Consumption Diary
Breakfast: President’s Choice peanut butter granola and a
banana (Chiquita)
Brunch: Baker’s Raven’s Breakfast (had a meeting)
Dinner: all store brand nacho's - President's Choice Tortilla Chips, Simply Good Salsa, Farmer's Pick extra lean ground beef and no name cheese
Bought Items:
- Simply Good Shopper's store brand Salsa
Today’s Reflection
on My Breakup
The third
day since my “break-up with brands” I am already starting to regret the split.
It is not too hard to spend a week away from my favorite branded foods and
goodies. I have not touched a single Lindor chocolate, Delissio frozen pizza or
Starbuck’s drink. What is extremely difficult for me is staying off of Facebook
for a week.
Yes, that is right I will admit
it I am a facebook addict. I use facebook multiple times during the day. I
check what my friends are doing and what events are happening in the city or on
campus. I chat with my friends online, discussing our social lives, school work
and just generally complaining (“I only got three hours of sleep last night,
how bout you?”). I even get most of my news from facebook. My friends are very
well informed and often repost and discuss things they see in local newspapers
or online. Facebook is also useful for me when I am bored. I often go on facebook
when waiting for something, on the bus ride to school or admittedly during some
classes (But of course not Power and Everyday Life class). Facebook also serves
as a good break from studying. When I just cannot stand to look at my readings
or work on an assignment any longer I will go on facebook for five minutes.
Then refreshed to my studies. Facebook, therefore, serves a lot of uses in my
life from mediating my communication with others and informing me on local
issues, to providing relief from boredom and, what I will call, “study
wear-out.”
Considering all the things I use facebook
for perhaps you could understand why it is so hard to break the habit of
constantly looking at the website. Or perhaps you are a person who does not
have Facebook and does not understand my addiction at all. Nevertheless, when Facebook
came up in one of my communications classes today I found myself going to type
in the websites address into my search bar.
Unfortunately though facebook is
a brand. There are a number of social media sites one could chose from and all
include their own name/ brand. Some of the social media site names include
Twitter, Tumbler, MySpace and Instagram. Each of these websites serve similar
but slightly different services. They are all used to send messages or images
to others. Some sites can send these messages or images directly to someone,
other sites one uses to send messages to a group of people. In the latter case
one may not even be certain who will receive these message and who will not. For instance, on Facebook I just read what
comes up on my wall so I will not likely read someone’s message if it is not
shown here. These websites also differ in the ways they are used. So, while I
use Facebook to post pictures and messages, as well as read articles, I would
likely only use Instagram to send pictures, possibly with a caption or message
attached. That some things are not possible on certain sites says something
about what people can do on these sites, and therefore about power. Moreover,
these websites can brand themselves in reference to these aspects of their
website. For instance, on the sign-up/in page Facebook says, “it helps you
connect and share with the people in your life.” To reinforce this page site
also icons that represent people that are connected to one another over a map
of the world; showing how people are connected in this way.
Due, to how facebook is set up, mainly what it allows on to
do, and because it is marketed as a way to connect people facebook is clearly a
brand. Therefore, it is something I will have to avoid for this week. Wish me
luck.
Works Cited
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