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• 1 2020-03-26T14:38:56+00:00 Emily Fiorentino 14 https://www.instagram.com/p/B94MQNSlams/ plain 2020-05-01T20:34:53+00:00 May 1st

  This week I’ve been thinking about the advertisements we continue to get in the midst of a global pandemic. I’m definitely viewing more ads than I used to, from watching more live news now that I’m at home, streaming more tv with commercials with more free time, and spending more time on social media while still listening to my podcasts I listened to at school. Most companies have rewritten their ad copies to have the same sentiment: “In the midst of these crazy and uncertain times, we all need a [product/service/policy] that we can rely on.” Although I understand that advertising is both a necessary evil and a vast money making platform that allows me to enjoy free content, there is something deeply disturbing about leveraging this pandemic for capitalist gain. Or, even if they aren’t exploiting it, companies must acknowledge the pandemic, and navigate their commercials around the elephant in the room in order to still maintain profits despite the global suffering. Both routes make me uncomfortable, and are both incredibly perverse considering the rampant economic hardship that the virus is causing, in part because of our exploitative economic system.

  When I started googling advertisements during coronavirus to try to find examples, I ended up down a rabbit hole in some of the top search results which were not examples, but were instead tips and strategies for how to change your corporation’s image. One website on AdAge tracks what companies have been doing far in response to the pandemic. Most of the entries are things like Dunkin’ Donuts giving out free coffee to frontline workers, Mattel designing toys inspired by frontline workers whose profits are going to relief efforts, and Reebok promoting a competition where people can submit names of frontline workers in order for them to win new shoes, all with an obvious common theme of celebrating the pandemic’s heroes. However there were also much more disturbing ones, such as Mercedes-Benz hosting their annual car show later today via zoom, wherein celebrities and car aficionados like Martha Stewart and Jay Leno will show off their Benzes virtually. Some companies are really trying to do good, some are clearly trying to do while also getting name ID as a hero, and some are willfully insensitive. It is frustrating to feel so bound to an economic system that forces companies to continue to encourage us to spend money frivolously even during a crisis.

  
  
  April 24th

  Today my twitter feed was flooded with people telling me not to drink bleach, or other disinfectants, to try to stop the coronavirus. Not something I thought I ever needed to be told, but the media, appropriately, feels the need to state what is obvious when our President says the opposite. Yesterday I started reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler for Danielle’s class, which I know a number of other people have read, too. I’m only a few chapters in, but have been thinking about the election that happens about 40 pages in. It is only briefly mentioned; she at first laments that her father wants to vote for the challenger to the incumbent, because he wants to dismantle their space program and the bureau established to monitor it. Her father agrees, thinking it’s a waste of time, but Lauren, the narrator, sees the space program as a beacon of hope and potential. She says that her father was the only person she knew who planned to vote, but he, too, once the election rolled around, chose not to vote either, because politicians had nothing to offer him, and had always let him down.

  Despite the fact that we are nowhere near the level of societal collapse that Butler describes, I can’t be the only person feeling hopeless at the permanent ramifications of the Trump administration and political system as a whole. The pale optimism I clung (and try to cling) to was undoubtedly the result of privilege — I more or less am the kind of person our system is supposed to work for, and thus expect more out of it — but I also don’t know what the alternative is.

  I'm looking for ways to focus on the politicians who do inspire me, and make me proud, but today was feeling defeated by a president who can posit that ingesting disinfectants could cure the virus, while still maintaining an approval rating in the 40%s. Every day he reinforces the scrutiny that his privilege and systems of supremacy allow him to avoid. I’ve been struggling with finding the balance between feeling obligated to pay attention to the harm he is causing, and ignoring him when I need to (most of the time), and am definitely seeking more people and things to be proud of, especially now.

