Are You Middle Class?

In class a few weeks ago, we took a poll of the class to see which class we thought our families were in. In an article from US News, they break down the average "middle class' family and answer the question, "how to gauge your middle class status.
I think it is interesting to see that what this author believes are the marking points for a middle class family. Everything from your income to your free time is factored into the calculation. In our class, we discussed the middle class and many of us thought that there were gray areas in figuring your class level. However in this article, there seems to be set distinctions.

In my opinion, I think that there are many grey areas, however, the bench marks that the author of this article present seem to be realistic and broad enough to cover most families that fall under 'middle class' status.

Do you think that the specific numbers and statistics that the article brought up are reasonable to gauge class status or is class something based on opinion and not the numbers? Does this article change your idea of what class your family is?

 

Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports

I was recently skimming through an article about why the United States isn't as interesting in soccer as many other countries in the world are. The article was interesting but what stood out to me was a comment made by a reader. They discussed the usage of performance enhancing drugs in the soccer league. The commenter brought up national soccer player Lional Messi and discussed his alleged drug use. They concluded , "We wouldn't have the world's best player if it wasn't for these kinds of drugs."

I think this statement is interesting because it seems to show how people view pro athletes. I'm not sure how an athlete can be considered the best when he or she is taking drugs to reach the level they are at. In my opinion, if an athlete is using drugs, they are in no way the "best player" since they are enhancing their performance the easy way. No work is necessary to become the best when you have an unfair advantage by taking drugs to enhance your game. I think it is more admirable to reach a level of athleticism on your own, without the use of illegal drugs. However, many athletes decide to use them anyway. Wikipedia states that "in 2009, nearly 1 in 10 retired NFL players polled in a confidential survey said they had used now-banned anabolic steroids while still playing"

Why do you think athletes take these drugs? Do you think there should be more pressure on them to not take drugs or is the pressure to be the best too high to stop them? What is your take on athletes like Micheal Phelps or Barry Bonds taking drugs and still being thought of as great athletes?

The Politics in Advertising

Today in class we had an interesting discussion on advertising in the United States. The thing that stuck out to me was the topic of sponsorships. In my marketing class, we talked a good deal about sponsorships and how they work. I thought it was interesting to hear the other side of them; the political side. I never thought about how deliberate certain sponsorships are. The basic strategy being sponsoring a person or event that is widely known to get the company name out. The strategy we discussed today was company imaging and reputation. Monsonto, an agricultural company, sponsors PBS for the reputation. Their controversial suing of small farmers gave them a bad image, however, by sponsoring a non-profit station, they were able to shine a good light on themselves.
Referring back to the articles we read, one author stated that advertising was art. I agree with this statement because advertising is something to master and get better at. It is something that not everyone can succeed at. It is also a very powerful way of gaining support of your idea or company. Today, advertising has become even more artistic and complex. Many companies spend millions of dollars to perfect their logo. This small piece of art can ultimately get you a customer or lose one. For example, in the LA Times article states "the  Coke label appeared to activate a memory region called the hippocampus, along with structures in the mid brain known to compare the likelihood of rewards." A thing as simple as a piece of art on your product can change the way people react to your product.

Do you think advertising has become an art? If so, what does this say about our society?

Google Suggestions

Many people are familiar with Google Suggestions. You start to type in your search item, and a number of suggestions appear. Recently, I began to realize that many of these suggestions are filled with racist, sexist, inappropriate terms. For example, try typing in "why are". The very first suggestion is "why are black people so loud". I was stunned that such stereotypical and racist suggestions would come up on Google, a search engine used by millions of people every day. Another astonishing thing I found was that many of the suggestions that appear on the images site are suggestive of child pornography, another obviously horrible and sick thing. If you type in "racism is", Google gladly finishes it with words like "good", "natural", and "funny".

After finding all these horrible Google suggestions, I decided I would voice my opinion and contact Google and

complain about the problem. I know my complaint wouldn't get all the inappropriate suggestions deleted, but I would have felt better if I could get my opinion on the problem to the source. After 20 minutes of trying to find a way to contact them, I decided to to just blog about it. I thought it was interesting that Google makes I difficult to contact them about a complaint or even just a comment.

Do you think Google should be held responsible for the suggestions on their website? Is it their fault or is it because of the people who use Google? What do you think Google should do about it, if anything?