Earth Shattering Stuff...
I see a bright future for this youngster... I hear Topshop are hiring.
A sociology student has scored a first class degree in sociology, in large part because of her mighty 10,000-word thesis on American reality TV "star" family the Kardashians. And if 10,000 words is enough to score you a Bachelors these days, there must be reams of show-biz journalists out there who just qualified for PhDs. …
Yes indeed, the big clue is right here:
“I used to watch it and be like 'Omg this is so great' and now I watch it while shouting, 'Crush the patriarchy!' It’s not ideal.”
I see the problem, one those people. The sort who constantly use the work "like" as a pause in speeach, as opposed to the correct usage whereby the word "like" is shorthand for "similar to".
"I see the problem, one those people. The sort who constantly use the work "like" as a pause in speeach, as opposed to the correct usage whereby the word "like" is shorthand for "similar to"."
Valley English. In fact you missed a minor point about its original significance. The word "like" is indeed being used for "something similar to". "I'm, like..." means "I said, roughly..." or "Approximately what I said was..."
These shorthand expressions may be irritating to people old enough to be members of the Conservative Party, but English is full of them and we just don't notice them because they fall into custom and practice.
For instance, there I wrote "we just don't notice them." The "just" there is as bad as the Valley like in terms of sense. It's intended to give emphasis, nothing to do with a very recent event or fairness.
Because someone uses Valley English in speech doesn't, oddly, make them illiterate. The Kardashians are a perfectly reasonable subject for a third year sociology student. And, if you regard sociology as a joke subject, there are plenty of PR companies, media companies and "opinion formers" that rejoice in your ignorance as they use sociology and psychology to manipulate you without your knowing.
"..if you regard sociology as a joke subject...as they use sociology and psychology to manipulate you without your knowing."
My opinion of sociology is that in the last 20 years (my observable timeframe) is that it has indeed become a joke, and is now on par intellectually with images and memes generated by 4chan. I can say with some confidence that that I can spot this bullshit a mile away. The only noticeable effect on my behavior is excessive eye rolling and added disgust that my tax dollars help subsidize what are essentially hugbox/daycare programs for young adults.
"Analysis over, job done. Just pop my doctorate in the post."
Doing the analysis is only part of a doctorate. The other part is being locked in a small room with a panel made up of toddlers who spend the rest of the day asking "Well, why is that?", "What's that for?" and "Why should I care about this?".
If you can survive the day without ever saying "I don't know" and being cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril by The Man From Scene 24, then... Well, then you get to do it again because the right people didn't all show up. But eventually it does get stamped, misaddressed, popped in the post, folded in two, fed to a small dog and then stuffed into a mail slot that is three times too small for it to fit.
>I remember when that meant getting a job and not behaving like a twat for all the world to see.
And getting paid a lot of money for it. These people aren't idiots, they are pretty smart but money-guided people making cash from playing a dumb role.
These people will continue to thrive as long as their vapidity is is cheaper than producing other media content. Its a whole lot cheaper than GoT and has a far larger audience. Its cheaper to throw a lot of money a few people who will do anything for it, than it is to be creative.
Visual media in itself has a compelling effect on the brain. Look what happens when you turn a tv on in the corner of room while everyone is doing something else. Attention drifts to the TV (or ipod...) I've noticed that even clever shows suddenly become far less interesting if you can break the habit of watching them for about three weeks. TV has sunk costs and is desperate for content. Serve it up in a nicely managed media package with magazine interviews and "news releases" designed to stop people taking a break from the show, becoming disengaged and realising they can live without it, and they'll lap it up.
You did what you were told, you learnt a skill that benefited others - then you see them making more in a month that you will in the next decade without any discernible skill that you'd recognise.
I'd advise tolerance however - it's not their fault, just their greater understanding of the retarded mass we all dwell within.
I do believe that Kim's ol'man was a high flying lawyer and was the person that managed to get OJ Simpson off his murder charge.
For reasons completely unknown to me a few years later some shitty US television network scraping the barrel decided to do some kind of documentary about this bunch of affluent oxygen thieves; and then the internet and twitter took over.
On many shows the Kardashians are referred to as "famous for being famous". That's it. They're attention and "like-whores", who have the money in this day and age to create continuous publicity events for themselves. To some extent pop culture has always done this, it is just that the K's are taking it to the end state where it becomes blatantly obvious.
The media is also such a wasteland that they are lining up for this reality TV "content". It gives them something to play on the channel between advertisements.
Oxy as in oxygen theives?
And moron, well, the entire fucking clan of them excell at being morons.
And this clearly "inteligent" women who thought this was a good thing to get a qualification in, should enjoy serving up fries for the rest of her life.
The more publicity we give vacuous twats like the kardashians , the deeper we sink...
No, the soft stuff is far more absorbent and degrades far more quickly. Far more appropriate for this purpose.....
far, far, far ... away.
Dark brown toilet paper ... perhaps apple could patent some ... with rounded corners ...
Ah! I knew there must be an IT angle there somewhere ...
My first thought was WTF.....
