Advertising is a massive component of everyday culture. Ads have been a part of cultural history for many years, however it seems that we have reached a point of extreme commercialization today; superficial and unnecessary. I remember watching plenty of action figure and super soaker ads back on Saturday mornings as a kid, but in the past few years ads have made a successful attempt to dominate the internet as well.

Most media is now digital, people watch TV shows through free streaming websites that post ads all over your screen or even through free TV network apps that give you regular commercial breaks. The DVR gave people the ability to record shows and replay them later, giving the ability to fast forward through commercials, however more TV shows that I watch implement product placement as a way of unavoidable advertising. This is also present in many films I have seen in the past year, The Amazing Spiderman and Wreck It Ralph were notoriously ad-heavy although they were both great movies.

On my Xbox 360 Dashboard, a hub for downloads and gaming news, I had to update my Xbox so now ads stream on the main screen, even if I don’t choose to sign into Xbox LIVE. There’s no alternative to these ads. The most saddening and frustrating examples of commercialization have surfaced very recently on both Facebook and Youtube. Facebook suggests Pages I “might like” such as Target, Walmart, or Nike so I can receive “new deals” which really means you volunteer yourself for more ads. Additionally, when looking at someone’s photos, they advertise right by the comment bar. It’s not even subtle anymore! Youtube, which was once ad-free and growing in popularity, was bought by Google and had ads implemented on screen once your video has played 10 seconds and before the video starts! You have to wait five seconds before you can skip the ad.

Pop culture is becoming addicted to its own past in more than just musical aspects, Mad Men is an extremely successful television series about advertising during the 1960s. Ads are definitely a part of our lives that may be unavoidable, but is it really necessary to be smothered by them, and if so where will it stop? Although ads remain to be interesting parts of our culture, I feel overwhelmed and out of control with them.

If there’s one thing that has changed the way people live in my generation, it’s the Internet. This resulted in our generation being titled the “technology generation” and social networking is now one of the most prominent uses of technology. Marshall McLuhan famously stated that the medium is the message, meaning that a medium, in this case technology, influences the message, which is social networking. To take that a step further, social networking is basically just a filtered view of other people’s lives so really technology influences life. This expression, as stated by McLuhan, basically says that mediums and messages exist symbiotically. The message can’t exist without the medium, however the medium always has an influence on the message.

So what does this mean for social networking influencing life? Being an involuntary test subject as an active Facebook member of almost five years and casual Twitter user I can give my own view of social media. People have an unbelievable obsession with themselves due to social networking, I read countless Status Updates and Tweets daily that don’t really express anything aside from the sharing of someone’s day-to-day routine. It’s a cultural idea that everyone cares about what is immediately happening in your life and that you should care about others as well. Our culture discourages boredom and encourages social media use, we have multiple uses of time-wasting now. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Stumble-upon, and Pinterest are all frequently used to kill time and entertain others.

Having said that, social media still creates an amazing ease of access the to the people you truly DO care about and entertainment is provided when you want it. What’s important is to keep in mind that everything is best in moderation, and that social media is no exception. The only question that remains is if social networking will die off eventually, or if it will follow the Social Network quote and “never go out of style, like fashion”. Time will only tell.

A while back, our ASTU class visited The Chung Collection. For starters, I had no idea that there was a mini museum hidden under Irving, there were all sorts of different historical items.

Ephemera was all over, which is  basically a paper product used to serve a purpose and then be tossed away, except people saved them and now they’re little pieces of history. There were brochure-like pamphlets advertising West Coast Vancouver Island Tours, Sunset Cruises, The Fiords of British Columbia, and Fun for All the Family at Newcastle Island! These pamphlets all were vintage looking, using bright pastel colors and smooth looking illustrations. It reminded me of World War II propaganda in America. This was a valuable insight to Canada’s rich history for me.

There was also authentic railroad building equipment used for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Lanterns, axes, and elongated oil cans lined a section of the exhibit. There were two large-scale models in the collection as well. My personal favorite was the huge model ship that looked professionally done, I was amazed to discover that Mr. Chung himself helped restore it to its former glory and contributed possibly thousands of hours toward it. The other model was a reincarnation of a train that one of the builders worked on originally. I guess the worker enjoyed making the life-size one so much that he felt like making a smaller scale version. Small is a bit of a misnomer however, for although these are miniature models they remain to be gigantic. These models reminded me of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy where the director Peter Jackson created “big-atures” in order to film detailed and realistic locations such as Rivendell, Helm’s Deep, and Minas Tirith.

Finally, there were all sorts of different propaganda posters advertising The Canadian Pacific Empresses, steamships, and tours and cruises. All of the posters had a clean, cartoon, and pop art feel. Some of these ads depicted Canada’s beautiful landscape, whereas others showed detailed Empresses in different ports of the world. These posters were all tweaked slightly depending on what audience they were advertising to which I found interesting, but not surprising. The CPR wanted to brag and advertise as best they could.

After viewing The Chung Collection my knowledge of the CPR was expanded and better understood due to the visual aids, perhaps it’s just the way my mind works but all of the imagery is retained easily. I’m also glad to have learnt that The Chung Collection is a historical goldmine located right under UBC’s own learning center.

Hello to everyone reading this.

My name is Jackson Runkle, but you can call me The J Doctor, or J.Dr if you prefer. I will be using this blog to discuss the ideas presented in my Culture and Media CAP stream courses, History of Music, Women and Gender Studies, Film Studies, Journalism, and ASTU of course. Next semester I’m going to try and review movies under the Ticket or Skip It blog section so be sure to check that out! I chose the Culture and Media CAP Stream because of my interest and love of popular culture, and additionally because of my interest in taking Film Studies and Film Production courses. Another special attribute of Culture and Media is that it allows you to take Journalism as an undergraduate. This CAP stream is the only way to access the course. I look forward to learning more and discussing ideas through this outlet.

I’ll talk to you all soon!

Jackson Runkle