#getoutabookwillya

[matthewblandnz]

Integrated Practice: Get out a Book will ya [Submission]

Topic/Link: Using creativity in literature to promote self-confidence.

                             Dark Souls (PC game)  

The main theme behind Dark Souls is that if you face imposing challenges but work hard to overcome them, you succeed you and at the same time build confidence in yourself.

For this reason, I consider the writing and thinking behind Dark Souls to be directed towards the promotion of self confidence in its audience, no matter what type of player they are. For example, Dark Souls features a character called Anri the crestfallen. The term ‘crestfallen’ is defined in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary (2017) as ‘the feeling of shame or humiliation’. Therefore, to be crestfallen is to be in a state of very low self-confidence. During the game, the player is a character called The Ashen One. This is also an interesting name given that a key message communicated by the game is to move characters from a place of low self-confidence to strong self-confidence. The term ‘ashen’ in relation to the appearance of a person, means ‘pale-faced and haggard’ (Merriam-Webster online, 2017). This creates the impression of a character who is not strong, not confident, and struggling.            

In the game, The Ashen One meets Anri the crestfallen, who is a lonely girl. Anri is accompanied by a man, Horace, who acts as a father figure to her and protects her as they venture towards Anri’s goal of freeing the land from the Lords of Cinder. When Horace is later separated from Anri she becomes frightened without him, Anri slowly grows in confidence as she becomes more inspired by the efforts of The Ashen One as the player progresses through a quest carried out in an uncaring and cruel land with unfaltering resolve. Towards the end of the story, The Ashen One is confronted by Aldrich, the great Devourer. It is a difficult battle, as the player, The Ashen One, just as you think you cannot overcome Aldrich, Anri finds confidence in herself and joins the battle. She helps you, the Ashen One, to defeat the monster.

Dark Souls also features Siegmeyer of Catarina, who early in the quest can be found sitting outside a decrepit fortress unsure of what to do. He is written as a fool and as a character that doubts his every move. That is, a character low in confidence. Also, the description of the setting is written to show decay and hopelessness. It is as if the game is saying ‘you won’t be able to get strength from this environment so you will have to get it from inside yourself, or from working together with others’. This is what happens, because as the Ashen One begins to succeed, and to unlock the castle for Siegmeyer, Siegmeyer is grateful and starts to be helpful. This includes putting his life on the line and hurling himself into a pit of vicious monsters without a second thought or doubt. The Ashen One begins to realise that thanks to Siegmeyer’s growth and belief in himself the quest can be won.

In summary, Dark Souls is a game written and designed to communicate the message that it is possible to come back from a place of low self-confidence and triumph over troubles. So, the game really is a metaphor for a better way to live life.

 Note: There is a beautifully drawn piece of art depicting the Ashen One and Siegward conversing at

https://orig00.deviantart.net/181f/f/2016/060/1/c/dark_souls___siegmeyer_of_catarina_by_igorwolski-d9tk4sa.jpg

Smartphone application review: The Huffington Post

Many mobile phone applications contain content developed and written with the goal of promoting self-confidence (Huffington Post, 2017). For example, The Confidence Coach at 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/confidence-coach/id459421800?mt=8 

uses principles related to cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) to help users to think differently about themselves. The advertising for the application in part reads “…make use of the Confidence Commitments features to remind you of your ‘to-do’ pertaining to your self-esteem boosting.” This awkwardly-worded piece of advertising describes an application that combines the potential of mobile applications to deliver creative technologies, with an understanding of the ancient human quest to feel better about ourselves. The language used to communicate the benefits of the Build Confidence application at 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hivebrain.andrewjohnson.confidence&hl=en 

is even more straightforward. For example, the marketers claim the application is “…aimed at building your self-esteem…” The article written to promote these applications is interesting because it uses literature to write about technologies that claim to promote the message that more self-confidence is a good thing. The difference between the way the article is written though, compared to how literature is used to promote self-confidence in the Dark Souls game, is that the main message of the article is clearly ‘go out and spend money buying these applications.’ So it is harder to believe in the message of promoting self-confidence because of the way the article has been written. For example, the sentence “maybe you just need to be reminded of the good in your life or start doing small favors for others to see your self-confidence hit the roof” does not convincingly promote the good of self-confidence in the same way that the Dark Souls game did through character development and story writing.

Greatest Love of All (Song, by Whitney Houston)

The song ‘the greatest love of all’ is one that makes some people roll their eyes, which is interesting because the lyrics of the song are all about promoting self-confidence and believing in yourself, and that loving yourself as ‘the greatest love of all’ is a good thing. The lyrics of Whitney Houston’s song include the lines ‘The greatest love of all/Is easy to achieve/Learning to love yourself/It is the greatest love of all’. Going by the attitude of my mother to the song, the lyrics don’t manage to communicate exactly this message to everyone. But the song successfully communicates this message to lots of other people according to the comments left on the bottom of the You Tube clip of the song at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzlVDlE72w

For example, the comments include “learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. This song gives me eternal strength”/ “This song has such a powerful message to it.”/ and The Greatest Love of All is one of the best, most powerful songs ever written about self-preservation, dignity. Its universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it's not too late to better ourselves. Since it's impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves.”

