Why Talent Shows Feed Our Power Cravings

Living in Britain, we have a limited amount of TV shows that are:

1. Not American
2. Good
3. And haven’t been stolen by the USA.

Which is a sad reality we have all come to accept. However, nobody appears too bummed about it, because it seems we have all sought refuge in our addictive and all-to-cringe-worthy talent shows. So with The Voice UK continuing to air over the next few weeks, it got me thinking:

Much like moths to a flame, why are we so obsessed with talent shows!? Singing, dancing, and the utterly nonsensical ones- we can’t get enough of them. And why? Since when was the British population so interested in… well, whatever these shows have to offer?

Let’s start with the singing shows- The Voice, The X-Factor, what is the appeal? I am totally guilty of loving them, but when it comes to why, I am slightly at a loss for words. I can’t sing, I’m not great at measuring quality of singing, and despite loving music and always listening to the radio; I’ve never been that interested in live singing. So why do I spend hours of my life listening to nothing but that? Well, other than having nothing better to do, I suppose the real appeal is, as it usually comes down to- power.

What? Power? I don’t understand!

Allow me to explain.

What we like, or, what I’m assuming we like (some of us may actually enjoy live singing) is spectating success and failure. Watching dreams crumble, seeing the fight in their eyes, the tears when they win and the tears when they lose. A show of random people singing their hearts out is all very well, but what we are drawn to is not the voice, but the ‘What was that?!’ look, or the ‘This one’s a keeper’ nod.

Because these little looks, smirks, laughs, nods, and jaw-drops make us, sitting at home, feel empowered. Like our own little inside joke- they make us feel like we control the hopes and dreams of people just like us. And the shows that rely on public votes continue to feed us with this delicious power. Mmmm…

So TV shows like Britain’s Got Talent, almost everyone’s guilty pleasure- take this to the extreme. Because We. Love. Failure. We love seeing people make an utter fool of themselves. And that is exactly what Britain’s Got Talent provides us with.

So, although it’s perhaps a little extreme for me to compare The Voice to The Hunger Games, or coliseum combat, I do believe that it gives us the same satisfying feeling of seeing many fail, and few thrive. Because we are bizarre humans who crave power.

The Voice UK 2014 trailer- All rights go to the BBC

Does the whole “Only one will will win” concept remind you of anything? 

Do NOT get distracted by the babies. 

So just think about that next time you find yourself ogling at the TV screen as Britain’s Got Talent comes on.

What a crazy world we do live in.

Thanks for reading, and as usual, it’s been my pleasure-

-The Cookie Element

“I do…” -not really want to get married

So, in case you didn’t quite get the headline, (I tried, okay!?) this post will be about marriage. No my friends, not about the weddings themselves, not about the proposals, and not about the struggle perks of married life- but instead the… well, lack of. Clearly we have come quite far from the days when one was expected to be married by 14; so it doesn’t take me by surprise to think that less people are getting married than 80 years ago, but what did take me by surprise was the complete lack of enthusiasm for marriage nowadays. And this is not to say that nobody wants to get married any more- far from it-  but marriage’s appeal seems to be reaching an all time low. And this is probably partly due to the negative reputation it has gained. I mean, just look back a couple lines, when I crossed out struggle for perks in my lame attempt  to humour you. I didn’t even plan to include it, and you can see how easily it is to slip in an anti-marriage comment. And did you even question it? When reading, did it even occur to you that I’d just dissed marriage by making a now very stereotypical assumption on marriage life, and it was perfectly acceptable?

I think that tells us something. Thank you for proving my point, dear friend.

I’m not even married yet, but still its harsh stereotype comes naturally to me; which must somewhat contribute to this new view on marriage. 

