Brainwashed

Brainwashed by Seth Godin


    In Seth Godin's menefesto Brainwashed he begins talking about the 7 levers you can utilize to reinvent your self by saying DO WORK THAT MATTERS. " The economy just gave you leverage—the leverage to make a difference, the leverage to spread your ideas and the leverage to have an impact," says Godin. This is so true.  It is time for us to use our creativity that we so greatly value and put it to good use.  ACKNOWLEDGE THE LIZARD.  In this section Godin explains the lizard brain as, "the part of our brain that worries about safety and dishes out anger. Being laughed at is the lizard brain’s worst nightmare. And so it shuts down our art."  He explains that this fear of our art being rejected is the sole reason for us to resist our creativity.   We are so afraid that someone might laugh or not understand something that we create that means a lot to us that we completely throw it away all together.  I know I definitely have been guilty of letting my lizard brain get the best of me when it comes to my music.  I have refused multiple times to play my own music, songs that I have spent hours creating, that mean a lot to me, in public because of the fear that someone may judge me for it.  This hinders my creativity and feedback from people. Feedback is so important to art because it improves it, the artist grows with feedback, and by letting the fear of rejection and laughter hinder this we are killing our creativity.  This section explains that ignoring these negative criticism's and the voice of skepticism is crucial to creativity.  So we must acknowledge it.  Acknowledge the lizard, know that the skepticism is there and push through it but you must acknowledge the lizard in order to ignore it.
       The other lever I found that speaks to me is the 1st lever, Connect.  We are in a world where we have the ability to connect through endless amounts of technology and utilize social media. Although many people view social media as a time wasting, vapid ritual, I believe if you use it to connect with the best creative intentions it is genius. The section talks about how the artist for the Obama poster could freely share his work and how connecting with social media allowed his creative talents to be shown and appreciated all over the country.  Even though he wasn't paid his work was widely recognized and respected.  Now he has made a name for his creativity and will most likely be sought out rather than him struggling to find work.  The impact technology and social media has on our creativity and lifestyles is endless.  Take Youtube for example.  Some of the biggest acts in Hollywood have been started by this site.  Justin Beiber for example was just a kid with a large talented voice who posted videos of him singing and playing guitar on Youtube.  A few short years and posted videos later Justin Timberlake and Usher are battling it out to sign this talented 14 year old boy.  Youtube gave him a medium to create and post his creative works and talent to a wide audience that would never have been available until now. Not only is social media a great means of sharing your creative content but also a great medium for sharing personal and emotion issues you may struggle with.  In a MDIA course I took last quarter  we discussed the importance of social media for creative and emotional reasons.  One huge topic was the use of Youtube for podcasting personal issues to a wide audience without having to publically stand in front of everyone.  When you think about it, when you post a podcast or video of your self on Youtube you are essentially speaking to an endless amount of viewers but at the time of the post its just you and your computer but with the sense that someone out there is listening and cares.  We watched a documentary with several interviews of people who's podcasts and videos are widely followed.  A man was interviewed who lost his 12 year old daughter to leukemia and used Youtube as a form of therapy to get his emotions out to anyone who wanted to listen who may understand.  He explained it wasn't until he started posting videos and talking about the internal emotional suffering he was going through that he felt any healing.  Youtube gave him a space to talk about what he was going through without having to feel judged the moment the words came out of his mouth.  For this man the feedback was tremendous.  People from all over the world offered advice, counseling, help, and could relate to his situation.  The man explained that Youtube and the people following his podcasts and videos completely saved him from a deep depression after the death of his daughter and the screen names without faces and the comments on his posts gave him hope.  In my opinion social media is not a waste of time.  It is a creative outlet for people who want to be heard and believe me, there are billions of people wanting to listen.
         Acknowledging the lizard and connecting both do relate to the blogs we are creating this quarter.  First of all, whenever you create something of your own, be it the songs and soundscapes we have created or even the opinions of the cover songs and which songs we chose, there is always that fear that someone will judge us ( even if it is for a class .)  Having to do this for class helps us acknowledge the lizard and realize we must ignore it, not just to get the assignment done, but to get used to being proud of our creations and sharing them with others.  Blogging is also a great way to connect.  I am very grad we have to blog for this class because it has inspired me to want to create a blog of my own where I blog about my creativity and interests and others music and art that I find inspiring.  Why wouldn't I want to share my opinions about something I love and am passionate about?  Blogging for this class has made me realize just that.  I feel that the blogging exercises has helped me in being more organized with my opinions and how I post them.  I want to intrigue people with my writing and posts and that is something that I will continue to work on improving.  I am not sure if the blogging exercises makes me a better student over all but it definitely makes me a better media student.  It is important for students in all media majors to understand the effectiveness and importance of sharing your creativity and gaining followers.  Media is a business in which you must be able to be followed and you must have intriguing elements in order for others to want to follow you.  A blog is a great way to help others gain insight on what you are all about.  I really enjoy blogging for this class and I intend on making my own blog in the near future discussing and posting things I am passionate about.  In today's world it is so important we stay connected and blogging is a great way to organize creative thoughts in social media.