Convenient yet Inconvenient
American culture, a culture filled with dream, freedom, and liberty but also with traffic, noise, and business, is one of the most influential cultures worldwide and is affecting how people’s lives are both inside America and outside America. America, a body that developed about 250 years ago, grew rapidly, becoming the strongest leading country in the world. American people work hard and tirelessly in order to maintain this position. This attitude has become the fundamental element of American culture. In my opinion, an iPhone, which is a convenient and quick product on which one can make phone calls, organize his work, search for information, and many other things on that can be used anywhere and any time, would be an artifact that best defines such American culture. One quality that defines American culture is “rush”. People rush during school, work, and even during their leisure time. They fear being late because they think that by doing so, they would destroy the reputation and that their identities would be lost. Their actions are always determined by how clock runs and people think that this is normal. However, this is not true for many other cultures. For instance, many Europeans do not care about being late. It is normal for them to come five, ten, and even thirty minutes late to events. Thus, rushing is unique in American culture and an iPhone, designed to be able to be used in any occasion quickly, presents this element of American culture. Another quality that defines American culture is “media”. We interact with them every moment even without awareness. As Lasn stated, they make us “wear the trendiest fashions, drive the best cars industry can produce and project an image of incredible affluence – cool people living life to the hilt” (xiii). Basically, media studied and published by experts control ordinary people’s actions, desires, and opinions, making a trend. This trend can be anything such as political, social, or economical but the most obvious one is popular culture, the trend targeted toward teenagers. Teenagers usually do not have an established and definite own self yet and can be easily controlled. An iPhone is not an exception. I see many people with iPhone who do not understand its full function. They do not care about what this product can do, but buy this because everyone else has it. Commercials, TV programs, celebrity news, etc. can be all found containing this product, making a trend of iPhone usage. An iPhone, itself, displays media as well, converging our mind into wanting something. This is a result of advancement in information technology where everyone is interacting with information at any time. Thus, media is unique in American culture and an iPhone, marketed enormously by media and displays media itself, presents this element of American culture. Third quality that defines American culture is “convenience”. As Lasn stated, “Americans now live designer lives – sleep, eat, sit in car, work, shop, watch TV, sleep again” (xiii). American lives now are mostly mechanical, planned, and predictable in order to get the most efficiency out of them, and through this mechanical actions we make, they start desiring convenience. They want to be able to utilize their time and work while eating, driving, and many other ineluctable moments. Thus, convenience is unique in American culture and an iPhone, made mobile and easily accessible to Internet specifically to fill this desire, presents this element of American culture. An iPhone has become the most used and famous kind of smartphone in America and in many other countries. I, myself, have an iPhone and I also see many others with this as well. It is a convenient, letting people do almost everything they want to accomplish virtually, mobile, letting people fit it inside their pockets and in their hands, and quick, utilizing the technology that advanced in quite amazing speed lately, product. This product was designed and marketed this way carefully by experts in order to meet the desires of American people. Thus, an iPhone would be the best item that iconizes both the benign side and the harmful side of American culture.
Response Writing this essay concentrated and in quiet room clarified my thoughts on how I view American culture. I described how American culture is trespassing everything quickly. Although some elements that I listed at the conclusion paragraph were not explained or analyzed at all in this essay, I was able to analyze the fundamental ones that I thought were important in relating the artifact to the culture. This experience would definitely help and affect me on how I view things through my ordinary life. As far as the essay goes, I think I did well over all. I did well with my introduction paragraph by listing out the basic elements of American culture and relating it to my analysis. One negative quality that I found is that paragraph volumes are odd and not balanced. For the next one, I would try to trim them into similar volume in order to make flow of the essay better. I also started all three body paragraphs with the same format which made the essay somewhat boring to read. I will try to come up with unique and interesting style in order to lure the readers in more. I also need to not forget to title my essay.
American culture, a culture filled with dream, freedom, and liberty but also with traffic, noise, and business, is one of the most influential cultures worldwide and is affecting how people’s lives are both inside America and outside America. America, a body that developed about 250 years ago, grew rapidly, becoming the strongest leading country in the world. American people work hard and tirelessly in order to maintain this position. This attitude has become the fundamental element of American culture. In my opinion, an iPhone, which is a convenient and quick product on which one can make phone calls, organize his work, search for information, and many other things on that can be used anywhere and any time, would be an artifact that best defines such American culture. One quality that defines American culture is “rush”. People rush during school, work, and even during their leisure time. They fear being late because they think that by doing so, they would destroy the reputation and that their identities would be lost. Their actions are always determined by how clock runs and people think that this is normal. However, this is not true for many other cultures. For instance, many Europeans do not care about being late. It is normal for them to come five, ten, and even thirty minutes late to events. Thus, rushing is unique in American culture and an iPhone, designed to be able to be used in any occasion quickly, presents this element of American culture. Another quality that defines American culture is “media”. We interact with them every moment even without awareness. As Lasn stated, they make us “wear the trendiest fashions, drive the best cars industry can produce and project an image of incredible affluence – cool people living life to the hilt” (xiii). Basically, media studied and published by experts control ordinary people’s actions, desires, and opinions, making a trend. This trend can be anything such as political, social, or economical but the most obvious one is popular culture, the trend targeted toward teenagers. Teenagers usually do not have an established and definite own self yet and can be easily controlled. An iPhone is not an exception. I see many people with iPhone who do not understand its full function. They do not care about what this product can do, but buy this because everyone else has it. Commercials, TV programs, celebrity news, etc. can be all found containing this product, making a trend of iPhone usage. An iPhone, itself, displays media as well, converging our mind into wanting something. This is a result of advancement in information technology where everyone is interacting with information at any time. Thus, media is unique in American culture and an iPhone, marketed enormously by media and displays media itself, presents this element of American culture. Third quality that defines American culture is “convenience”. As Lasn stated, “Americans now live designer lives – sleep, eat, sit in car, work, shop, watch TV, sleep again” (xiii). American lives now are mostly mechanical, planned, and predictable in order to get the most efficiency out of them, and through this mechanical actions we make, they start desiring convenience. They want to be able to utilize their time and work while eating, driving, and many other ineluctable moments. Thus, convenience is unique in American culture and an iPhone, made mobile and easily accessible to Internet specifically to fill this desire, presents this element of American culture. An iPhone has become the most used and famous kind of smartphone in America and in many other countries. I, myself, have an iPhone and I also see many others with this as well. It is a convenient, letting people do almost everything they want to accomplish virtually, mobile, letting people fit it inside their pockets and in their hands, and quick, utilizing the technology that advanced in quite amazing speed lately, product. This product was designed and marketed this way carefully by experts in order to meet the desires of American people. Thus, an iPhone would be the best item that iconizes both the benign side and the harmful side of American culture.
Response Writing this essay concentrated and in quiet room clarified my thoughts on how I view American culture. I described how American culture is trespassing everything quickly. Although some elements that I listed at the conclusion paragraph were not explained or analyzed at all in this essay, I was able to analyze the fundamental ones that I thought were important in relating the artifact to the culture. This experience would definitely help and affect me on how I view things through my ordinary life. As far as the essay goes, I think I did well over all. I did well with my introduction paragraph by listing out the basic elements of American culture and relating it to my analysis. One negative quality that I found is that paragraph volumes are odd and not balanced. For the next one, I would try to trim them into similar volume in order to make flow of the essay better. I also started all three body paragraphs with the same format which made the essay somewhat boring to read. I will try to come up with unique and interesting style in order to lure the readers in more. I also need to not forget to title my essay.
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