DWA #14

In Neal Gabler's "Our Celebrities, Ourselves," Gabler portrays celebrities as a center focus in the media today. As many would think, celebrities are not publicized as much for their work as they are for their melodrama lives. Of course, people in society enjoy the countless movies, CD's, and pieces of art celebrities bring to the table. Society, however, really grasps onto narrative lives of these celebrities. They enjoy the thrill of tuning in on celebrities' dramatic lives filled with ups and downs on a daily basis. What makes their lives even more interesting, is that they are real! They aren't some make believe fantasy someone made up and wrote about in a book. These lives are evident and easily accessible by just turning on the TV or picking up a magazine. People are so intrigued by these famous individuals because they can identify with them. Celebrities' "real" lives make people watch them, love them, identify with them, and most importantly follow them. Society invests so much time in the celebrities' lives because they care about what happens next. They want to know the gossip when it happens. These celebrities use mediums of the media to reach out to their viewers and give them a direst look into their intriguing lives. We watch because we find satisfaction in these over the top lives. Through celebrities, we find ourselves. We find real life situations that not only entertain us, but also allow us to connect with them. As our fellow dear Jennifer Aniston has gone through multiple heart breaks in a struggle to find true love, we too have gone through the ups and downs of relationships in an attempt to seek eternal happiness. We can identify in her struggles and watch her to reassure ourselves that it's okay to have love trouble. We see ourselves not only in Jennifer Aniston, but also in the countless celebrities that live through the same life struggles as we do. We live through the lives of celebrities which creates a strong bond between the melodramatic lives of the famous and the typical lives of the ordinary.

DWA #13

In Jeffrey Rosen's The Naked Crowd, Rosen touches on multiple aspects of our society that reveal a lot about our time. In "Exposing Ourselves," Rosen shows the lack of privacy in our society in order to gain acceptance and trust. He says, "Today, by contrast, intimacy and trust are are increasingly obtained not by shared experiences or fixed social status but by self-revelation: people try to show their trustworthiness by revealing details of their personal lives to prove that they have nothing to hide before a crowd whose gaze is turned increasingly on all the individuals that compose it". He uses the example of online dating and how people reveal personal information in hopes of gaining the trust of a compatible partner. In "Sincerity to Authenticity," Rosen points out how image is becoming more important than reality. Politicians who seem sincere, genuine, and enthusiastic will gain approval. Image is gaining importance in our society. In "Personal Branding," Rosen touches on the idea of people being sold as products. People seem to have to sell themselves to strangers by carrying themselves in a way that is suitable for emotional connections and being favored by the crowd. This encourages spectators to look from the inside out instead of the outside in. This allows the people to grasp the authenticity of the individual. In "The Comfort of Strangers," Rosen points out that there is not such thing as public intimacy. It seems impossible to make emotional connections with strangers who know nothing about us. However, there is a therapeutic feeling for some who reveal personal information about fears and anxieties. If they receive positive feedback and acceptance from strangers, these people are left with less anxiety and fear. Our technological world is making it easier for people to expose personal information to strangers around the world. Is this a good thing? Yes connections can be made, however, it makes us wonder the substance behind these relationships. They are based on information that one chooses to reveal, not the true character of the person.