Earth Shattering Stuff...
I see a bright future for this youngster... I hear Topshop are hiring.
Sociology student gets a First for dissertation on Kardashians
A sociology student has scored a first class degree in sociology, in large part because of her mighty 10,000-word thesis on American reality TV "star" family the Kardashians. And if 10,000 words is enough to score you a Bachelors these days, there must be reams of show-biz journalists out there who just qualified for PhDs. …
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 15:54 GMT FuzzyWuzzys
Re: Earth Shattering Stuff...
Yes indeed, the big clue is right here:
“I used to watch it and be like 'Omg this is so great' and now I watch it while shouting, 'Crush the patriarchy!' It’s not ideal.”
I see the problem, one those people. The sort who constantly use the work "like" as a pause in speeach, as opposed to the correct usage whereby the word "like" is shorthand for "similar to".
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 21:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Earth Shattering Stuff...
"I see the problem, one those people. The sort who constantly use the work "like" as a pause in speeach, as opposed to the correct usage whereby the word "like" is shorthand for "similar to"."
Valley English. In fact you missed a minor point about its original significance. The word "like" is indeed being used for "something similar to". "I'm, like..." means "I said, roughly..." or "Approximately what I said was..."
These shorthand expressions may be irritating to people old enough to be members of the Conservative Party, but English is full of them and we just don't notice them because they fall into custom and practice.
For instance, there I wrote "we just don't notice them." The "just" there is as bad as the Valley like in terms of sense. It's intended to give emphasis, nothing to do with a very recent event or fairness.
Because someone uses Valley English in speech doesn't, oddly, make them illiterate. The Kardashians are a perfectly reasonable subject for a third year sociology student. And, if you regard sociology as a joke subject, there are plenty of PR companies, media companies and "opinion formers" that rejoice in your ignorance as they use sociology and psychology to manipulate you without your knowing.
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Thursday 14th July 2016 18:41 GMT Katie Saucey
@Voyna i Mor Re: Earth Shattering Stuff...
"..if you regard sociology as a joke subject...as they use sociology and psychology to manipulate you without your knowing."
My opinion of sociology is that in the last 20 years (my observable timeframe) is that it has indeed become a joke, and is now on par intellectually with images and memes generated by 4chan. I can say with some confidence that that I can spot this bullshit a mile away. The only noticeable effect on my behavior is excessive eye rolling and added disgust that my tax dollars help subsidize what are essentially hugbox/daycare programs for young adults.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 13:30 GMT Midnight
Re: She's overthinking it
"Analysis over, job done. Just pop my doctorate in the post."
Doing the analysis is only part of a doctorate. The other part is being locked in a small room with a panel made up of toddlers who spend the rest of the day asking "Well, why is that?", "What's that for?" and "Why should I care about this?".
If you can survive the day without ever saying "I don't know" and being cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril by The Man From Scene 24, then... Well, then you get to do it again because the right people didn't all show up. But eventually it does get stamped, misaddressed, popped in the post, folded in two, fed to a small dog and then stuffed into a mail slot that is three times too small for it to fit.
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Thursday 7th July 2016 01:22 GMT P. Lee
Re: Validating your life
>I remember when that meant getting a job and not behaving like a twat for all the world to see.
And getting paid a lot of money for it. These people aren't idiots, they are pretty smart but money-guided people making cash from playing a dumb role.
These people will continue to thrive as long as their vapidity is is cheaper than producing other media content. Its a whole lot cheaper than GoT and has a far larger audience. Its cheaper to throw a lot of money a few people who will do anything for it, than it is to be creative.
Visual media in itself has a compelling effect on the brain. Look what happens when you turn a tv on in the corner of room while everyone is doing something else. Attention drifts to the TV (or ipod...) I've noticed that even clever shows suddenly become far less interesting if you can break the habit of watching them for about three weeks. TV has sunk costs and is desperate for content. Serve it up in a nicely managed media package with magazine interviews and "news releases" designed to stop people taking a break from the show, becoming disengaged and realising they can live without it, and they'll lap it up.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 21:28 GMT goldcd
They're the reason that you doubt yourself.
