episode #4 We’re a hot mess

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As always the episode starts out with a brief recap of the last episode. In the last episode the orange team voted John off the island which i believe was a good move on their teams part. For the first challenge of the episode is John vs. his girl friend Jacqueline. Its starts with Jacqueline in the lead but John then got focused and took the lead and won the challenge. When Blue won they got a choice between a great meal to cook over a fire or comfortable things to make a bed with. Diversity in groups plays a huge part in all groups and now that the show has gotten past the first few episodes personality are really coming out.  The fact that everyone is so age different brings different energy and different motivations. The orange group is very eager to win a challenge and not have have to fear being voted off the islands. Keith finds an idol by the well in his camp. He had blamed Jeramey for finding it before him breaking their alliance. The orange team finally won their first challenge and do not have to kick someone off their team. Drew on the blue team lost it for his team on purpose so he can try and vote some of the women that are on his team. This is a massive move and in my opinion is very dangerous. The groups have been working well together for the most part but when everyone in the group has a different goal it makes thing conflicting. On the blue team they are creating somewhat of a girls vs guys group. Drew was voted off of the blue team which i think is a smart move of the teams part.

And The Tables Have Turned….. Yet again!

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At the beginning of this episode, we see the Hunahpu tribe as they come back from they’re elimination. Drew was blindsided and it seemed like the only person who didn’t realize what was going to happen was John who was Drew’s only true friend. Besides the shock of the coyopa tribe realizing Drew had been voted off, there was an even bigger shock this episode. The tribes had to #dropyourbuff and mixed up the tribes completely. This was not something I expected because I felt like each tribe was barely starting to get to know the group dynamics and realizing each persons personality types. I believe the reason some people have been doing so well in avoiding getting voted off is because their personality types are more of introverts. I feel like the biggest extroverts on each team are slowly being weeded out. If I were them I would keep my mouth shut and just go with the flow. The key is to get along with everyone so that no one goes after you.

As the show continues, we see some extremely happy people and some not so happy people. The reason some people are happy is because they are reunited with their family member.  On the Coyopa tribe, poor Keith is the only single person on this team. He, as did I, believed he was the next one out of this tribe. Fortunately, there was conflict between two of the other couples and they didn’t even think to vote out Keith when the Coyopa tribe lost the challenge. Missy and Dale started the tension when Missy made too much rice. Dale did not like this because he was so used to making a certain amount each day. This, plus the feud between Baylor and Dale in the days prior have already altered the group dynamics negatively. Kelley tried to play peacemaker between her dad and the other couple but in the end, she was the one voted out. I still don’t understand why this was their decision but I have a feeling I’ll understand in the episode to come.

Bad-Ass? More like Dumb-Ass

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Another intense episode of survivor, and it was definitely full of plot twists. The most interesting plot twist came from the self pro-claimed “Bad-Ass” Drew from the blue tribe throwing the game in an attempt to kick off a tribal member out of his group. Which of course back fired, making him the next player/  “Dumb-ass” kicked off of survivor.

Most of the diversity in chapter four is reflective on the drama that unfolded in the blue tribe after the thrown immunity challenge.  Almost immediately following the tribes loss, the lines quickly were drawn. Examples of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination based on external dimensions took place.  John was quick to select Julie from the tribe because she was a female that wasn’t able to contribute as much as the men, additionally her “Loved one” had been kicked off the show in the previous episode. Drew was also quick to pick Kelly because of her experience with the show.

It was when Drew saw himself as a high power distance member of the group and tried to manipulate the other players, the female players began to catch on, recognizing their feminine values; that Drew’s external dimensions and personality were not cohesive with the group that the women of the tribe.

Ultimately, by the end of the tribal council it was clear that the men were strongly divided among themselves and a collectivism between the women of blue tribe took place because they were able to unify to vote Drew off the show. It will be interesting to see if the new found women’s alliance of the blue tribe will stay steady in future episodes.

Luke Lineberger – Post II

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Survivor Episode 3

Tension rises as the Coyopa Tribe comes to terms with Val being voted out, and Josh remains suspicious of John after flipping his vote. The Hunahpu Tribe focuses less on politics and more on their shelter, though _ stands out for his lack of contributions. When both Tribes meet to begin the challenge, Jeremy of the Huhnapu Tribe vents his frustration at John for failing to keep his wife, Val, in the game. Seemingly incapable of losing that kind of face without responding, John blurts that he made every effort to sway his group–right in front of them–and they are visibly unsettled by the realizing that his intentions were never completely aligned with their own.

Keith’s blunder in the challenge secures Wes’s victory and the break from the curse. The Coyopa Tribe chooses fishing gear and head off, with Josh accompanying Keith into Exile by Wes’s choosing. Back at their respective camps, Jeremy continues venting to all who will listen that John gave him his word as a man and failed to come through. This loss of credibility has earned John no friends.

Keith and Josh encounter little friction in Exile, but the Coyopa go through some changes as John earns goodwill by providing fish and Baylor tries to destabilize–little by little–the male alliance but fails to make an impact. In the Immunity Challenge, Hunahpu takes the win and John loses face once more when he responds to taunting from Natalie.

