Phone Books

I remember when I was a little kid and I loved the day every year when the phone books came.  Maybe that was a crazy thing to get excited about but then again I guess I was a pretty weird kid.  The whole concept of something new that had everyone’s number in it that I could flip through was so cool.  I guess kids always had a way of entertaining themselves for hours.  Now a days everything is online which in a way is amazing that technology has progressed that far but sad that the next generation of kids will never get to experience the simple joys of life like a phone book.  When I was young my siblings and I would play outside for hours inventing our own games.  Now my brother sits on the computer for hours.  It is just sad that we were the last generation of kids to live in a world without internet. 

Privacy Violation

As a high school student, every possible adult, whether our teachers, parents, or college advisors, would warn us that if we had ANYTHING out of place on our Facebooks we wouldn’t get into College.  I remember my Freshman year of high school I was terrified to get a Facebook out of sheer fear that I wouldn’t get in.  While I do get the logic behind companies and schools using social media as a form of a character profile, it seems a little unfair that they could hack into the most private part of your lives.  I try to do my best to keep my Facebook and Twitter as clean and professional as I can make it, the occasional inappropriate inside joke always falls through the cracks.  My friends and I have a unique sense of humor that many people might not understand or think is funny if all the employers do is quickly scan over a post on your wall.  A few girls while I was in high school almost got expelled because of a few pictures that were found on their walls.  The professional or educational world should leave peoples personal lives out of it.  If the goal is to leave drama and home life out of the work place then what is the point of bringing it in with Facebook checks.

Is Social Media such a good thing?

With all the amazing things that social media sites such as twitter and Facebook can do for you, it is easy to assume that their is no negative aspects.  The scary thing about these sites though is how popular they actually are and how much people use them for their primary sources of information the majority of the time.  The number of celebrity deaths or world catastrophes I have learned about solely because of Facebook is downright shocking.  There is a common assumption that whatever is written on these sites must be the truth and nothing but the whole truth.  Americans have become increasingly lazy when it comes to finding access to relevant information, therefore the printed newspaper is slowly becoming a thing of the past.  No one has the time or patience to buy or read the paper in print form.  While it is convenient having all information you could possibly dream about wanting to know only a button click away, the possibility for people to believe in false truths is incredibly high.  While I would never want to go back to the world before the time of these media sites, what is important is to be aware of what is put online and know that not everything you read is always the most accurate!

The New Iphone

As rumors of the new Iphone 5 swirl around the internet world I can’t help but wondering if it all is worth it.  It seems like every time you buy the newest, latest and greatest update to your electronic devices something bigger and better is on the market two weeks later.  My new Samsung Galaxy that I got just less than four months ago is already out of date.  I understand that people are constantly innovating and wanting to make as many new advances as can be but is constantly remaking the same exact thing really the way to do it?!? All the new updates really only promotes one thing: consumerism.  Our culture is so caught up with ALWAYS having to buy the best new product regardless of the fact that we have three of the exact same things except that they were last months model.  I recently saw a product review for the new Kindle Fire in which the writer was saying how badly she wanted the Kindle even though she has an iphone, ipod, tablet, ipad and about five other similar products.  Are all of those really necessary to check email or update your twitter or whatever other insignificant activity she is using them for?  There are so many better uses for that money so how about instead of buying the new Iphone this summer you actually do something worthwhile with it.

Baking for Dummies

I am utterly and completely lost when it comes to baking.  It’s not like I don’t try and when I do things turn out ok occasionally, I just have no ability at putting ingredients together or remembering recipes.  If this was the late 90’s I would probably need to buy myself a self help “Dummy” book just to cook the most basic recipes.  Fortunately it isn’t and technology has improved leaps and bounds.  Now instead of slaving away looking through dozens of old school recipe books, all I have to do is hit “stumble” on my stumbleupon account.  Stumbleupon is one of my all time favorite websites for a number of reasons but the amazing looking food has got to be my number one best use for it.  All I have to do is hit stumble a few times and a new mouthwatering recipe is bound to pop up.  The internet holds thousands among thousands of different recipes.  All you have to do is decide exactly what you are in the mood for and a dozen or more recipes of that exact thing are only a click of the computer away.  Recently I decided I would attempt peanut butter and chocolate bars but unfortunately I didn’t have any vegetable oil.  Once again the internet is a lifesaver and all I had to do was type on Stumble “alternatives for vegetable oil” and I learned the exact conversion I would need for 1tablespoon of vegetable oil to be butter.  The internet and stumbleupon specifically can be a lifesaver for many different things, but especially for those as food impaired as I am.

