Blog #7

The first motivation that I noticed from the reading in the video had to do with goals, rewards, and challenges. McGonigal first stated that her goal was to help the people in the audience live a little over seven minutes longer simply through her lecture. As McGonigal summarized the steps to do this, she motivated others by allowing them to unlock certain "boosts." The reading describes that the motivation and reward of goals is what allows people to be successful. It then went on to further apply this statement to the world of games. In addition, McGonigal described the feelings of self-empowerment that can be felt by playing these games. She described that playing games with avatars helps people be more courageous and confident in regard to tackling problems. The article echoes her statement with its its idea that empowerment is the ability to feel a sense of control in the world. This new found confidence that players find in avatars allows them to transfer some of this energy to situations in real life and in terms of problem solving as well. 

Blog 6

My understandings from class have led me to believe that society has deemed certain rules for how the male and female body should look. Anything that falls short of these expectations are deemed unworthy and invaluable. In addition, a tremendous amount of work is required to achieve each specific body type-- along with genetics. Each gender is very sexualized in the media as well, but the ways in which it is displayed is different. However, females are expected to be incredibly skinny and submissive, just as described in the video that we watched, Killing Us Softly. They are meant to look beautiful all of the time with little regard to personal comfort or needs. In contrast, men today are meant to look incredibly muscular. When reading The Male Body as a Fashion Accessory, it described that men must be handsome with an athletic build to show that they have the time and money to buy a gym membership and work out.

Blog 5

When looking at the concepts of CORFing and BIRGing, there are many ways in which they relate back to the video we watched previously. For example, anytime that a team won a state title or important game, their fans, parents, and community members would display BIRGing by wearing team apparel, posting pictures on social media, and by using the term "we" or "we won" when referencing the team. In addition, if a player was ever injured, CORFing was used. The player, their friends, or their family might say that the other team cheated and would try to find excuses as to why the player got hurt-- regardless if it was the fault of their team's player. The last example I have is that whenever a team would be preparing for a game, they would have their own set of "rituals" that they believed would help them be successful. This could include prayer, pregame tactics, etc. They are using BIRGing because the players and coaches all want to feel a sense of belonging, and contribute to the overall success of the team.