Hello fellow readers, I am writing to officially introduce myself and explain how I consume pop culture. My name is Angela Santana and I was born and raised in small town in Eastern Oregon called Ontario. Ontario is the last town In Oregon before entering Idaho, It is a very small town but in recent times has grown so much. I have three sisters and recently became an aunt to my beautiful niece Ximena. I come from a hispanic background, both of my parents are Mexican and have made it their job for my sisters and I to learn Spanish and have knowledge of our culture. I am very family oriented and enjoy spending time with my family and traveling to Mexico to visit my grandparents. I am a Sophomore here at Portland State and plan to Major in Business Management and Leadership with a Minor in Pre Law. My favorite color is mint and my hobbies are working out, singing, exploring, and learning outside of college. I am a huge fan of music and movies/tv series but we’ll get to that later.

There are many ways to consume pop culture and we often do not realize that we are consuming pop culture especially with the popularization of the internet and social platforms. I consume pop culture in a variety of ways I am a huge fan of music and invest a lot of time listening and finding songs I enjoy to listen to. I also enjoy watching movies, tv series, youtube videos, and short video clips like vines. I am not huge on social media but I do often get on facebook or instagram to catch up with family and friends, however, I do find myself scrolling through twitter very often. These are all the forms in  which I consume pop culture, I engage with all of these because I simply enjoy them. I love music and I like listening to a certain sound and messages that are being interpreted. I also enjoy watching movies, there are so many movies that have summarized decades that I have not lived in like the 80’s. There are a lot of movies and tv shows that are important parts of history especially to me. For example, the movie that was made about Selena Quintanilla was monumental and meant so much to people from the latin community. Movies and tv shows have evolved and are now used to express social issues and show examples of diversity.

While reading chapter one and understanding how the U.S is a consumer based culture I think that a lot of people do what they do based on what they see. Influencers and celebrities start new trends or wear clothing that was worn in the 90’s which makes those who follow them purchase such products and types of clothing. Moving onto the marketing aspect, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold showed people how advertising is everywhere and how sometimes we don’t even know it. Advertising is everywhere, we are constantly exposed to advertising and sometimes in the smallest ways. People have mixed feelings about being so exposed to advertising due to the fact that they have not consented to all the advertising. Advertising has found a way to integrate into popular forms of media. It has always been normal to see advertisements on tv such as commercials, but now we are seeing 30 second adds on facebook, instagram, and even on gaming apps. Youtube is now full of adds before and during videos, even on the channel feed. What I found most interesting about the movie was when Morgan Spurlock had an MRI/CAT scan while being shown a variety of advertisements. When he was shown a coca cola can he immediately wanted a can of soda. So are advertisements good or bad? That is up for discussion, if we do not know how these commercials and other forms of advertisements are affecting us, should they really be able to infiltrate everything and be everywhere? In my opinion, I believe there should be a designated space for advertising. Instead of infiltrating the media and other applications, advertisements should only be present in stores where we actually buy things.