Also, is the increase in divorce rates putting us off? Why bother with the expensive wedding, the legal papers, the change in last name; if it’s all just to break it off later on? But we must consider that the divorce rate increased when requesting a divorce became legal for both men and women. So maybe, it’s not that less and less people are interested in marriage, just that more and more people are allowed to express their dis-interest. Hmm.. Sorry, when off on a little thought trail there… Back on course! My point is, maybe it’s the knowledge that you’re likely to get divorced that’s putting us off marriage. 

Another factor to take into account is an interesting one: maybe we just want more sex? Or to be a bit more general, maybe marriage traditions are too old-fashioned for us? Perhaps pledging our infinite love to someone has become a bit out-dated? It has been proven that married men have more sex than single men, but a lot less than men who are cohabiting with their partners outside of marriage, especially as more time passes. So perhaps, like I mentioned before, all that commitment has reached it’s date-of-expiry, or we just feel like marriage isn’t needed to prove our love any more. 

This post isn’t really going to have a conclusion- I have no answers for you. All I can say is that the more people I ask about marriage, the less keen they seem to be. And is it a shame that marriage is falling through the cracks, or does it provide a new freedom for couples, without the pressure of weddings and married life? 

Or maybe I’m wrong and I’m just asking the wrong people- perhaps marriage is still fighting strong. How do you feel, and does marriage feel like a romantic statement, or a weight on your back? 

Hope that was somewhat interesting… or at least that you don’t feel I’ve 100% wasted your time. Feel free to find me on Twitter- @CookieElement and tweet/DM me a topic you’d like me to blog about, and please comment, like, and just think overall positive thoughts. 

Until next time!

-The Cookie Element 

Would Heaven be commercialised?

So, I’d just like to point out that I’m not necessarily religious or do actually believe in Heaven, but for the sake of this post, I put that aside.

Today’s society is highly commercialised. And I mean heavily. There hasn’t been a single day of my life where I’ve followed through with my everyday routine and haven’t been bombarded with advertisement, propaganda and promotion. Somebody, somewhere, is somehow always insisting that this new product is the next best thing. And I should take their word for it and give them money. And I’m not anti-advertisement, hell, I do it for this very blog! It makes sense too, because being realistic, it’s unlikely something is going to become famous without some form of advertisement. It makes people aware- and that’s not a bad thing. Being aware of insurance companies, new hair products, a new film, awesome blogs (teehee), it’s all useful in some way or another. I can’t imagine a world without bus posters, T.V adverts, commercials before a movie at the cinema (although those are quite annoying)- they all create part of the picture we have of civilisation. So, why have I summoned you all here? Not to advertise advertisement, (see what I did there?) but to express my utter bafflement at How. Commercialised. It’s. All. Become. 

Christmas. Christmas is a religious holiday, a time for friends and family to get together and potentially exchange gifts, and for a large number of people it’s good fun. And what would Christmas be without our familiar, chubby faced, pink cheeked Father Christmas? Famously draped in red and smiling cheerfully at us from the front’s of Christmas cards and shop windows. But Santa wasn’t always red. Oh no my friends, dear Saint Nick was green. Like a rather large, chuckling leprechaun. But a green Santa delivering the presents? God no, unless he’s turned vegetarian or something! And why?

Advertisement. It was good old Coca Cola that swapped his green coat for a red to fit him to the brand and use him as commercialisation. How exploited Saint Nick must feel.

And again, what would Christmas be without those exciting Christmas television adverts? On Twitter, the majority of Christmas tweets I saw were along the lines of “Saw my first Xmas advert of the year on telly! Feeling them #ChristmasVibes” 

They excite a lot of us. But they are pure commercialism. They just want us to buy their stuff.

There’s that Christmas spirit!

(Shame Christmas is over, this blog would have fitted nicely…)

 My point is not to say that everything we hold dear to our hearts is nothing but power-hungry companies desperate for our money, but think about the little things we do each day, and how much it’s all affected by some form of advertising. And like I said, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, in London a while ago, buses started parading the city with their usual bus posters, but instead of the newest phone, the advert read “Some people are gay. Get over it.”

