is a large source of entertainment in our society. What is it that everyone will do when there is nothing to do? Sit down on the couch flip through channels and watch brain melting shows with no point and little appeal. This is what has happened to television viewing with our generation. There are very few shows that actually grab the viewer’s attention. This popularity is a necessity in television shows in order to make money. If a television show is popular then it is more widely viewed by the public at any given time. This viewer number is what gets advertisers interested. The more viewers the more people will see their advertisements and the more these advertisements will cost. This is the reason that advertisements in the Super Bowl are upwards of $4 million, people will see the ads, see the product, and hopefully want to buy it. Our nation is viewing less and less of the same broadcasts on television so advertisements are striking fewer eyes. As our nation views more various television broadcasts the advertisement will change from all shows to the popular ones. This absence of advertisement will cause budget cuts in the less popular television broadcasts resulting in poor quality, fewer viewers and a termination of that show. This will lead viewers to find different forms of entertainment, and advertizing to find that form of entertainment as well. This could be the end of television.

I think that this article has a very valid point. Our nation watches fewer and fewer of the same shows, so advertisement is not getting the publicity that it would hope for. Television is run by the advertisers and advertisers are run by the people. If television does not have the necessary numbers of people then advertizing will eventually pull out and find some other form of advertisement that will get more people's attention. This will lead to funding problems and poor quality in TV programming. As our nation diversifies in interest of entertainment, ironically entertainment will diminish, leaving us without the television that we hold so dearly to our hearts.

"The Diagnosis"--addictions become disorders

Lane, Christopher. "Bitterness, Compulsive Shopping and Internet Addiction." Slate. 4 Sep. 2009.

http://www.slate.com/id/2223479/pagenum/all/#p2

The world has become an addictive world. As we live our lives we seem to become addicted to more things like shopping and internet addictions. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the fith manual is expected in 2012. It seems that there are more and more small simple addictions that they are beginning to classify as mental disorders. At first the DSM was simply a guideline to the diseases and classifications of which diseases are which. Later when the DSM-III was published multiple ridiculous "mental disorders" were added some of which included: "caffeine intoxication disorder, mathematics disorder, sibling relational problem, and frotteurism, the "intentional rubbing up against or touching of another, usually unsuspecting, person for the purpose of sexual arousal." As time goes on the APA is classifying more and more nitpicky things as mental disorders and if this continues, soon over half the country will be defined, as by the APA and DSM, mentally ill.

I believe that this is a serious problem with the media today. We will see actions and tendencies that people have and will immediately decide that we have to classify them with some sort of disorder. The mentality that we have is that if they are not perfect, which no one is, then they must have some sort of mental disorder. Our nation is destroying itself. I think that this is very evident in an addiction to computer technology and cell phones. It seems that every time we hear about someone who is on their computer for hours at a time has an addiction. I know of very few people not guilty of this. It is easy to sit down and watch videos on youtube and hulu for hours, or to spend days looking at itunes searching for new songs and naming old ones, and one of the most common is wasting away time on facebook or myspace. We all do this. Only if you are expecting someone to hang out do you ever pay notice to it. We immediately wonder what is wrong with this person and that they must have some sort of disease. In reality we have no disease at all, and so should not be classified as having a disease. We are trying to find reason behind the things we waste our time away on. We can use these disorders as an excuse to waste away more time. “I have computer—video disorder, so it is okay that I am wasting all my time away, I’m mentally ill.” I believe that this is the mentality of our nation especially of the APA, and we need to move past it and realize that what we are doing is wasting our time, we may have better things to do and should be doing these things, but we should not make excuses such as disorders for our addictions. We can beat these addictions very simply with a little effort, and if we do not put forth this effort, with the way that the DSM manual is headed half our nation really will be classified as mentally ill.