High School Reunion

Over Easter weekend I found myself talking to a cousin a couple of years older than me.  He told me that he had his 10-year high school reunion coming up and that truthfully he really wasn’t that excited.  This seemed weird to me since I have always thought about how interesting it will be to come back in ten years and be a totally different person, maybe married with kids or living some where exotic or having the coolest possible job.  What I never thought about was his next point, he told me he doesn’t even think he needs a reunion because facebook is his reunion.  He gets all the wedding albums and baby pictures, vacations updates, and status’s about new jobs.  Even though he might not even speak to the people anymore, he knows down to the minute what is happening in each and everyone of their lives.  Facebook can be a great way to keep in touch with good friends, but when it comes to the point where you know every minute detail about their lives and have no need for actual communication we should probably draw the line.  Will there ever come a day when there will be no need for any human contact?  Is technology taking away our ability to interact with others?  These are scary thoughts but likely true.  One of my friends dad refused to allow her to have text messaging until her freshman year of college because he was afraid that the art of communication was dying.  No one picks up the phone and chats with friends anymore and people sure as heck don’t send letters in the mail.  All this new technology is great but we can’t lose our roots or we will lose our grasp on reality.  Socially interaction and communication is what defines our humanity and we are beginning to lose this.  While it might be challenging to fit into busy schedules, next time you see an update on an old friend on facebook, pick up the phone and call them to see how their life is going instead of just perusing through old pictures. 

Misperception of Beauty

Clearly how beauty in our nation is defined is a real issues. There is nothing that I could say that millions of others haven’t. Yes, girls look at advertisements and commercials and see how they belief they should look and yes this has taken a huge toll on the amount of people with low self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, and even suicide. While it has a lot to do with the standards that the media has put in place, there is nothing we can do to get the media to go away. It is here to stay, and frankly I don’t think I would want to live in a world where there wasn’t an influence from the media. Our society just needs to learn how to do positive things with the technology that we have. The skills that are displayed in this video are incredible, and while at the present they might be harming the women of the world, if these skills and technologies could be used for good incredible things could happen. I think what Dove does in this video shows a perfect example of this mind set. They show how shocking of a change photoshop and other programs can make but they don’t condemn it, just show us so we know what really to believe.

Stuff White People Like

Last night, in an effort to procrastinate as much as possible, I happened to walk into one of the funniest lectures I have ever had the pleasure of hearing on a college campus. I had never heard of Christian Lander or even his book, Stuff White People Like, but that didn’t stop me from rolling out of my chair laughing for a straight hour.  While the things in his book were extremely hilarious, including stories ranging from scarves to farmers markets, he surprisingly dealt with some serious race and class issues as well.  What amazed me the most though was how Christian Lander became successful.  His whole story began when he and his friend were discussing all the funny things about white people and he decided to put it on Word Press just like so many millions of people do everyday.  He steadily saw the views grow within the first few days until he reached about 1,000 views a day.  The numbers soon began to grow and grow until he was starting to be featured on major news stations.  Eventually he had hundreds of thousands of views a day and Hollywood agents were flying him to LA to have meetings.  Within months of his first blog post, he was working on a book that became a New York Times Best Seller.  People work all their lives in Hollywood hoping to reach the success that Christian has, yet he became a bestseller within 6 months of starting his blog.  This just proves how powerful media can really be.  With a little luck and some original ideas, amazing things can happen. 

Kony 2012

The newest internet craze sweeping across every online outlet from facebook to twitter is Kony 2012. The rise in popularity of this video truly shows how powerful social media is. The first time I saw any mention of this video was two nights ago. By 9:00 p.m. tonight I have seen about 200 posts clogging up my minified. Whether a person is for the Invisible Children movement or against the organization, one thing can’t be denied, the public has a voice like never before. People are getting more involved than they ever have been before. Supporting causes has never been easier, all of the information can be found online in seconds and you can show your support with just a credit card number and a click of a button. The only downside of this new wave of support is the causes that are being supported. Once someone hears about a cause it is easy to jump on the bandwagon and not even check where the information is coming from. There have been reports of shady money practices of the Invisible Children Organization and some say that their support of U.S. military involvement isn’t the smartest way to handle this issue. Whether or not support of this organization is smart, the fact that millions of people all over the world are getting together and feeling passionate about an issue is extraordinary, and it is all because of the internet.

Timeline, the final step for Facebook

Facebook is one of those things that will forever define our generation and it isn’t something that is going away anytime soon.  The first time I logged onto facebook my sophomore year of high school, the only thing I was expecting was to now have a way to see pictures of all the weird kids from back in grade school.  In the past four years that I have been an active facebook member, it seems that facebook goes through a half a dozen facelifts and makeovers a year but I think the next chapter that facebook will soon mandate is truly the culmination of everything facebook has ever worked toward, The Timeline. I am not typically the type of person that is at the forefront of these new facebook changes.  I am set in my ways and like things to stay the same but I am definitely behind the new features that the Timeline is putting into place.  Our generation is always on the go and new technology is constantly making that easier and easier.  We need things that are simple and efficient and don’t take any time or energy to get done.  I have always wanted to scrapbook or journal my life but I am always too busy being out there and actually living it.  The new timeline is like a scrapbook of all the silly pictures and comments a person has ever made.  One day my future kids will be able to log onto my facebook and see how much I have grown, from being that goofy little 8^th grader with a horrible haircut to being a mom, and ever step along the way.  This is such an exciting time to be alive because instead of living our lives and just moving forward, we now have a way of looking back on all the good and not so good points in our life and we can share that with many a generation to come.