jl0630, 1/18/09

Class today reminded me of a similar topic we talked about in my CMC 100 class last year. Mindlessness in watching TV, and ‘restless leg syndrome’ being an example we used in class, is part of the absurdity in our mainstream culture today. The arguments that were made in my 100 class about a similar advertisement to restless leg syndrome had two parts of the equation to think about. On the one hand, we’re being enlightened and enabled to spot and make self-diagnoses. On the other hand, there is an ethical issue being made that large drug companies are putting in a significant amount of time and money into making commercials to ‘spark awareness,’ where instead they could be putting that time and money into other places such as scientific research and testing. This is one of the many grey issues of networking and media that I have been faced with, because I believe that these advertisements have in fact truly helped people prevent, diagnose, and cure potentially harmful diseases – but on the other hand, I think the money that has gone into the mainstream, like ‘restless leg syndrome,’ is part of the mindlessness, absurdity, and surrealism we began talking about in class.