Then when I calmed down a bit, I thought is there really any difference between writing a big essay about a TV programme, and writing a big essay about a collection of old Books.(sorry literature)
My answer No it's all bollocks and only subjective opinion.
That's why I like Science, If you spend a couple of years measuring or proposing something, others can reproduce your work and within the limits of experimental error get the same answer. or absolutely disprove your proposal.
I was going to suggest that providing work for the intellectually challenged was a necessary part of society. Then of course you start to wonder who the smart ones really are, the ones that can produce and be paid well for spouting 'bollocks and only subjective opinion' for people even dumber than them or the ones that do stuff with no meaning* to 98%** of the population that need to fight for funding.
* Unless it involves them getting a new phone every year.
** Based on real research and can be quoted in a socialogical paper, honest.
Then of course you start to wonder who the smart ones really are, the ones that can produce and be paid well for spouting 'bollocks and only subjective opinion' for people even dumber than them or the ones that do stuff with no meaning* to 98%** of the population that need to fight for funding.
Alan Sokal managed to do both.
Deary me, what a joke, etc, etc, so what pitiful excuse for a university honoured her with this degree?... oh crap. Yeah, guess where I got mine. I suppose it is possible to write a very good thesis on ridiculous subject matter. Maybe I'm just jealous because I only mustered a 2:2. As for word count, I seem to recall being told that 10,000 words was the recommendation for my CompSci thesis. I actually wrote 14,000.
10,000 words for my thesis as well. When I got to 14,000 and realised I could easily get to twenty, had to find a clever way to dismiss half of what I had already written. Thankfully I'd picked advanced concepts and their potential and IBM shipped some demonstration models based on them to a few of their customers so they actual products now and didn't count.
Spoilsport.
That was the first time I had thought of that lot and smiled. Although, maybe we could persuade one or more space agencies to supply a spaceship so we can have a new variant on their reality TV show from Mars orbit... unless anyone knows of a local wormhole / black hole instead?
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Nothing surprises me. Especially when validating the egos of Sociology and Psychology students.
In her support however, and by the awarding of the "first class degree" that in spite of the tenuous and vapid nature of the subject matter, that she presented a good synopsis, supported it successfully with observed cases and theory, and then argued the salient points as required; with those key points being a good part of what a good undergrad thesis is marked on.
Why all the fuss?
Actually I was surprised to find out the "Popular Culture" (including wars, television programs, sports) is a degree-track line of study at some unis. A rather scary concept in wondering what kind of job would a degree holder in "Popular Culture" hold? Same for "Socialogy"? Maybe teaching?
As for the Kartrashians.... meh.... I've heard of them only because the news portals have some headlines about them for articles I can't be bothered with.
"A rather scary concept in wondering what kind of job would a degree holder in "Popular Culture" hold? Same for "Socialogy"? Maybe teaching?"
I've heard it said that for a non-hands-on degree it's more a description of the person, that they can work unsupervised, learn and study, commit to a project etc so at least points them out as being capable of learning and working.
I'm sure there are degree level people reading here working in IT with completely unrelated degrees, just as there are likely people with IT related degrees working in some other unrelated fields.
"Stern of Ocean Going Tug" looks pretty much the same, and probably makes more sense in a forum like ElReg.
As a side-note, was it born disfigured? Or was it an on-purpose copy & paste job? Either way, is it in any pain as a result, day to day? The mind absolutely boggles that anyone would find that hideous lump entertaining, much less attractive ...
Excuse the mini rant, but.
This popular celeb obsession is a poor reflection on our society in general. Instead of venerating and celebrating true success and enrichment to humanity, endless attention is given to these vapid non-entities. Gravity wave detection confirmed? A new amazing Hubble UDF release? A brief murmour goes through the press. Kardashian does something insignificant (I'm not even going to waste time googling to see what they've been up to) and enormous amounts of effort are given over to programmes, gossip rags and other pointless outlets to discuss it.
It makes one weep...
From a purely sociological perspective this is fascinating stuff... you'd think that the Kardashians would be aware what an influence they could have on exactly everything this student mentions, and subsequently do something about it, but they obviously couldn't care. That in itself is not interesting (it's pretty obvious stuff), but on the basis of interaction with famous people and what effects it has on hoi polloi, this is pretty valid research, especially if you then contrast it with other famous people who *do* have a distinctly positive effect on society.
That said, I am not a sociologist, and I don't think that this student will get quite the same satisfaction if/when she joins the real world. But there we are, to each their own.
"That said, I am not a sociologist, and I don't think that this student will get quite the same satisfaction if/when she joins the real world."
"Would you like fries with that?" Or maybe working in Social Services. Or "human resources"
On the other hand, people doing social "sciences" degrees often end up as managers. She might be your next PHB!
Like it or not, they, and their ilk, TOWIE and all that utter shite, are a social phenomenon, and so absolutely worth studying for a sociology degree.
That said, I wouldn't touch any one of them, not even with yours. And I'm doing my hardest to bring my daughter up not to see them as any sort of role model.