Back at the Coyopa camp, John works to sow dissent–he fails to convince the girls to vote Dale, and Josh finds himself unwilling to trust him, instead opting to work with Wes and Baylor to catch John by surprise.

In the end John heads home, having opted not to play his immunity idol.

Throughout this episode there was heavy interpersonal conflict–which is the norm for Survivor–but when John was accused of being prejudiced against African-Americans and homosexuals he was labeled as a bigot and became subject to heavy bias from almost every member of both tribes. Regarding individualism vs collectivism, it’s almost not worth mentioning–each and every person on the show is aware from the beginning that only one can take the prize, and most of them come from individualistic cultures. I can scarcely imagine how two teams of collectivists would handle Survivor politics at all.

My Presence On The Open Web

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What is my presence on the open web? This is a question I’ve never thought of finding the answer to. I’ve never even thought of my own presence on the web. Through this technology course, my eyes have been opened to my involvement on the open web and my interactions with others. My involvement on the web has not been more evident to me than through the many interactions I have begun to engage in with others through my recently developed Twitter.

Visit my Twitter account at https://twitter.com/banuzum. On Twitter I have been exposed to new ideas, new information and people’s thoughts on ideas I’ve already been exposed to. The web has so much space available for everyone to share their ideas and opinions that it can be intimidating to find your own voice and put it out there. This is something I am still struggling with but feel that I am developing every day.  This blog is helping me by giving me a place to present my ideas and opinions freely. I have been able to view others’ blogs to help me see what I should be doing. Most of the time when I think about writing a blog post my brain is just full of so much I don’t know where to even begin writing so anything I say is comprehensible. I think this image sufficiently describes how most of us feel our brains are acting the majority of the time.  :)

I’m excited to continue learning through my interactions with others and exploring the various learning opportunities the web has to offer. The connections I am already making and ideas I am being exposed to are ever evolving and to me, are perfect depictions of what web presence is all about. I look forward to interacting and learning with you through the various portals on the open web!

Survivor the 4th

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In this edition of Survivor, many things change. Literally, the teams have all switched up and intertwined amongst the two group from prior. Now the Coyora tribe consists of three pairs that are “loved ones” and one considered single because his son (game partner) is now on the Hunahpu team. The Hunahpu tribe only has one pair of gaming partners on that team while the rest are considered single.  There is a lot of mixing and matching different personalities when switching teams in the middle of a reality game show and the characters often get revealed during this process.

The Big Five Personality Traits can help us better understand some of the characters on the show in terms of who they are and how they are playing the game of Survivor. The Big Five Personality Traits are defined as something psychologists use to describe personalities. The first trait is Extraversion which best describes Baylor. I don’t even think Baylor is old enough to have a drink yet, but she definitely asserts herself despite her young age. Baylor’s extravert personality was most evident when trying to put a strategy together against all the girls in her first tribe. Agreeableness is the next trait and this can be seen in  Julie. Julie seems very good-natured and tolerant of all her teammates and does a good job of keeping low maintenance despite dating a former pro athlete. Conscientiousness  fits Dale very well because he seemed like the pioneer in being able to stay disciplined and  preserve food for the bigger picture. The other group did not manage their resources properly and with Dale being responsible, its really paying off in the end. Jackelin gets the nod for Emotional Stability because she seems very calm, cool, and collected. She is with her boyfriend now but her demeanor hasn’t changed much. She never gets too high and never gets too low. Open to Experience is our last once and that goes to Reed/Josh. Both seem broadminded especially when on the same team. They are smart guys who will definitely have a creative strategy going forward.

A Hot Mess

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The title of this episode says it all!

The Big Five Personality Traits were a major role in this episode, Hunahpu showed many examples of personality differences. Showing extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience and also had perfect examples of their opposites which are: introversion, disagreeableness, carelessness, neuroticism, and closed to experience. When Coyopa made their appearance and Hunahpu realized that John was voted off, Julie showed emotional stability by being calm, poised and secure when she found out that her boyfriend was voted off.

Many members of both Hunahpu and Coyopa discriminate against the older members of their tribe, they exclude them from conversation and other group activities. One week, they tried to vote Dale off because he is older and “does not do anything for the group”, which is false because Dale has done many things for their tribe. This week it was mentioned to vote Keith off because he and Jeremy had become allies, and while Keith was on Exile Island he found a clue to an immunity idol, which he could not find, so he assumed that Jeremy had it. This upset Jeremy because instead of just asking him, he spread it around the island that Jeremy was hiding it. After Keith spread this rumor, he continued to search for the immunity idol and later found it, and has not told anyone about it, so members of the tribe still think Jeremy has it. While Drew was on Exile Island with Jacklyn he decided that if he had a chance, he was going to purposely lose the immunity challenge because he felt that there were members on his tribe that needed to be sent home. His plan was to vote Julie off because she does not have a loved one on the island anymore and she has not been any help in previous challenges. In the end, his plan backfired when he was voted off the island.

