Archive for year: 2015

Take our next class on Remotely Piloted Systems

Last spring we taught our first-ever course on UAVs under a special topics course listing.  Finally, we have our very own stand-alone numbering (ESRM 370: Introduction to Remotely Piloted Systems).  This course is open to any major and has no pre-requisites.  We will meet Friday mornings over the Spring 2016 semester.  Students in this course will learn about the social and legal issues surrounding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, learn to pilot these robotic tools, and to collect field data with the latest technology.

Contact Dr. Anderson for questions or to ask about any additional details.

One quote that really struck me from Fox’s, Leonard’s, and Sachs’ (2007) video was that “stuff moves through a system from extraction, to production, to distribution, to consumption, to disposal.” I liked this quote because with many things we do not think about the full picture of where it comes from. Take technology for example. All we worry about is the new and improved product getting in our hands. We never think about the process it goes through to get there. I think it’s interesting that this person dedicated their time to finding the missing variables in materials economy. I did not know there was a term for throwing away things that still work. This term is perceived obsolescence.

The Story of Solutions by Leonard and Sachs (2013) brings up an interesting point about how as an economy we spend money on all of these things to get more money instead of spending money on something better. However, in order to spend money on better things, we have to change the goal of the economy. People are not comfortable with change, so it will make this task very difficult.

In chapter 9, Sternheimer (2013) states that “advertising is an easy target to blame for our culture of consumption” (p. 255). I am a little confused by this. Does she mean that the blame should be directed somewhere else? If so, what or who are we blaming? I feel like the media is completely responsible for shaping society. First of all, the media does not even fully reflect everyone in society; moreover, people do not have the knowledge of how to deconstruct media. The goal should be to educate society on media instead of always throwing the blame at it. In chapter 11, Sternheimer (2013) states “claims maters actively work to raise awareness of what they see as the pop culture problem, which occasionally rises to the level of a moral panic” (p. 273). The real problem is people mindlessly consuming media without a question as to what it really means. We blame the media for all of the problems in society because it’s easy to point the blame at someone and call it a day. No one wants to talk about the underlying causes of these problems, but it’s time that we start talking about them.

Steinheimer talks about children and their influence on consumption with brand names. She goes on to talk about who this could be detrimental and the quote that really caught my eye was, “Could the temptations of an ever-increasing number of gadgets, like smartphones, iPads, and designer brands, be luring young people away from things that really matter and destroying the environment” ( 248)? The answer is yes, children and sometimes as adults are more worried about what else they can consume. They are not worried about the world they live in because they are oblivious to negative thoughts. Children do not want to watch the documentary “BlackFish” they want to go on their computers and play sims. The more distractions we create for man-kind the more we can slide the horrific under the table.

Blaming the advertisers: They definitely influence children to think more about products. I often wonder if a child drove past a McDonalds, had never heard of it or seen any type of advertising, he or she probably would have no desire to go there. The parents would decide when to take their child there and then he or she would be hooked, advertisement played no role here. On the other hand, it is the constant reminder on television that McDonalds is down the street that makes their product have more consumers.

It is crazy how spoiling your child can negatively effect them later in life. Sternheimer also talks about the right of passage that consuming gives to a child, “being a consumer in American society is a step toward maturity” (253). I never thought of it that way, but it is true. People are constantly competing for who has the bigger, better product. After doing the advertising analysis, the original way, as it says on the syllabus, I have realized how bad commercials really are. This goes back to how the chapter talks about children influencing what their parents buy, I see it all the time.

The last chapter starts off with the topic of poverty and how our consumption of materials and media has taken us away from things that matter. Sternheimer also talks about the problem of inequality not being faced because of all the distractions (277). The chapter really just emphasizes how we fill up our day with meaningless tasks and we do not spend enough time doing things that matter. I was talking about this with someone last week. Generations before us were in survival mode. They had to get jobs that paid well, not what they wanted to do.Every task they did during the day was for survival, whether that be cooking or sewing. These days we get to do whatever we want with our free time, and most of the time, it is time wasted.

It boils down to the basics of humans trying to outdo one another. Consumers need to have the best of the best, to show they are living life correctly. How many times in movies have we seen a couples’ success be shown through how big their house is and how nice their cars are?