You did what you were told, you learnt a skill that benefited others - then you see them making more in a month that you will in the next decade without any discernible skill that you'd recognise.
I'd advise tolerance however - it's not their fault, just their greater understanding of the retarded mass we all dwell within.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 13:46 GMT joner847
Re: ?
I do believe that Kim's ol'man was a high flying lawyer and was the person that managed to get OJ Simpson off his murder charge.
For reasons completely unknown to me a few years later some shitty US television network scraping the barrel decided to do some kind of documentary about this bunch of affluent oxygen thieves; and then the internet and twitter took over.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 13:53 GMT Timo
Re: ?
On many shows the Kardashians are referred to as "famous for being famous". That's it. They're attention and "like-whores", who have the money in this day and age to create continuous publicity events for themselves. To some extent pop culture has always done this, it is just that the K's are taking it to the end state where it becomes blatantly obvious.
The media is also such a wasteland that they are lining up for this reality TV "content". It gives them something to play on the channel between advertisements.
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Thursday 7th July 2016 10:50 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "reality" TV "stars"
Oxy as in oxygen theives?
And moron, well, the entire fucking clan of them excell at being morons.
And this clearly "inteligent" women who thought this was a good thing to get a qualification in, should enjoy serving up fries for the rest of her life.
The more publicity we give vacuous twats like the kardashians , the deeper we sink...
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 17:59 GMT PNGuinn
Re: Printed on university toilet paper
No, the soft stuff is far more absorbent and degrades far more quickly. Far more appropriate for this purpose.....
far, far, far ... away.
Dark brown toilet paper ... perhaps apple could patent some ... with rounded corners ...
Ah! I knew there must be an IT angle there somewhere ...
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 11:58 GMT kmac499
Too annoyed to title...
My first thought was WTF.....
Then when I calmed down a bit, I thought is there really any difference between writing a big essay about a TV programme, and writing a big essay about a collection of old Books.(sorry literature)
My answer No it's all bollocks and only subjective opinion.
That's why I like Science, If you spend a couple of years measuring or proposing something, others can reproduce your work and within the limits of experimental error get the same answer. or absolutely disprove your proposal.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 13:14 GMT Toltec
Re: Too annoyed to title...
I was going to suggest that providing work for the intellectually challenged was a necessary part of society. Then of course you start to wonder who the smart ones really are, the ones that can produce and be paid well for spouting 'bollocks and only subjective opinion' for people even dumber than them or the ones that do stuff with no meaning* to 98%** of the population that need to fight for funding.
* Unless it involves them getting a new phone every year.
** Based on real research and can be quoted in a socialogical paper, honest.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 15:43 GMT Rich 11
Re: Too annoyed to title...
Then of course you start to wonder who the smart ones really are, the ones that can produce and be paid well for spouting 'bollocks and only subjective opinion' for people even dumber than them or the ones that do stuff with no meaning* to 98%** of the population that need to fight for funding.
Alan Sokal managed to do both.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 12:00 GMT Chewi
Embarrassed
Deary me, what a joke, etc, etc, so what pitiful excuse for a university honoured her with this degree?... oh crap. Yeah, guess where I got mine. I suppose it is possible to write a very good thesis on ridiculous subject matter. Maybe I'm just jealous because I only mustered a 2:2. As for word count, I seem to recall being told that 10,000 words was the recommendation for my CompSci thesis. I actually wrote 14,000.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 12:16 GMT James 51
Re: Embarrassed
10,000 words for my thesis as well. When I got to 14,000 and realised I could easily get to twenty, had to find a clever way to dismiss half of what I had already written. Thankfully I'd picked advanced concepts and their potential and IBM shipped some demonstration models based on them to a few of their customers so they actual products now and didn't count.
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Wednesday 6th July 2016 12:40 GMT not.known@this.address
Re: it is spelt
Spoilsport.
That was the first time I had thought of that lot and smiled. Although, maybe we could persuade one or more space agencies to supply a spaceship so we can have a new variant on their reality TV show from Mars orbit... unless anyone knows of a local wormhole / black hole instead?
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This post has been deleted by its author
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
