Thanks Ryan, this video was really eye opening and scary at the same time! I watched the rest of the programs. Mr. Rushkoff has a few other programs I plan to watch—all seem interesting.
I shared some of the information with my teenager and we had a nice conversation. The new generation is being raised with a weak set of values making them very vulnerable to the marketing by people who don’t care about their well being. The more aware we are of the tricks being played, the more capable we are of resisting and giving them the tools they need at a young age not to be vulnerable to this kind of marketing.
Thanks again for sharing such thought provoking topics.
The insights of cultural/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff are always contemporary and often prescient. He was deciphering the social codes of the virtual psyche, lifestyle, and marketplace before such concepts were formally identified by the so-called “machine.” TheMerchants Of Cool is a brilliant analysis of the incorporation of youth pop-culture that Ruskhoff created while working as a correspondent for PBS Frontline. This is a very entertaining documentary. You’ll learn a lot too. Let me know what you think in the comments section.
How do we choose a life partner? Magazine articles on choosing the right mate abound. “What should you look for in that special someone?” “What is the ideal man/woman?” Take a minute to think about that. What do you want in a life partner? What words come to mind to describe your Princess or Prince Charming? Whatever you’re looking for, or have already found, the words you have chosen to describe your “ideal mate” are almost certainly personality traits: kind, considerate, funny, ambitious, loving.
Somewhere on your list are probably good-looking and healthy, but even things like health are affected by the personality. The things you want in a life partner are pretty much the same things that everyone else is looking for.
So, do we get what we’re looking for? Generally, we do. But, a better question might be, are we happy with what we get? Well, that depends upon what you were looking for in the first place. You are most likely to be happy if you look for, and end up with, someone who is agreeable, emotionally stable, and open.
The next question that might come to mind is how can we know if the relationship with that special someone will last? Well, for starters you can assume that marrying someone who is the opposite of agreeable, emotionally stable, and open, is probably a bad idea. Low impulse control and lack of dependability also predict relationship breakup. And, finally, relationships seem to work best when the partners are similar in background, religion, goals, education, and personality. Fortunately, we tend to meet people like ourselves, because we gravitate toward certain types of situations that are compatible with our own personalities. Selection of situations, then, enhances our chances for meeting like-minded people. If, for example, you are bookish and quiet, you are likely to spend time in a library or museum, where you will meet other bookish and quiet people.
So, have you found what you’re looking for? Are you more alike or different? Please share your thoughts with our Ashworth University psychology community!
Thanks to auntyevil for permission to use this Photo.
One concept that’s particularly influential in contemporary culture is that of social currency, an abstract exchange value that we’re all unconsciously aware of and have perhaps unknowingly utilized as a tool to gain interactive access to others on a social level. Content is essentially seen as a medium for interaction, not an end in itself, but more importantly a basis for human interaction. A new study was recently published on the “psychology of social networks” and the researchers do an admirable job of piecing together the social puzzle without drawing too many predetermined conclusions. In other words, within an Internet-oriented context, they accept that the network model of human communication can not be studied from a static perspective. The behavior of humans in an online environment does not parallel that of monkeys in a cage, perhaps less due to the complexity of humans than the fact that the virtual cage is always unlocked, permitting us to come and go as we please—as long as we’re never alone of course. Check out this interesting study and please share your perspectives with the Ashworth student community.
Thanks to Boris Anthony for permission to use this Photo.
Marshall McLuhan’s groundbreaking theories on media communications and the psycho-social impact of technological development made him both a very respected and controversial figure beginning in the 1950’s. Seen by many as a prophet of our contemporary media filtered age, McLuhan’s famous “the medium is the message” theory, in which the communications medium itself (microphone, television, computer, letter) is more directly related to the meaning and ultimate impact of a given message than the actual “content” (intellectual/rational meaning) continues to gain depth as the decades pass.
