Media Socialization

Today I realized that friendships and conversations rely a lot on the media. I was talking with a few friends today, and we spent probably ten minutes talking about TV shows. This happens often with music and movies too- I don't think we can go a day without having some conversation about media!

television

I've never watched very much TV in college. Freshman year, we didn't have a TV; my roommates and I watched a couple of our favorite shows online. The past two years, I've had a TV, but not very many channels. Again, I watched a couple of shows on the internet. Since then, I've only regularly followed one TV show (the title of which I may or may not be too embarrassed to mention here). In reality, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm not a big TV watcher.

I guess you wouldn't assume that if you had seen my in my house the past couple of days. I've been glued in front of the TV for a couple of hours now. As I was thinking about what to blog about, so many things from class came into my thoughts. How children are exposed to hours and hours of TV because of the background environmental factor. Right now, my roommate and I are both on our computers with the TV on in front of us, neither really watching it. I'm experiencing what it is like to have the TV on in the background. Both of us are involved with multiple forms of media at the same time. I'm also noticing which commercials grab my attention, and why. And wondering what the effect of these commercials might be in the middle of NCIS and wondering if that classifies as violent TV or if the effects might be the same because the content is so intense.

Basically, I will never be able to partake of the media in the same way without all of these thoughts from class in my head.... and we're only a month into the semester : )

escape the iPod!

I'm pretty sure I will be one of those people with moderate hearing loss by the time I'm 40.... I always listen to my iPod way too loud. It's not just that I like loud music. It's that I like the feeling of escape I can get from the music- escape from my thoughts.

I always listen to my iPod while walking to and from school. I usually turn it on even when I don't want to. I've realized that the reason I do this is because the times when I am walking to or from school are the times I have to really think about things. I've got about a 20 minute walk, with nothing else to do but cycle through my various thoughts. Why would this be a bad thing?

I'm not really sure the answer to this question. What I do know is that nearly every time I turn on my iPod, I actually think to myself, "Now I can escape from my own thoughts." Over the past week or two I've been a little upset because of some things going on, but instead of thinking through it, apparently I would rather escape by blasting my favorite tunes at top volume. Surely this isn't healthy.

Living Without the Media

Yesterday I got a letter from a friend who has been on her mission for about three months. I'm going to quote part of it because it reminded me of this class.

"How's the world? Has Iran attacked Israel yet? Or has North Korea accidentally blown itself up yet? Has Obama declared himself king yet? I've only been out of it for 3 months and I feel like I have no idea what's going on in the world."

At first I thought this was funny, because I never really relied that much on news or felt super involved in world events. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that what my friend was trying to say is true- we depend on the media for a lot of our knowledge, and if it is taken away from us, we may feel very confused and "out of it".

Her letter also made me think more about all of those that serve missions. It must be weird to be so involved in the media- newspapers, television, movies, books, music etc.- and then be expected to give that all up for two years. Living without the media really would be a huge sacrifice- I use so many forms of it everyday!

my new favorite website

My Life is Average.com

I dare you to click on it. Chances are you will spend hours perusing its amazingness.

My life is average (aka MLIA) is "a place to share your everyday mediocrity. It is a place to post the mundane things in your life, and read about what makes life normal for other people. "

Its contents include short vignettes contributed by average readers about the bizarre or average things that happen to them. MLIA celebrates sarcasm, irony, out of the box thinking, childhood dreams, and awkward situations.

Who couldn't love a site that says things like " Today, on the way home from school, I was stuck in traffic for about an hour. When I finally reached the cause, I saw that it was a police car that had rear-ended another police car, and that the police were just standing around looking at this in shock. MLIA"?

Star Trek

For months, I've been hearing that Star Trek was the best movie of the summer, hands down. Even people who didn't expect to like it ended up loving it. I finally got around to seeing it yesterday, and I loved it! Most science fiction/action movies don't impress me much, but this movie did.

My favorite part of the movies hands down was the character development that they showed. I loved the way they developed the characters- the movie started off showing the history surrounding James T. Cook's birth and some key aspects of his father that had an impact on him. This really added to the movie because you could really identify with it when, for example, Christopher Pike said, "Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved 800 lives, including your mothers and yours. I dare you to do better."

The movie also depicted one scene of James and several scenes of Spock from their respective childhoods. I felt that each of these scenes were picked well- they showed some of the different influences, struggles, and desires of each of the young boys. The movie went on to follow several of the characters and how they began their involvement with the USS Enterprise. It also showed the developing relationship between Spock and James Kirk.



For me, being one who knows a little bit about Star Trek but has never been a fan, these instances of character development and history behind the Enterprise made the movie much more enjoyable. It was much easier to follow, because I could understand the character's intentions better.

Some of my favorite songs

Music is probably the media that I participate in the most. I listen to music on my way to class, when I'm at my computer, and while driving. I spend hours every day listening to music. Here's some of my favorite music right now.

All I Ever Wanted - Basshunter
Day 'N' Nite- Kid Cudi vs. Crookers
Boom Boom Pow- The Black Eyed Peas
Breakeven- The Script
Come On Get Higher- Matt Nathanson
Nothing Better- The Postal Service
Knock You Down- Keri Hilson feat. Kanye West & Ne-Yo
Save The Last Dance For Me- Michael Buble
Message In A Bottle - Sting/The Police
Lovers In Japan/Reign of Love - Coldplay
Nothing Else Matters - Apocalyptica
Gives You Hell - All American Rejects
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
You Found Me - The Fray