Still advertisement. But considerably positive, no?

On a not entirely but somewhat separate note, I also find it quite scary the way adverts can be fitted to individual. If anyone here has a Facebook, I’d like to point out that posts, images and videos that you Like and view are collected, and from this information, Facebook knows what you’re into and what adverts should be posted on your wall. 

They are catered to YOU.

Have a club card for a big business like Boots, Tesco or Asda? (All British brands… replace with famous brands from your country where necessary) The business is able to access data on what you purchased on your club card, and from this they build a profile of you. Bought some cat food last week? They assume that this means you probably have a cat. This data is stored on files, and other companies can choose to buy this data off the business. For example, Tesco knows you probably have a cat. Whiskas (a cat food brand) can buy your profile off Tesco, and now they know you have a cat, they will send you cat food pamphlets, or maybe an insurance company might buy that data off Tesco and send you pet insurance offers. Everything has been considered to ensure maximum sales. 

Am I the only one who finds this CREEPY?

I could go on and on about the sly and somewhat clever but mostly disturbingly stalker-ish ways our world is commercialised, but back to the original question. Which is a slightly irrelevant and unrelated one. 

Can anyone really avoid commercialism? Even if we don’t realize it, discussing that awesome new episode of X T.V show which aired last night in front of a crowd of people, no matter how big or small, is a form of advertisement. We do it all the time- humans love to persuade and influence. So, according to what I know about Heaven (which may be completely different to your interpretation), Heaven would be a land of perfection. Existence in pure happiness and bliss. The ideal, fantastical world. And whether or not you even believe in Heaven, how much would we actually be able to avoid commercialism which seems to unavoidably follow society? If advertisement is so common- even simple discussions can involve it- who’s to say we’ll prevent ourselves from turning Heaven into another commercialised society? 

Wouldn’t that just be the weirdest thing? 

I’m going to draw this blog to an end… I’ve covered several aspects of commercialism. I hope you enjoyed it and that it wasn’t too scattered! 

Thanks for reading! 

-The Cookie Element

Over and out.

(P.S. The Heaven reference was just a pretext for considering how far humans could take advertisement, and this blog wasn’t really meant to particularly touch upon religion in any way really.)

Fandoms- SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?

The way I see it, there are different levels to ‘fanship’. Take a TV show for example, and you will find certain people who speak well of it. “Oh yes, I’ve seen it a couple times- quite good.” People who appreciate it to some extent. This is healthy and all very well.

And then you have those who take it slightly further. “Yes, I’m a big fan of the show, I watch it weekly!” This is what we commonly call ‘being a fan’. This too is healthy.

But venture a couple more levels down the road and I assure you, you will reach the obsessed. Crazed fans who think about it, live through it- breathe it. And of course there are inbetweens- not all passionate fans take it to the extreme, but it’s when these people cluster together that we find ourselves looking upon a powerful force; an indestructible army:

Fandoms.

Yes, yes- hold your gasps. Fandoms; groups of fangirls and guys who obsess over TV shows, books, films, YouTubers, actors and singers. They feed off each other and spread their love via the internet.

And it is hard to resist the urge of fandoms. You may not think of yourself as much of a hyperactive, dramatic teenage girl (apologies for the harsh stereotype) but the idea of a mass of people sharing your passion, feeding your obsession, supplying fanfic, fanart, blogs, tweets, videos all about this one subject mutually shared between you?

I don’t know- some people like that kind of thing.

And we all joke about fangirls and their fandoms, roll our eyes when a popular band is trending on Twitter, laugh at the “I can’t- I just CAN’T!” and “OMG *dies*” tweets of hyperventilating fans at the new episode of yet another TV show- but I think it’s time to get serious.

It. Is. Slowly. Taking. Over. The World.

It started with harmless and even ‘cute’ names for fans, like ‘Little Monsters’, “Whovians” and ‘Beliebers’.

