Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Non-textual Reading 3rd Week
My roommate and good friend tries to tell me that a person's cell phone is symbolic of the person (he has an Iphone). I don't know about you, but I do not think that the "dogs looking like their owners" analogy applies to cellular mobile devices. Along these lines, I feel like sometimes people spend too much time dwelling on symbolism. Everything is symbolic of something, somewhere. Who we are is not composed of what we have. Look at Warren Buffet, the dude is a crazy philanthropist. He gives away all his money and lives a very modest life. How many people own more than they can afford? I would rather give and receive the gratitude of the recipient than buy expensive clothes and jewelry to be symbolic of my social status. My friend introduced me to Tomsshoes.com and it is awesome. The company sells shoes but donates one pair for each pair sold. The motto is "one for one." I am a fan of green companies and businesses with a humanitarian interest. People are more planet conscientious than ever before and I feel good about this. Toms Shoes is symbolic of the growing movement to share our cares and expand them from our attire to people in need. Toms Shoes shows us that the more people jump on this bandwagon, the cooler these types of products become. What a cycle for success. I encourage everyone to consider the goals and priorities of businesses that they support. What profit margin do these guys turn? What portion is donated to charity? These are things that were never spoken of before and I am happy that in order to compete these businesses must meet consumers' approval.
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The idea of giving back is not new. Small business owners do it all the time. We donate to charities and hold benefits for various people, not always as a way of promoting our businesses but as a way to give back to the community that supports us. Toms shoes sounds great, nice to see a large company with a "give back" motto.
ReplyDeletei'd have to agree with your friend on the cell phone thing. or at least agree with the fact that it offers a sort of parallel to the person who owns it. i for one have that one phone everyone seems to have - the lg rumor. but it was free, and that's the only reason i got it. i'm not a big status person. i chose from white, blue/black, and orange, and got the white one because it seemed fresh and clean and new and bright. i'm looking for fresh starts and new clean bright hope. and i have been for quite a while.
ReplyDeletei mean, i totally see that phones arent a symbol for a complete person, but even in describing my phone just now, i kind of learned something about myself. haha, that's probably why i wrote so much!
also, i never really quite got the dogs/owner looking alike thing. maybe if i got to know the dogs... but based strictly on appearance, no so much. maybe i'm just not talented in inter-species comparisons.
ReplyDeleteI definately have to agree with you about the cell phone thing. I think people do take it out of porportion. I mean its just a phone right? And I have seen the commericials for the company you are talking about. I really like his idea of giving back to smaller countries.
ReplyDeleteYeah i could take both sides on this issue. When it comes down to it, honestly it depends on the person. Me, for instance, definitely not. I had a lack of decent cheap phones to choose from so i chose the only one that looked remotely legit (within reasonable price range). I know several people however, who do nothing but waste money on the newest "hippest" phones each month to "fit in".
ReplyDeleteThe phone thing seems just a bit weird but I guess I can kinda see it. I mean when a person buys a new phone every few months it's kinda shows that they want to stay current and are able to spend that money. When other people will keep the same phone, if it's good, as long as it works. I am also glad to hear that companies are giving back.
ReplyDeletethe whole phone thing. I hate when people are like I have the new version of that phone. I don't care, I want to say I'm glad you afford it. It is the point to have a phone that does everything but flush the toilet for you. I took a look at the tomsshoes web site I dig the shoes. Kind of pricey but it is for a good cause won't mind spending the extra bucks.
ReplyDeleteI own a basset, so I'm worried about this whole dog/owner thing.
ReplyDeleteSymbolism is useful only as long as it's useful. I like the opportunities we have to use a symbol to help approach an idea from a different perspective. I am a girl who loves to think in metaphor. However, I do think that sometimes looking too closely takes away from the actual experience. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteMy new anti-consumer thing has been only purchasing clothes from secondhand stores. (Not only...sometimes I cheat.) But, I love thinking about giving a pair of jeans a new life, and at the same time in a way preventing something else from being made.