Favorite TED Talk
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jx0dTYUO5E
One of, if not my favorite TED talk is the one right above. Mary Roach gave this talk back in 2009 and I recall having watched it for Theory of Knowledge class in my senior year of high school. What I like about this TED talk is the presenter’s ability to talk about a “tabu” topic, or at least a conversation theme many people aren’t 100% comfortable with, with great naturality and spontaneity. The talk is basically an overview of 10 bizarre stories about orgasms, presented in a humoristic and also informative way. The presenter portrays orgasms and masturbation in an extremely original yet informative way. At the end of the day, we’re all different and that’s also reflected in the ways we feel pleasure. One of my favorite examples is one of the woman that reached orgasms while brushing her teeth. Yes, there are people for everything in this world. Roach definitely makes us view that masturbation and orgasms are intimate moments for many different types of personalities.
Unit 2 Idea
The idea I had in mind for the evolving ideas unit is to discuss the evolution of the smoking culture in the United States, where, in my eyes, has been more notable. How have we reached this point where smoking cigarettes is completely stigmatized when it was even considered a luxury back in the day? I intend to analyze this paradigm shift from three different scopes: Medical, economic, and legal implications. All three have certainly contributed to the diminishing smoking culture in the United States. I also feel like it will be interesting to address how smoking has also shifted social classes if it has. My intuition is that smoking cigarettes was much more popular among higher-status men and women than it is know. Currently, we associate cigarette consumption more with working-class men and women, obviously leaving aside the older generations that developed the addiction during the effervescence of the smoking culture, than with more educated and “noble” people.
I think that your TED Talk that you selected is definitely interesting and worth learning about. I really like your idea for your Unit 2 assignment, I think it would be very interesting and is relevant in society today.
I definitely agree that your choice of Ted Talk is among the more unique topics of presentation, as I have certainly not seen anything like it from that organization. Having a sense of comfort and spontaneity, though, are the most important qualities of an effective media presentation. When there are so many competing discussions on the internet, you have to be able to connect to the audience and particularly younger generations in this way. As for your Unit 2 project, you have clearly thought through the way in which you are going to approach “smoking” culture. Will you focus on the United States, or can there be useful comparisons to the topic within other cultures as well?
This is a very prevalent, unique idea. You can also talk about smoking in the media. If you look at movies in the past, you would always see people smoking in scenes in a conference room or after dinner. But, if you look at movies today there is virtually no smoking in any scenes. I think this could be good evidence that reflects on people’s popular opinion on smoking.