proposal

Topic: My topic is about how reality television influences young women to think that having an excess amount of material items creates happiness. In the real world, it causes issues of overspending while creating self-esteem issues. I used to watch a lot of shows that have this message (Kardashians, Gossip Girl, etc.), and didn’t consider what they were telling me about life. Now that I don’t watch them anymore, I can see the effect that they had on me personally. I can now see the 14-year-old girl that I babysit being affected by these same messages. I think it will be an interesting topic because it’s something that I understand so well – I have personal experience with it and look forward to learning about the values reality TV is sending to young women.

Thesis: Reality T.V. shows cause young women to both idolize and normalize having an excess of material wealth, and overspend in order to try to attain what they see on T.V. This can then lead to dissatisfaction in their lives when they realize these material things are unobtainable.

Major Support Ideas:

In reality television, it is often that characters with the most wealth are depicted as the most popular, and the less wealthy characters look up to them, wanting to be their friends, yet being rejected (Gossip Girl). This shows wealth as a measure of status, even if unintended. We find watching people who are extremely rich live their normal, everyday lives without much plot or storyline (Kardashians, Real Housewives, Rich Kids of Beverly Hills). This shows our society’s obsession with wealth because it is the main aspect of the entertainment (even in the name). If other popular shows had such a lack of plot but with the same non-rich characters (crime shows, science fiction) we would not be interested. When seeing people with many material items, we slowly begin to think that it’s normal, and that we should be that way as well. Girls are then motivated to buy those items, without realizing that they or their families really cannot afford them. Followed by that realization often comes dissatisfaction when we don’t have the same amount/ quality of items as people on shows we watch. This can cause unhappiness in one’s life and it not a healthy way to live.

5 Annotated Bibliography Entries:

Source 1:

Green, Thomas, et al. "Materialism And The Tendency To Worship Celebrities." North American Journal Of Psychology 16.1 (2014): 33-42. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

Summary: This article was about the connections between the value people place on material goods, and their tendencies to obsess over celebrities. They correctly predicted that those who worship celebrities more would also place a lot of value on material goods, and tend to envy others possessions more. The article related this to how advertisements often have celebrities as spokespeople, which tends to get people to buy the item.

Usefulness: This article relates directly to my topic, because it discusses how people tend to buy things that are being promoted by celebrities in advertisements. If this is true, which is has been proved to be, then the same would go for celebrities when they’re in their own entertainment shows. I think that seeing what certain celebrities wear and use in their real life is actually more convincing to want it, compared to seeing what celebrities are being paid to sell.

Source 2:

BAKER, ANDREW M., et al. "Materialism And Life Satisfaction: The Role Of Stress And Religiosity." Journal Of Consumer Affairs 47.3 (2013): 548-563. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

Summary: This article addresses the connections between materialism and one satisfaction with their life through the addition of factors such as religion and stress. The research conducted suggests that materialism and its effects on ones can be mediated by other aspects. They found that how one’s life is effected by material things and value depends completely on the individual. They also addressed a cultural side by saying that materialism is correlated with depression more so in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures. They found those with life stress more likely to be materialistic, and those whose religion devalued material items to have less depression related to material things.

Usefulness: This particular article could be used as either a support or an argument against the claims of my paper, depending on what sections you address. Its overall point is that not everyone will be less happy in their life if they are materialistic. This could be taken in a way that proves watching reality t.v. stars and want to own things like them won’t have a strong effect on people and their well-being. But it could also be taken in the way that if people don’t have strong religious views, and an individualistic culture, then consumerist messages will affect them negatively in their lives.

Source 3:

Thomas, Susan Gregory. Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Print.

Summary: This book is written with the idea of exposing the psychological techniques that the media and advertising companies use to sell items to kids and their parents, and how those messages can be harmful to kids thought processes. It’s also discussed that educational programs are not always so educational, and how even they can have aims of selling to kids. These kinds of messages transmitted to kids can have severe cognitive effects for very young children.

Usefulness: This book will be very useful in supporting my paper. This discussion of how media used psychological research to sell children’s items to kids and parents, and effectively send messages to the minds of kids is very supportive evidence for my claims. Although this book is specific to younger kids, I’m sure this is not the only age group that is targeted for marketing using psychology. To hear how the media intentionally uses television to make us want to buy things, more than outright advertising is very supportive to my paper. This sources offers a slightly different viewpoint, yet views the world of media and consumerism and kids in the same light.

Source 4:

Myers, David G. The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty. New Haven: Yale UP, 2000. Print.

Summary: This book discusses Americans excess resources and lack of spiritual wellbeing in a historical perspective. It addresses the fact what while we have everything we need, many people are lacking in a spiritual/religious connection. The author claims the abundance we have has lowered our levels of happiness. However, it is concluded in saying that there is expected to be a rebirth of the spiritual connections as humanity begins to get comfortable with a certain level of material goods, and realized the lost sense of spiritual being in our society.

Usefulness: This will also be another very useful sources to support my claims. It discusses the same religious and spiritual concepts in relation to materialism that source 2 does, but in a much more affirmative and less individualistic way. It uses strong statistics to show that we are having societal problems more than ever when material goods and our access to them are at the highest ever. This will be extremely supportive and helpful in explaining how messages of the value of material things are dangerous to our emotional and mental wellbeing.

Source 5:

Shrum, L. J., et al. "An Online Process Model Of Second-Order Cultivation Effects: How Television Cultivates Materialism And Its Consequences For Life Satisfaction." Human Communication Research 37.1 (2011): 34-57. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2014

Summary: This article analyzed the effects of watching television, compared with one’s level of materialism, and life satisfaction. It was found that how much television one watch strongly influences how materialistic they are. It also found that levels of materialism lower level of life satisfaction. However, it was found that watching television directly, when not involving elements of materialistic messages, only slightly lowered one life satisfaction.

Usefulness: This article will be very useful in support for my paper. While the other sources I found usually connect only 1 or 2 or the main subjects which my paper is discussing, this article discusses three (television, materialism, and life satisfaction). The research and discussion surrounding it will be of great support to the points made in my essay.