And now ask yourself- which actor, band, singer or TV show out there doesn’t have a pun name for their mass of fans?

Well, I’m afraid to report, but being an obsessed fan is psychologically unhealthy. Yes. that’s right.

It’s not surprising- the hours we spend on the computer stalking, tweeting and reading about our ‘idols’ can be disruptive for the brain- but you’ve probably already guessed that. And now with the media and fandoms, we’re given a false sense of closeness to these actors, bands, and shows. Fandoms only encourage this, with other people prompting us on, sharing our thoughts. And don’t we just all love being surrounded by people freaking out about the same scene that you just freaked out about?

And if you’re thinking: “Whoa dude, I’m not mainstream, I don’t follow the crowd”, well then just you wait until your obsession goes viral. You’ll love it too.

But, whilst we’re on the topic of TV shows and what not, who watched the new episode of Sherlock last night?! OMG I could hardly breathe I’ve just been watching interviews and videos all day, I’ve even bought a frickin’ t-shirt and everything!!

Anyway, back to what I was saying before… fandoms- weird and scary stuff. Try to resist the urge- once you’re engulfed, it’s impossible to escape.

*Goes back to freaking out about Sherlock*

-The Cookie Element

Links: http://www.vulture.com/2012/10/is-being-a-fan-psychologically-unhealthy.html

“It’s too cute- I need to squeeze it to death!” Why we feel the need to destroy cute things

We find different things cute- babies, kittens, puppies, hamsters- but I’m sure we’ve all experienced the “I need to pinch it!” phenomenon. When we see things that are extremely cute, we feel an impulse to squeeze it, bite it, somewhat destroy it. And I’m sure we’ve blurted the common phrases like “She’s so cute I want to eat her!” and “Gaah It’s so fluffy I could just squeeze it to death!”, but have we ever considered that these emotions we feel are actually quite demented? Is it human nature to want to hurt cute things that please us? Apparently I’m not the only one to feel these emotions when watching a kitten roll about in it’s sleep, because Google seemed to have some answers for me.

Let’s just take a moment here for Google and it’s wonderful knowledge.

*Takes a moment*

Anyway, people were shown cute, funny and neutral pictures of typically ‘adorable’ animals and were asked to describe their emotions towards the images. What was discovered was that the cuter the animal, the more aggressive the person was; with reactions like clenching fits and “I- I just can’t!”

The conclusion was that seeing cute things creates a sense of loss of control in humans, driving us crazy. Cuteness is ‘such a good thing’ that we just don’t know how to deal with it, so choose to react negatively to release the high levels of energy, much like crying when overcome with an overwhelming amount of happiness.

So, next time you see something cute, and feel the urge to squeeze the life out of it, comfort yourself with the knowledge that it’s perfectly normal and you are not psychotic.

Just, you know, don’t… don’t actually do it. Yeah.

-The Cookie Element

Links: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-01/science-says-adorable-animals-turn-us-aggressive

The Social Network Filter

What determines if a social networking site will become incredibly successful, or fall through the drain?

If I asked you (Yes, you!) to name three top social networking sites, I could assume Facebook would be up there, alongside Twitter, maybe Tumblr, Instagram- or if your a bit old school, even MySpace.

But if you imagine the thousands of social networking sites created that have not exploded on the internet (Exploded in a… erm… positive term), one begins to wonder- what is it about Facebook and Twitter that separate them from the others? Is it pure chance that they were discovered, or is there a mysterious factor that the successful social networking sites have considered?

Well, if you haven’t already guessed, I’m going investigate this. Yes, that’s right. Investigate time!

And if your just curious, or considering making a social networking site yourself- read on, I say! Read on!

