I'd Like to Think I'm A Carrie

It is slightly embarrassing to admit, but I have a parasocial relationship with the cast of Sex and the City. It all started when the E! Network started airing reruns of the show at 8 p.m. Monday through Friday every week. Television has become pretty terrible overall so there is usually nothing on that I want to watch. I like to at least have some sound in the background when I am working on stuff so Sex and the City was a nice alternative to lame reality shows. Instead of just having it on in the background, though, I began to watch it religiously. Eventually it became part of my routine to watch it while I work on homework. The fact that the show is on five nights a week only added to the creation of a parasocial relationship because it is kind of like having friends over every night.

I knew I had a problem when I caught myself thinking, "Oh that is like something Carrie would say" or "What would Samantha do right now?" Crazy, I know. But the characters are written to cover the bases as far as female personalities. The average woman is bound to identify with at least one of the four lead characters if not with aspects of all four women.

Some people may argue that Sex and the City is superficial and overly focused on sex but I think that it does a great job of discussing real issues that women face in relationships, their jobs and more. Yeah, they make it a little more exciting because it is a television show, not a counseling session but the message is still there. The fact that the characters are so easy to relate to makes it that much easier for viewers to receive the messages. I would say that I learn a lot of life lessons from my friends on Sex and the City.

Twitter Addiction

I had successfully resisted Twitter until this class. Although I had created an account months ago (so I could get a good username before good variations of my name were taken), I had not tweeted anything. I took a little pride in my resistance to such a fad. However, this pride did not last long when I started my 90sKid tweets. I was addicted after about a week.

I soon added Twitter to my daily routine of checking my Facebook, email and Perez Hilton's blog. Ok, let's be honest, it is more like an hourly routine. But anyway, it did not take long for me to join the fad.

As a result of my new addiction, I became less interested in my Facebook. I have to admit that I actually felt a little guilty about neglecting my Facebook for this new technology, like I was cheating on my good old, loyal social network with the new popular network that everyone wanted.

My new addiction to Twitter lasted for the rest of the project and maybe a couple days after. However, after I did not have the go-to 90sKid hashtag to tweet about, I did not know what to say to my Twitter followers. I was still following interesting people but I was getting bored.

My short-lived addiction is slowly waning. I thought my former Facebook addiction might go back to its usual vigorous self but surprisingly I am still fairly disinterested in it as well. I think that the addition of yet another site to my routine might have pushed me into social media overload and now there is no turning back. So I guess I owe COMM 322 a thank you for the free time I now have that used to be filled with my social media addictions.

The "Real" World

The 25^th season of The Real World is now airing on MTV. The 25^th! Considered a pioneer in reality television, The Real World has remained a staple of MTV's programming, outliving many other flash-in-the-pan reality hits. This success is due, in large part, to their commitment to a formula of both casting and location.

Having established the basic framework for reality television in the early 90s, The Real World has tweaked its style over the last two and half decades to fit with their audience. Despite these slight changes, the most current season is still a clone of the original season. Granted, the production quality has improved and the locations have gotten swankier, but the cast still fits the quintessential "Real World" formula. As we discussed in class, there are certain characters you can find all over reality television. The cast of this season's Real World showcases these characters.

· Adam, the "bad boy", has already been kicked out of the hotel's bar for being too drunk and disruptive.

· Dustin, the "country boy", is a huge flirt and has a crush on one of his roommates. As seen in most seasons, he has a big secret he is not sure about sharing with his roommates.

· Heather, the "girl next door", seems innocent enough until she hooks up with Dustin the first week in Las Vas.

· Michael, the "virgin", is very religious but looking to broaden his horizons while in Las Vegas.

· Nany, the "committed relationship girl", has been with her boyfriend for five years.

· Naomi, the "wild girl", is very exotic looking, fashionable and opinionated.

Despite The Real World's blatant cloning from cast to cast, I watch it every season so they must be doing something right.

Too Young for Technology?

Facebook recently reported that they remove 20,000 underage users from the site everyday. This made me think about the effects that social media usage is having on younger kids.

In class, we learned the characteristics of social media, including the ability to publish your own thoughts and have a greater reach. While these aspects of social media can be beneficial for adult users, I think they have the potential to be very harmful for younger users. For example, the ability to create and publish content online exposes children to an unknown population, taking away their privacy and potentially putting them in danger. In addition, the expansive reach of social media opens up kids to the judgment and ridicule of hundreds or even thousands of people instead of just the usual elementary or junior high classroom.

There are two fairly recent incidents that further support the fact that the use of social media is leading to negative effects on children. The first incident was the suicide of a junior high student after she was incessantly bullied, both at school and on Facebook. This is just one example of incidents that have been reported in the last several years about cyber bullying and the use of social media to spread rumors and harass classmates.

The second incident occurred when Justin Bieber's fans lashed out at singer, Esperanza Spalding, when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist over Justin. Their response was almost immediate, voicing their hatred for her on Twitter and Facebook and even changing the information on her Wikipedia page. This is not the first case in which Justin Bieber fans (mostly made up of adolescent girls) have attacked someone because of their involvement with Justin Bieber. Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez both received death threats from tween girls after having their picture taken with him. The accessibility and lack of accountability in social media has fueled the viciousness of pubescent boys and girls.

I can only imagine the damage that can and will be done online by this generation who have experienced the pros and cons of social media from such a young age.

Torn Between Two Disneys

Any critical discussion of Disney is sure to bring about heated opinions. Having discussed the characteristics of many different Disney films before in a Social Inequality Class as well as our Pop Culture class, I am torn in my feelings about Disney. I was shocked to learn of all the different occurrences of racism and sexism in Disney films. However, like many other people, I look at my favorite Disney films with a nostalgia that leads me to want to disregard any bad things said about them, remembering only the laughter and songs from my childhood.

As a child, I was never conscious of any inappropriate messages being communicated by Disney, but I cannot help but wonder if they still subconsciously affected my opinions and actions. This concern is only reinforced when watching the documentary we discussed today in class called Mickey Mouse Monopoly. It includes interviews with children about Disney films and characters. Their answers are innocent but contain scary ideas about what these films are teaching children. For example, as we discussed in class, one little girl discusses Beauty and the Beast, saying that even if someone is mean to you, if you are nice to them they will change and start being nice to you. This may seem harmless to some people, but when applied to a child's future relationships, this thought process could be extremely dangerous. Another little girl, around 5 or 6 years old, talks about how it is really important to be beautiful because if you are beautiful, everyone will like you. The idea that a little girl is concerned with physical appearance at such a young age is sad to me.

Despite these concerns, I have no doubt that I would allow my own children to watch Disney films. I feel this way because I think that no matter what a child is watching, it is up to the parents to educate their kids about what is right and wrong. Also, the messages Disney is being criticized for portraying are present in almost every other form of media reaching children today, making it more and more impossible to shield children from negative messages.