I recently discovered an excellent audio-video archive of McLuhan’s work on the CBC web site. This is a great primer for our psychology students unfamiliar with his work and I strongly encourage you to check this archive out by clicking here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on McLuhan, a thinker who still truly remains ahead of his time.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program
Slavoj Žižek is arguably the most irrerevent, brilliant, and provacative thinker in the history of Slovenian thought. Renowned for wildly “psychoanalyzing” topics ranging from idiotic celebrity scandals to Hitchcockian symbolism to post-marxist economic theory in the span of one sentence, Žižek has himself earned somewhat of a celebrity status and cult following. One of Žižek’s specialties is the reversal, in which he will relentlessly breakdown and analyze a concept with such precision and depth, that the way one had previously thought about that particular concept is completely twisted on the surface to the point of reversal, and one is often left thinking, “Why did I never notice that?”—viewing the world from a new perspective. Žižek is a complex madman, so this video, horrible lighting included, can only at best serve as a glimpse, but can any one of us wish for anything more than that?
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University
Thanks to Gaetan Lee for permission to use this Photo.
Renowned as one of the most gifted, original, and charismatic thinkers in the world; V.S. Ramachandran is a neurologist with an almost preternatural understanding of the brain’s deepest mechanisms and the nature of consciousness.
Ramachandran’s insights into such facinating enigmas as phantom limb syndrome, synesthesia, and capgras delusion continue to both inspire and puzzle the psycho-scientific community, while his entertaining presentations always promise to dazzle even the most cynical of audiences. Check out the following video from the TED conference. Lose your mind.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University
Most famous for his radical theories on language learning and evolutionary psychology, Steven Pinker is a thinker with a vision that tends to provoke strong emotional responses in anyone who will listen. The reason may be rather simple. Pinker analyzes human intelligence from a zero sum perspective in which he meticulously deconstructs the foundations of what’s been established as scientific fact. The following video presentation was made at Google Headquarters. The Google geniuses always seem to bring in other geniuses to make the room smarter. Afterwards, please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Psychology community. Click on the image above to watch this video. It’s good.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program
Recently I was contacted by an associate producer from the Dr. Phil show. Are they seeing if I’d be a good guest? It certainly appears like that’s a possibility. So, in addition to getting some very desperately needed help from Dr. Phil and his team, I may one day soon be able to give my bastion of loyal readers a quasi-insider’s view of the show and its’ process. All I can say is, pray for me, and, for now, enjoy this correspondence, edited, of course, for privacy reasons: (more…)
Thanks to Karen Geiger for permission to use this Photo.
I really enjoyed Seth Woolf’s response to Deb’s solid commentary on his previous post. Since we don’t yet have our comments section clearly displayed on this blog, I’ve posted this conversation as an original post for everyone to see and engage. What are your thoughts?
From Deb:
Dear Sir — I believe you have missed the point of what Dr. Phil has been trying to achieve. As young people, typically all of us do not realize the consequences of actions. I can indicate to you that as a owner of a company, these kind of posting would stop me from hiring an individual, no so much as their right to participate in such activity, but in that the judgment of said individual is not who I want representing my company. In short…it is that simple and professionally said individuals are limiting their options later in life, as they age and realize that childhood was not meant for public display.
From Seth:
It is perhaps true that I have “missed the point of what Dr. Phil has been trying to achieve” but, if so, it is because I find his aims pointless. I simply feel the cause and effect of this situation has been confused. If employers look down on such technological behavior and confessionalism, I think it says more about their own bourgeoise biases, and less about the quality of the candidates. More importantly, I would also like to counter your claim that “As young people, typically all of us do not realize the consequences of our actions.” This is a sweeping statement about young people, one which I do not follow. For one, I don’t see “young people” as a definable, homogeneous group. I’m 22, am I a young person? What about a twelve year old in Auswitz? What about an eighty year old with the mental capacities of a person one tenth his or her age? Is it for individuals to decide, society, or who? Similarly, I don’t see how a person, regardless of age, could realize all the consequences of his or her actions. Everyone, again regardless of age, must simply act with what information they have at a given moment. (more…)
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