1. A simple login system. Registering to a site is so much effort, so you want to make it as easy and quick as possible to attract members.
2. Interaction amongst members. This may go without saying, but it should be easy for users to find and communicate with each other.
3. Include a profile. Every member should be entitled to customize their profile and make themselves viewable to others.
4. Feed them with feeds! Using either notifications or a feed page, users like seeing what others have been doing, especially if it involves them!
5. Have a cool logo and brand. A cute and discussable brand, like Twitter and their bird, bird house and ‘egg’ profile- the site needs a memorable ‘je ne sais quoi’ about it. And make the logo clickable! 

And voila! The key components of a social networking site!

Links: http://www.qed42.com/blog/essential-elements-social-networking-site

Breaking a bad habit

Bad habits. We all have them. Yes- even you there, shaking your head. And that’s because no human is perfect, but enough of this deep stuff. I want to get into the dirty, gritty details of bad habits.

Science time! *puts on science goggles and dances to the science time! jingle*

Come on. We were all imagining a jingle.

Now, when I say ‘bad habit’, I mean a distasteful trait that we, probably subconsciously, find ourselves repeating. Common ones that you might be guilty of:

• Chewing on your finger nails
• Clicking your knuckles
• Smoking
• Sucking your thumb

And these don’t make us BAD humans, but they can end up harming us, our health- or they’re just annoying to other people.

More science!

What causes these bad habits?

Well… errm… anything really.

A stressful lifestyle:

Being stressed can cause the body to (amongst other things like sweating and spots) do irrational but ‘calming’ actions, like chewing our fingernails. And if you’ve got a stressful life, you do it a lot.

A genetic inheritance of addiction:

Sadly, if your parents were prone to addictions, you are easily addicted to things too, and find it hard to stop. Which really isn’t your fault, and so kind of sucks.

…Sorry about that.

Monkey see, monkey do:

Humans are like sheep.

Baaaah.

And so when we see others doing things, we do them too. If you’re surrounded by people clicking their knuckles, you may be a monkey and ‘do’.

But all is not lost!

*Audience cheers*

Because here are step-by-step instructions on how to break a bad habit. (With pictures, because it’s hard to focus on words nowadays. I know, it’s sad.)

1. Notice when you’re doing it.

Be aware of your habit. Like this lovely lady. Who is very aware.

Pay attention so you become more aware of your habit.

2. Find out what it is that is influencing you.

Are you too stressed? Are people around you doing it? Once you discover the factors, try changing your daily routine.

Clearly you should not hang out with this person.

3. Replace your habit.

If your bad habit is sucking your thumb, replace it with something positive or distracting, like humming quietly under your breath, or smile at a stranger

This is a good idea. Or…something.

every time you want to bite your nails.

And, well, that’s all I’ve got for ya! Have fun with that.

Why did I even make this?

Useful links:

newsinhealth.nih.gov

http://www.wikihow.com/Break-a-Habit

The Cookie Element

So… this is exciting! Before I begin, I’d just like to publicly announce that I am a WordPress virgin.

Yes, yes, I know.

But there’s a first time for everything. And this is, well, it. 

My first time.

To swiftly continue, this is an everything blog. Really, just expect a variety of stuff. Ah, I hear you ask:

What is The Cookie Element?

Well, whether you understand this term or not (the latter is most expected, considering I’ve invented this term and so therefore understanding it before I’ve even explained it would point to a genius mind and abilities beyond human comprehension), what it pretty much means is the following:

I don’t like cookies.

I’m sorry! It’s true, they just don’t pleasure my taste buds. But I like the idea of a cookie. I see one and it looks good. My human instinct is to want one, I just somehow dislike the actual reality of them.

And that is the Cookie Theory. Something that we like the idea of, but are disappointed by the reality of.

And there is an element of Cookie Theory in all of our lives.

Thus, the Cookie Element.

Man I hope this blog is not a Cookie Element for you guys.

 

Please like, favourite, and comment on any of my blogs. I’m just starting out and would love advice and support!

Hoping to keep ’em coming like a freshly baked batch of cookies…

Until next time!

-The Cookie Element