  
  
  April 17th
  
  Right before sitting down to write this post I got off of a FaceTime with my two year old niece, Eleanor. She has a 10 month old little sister, which means that my sister and brother-in-law are having an impossible time trying to take care of both of them while also working their full-time jobs from home. To help, I’ve often been filling the role of virtual entertainer. This morning Eleanor and I spent over an hour “playing” with my dogs, investigating the air vents in my bedroom (her newest 2 year old fixation), and reading the selection of kids books that my mom saved from our childhoods, to give my sister a bit of a break. I have really been struggling with my relationship to technology in quarantine, and the way that it is transforming my real relationships. On the one hand, I want to live as healthily as I can in quarantine, both for my physical and mental health, and limiting time on social media and on screens is an excellent way to do that. But, on the other hand, besides my mom, my phone is the only way to connect with everyone I love. Quarantine has broadened my role as an aunt, and I’ve been seeing my nieces, nephew, and sisters far more than I used to. Parenting theoretically “takes a village,” which is what it feels like we are returning to in my family with countless hours on FaceTime, trying to help remotely. I don’t know how to strike this balance. We have talked extensively in this class about how our constant presence on Zoom feels like (and is) surveillance, but, as someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time calling/FaceTiming in my regular life, I am able to connect digitally with much more meaning by using it. I’m sure this is true for everyone, but I have never been solely reliant on technology to maintain relationships, which is difficult in and of itself. But it is especially difficult when my instincts are telling me so strongly to limit screen time as much as possible.
  
  April 10th
  
  I think it is rare to have a crisis that affects every aspect of daily life the way that the coronavirus has. Everyone has had to change something about their lives — staying inside, staying isolated from friends and family, working from home or having projects put on hold, still needing to go to work in an increasingly dangerous environment — and I’ve heard people call it the “great equalizer” because of this. Although isolation and the level of disruption to everyone’s lives is very hard, it is undeniably easier than the alternative that many families are facing in still going to work, or struggling without paychecks. Now celebrities are online more, and their posting about quarantine is making socio-economic differences glaringly obvious, while seeming to be even more blind to them. Suddenly everyone is broadcasting out of their homes, inadvertently showing off mansions, cooking in well stocked kitchens, or simply showing privilege by virtue of having a job that can continue at home, while thinking that they are in the same boat as everyone else. This week Ellen DeGeneres, with large candlesticks next to her and huge windows showing off the many trees in her vista behind her, said “this is like being in jail,” about her quarantine, and of course received sharp criticism about how incorrect she is. Although this comment wouldn’t have gone unnoticed before corona, there is a hyper vigilance and more scrutiny on the internet now about how this is affecting people, what celebrities and other wealthy people are doing to provide aid, and the insensitivity that many of them have when complaining about the effects of the crisis.
  
  
  
  April 3rd
  
  Stay Your Ass Inside: https://www.instagram.com/p/B94MQNSlams/
  Bored: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9y8Dbjl0hP/
  Quarantine: https://www.instagram.com/p/B99yY5dFctN/
  These songs were featured on the March 27th episode of This American Life, "The Test"
  
  
  Amongst more insidious forms of community surveillance that have sprung up, I have also noticed surveillance focusing on how people are spending their time. Since many people are in the same boat -- stuck at home, trying to get work done, and ultimately ending up bored -- I've experienced and witnessed intense scrutiny around how people are spending their time. What are you watching? Are you reading any good books, or keeping a normal sleep schedule? Have you been taking advantage of this time to work on that project you had, or not? Some of this is friendly, and some of it is certainly commiserating (from wondering "I'm not the only one being unproductive, right?"), but often is also judgmental. I've had the same feelings towards myself, a heightened self-surveillance telling me to be more productive than I am. I want to make a checklist of things I want to accomplish before this over, but I also want to redefine myself away from what I can produce. From both internal and external forces, I've been trying to find the balance between intense pressure to be "productive" in a conventional sense -- getting lots of school work done, writing music, writing a novel, etc. -- versus what I find valuable by my own standards. These songs, written by artist MNEK, are a sort of middle ground. Not "productive" in the same way that working on an album would be defined, but because it brought him, and me, and others joy, and is engaging with our new world in a creative way.