I consider this the use of literature and language through song to promote self-confidence. In addition, the song is channeled through creative technologies and platforms like video and mobile phones, so it seems a strong example of how creative language and technology can be combined to get a message of self-love and self-confidence out to a wide audience. But my mother views the lyrics of the song in the same way many people might think there is a different message behind the Huffington Post article ‘reviewing’ smartphone applications that promote self-confidence. Her view is that the lyrics of Whitney Houston’s song do not promote self-confidence, but self-absorption and the belief that love from other people is unreliable, so you can only count on yourself. It’s interesting that the lyrics communicate this message to my mother, but communicate to other people the message that self-love and confidence is a powerful, positive thing. This is a good example of how one message can be intended and another message can be received through the same piece of art or language or literature.

Learn how to love yourself in three easy steps: NZ Herald column by Deborah Hill Cone.

Deborah Hill Cone uses humour in her writing to create a friendly and open dialogue with her readers. Her take on the idea of loving yourself and having more self-confidence is to not worry about all the things that aren’t that great about yourself. She writes “…I have messy kitchen drawers and thighs that rub together at the top…Then I realised that you need to love yourself despite having thighs that rub together at the top…Turns out the trick is learning to love yourself, not regardless of the thighs and the asshatness and the drinking, but to love yourself for precisely those things”.

As for the other texts described here, the article is written to promote self-confidence as a good thing. The difference between this text and the others is that different literature devices are used so that the big emotions that seem to be created in the lyrics of Whitney Houston’s song or the Dark Souls game, seems to have been taken out of this article. The message is basically the same, but a very different type of use of literature is being used to communicate it. There is humour but it is like a ‘dark humour’. The message is different too, because the other texts make gaining more self-confidence seem easy or noble, but the message of this article is that it is a frustrating process. For example, Deborah Hill Cone writes “Loving yourself means loving even the fact you find it hard to love yourself. Loving all the things that are hardest to love…Love your rage and resistance to being loved. Love your cellulite. Love your window fixed with duct tape…Love the reasons why you think you don't deserve love.” 

        Conclusion

Each piece of direct and indirect literature here I feel are connected by the attempt to promote self-confidence using creative methods. While this is extremely direct in the case of the (Learn how to love yourself in three easy steps: NZ Herald column by Deborah Hill Cone.)  I believe that it is a strong link that can be found in the above examples. Each method is unique and interesting while using different images, languages and ideas. 

                                          References

Cone, D.H. (2017). “Learn to love yourself in three easy steps”, New Zealand Herald, 18th

September, 2017. Downloaded 30th September, 2017 from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11923205

Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2017.

Steenkamp. A. (2017). Strut Your Stuff: 5 Apps That Can Help Build Self-Esteem, Huffington Post, 8th April, 2014.

Downloaded 29th September, 2017 at

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fueled/strut-your-stuff-5-apps-t_b_5647016.html

[hirenpatelbct-blog]

Integrative Practice

Social Media, Crisis Communication, and Emergency Management By Connie M. White:

When I took this book out I had a feeling it was going to be about how social media is used to communicate quickly and use for emergencys. Its quite a thick book so I was contemplating to take out of the shelf but I told myself you never know I might like it my thoughts were correct and I am glad I made that decision. This book by Connie M White is about how emergency management agencies can take advantage of the incredible power of communication technologies offer. It offers strategies on how to make these technologies more safer by reducing private information so it does not go into the public. Its basically a book on what emergency management agencies do when an accident happens in the cyber world etc. This book had so much great content so it was hard to summarise them and find points that stood out to me and could use for my essay at the end. Here are some points, Social media can have positives and communication is one of them however there are negatives as well because your details could easily be traced or given to someone who shouldnt be having those types of details. It can be misused for the wrong reasons and terrible things could occur. Another point is that emergency management is basically used to protect the younger generation why because of the improvements in technology social media has now become the users second home there is so much to do so it gets the younger generation excited. It will lead them to do to stupid things like share personal information such as address, phone numbers and credit card numbers. There is a fear that if technology continues to improve we could see personal stuff becoming less safe because in the generation anyone can hack. This book gave me a serious lesson of to become more careful when using technology. The internet can be a rough place its looks nice but you never know there is wrong people behind the screen ready to make our lives miserable so it is important that we be cautious and be careful online.

Other References

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/&refURL=https://www.bing.com/&referrer=https://www.bing.com/

http://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/definition/emergency-management-plan