One dystopic theme in this society is the lack of privacy that corresponds with the reliance and negative effects of social media. I find it very disturbing that on page 38 Lenny can find out that Sally’s “LDL cholesterol was way beneath the norm” and that “The Park sisters favored extra-small shirts in strict business patterns” etc. These are not normal things that one should be able to find on the internet about another person. He does not need to have any human interaction with these people to learn about them. Essentially, the people of this society are becoming solely online profiles. Everything about their lives are on social media sites where anyone can access the information. There is nothing personal about them. This is also demonstrated when the three guys on the radio show “FAC;” there is no human interaction involved. Everything about the people participating is online and demonstrated in a profile. The people of the society are slowly becoming their social media. Similarly, most characters including Eunice, her family and best friend communicate solely through messaging. They too are becoming their usernames and technology devices. This society is essentially turning the people into online profiles.

I chose this image because I think it accurately demonstrates the way the individuals of the society are becoming online profiles. The act of communicating in person is quickly diminishing. People of the society are thought of as profiles and statistics instead of human beings.

For my Pecha Kucha presentation, I chose the cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989 album:

As I was looking for an object to analyze for my Pecha Kucha project, I happened to be listening to Pandora as a Taylor Swift song came on as did the album cover image. As I was looking at the photo I realized there are a lot of aspects that have to do with Taylor Swift’s identity and persona that would be interesting to analyze and since identity is a main theme in our class, I chose to analyze this cover for my project.

a) For this image, the creator/author is Taylor Swift herself.

b) The author’s purpose is to attract an audience to buy her album. I also think that the purpose of her album cover is to demonstrate the message of her music and also her identity as a whole. I think it is very effective. This CD cover is very different from her other ones and thus is interesting and the audience would want to buy the album to listen to the difference (this is especially true because it is her first documented pop album).

c) The intended audience is mostly young adult females, yet there are many different types of people who like Taylor Swift and would buy her album. I think the assumption of the audience is that they already know who Taylor Swift is. Because this image does not say her name or even have her whole face, the assumption must be that people already know who “T.S” is and that this is her album.

d) The context of this cover is that it is Taylor Swift’s fifth album and it was released in October of 2014 through Big Machine Records. While this album was released in 2014, it has significance and relates to the year 1989 (the year of Taylor Swift’s birth)

e) To me, the tone of this image is mysterious. Half of her face is cut off, including her eyes which is a defining feature on people’s faces as well as is mostly blank except for her initials and birth year. Without knowing who the album was for, it would be hard to figure out who the artist is.

f) I think the genre of this album, just by looking at it, is unknown. I think this is done purposely since this is her first documented pop album and thus her history as a pop artist is unknown and mysterious and thus translates to her album cover.

g) One strategy used on her album cover is the fact that it is a polaroid. I think that it relates to the fact that it is titled “1989.” In present day, polaroids are rare, but in 1989 polaroids were popular and thus helps connect her with her title. Another strategy used is the mysterious aspect. By not having her full name, or even her full face makes it mysterious and thus will attract more curiosity and attention.

h) I think this cover image appeals to both pathos and ethos. I think it appeals to pathos because of the mysterious aspect. The more mysterious, the more curiosity it will generate and thus more albums will be sold. I think it appeals to ethos because of the fact that Taylor Swift is already famous and known. She is recognized world wide and thus, people will trust her album especially with her signature hand writing on the front.

Overall, I think the cover of this album has a lot to do with representing Taylor Swift’s personality and will be interesting to further analyze and discuss. I believe the fact that this image presents a certain identity to the population also relates to the fact that we put images of ourselves on social media for the public to look at and thus we also give out a certain “identity” over social media.

While reading the blog posts before me, I noticed that a lot of people discussed the increase of technology in the society in Super Sad True Love Story, and I completely agree with these posts. The reliance on technology in this new, dystopian society definitely reflects aspects of our own society. While I believe that technology is beneficial in our society and has many advantageous uses, I also believe it hinders our human interactions that are so important and vital in human society. With the increase of facebook, text messages, gmail etc. comes the decrease of face to face contact. I believe that face to face communication, or even phone calls, are very important and if our society comes to the level of reliance of technology in Super Sad True Love Story, we are going to lose something vital. For example, instead of calling her mom or younger sister on the telephone, Eunice relies on emails and text messages. She loses human emotion by only communicating across a screen and could benefit by talking to them on the phone. She can ask questions and hear the answer right away and can even detect inflection to notice if her sister is doing well or not, a struggle she is dealing with in Rome. Another example is when Lenny FAC’s on the radio show. The whole system of FAC completely diminishes our concept of human interaction. In our world today we see the increase of matchmaking sites which echo this idea of online profiling to find a relationship. While it may help people in the end, it also skips the human communication portion. There is less talking in person and getting to know one another before either accepting or rejecting them as a possible partner. The FAC system gives the user statistics on whether or not they would be compatible, just as matchmaking sites do today. By doing this, we lose the concept of learning communication skills and also possibly learning about ourselves through these processes. While we may not end up with said person, we learn through mistakes, which make us more human than any technology site can do. By relying solely on technology we lose the portion of human, face to face contact our society is built and relies on. Overall, while in our society today we have many beneficial uses for technology, Super Sad True Love Story demonstrates what our world could come to if we do not balance said technology and important human characteristics such as face to face communication.

Many issues in our society have required the sacrifice of privacy for security. This debate is an important one that accompanies new technology, more specifically, Project Angel Fire. Project Angel Fire is a surveillance system that started during the Iraq War that attaches cameras on the belly of airplanes that allows the viewer to go back and track crimes and thus, dispatch police officers to the exact spot. This system can revolutionize crime catching in major cities such as Dayton, Ohio and New York City. While many fear the sacrifice of privacy, this system can change the way we fight crime outweighs the fear the public has that the government will betray the level of trust. This system has already caught the man in charge of fifteen-hundred crimes in Juarez, Mexico and could decrease crime by 30-40% in Dayton, Ohio. While it is true that the cameras record a ton of information, it is mostly non-invasive and is not watched unless given a reason. If put in place across the United States, the police could use this technology advantageously to better protect our society.

While the Project Angel Fire technology can help solve crimes in American cities, it comes at the sacrifice of our privacy and freedom. While the creators of this technology have stated that they will not use the technology to zoom in on pictures or analyze images without reason, who is to say that the government will not in the future? It is possible the government is not to be trusted with this power and information. All of our movements will be recorded and the information is out there for them to analyze at their will. Besides the fact that we will have no autonomy over ourselves, police should be out on the streets, making personal relationships and connections with the public. This technology would decrease these important connections. Only in dramatic times where fear is over encompassing will the public sacrifice their autonomy. Until then, the government must find other ways to better protect our society and fix crime in major cities.