Vacation Sans Technology

I just got back from my trip to Maine today. It was a six hour drive one way, so I'm sure you can assume that I went deep into the a-hole of Maine; Bar Harbor to be exact. Bar Harbor is a tiny little town on Mount Desert Island, which is located in northern coastal Maine. It's a very beautiful tourist trap. The reason why I went there was to play in the outdoor splendor of Acadia National Park. If you haven't been there, I suggest you go at least one (in the summer). Being so far north and having no steady year-round population, the accessibility to wireless technology was extremely limited. The only place I could get the internet was at the bed and breakfast I stayed at, but I obviously didn't drive six hours to hang out in an old house with a bunch of sour-puss old farts (no offense old people). So it's safe to say that I spent the better half of a week without the ever present influence of the media we experience here, save for the newspaper article about some idiot who parked their car on a sand bar during low tide thinking it was a parking lot (hilarious).

It sucked when I couldn't use my iPhone to check the weather while I was having lunch with my boyfriend, but these are things you get over quickly. I checked my e-mail once, and didn't even think about doing any homework. It's nice being detached every now and then. When you're scaling the side of a cliff mountain thing, Facebook is the last thing on your mind.

Non-related note. I hiked the Beehive! The picture shows part of the "trail".

Bloggy Blog Blog

Blog... what a funny word. I don't know what it stands for, but blogs are a cool thing for the most part. I was eating lunch with my entire office today, and we started talking about blogging. Joe, one of our maintenance guys has lived a crazy and interesting life. We were telling him that he should write a book, and I suggested he start a blog. He's an older guy and he's super open-minded, just an all around groovy guy. He was really interested in it. I would totally read his blog. I feel like his stories would be really interesting.

My boss, who is a younger woman with a baby on the way started to tell me that a lot of people are now starting baby blogs. Basically blogging about the babies growth, cute things they do, yadda yadda. I always thought blogs were just for people who like to hear themselves talk and disclose too much to complete strangers. But it seems that they can serve a more practical and down to earth purpose. Go blogs!

Shark Week is Cool...

I don't know if you've noticed, but it's Shark Week (should I be capitalizing this?). Everywhere I look, Shark Week. All people are talking about, friggen Shark Week. I didn't know people liked sharks so much. Do people actually get this excited about the week long program, or is it just a contagious sort of thing? The sort of thing where because everyone else thinks it's cool, that you should too? How many shows can one really watch about sharks? I guess I just have a lot of questions about this.

I've never been an avid follower of Shark Week, unlike many others. I may have caught a show here and there a few times, but I've never put my life on hold for a week to watch a bunch of shows about sharks. This is a peculiar thing to me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for educational and entertaining programming, especially if it involves Mike Rowe without a shirt (hubba hubba); but what is so special about sharks that they get an entire week of programming dedicated to them? Is there going to be a Zebra Week? How about a Bear Week? I could watch those too. Maybe the Discovery Channel should expand the spotlight to some other well deserving animals. I'm sure they're all so jealous.

Decisions Decisions

In life, there are plenty of choices. Where to go on vacation, what car to buy, where to go out to eat? We all make decisions on a daily basis, so we're no strangers to whittling down the choices. Have you ever noticed though, that when you're watching TV, most of the shows are somewhat the same? At any given point there are a few dating shows, a couple of shows about rich girls in Hollywood, and a couple about hoarders. So, clearly there are choices. It's just a matter of which one of the same thing would you rather watch? Blah.

Da Media

After taking this media foundations course, I've really realized how corrupt the media actually is. It's very scary. Have you ever read A Brave New World? If you haven't, it's basically about a world that purely consumer based. Society is structured in a way that makes people buy things and people are brainwashed to be content in certain societal roles. You should read it if you haven't. That could happen to us.

We don't even realize that the major media players are fighting to cast the most influence over the world. It permeates all media: movies, television, publications, theme parks, products, etc. According to our text and many of the documentaries we've watched throughout the course, there are three major companies that own all other mediums. The content we see is manufactured to appeal to the largest demographic, and we're losing originality as a result. Long story short, the media is pretty much in control of the content we consume. It's keeping the less accepted works out of the media because it's less lucrative. We're being dumbed down for the sake of the all mighty dollar. That is unforgivable.

We're so Unique

Last semester, I took Intercultural Communication and I learned a lot about other cultures. In this week's readings, I was really able to tie the two concepts of intercultural comm and globilazation together. The question is, does globalization really mean a dominance of US culture? To some extent, it might be.

I learned that almost every other counrty, with the exception of some European countries, are considered collectivist. This means they don't focus on individual success, but rather what is best for the entire group, whether it be family or community. Here, in the US, we are individualist. This means we are raised with the notion of bein special and unique. Individual success is paramount, and if you're not fast enough, you'll be left in the dust. This idea of indiviuality is great for our entertainment industry, because here, we're encouraged to be creative. This can be creativity in an artistic sense, or even in a business sense.

With all this creativity happeneing, it's no wonder there's only one Hollywood. As our technology advances, the world shrinks in a sense. The world has easier access to our television shows, movies, music, news, etc.

I thought this parallel was pretty cool, but I'm also not saying that we are the only creative people in the world. Obviously, there are visionaries all over the globe. I'm just saying that because individualism and creativity are encouraged here, moreso than other countries, the concentraction of successful creatives must be higher.

Meg Ryan...

This is a great example of why the internet is so awesome. Not only do you get to hear awesome people like me talk about random stuff, but you get to watch kids like this act a fool. I stumbled across this video about a week ago and thought it was super funny, so I wanted to share it. I recently got my wisdom teeth out as well, so I feel this kid's pain (especially the part with the water).

The internet allows us to come into some sort of contact with people we don't know, and in some cases, will probably never meet. This kid is hilarious, and I would totally be his friend if I knew him.