Fortunately, the vast majority of Reg readers see through the Kardashian business. But they wouldn't be so widely known if a large segment of America's population didn't track their every movement, and the possible puns are intended.
This paper about the negative influence of the K Klan on American culture is an indictment of that culture as well. That's what People Who Care About These Things should be looking at. Is it surprising that the Kardashian phenomenon exists within the same time and space as Trump's presidential candidacy, or the rising number and scope of mass shootings?
Don't oversimplify and say the entire country is sick; not everyone loves the Kardashians, Trump or AR-15 rifles.Two out of three are getting way more media attention than they deserve though. How many Americans have been seduced by these false prophets with big butts and big mouths? The student's thesis is a springboard for a necessary discussion, so I'm glad to see it. Yeah, maybe studying sociology is "easier" than learning to code, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. Sooner or later you have to get up from your keyboard and walk out into the real world.
"Yeah, maybe studying sociology is "easier" than learning to code, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. Sooner or later you have to get up from your keyboard and walk out into the real world."
Ah! The real World! A place where a degree in sociology will be of no real use at all.
There are jobs where having a degree (any degree) is a requirement, so I suppose it would be useful for that but sociology as far as I can tell doesn't seem to relate to the 'actual' society you will meet when you walk out of the door.
All it (sociology degree) proves is that you can study, do a bit of research and discuss your findings but it is not a science and the conclusions I read that are made by researchers only ever apply to the tiny subsets they study and the town/city/country/culture they are in and not to society as a whole.
1 put 'em all on one boat
2 take the boat out into the Pacific, at least 3000 miles from the nearest land
3 sink the boat.
Now, I might get in trouble with PETA for poisoning the local sharks, but I can live with that. And if PETA squawks too much, get another boat and load them aboard.
“I used to watch it and be like 'Omg this is so great' and now I watch it while shouting, 'Crush the patriarchy!' It’s not ideal.”
This reminds me of a short story by Heinrich Böll, called Murke's Collected Silences (Doktor Murkes gesammeltes Schweigen), first published in 1955.
Dr Murke is a psychology graduate whose first job is as editor for the Cultural Department at Broadcasting House. In this job he has started collecting discarded tape – tape containing silence, where the speaker has paused – which he splices together and takes home to listen to in the evening.
The story centres on Murke's editing of two radio lectures on The Nature of Art by the powerful cultural critic Professor Bur-Malottke. The tapes contain the word "God" 27 times, and Bur-Malottke wants them changed to "that higher Being Whom we revere". He asks that the technicians record the new words, then splice them in instead of "God," rather than have him re-record the talk. The whole affair is a giant PITA, but in the end it's done.
Murke's boss later congratulates him for having been able to sit through Bur-Malottke's lectures. The boss once had to listen three times to a four-hour Hitler speech in order to edit the recording. When he began the editing he was still a Nazi and by the time he had finished he wasn't – "a drastic cure ... but very effective."
Yes, it can be argued that this is just retaliation for Rick Astley or One Direction, but the cycle of cultural violence has to be stopped somewhere.
(Seriously, its bad enough that these gals are famous (for being famous) in the U.S. But is TV so bad in the RoW that these ditzy divas are a big deal overseas?)
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Hold on!
Why do men (the use of the term misogyny implies that) get blamed for the vapidity and stupidity that follows these folk and their followers like a cloud?
That'd be like us blaming women for random male-oriented thrashies like Soldier of Fortune and WWF Mania.
Show me that a majority of editors and content deciders for People, OK, Hello, Us and sundry other thrash publications are men, out to manipulate women, then, yes, I'll go along with your judgment.
Otherwise, sister, you can take your generalization and stick it up your bum, along with your degree!
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Followed by 'Patriarchy'? Methink thou art splitting hairs ;-)
I don't mind feminists - in fact I rather support the ones that don't dislike men on principle. I just think her comment was uncalled for. And that equivalent thoughtless public remarks about women has landed many a guy into hot waters.
"I don't know that it should imply men. After all its reasonably clear that no-one despises a woman like another woman..."
Oh so true... hence that well known shakespeare quote "Hell hath no fury like a women" The scorned bit was not necessary.
Just to level up the sexist balance a bit. There a few words and phrases commonly used about men which either have no female equivalent or little known ones e.g.
Misogyny :- hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women, or prejudice against women.
Misandry :- (yes the word exists) hatred of males.
Both bad and stupid attitudes, but can you imagine what might happen if a male passed over for promotion by a female boss used the phrase You're a "Female Mysandric Sow"
Emasculate :- deprive (a man) of his male role or identity.
Effeminate :- Unmanly (nope not the same at all)
Testiculate :- Wave your arms about whilst loudly talking Bollocks
Ovate :- Shaped like an Egg
etc..
Women undoubtedly come in for vile abuse from my neanderthal brethren; but It would at least be nice to see the term misandry more widely known.
It's because there is always ONE person who has to complain about an IT angle in a bootnotes story, thereby creating the IT angle. Should be called "Bootnote's law". This is also the only place where IT people can come together and curse about the K-klan and not get flak for it, like we would in general population.
No get out of our IT-cave.