Discussion Question

I wrote about Friends and the verity of family structures and relationships that were shown on the show. My question is what is missing. What kind of families are not being shown in the media. How does this make you feel. Or do you think that everyone can find a family like theirs somewhere in the media. 

-Justine

"Friends" and the Media

The Media shows families in many ways subtle and obvious. I am sure most of you remember the show Friends. This show originally fallowed the lives of 6 people, 3 guys and 3 girls all in there mid to late 20's. As the show went on these people changed and grew and so did there relationships. In this show many people Married, Cohabited or had children together. I am sure if you think of friends this is not the first thing you think of. However, when I think back to the show I can think of an example of most of the things we covered from babies to relationships. I will now list some of the characters and the events in there life that correlate with the class discussions. 

I will start with Ross-the Nerdy Paleontologist.

*He marries his first wife and has a son with her and then he later found out that she is a lesbian. This means he is married, gets divorced and has a child with his ex wife. 

* His next relationship is with an International women named Julie. This covers relationships with people from other places. 

* His third wife is his child hood love. His friend Rachel. They get married when they are drunk and late divorce and have a child. Rachel and Ross take care of there child and live there separate lives.

* To sum up Ross has been with 3 different wives all in different situations. 

Phoebe is this creative free spirited kind hearted women. 

* She marries a friend from Canada who she believed is Gay, he later divorces her because he realizes he is straight. This sub plot is a bit more far fetched but this does show that people marry for different reasons. And some times people end up leaving there partners of the opposite sex for one of the same sex. 

*Later Phoebe becomes the surrogate mother for her brother. Through in vitro fertilization i believe and ends up giving birth to triplets. 

Monica and Chandler are friends who end up falling in love and getting married. They are in capable of having children so they adopt one.

Joey the last friend is bachelor and loves every moment of it.

It is funny how family and relationships can sneak into a show. This show was a popular show in america and it ran for many years. I believe that show found a way to show the diferant sides of america and the different families. It made it light and made all kinds of love and relationships and love excepted. They would have the characters vocalize the issues and express different opinions. Every character had a happy ending so in a sense they gave hope to the rest of the world. 

I hope that this opens your eyes and makes you take a closer look at the shows you watch and how they show family. 

Thanks for your time, Justine Gilbane

Media influences on family

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Families around the world are becoming more and more similar now a days through influence of the media illustrating an impression towards children and family norms. Throughout the history of human civilization, there has been a prevailing motif of neighborly competition. At its root, it is a drive for social acceptance. This is best shown by the advent of television commercials and the respective toy phenomena that now rock elementary schools all over the world. Before television and other forms of mass communication, neighborly competition was left to just that—neighbors. This predictably led to diversification among children’s toys across the world. This can be shown at almost any antique auction, where old handcrafted toys from exotic countries are kept in pristine airless boxes that exude their extravagant price. But here in the beginning of the twenty-first century, that diversification is quickly disappearing. Especially now that the internet is merging with television through complex video gaming systems like the Xbox 360 and Play station 3, kids are playing the same games all across the world with each other. And thus, the difference between a family in Japan, a family in Bosnia and a family in America is evaporating.

Culture generates through interaction, and before mass media the only interaction possible was physical. From small and subtle things like borrowing spices to gathering together to sing Christmas carols, a sense of neighborhood grew up slowly and in tightly-knit circles. These days the physical boundary is no longer an obstacle, starting with the telegraph and moving all the way to talking via satellite telephones, electronic mail and blogs. Unfortunately, however, this technology is still only available to countries with sufficient infrastructure. Many countries lack clean drinking water, hospitals and highways. In these impoverished nations, establishing a steady and accessible internet connection is not a practical project. This is especially an issue considering the rate at which technology advances; the best computers twenty years ago are now hardly useable. This leaves those countries completely in the dust, literally generations behind countries using the digital superhighway. This creates a drastic difference in appearance between societies with this technology, and those without. And so while connected countries become much more tightly bound, other nations and other people are falling farther and farther behind both economically and socially.

As humans and our societies evolved, being in good standing with your neighbors was a matter of life and death. As many Calvin and Hobbes cartoons gleefully pointed out, we humans would not last long in the jungle. Our survival depends on using our largest evolutionary advantages, namely our tool-making hands and complex language systems. Being a social outcast during cave-dwelling eras would quickly mean extinction, and so humans have been conditioned both genetically and psychologically to avoid being a social outcast. As global cultures converge and are subsequently capitalized, the scope of a neighborhood goes beyond physical bounds. The children of the past few decades born in these societies are especially affected by this. This is because of commercials. As any parent of the television age knows, children’s commercials are incredibly effective. And now children from all over the world are being shown advertisements for the same products. These products are also so complex and versatile that their appeal does not fade over time. So the children growing up with these digital neighborhoods will grow into a full-fledged online community, as we are already seeing today.

Is this new trend of assimilation a step up from the differentiated cultures that dominated at one time? How far will the wealthier countries lead over the less developed? Will the idea of a universal ideal family emerge out of this digital neighborhood?

By Jamie Goulart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPh_CHP77ko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAfANb2Cs9Q