The article “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent” delves into the issue of rebellion and how it correlates to corporations. The counterculture or he idea of rebellion and “going against the man” have been around of years. The people who do it today are essentially just rehashing the same argument that the people before them have done and it’s losing its effect. Corporations have their interest in making a profit and even they have noticed how the idea of rebellion is way of generating profit. They have created advertisements specifically targeting rebellion because it will sell, people will flock to it and think they are doing something new or that the company is encouraging it. When in fact, they are just exploiting these people with the use of said advertising.
This advertisement shows this process in action. It says it “calls for rebellion,” and shows that the punk style is a method of showing that. But, at the same time, the woman has a
Samsung Galaxy S4 in her hand. It is nothing more than showcasing an ad for this phone and telling people that this style combined with having this phone will amplify the notion of going against the crowd.
Is Thomas Frank “on point?” In a way, he is, even back when the article was written. Not 100% but, what he says is still being utilized to this day. At the end of the day, companies still need to make profit and if this is a method of generating that profit, it will continue on for years to come. Until we reach a point where we have found a new concept or idea for counterculture or this method of advertising loses its profitability.
Nicholas Carr uses the example of taxi drivers having a larger posterior hippocampus depending on how long they have been on the job. Due to this, their anterior hippocampus had shrunk and potentially reduced their memorization capability in other tasks. They basically have developed a specific portion of their brain and had a reduction in another, which is what the internet is basically doing to us.
Nowadays, we don’t need to focus on remembering so many ideas or concepts because if we forget, we can just look it up on a tablet, computer, or our phones. We can afford to forget specific details because it is so easy to just look it up later. Being on the internet also gives us this ability to remain anonymous, we don’t need to show off who we are and this allows to act differently as well. We may be cool and composed in person but online we can unleash the true horror of who we are on internet forums or comment space. We think differently online as opposed to real life, we don’t need to think of others or suppress our urges to insult or retaliate. The problem would be the moment we forget and confuse the two.
Strong post.