DoubleBubble, 10/25

On Tuesday we discussed Jenkins’s idea of how our communication within society has become less physical and more technological. In one of my other classes we read an article about this and how technology is becoming the source that is connecting our society to other people and ideas. Back in the beginning of our world in order to research on a subject, we would have to go to the library go to other resources physically because we were without technology. Now, anyone that wants to research a topic can easily go online and find out information on the topic through other people. This is how this communication is created, through the Internet. What I also though was just interesting while typing this is that Internet had the green line under it because the “I” was lower case. That is how much the Internet has become a popular well-known database.
Jenkins quotes, “People who may not ever meet face to face and thus have few real-world connections with each other can tap into the shared framework of popular culture to facilitate communication” (556). This quote really stood out to me because our society is starting to separate because of the technology we have today. By this I mean we are losing that physical face-to-face, side-by-side communication. Our communication and interaction with each other is starting to be through technology. With the mean kitty song, 27 million viewers have watched that video, but yet without this technology and that video, we would of never had the communication we have because of this video. We are beginning to communicate through this technology because we cannot meet face to face anymore.
Thursday really made me think about the idea of the ruling class. Although Marx did not say this, “whoever has the gold, rules!” is a quote I thought really explained the idea of the ruling class. Basically, the ruling class is determined by the economic status of the class. Whoever has the most gold, simply rules our society. But then comes in the idea of wealth versus popularity. When we saw the pictures of the Mercedes, GM, Budweiser and Champagne flutes the idea of ruling class began to become more confusing.
Who is the ruling class between these two sets of photos? When I saw the photo of the Mercedes versus the GM logo, I instantly thought Mercedes would have been the ruling class. I based this decision off of the idea of the ruling class because the idea of whoever has the gold is the ruling class. Mercedes has become a logo and company within our society that equals wealth and upper class. GM is a logo and company that I thought of as average and for a lower class than those with Mercedes. When I saw the photos of the Budweiser and the Champagne flutes I thought instantly the champagne flutes because champagne is usually drank at high class events and get togethers. Budweiser is an alcohol drink that you tend to see everywhere and anywhere where alcohol is. At events you tend to see champagne at higher-class functions and Budweiser at more average class get togethers. Once seeing these photos I thought that Mercedes and the Champagne flutes were ruling class, but then my ideas shifted after we discussed this in class.
GM and Budweiser are more popular and better known within society. Although Mercedes and Champagne, depending on the brand, are more expensive, GM and Budweiser can also be the ruling class based on the ideas of popularity. Everyone knows GM and everyone knows Budweiser. The idea of popularity within our society, could GM and Budweiser, although less expensive be the ruling class? I think this idea is something interesting to better understand and talk about. The ruling class, although based on economic status, could be different depending on the object or group.
Communication is becoming more technological and ruling class is becoming harder to determine. Why is our society becoming more and more complex everyday?