Icon Analysis

The Icons that I have chosen are Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Britney Spears, and Facebook/Myspace. Extreme Makeover Home Edition is hosted by Ty Pennington, who got his start on TLC’s Trading Spaces as a carpenter. Now he goes around the U.S. helping families live better. Providing troubled and struggling families with better homes, great opportunities, and dream vacations. Basically the show chooses one family that has been struggling to overcome disappointment, frustration, adversity, and lots of times it is a family that struggles to make a difference in other people’s lives. I have also chosen Britney Spears, now most of you are probably wondering why. Britney Spears, although recently experiencing life difficulties in the spot light, was the beginning of young teen girl idols for America. Lastly, I chose together Face book and MySpace because both sites, although different, provide the same linkage of people across the nation through the internet.

I chose Extreme Makeover Home Edition because it is a show that provides hope and healing not only to those families that are selected for a dream come true but also for the audience watching at home. This show demonstrates that there is still good in the world and there are still people out there that are trying to make it a better place. When they show some of the homes and describe the lives of the family chosen, we as the audience clearly see why this family was nominated and chosen and we know in our hearts that they deserve this opportunity. Seeing the look and reactions of that family at the end of the show is always thanks enough for the crew and sponsors that made it happen. I find it pretty amazing that the crews can put together an entire house in one week. That is hard work and dedication to making the dreams of one family come true. Knowing that maybe because of this, that family won’t have has many hard times or as many struggles as they once had.

Britney Spears started out with a bang! She was the highest grossing female entertainer before she was even 21 years old. She took the pop music world by storm with her catching songs, amazing dance moves, and that little thing we call sex appeal. She changed the entertainment world with her concerts, videos and music. Britney was always pushing the envelope and people were watching to see what she was going to do next. However, I think that in recent year’s people and the media have forgotten that although an entertainer, Britney is still just a young girl with down-home dreams of being a mother and a wife. People often scrutinize her choices but fail to look at their own. Britney is a symbol of hope and inspiration. She proves that it’s not always the greatest to be at the top, that it’s ok to fall down, and when you do, you just have to pick yourself back up.

Lastly, Face Book and Myspace. I put them together because although they started out as two different sites for connecting with friends, their intentions were still the same. Both sites are the idea and concept to get and keep connected to your friends from all over the world. Both sites allow you to talk about yourself, your likes, hobbies, and heroes and to “comment” or “write wall-to-wall” with your friends. Both sites are adding games and applications that can be played and shared amongst your friends. Although not many people realize this, Face Book and MySpace have also changed the employment world because employers are now able to access your Face Book or MySpace and look at your information and can predetermine whether or not they want to hire you based on your pictures you post, comments to friends, and your blogs/notes. In this busy, technological world, these two sites are keeping people together and informed.