Summary Of Language In Thought And Action By Hayakawa

In today’s society, we heavy rely on media to get information. After reading the last few chapters from Language in Thought and Action by S.I. Hayakawa (1990), I learned the importance media plays in our daily lives. In chapters 12-16, Hayakawa talks about advertisements, television, and scientific attitude.

Advertisements are part of my everyday life I see them everywhere throughout my day. They are in magazines, television, billboards, and outside of businesses. Some of my favorite advertisements are during the super bowl. Hayakawa says: “The best advertising, however, is thought about, laughed over, and acted upon by multitudes” (p. 135). The super bowls commercial are usually funny, and they make me laugh, which also makes me think about them. I feel that is the general purpose of an advertisement is to get people's attention while making impressions that people can remember.

Business makes people aware of their product through advertising.

The better the advertisement, the more customers they can potentially get to purchase their goods and/ or services. In chapter 14, Hayakawa stated: “Advertising, then, has become in large part the art of overcoming us with pleasurable affective connotations” (p. 150). When I look at advertisements, they either give me a positive or negative feeling. While I was oversea in, I remember going to buy cigarettes with a friend and when he got the cigarettes they had a picture at the bottom. In one corner at the bottom it had the warning and on the other side, it had two pictures one of lung cancer and the other of mouth cancer. The advertisement for the cigarettes gave me a negative feeling which is why I have never

smoked.
In today’s society, I relied on television to get information like the morning news. I like watching the news in the morning while I am getting ready to keep up on current events. In chapter 15, Hayakawa stated: “Television news focuses on things it can easily symbolize visually, at the expense of things that are harder to depict” (p. 159). For example, the current massacre that happens in Florida at a gay club. The news media were showing videos of people running out of the club, and they also showed the police officers with the area taped off. This was being shown to depict that a crime had happened and that several people were dead.
When I first joined the Marines Corps, the gear that was issued to me was old. The body armor that was issued was from the 1990’s. I joined the Corps in 2004. In chapter 16, Hayakawa stated: “The most striking characteristic of science has been its continued success in the solving of ‘insoluble’ problems” (178). The body armor I was initially issued was not working because the AK-47 round could penetrate the armor. In my first 5 years, I went through 4 different body armor because they kept adapting and making them better. This was possible because of the continuing success of solving the problems of the one before it to keep myself and the other Marines safe.
It is not surprising that things have not changed since Hayakawa wrote his book in 1990. As far as media and advertisements go they are still used today and more than ever. Through science, our daily life’s become easier and has made it possible to reach new advancements with technology.