Leadership on Survivor

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I think leadership plays a huge role on the show, the people who are perceived as leaders are the ones others are confiding in. On this episode as the tribes are switched up at the beginning, different forms of leadership emerge. When Keith is put into a tribe that has all other members with their loved ones, he starts to feel as if it makes him a direct target, but fortunately for him  there is a bit of drama between Dale and his daughter Kelly and Missy and her daughter Baylor.  Since the two sets of loved ones want to plot to get one another our it makes the third couple Jacqueline and Jon at an advantage of leadership when they are put in the position to chose who they are going to side with for the elimination.  Jacqueline and Jon must chose wisely and they end up siding with Missy and Baylor, resulting in Kellys’ elimination. Leadership is defined as the ability to make strategic decisions and use communication effectively to mobilize group members toward achieving a common goal. Jon and Jacquelines’ decision is made in an effort of strategy and hopes to put them at a greater shot at winning.

Conflicts begin to emerge when different leadership styles and forms come together. At another point in the show, Dale becomes frustrated because Missy (who just switched over from the other tribe) decided to make as much rice as she pleases to eat. The tribes are only given so much and must ration their portions wisely, as Dales previous team had been doing. Missys’ old tribe only left with one or two scoops of rice pays the price, as she obviously doesn’t understand how her new tribe had been successful in retaining their food supply.  Dales’ perspective and leadership style is to ration the rice more effectively to last out the duration of the game. Where as Missys’ idea of leadership wasn’t very apparent as she decided she was hungry and would make as much rice as she pleased. In my opinion she was only looking out for herself and not for the greater good of her tribe, which shows poor leadership.

Our textbook also describes the situational leadership theory which states that effective leadership styles/strategies depend on the situation. Some of the different tribe members on both sides have a tendency to do what they believe is the right thing to do and are not viewing a situation from any other dynamic. Other members are less vocal of what they believe needs to happen and strategizes in other ways to get people to agree with their perspectives.

We’re a Hot Mess

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In Survivor the differences between groups is not one of grand cultural diversity and the race diversity has barely been mentioned there is more diversity between generations but the attribute that has gotten the most attention is the difference between gender. Since the beginning alliances have been made based off being female or male, if gender alliances were not made then there was the assumption that they existed; the known alliances has caused tension between each tribe and it proved to be detrimental when Drew was voted off due to making his assumption of the gender alliances known. With the diversity between males and females the way the tribes work together immediately molds to all the differences and if they fail to do so then the tribe falls apart which was seen within the tribe members of Hunahpu.

A difference that is difficult to overcome is the difference over generations with tribe members being almost equally distributed over the Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Traditionalists. With many of the members being distributed between the Millennials and the Traditionalists it has shown to be difficult to try to work with the few Baby Boomers that are only trying to win just like everyone else. Time and time again the Hunahpu tribe has had issues with Keith who is older than most of the other tribe members and with so many young people they find it difficult to understand Keith and his thought process being so unlike their own.  It is because of this that Keith has been brought up among his tribe to be voted off mainly due to the lack of similarities. An ideal group has people that are like minded but with different strengths and weaknesses so that one blow will not cause them to come falling down but with that comes the issue of a group being better off with similar ages or vastly different ages in order to get wisdom and experience from the elders that the younger people do not have available yet. Is  the age difference a huge deciding factor or a minuscule fact that can be forgotten?

Barriers

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So as a recap, there were many conflicts happening throughout the episode. In the end Kelley was voted out because Dale had an immunity idol. The blue team won the immunity mud challenge and rice was running extremely scarce because people kept eating their supplies even though they weren’t winning challenges and getting more( josh and reed thought they should ration the food).

So a couple of barriers have hit the show so far, one between Dale and Kelley. Dale called Kelley a “bossy bitch”, even though she was his daughter. The name calling alone is a barrier in my eyes but I think deeper than that he was gender stereotyping her. If a man on the show was being bossy, like Jeremy or Jon, they were being proactive and aggressive like they should but if a girl is acting as such she is considered bossy and quite possibly unfriendly.

Another concept that came into was Ethnocentrism which is a belief that your culture is superior to others; Jeremy indirectly did that in almost every episode. We all know Jeremy is a firefighter, he takes his job very seriously and to heart; He believed that just because Keith was a firefighter he could trust him. He also expects the same from others when concerning him, “trust me I’m a firefighter”. So Jeremy’s ethnocentrism is constantly in the way of him seeing who is really a threat and who he needs to pull closer, it’s almost like he chooses a new person to target for a new reason every episode.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about Jon and Jacklyn. They were very close this episode, pulling each other close and trying to create alliances with other group members. They were basically lying to both groups, stringing them along until they made their final choice. In this situation the five big personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness’, emotional stability, openness to experience played a big role in how well Jon and Jacklyn were perceived by others, they excelled in having all the categories in their favor making their two man group very successful. I think others were attracted to their ability to make a team work.