What a world we live in!!!
Where you can break up with someone without uttering a word. Imagine alerting the woman or man that you have been serious about, for quite a while, that you no lnger want to be with them via changing your relationship staus on FACEBOOK. Not guilt from having to look at the other person's face well up with sadness, or the need to tell excuses after excuse like: "Its not you... I need to work on me so I can work on a relationship." Whatever the trite remarks one makes in order to dump someone has effectively been removed from the equation. Now breaking upis as easy as one click of the mouse. Going from "in a relationship" to "single" can now be done without that sticky situation and uncomfortable conversation. One click and you can be on the prowl again. It does seem ilke it is a concept designed especially for the emotionally bankrupt or "the player."
This idea of the dump without words takes on a whole new format of communication. Not only does the opposing side of the relationship findout while checking their own Facebook account, but every friend in common will share the findings simultaneously. One click and hundreds of friends will be notified of your newly declared single status. How wonderfully equipped one must be, in a world that identifies iself through the words placed on or around a social netwoking tool, to be able to navigate such moral merkiness.
I have seen shows like "The Big Bang Theory," "How I Met Your Mother" and many more address this type of thoughtless self promotion as a way to get laughs and spin an unsavory and uncomfortable event into a laugh. I have seen students in my classroom sponteously break out in tears because they too had just become victim to the facebook staus change.
imagine at lunch you get into a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend and by 6th period yo glance down at your phone only to realize that you became single without warning. It is a dreadful way to learn about the dissolving of your relationship, however you can discuss with your frinds how ironic it was to all find out that you found out the news all at the same time. Small consolation to life altering circumstances, I know, but Cest la vie in a world that is linked via the social networks.
In the article, "Facebook Divorce" this horrific act, that has as much of emotional connection as taking out the trash, a woman filed divorce via her posts on Facebook. "“Lauren went from being ‘married’ to being ‘single,'” read the dry, cold, unsympathetic recitation of fact. The infamous little broken-heart icon, the fixture you hope that, like some medical alert bracelet, you will never have to wear, fluttered up to hang alongside it. This is how life’s big moments unfold on Facebook: Epic emotions are reduced to emoticons." Without remorse and without a chance of reconcilliation a moment changes the trejectory of a marriage for one and fast tracks the conclusion for another.
What a world we live in!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Not-so-Crazy about the Courant
At first glance one might miss the Courant (the whole pile) as other newspapers appear to reach for the heavens, and conceal it with their shadows. The newspaper appears to have the girth of a pencil shaving, whittled from an old school # 2.
The front page, of Monday’s paper, dons the photograph of a women chomping down on an apple while “balancing a handful of others that she had just picked.” Of all the possible pictures, from any event that was going in CT this past weekend, they agreed to put this picture on the front page. I have no idea what they were thinking. Your eye is brought to this picture, because it takes up the most room on the cover. If I was Shivani Madan, I would not be pleased by the way the Courant sold out my dignity in order to sell papers. Right next to the photograph is a bi-line that reads, “Workplace violence: How Common is it?” Above the photograph is a headline that states “A jump in Homelessness” that includes a bar graph that displays the information gained from a statewide survey showing 4,154 residents are currently living in shelters or outdoors. However the human interest story about Apple picking surviving a cold and rainy growing season draws in the reader’s attention. What a good way to bury the real news behind the illusion of state happiness.
Many years ago, I was a subscriber and an avid reader of the Courant. It was larger and incorporated what I considered the best that Connecticut news papers could offer. Looking at the its competition of the New Haven Registrar, the New London Day, the Connecticut Post and so on one was to ascertain that the courant offered its readers the best articles and the best quality over the other options. That was until one day when they realized that they were beginning to lose their customer base and decided to dumb down the writing rather than making strives to raise the quality and maintain its, better than most, reputation, thus leaving the public with ramblings of writers that were writing for the 3rd grade reading levels. It was around this same time that the editorial staff began to stop correcting the writer’s grammar and punctuation. It seemed that sentences were going on forever, as they read like they were written by immigrants that just got of the boat from wherever they came.
Today, the Courant consists of 3 measly sections: CT News, CT Sports and CT Living. Hidden, amongst the section entitled CT News, is the World and Nation section that, at most, is 3 pages long. This section appears to give each story equal press. Roman Polanski’s arrest shares a page with the story about economic sanctions, created by the west, are affecting Iran’s young people forcing them to change their “nuclear ambitions.” It seems that the most important world news does not seem to be an investment that The Courant cares to make.
The all important sports section still the highlight of the day to any sports fan. There is nothing like waking up on a nice crisp fall day and reading about the BOSTON Red Sox, New England Patriots, New York Jets , Giants, and Yankees. You can check the scores and compare them to scores and records from all around the league. There are injury reports for the gambler and box scores if you missed the game. However, if you want to read about your state’s professional sports, you need to move to Massachusetts or New York. The state of Connecticut cannot sustain a professional sports team. Why? I don’t know? Last week we even got news that one of our semi pro teams are relocating down south. Maybe they are all running away because of the bad press. The Courant is a bad paper. It once stood tall and held itself up with respect. Today, the Courant only is a sad degraded newspaper that seems to insult its readers with subpar writing and less meat than its competitors. Yesterday, there was news about Obama wanting to extend the school year as a way to raise student achievement circulating around the internet. It was showing up on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, however, there is no mention of this anywhere in the Courant. I find it ironic that the Courant dedicates the exact amount of press to the funny pages as it does for their coverage of World and national news. If that does not work as a metaphor for its media presence, I am not sure what would.
After reading some of the articles, I had a hard time swallowing the poison pill that was being served to me in the form of right winged media manipulation. I am not sure why it was so hard for me after seeinhow many correspondants also worked Fox 61 news. It occurred to me that a state that is populated, mostly by democrats, this line of persuasion would fall upon deaf ears. Just mylast and final thoughts on the dying institution tht was once so noble.
The front page, of Monday’s paper, dons the photograph of a women chomping down on an apple while “balancing a handful of others that she had just picked.” Of all the possible pictures, from any event that was going in CT this past weekend, they agreed to put this picture on the front page. I have no idea what they were thinking. Your eye is brought to this picture, because it takes up the most room on the cover. If I was Shivani Madan, I would not be pleased by the way the Courant sold out my dignity in order to sell papers. Right next to the photograph is a bi-line that reads, “Workplace violence: How Common is it?” Above the photograph is a headline that states “A jump in Homelessness” that includes a bar graph that displays the information gained from a statewide survey showing 4,154 residents are currently living in shelters or outdoors. However the human interest story about Apple picking surviving a cold and rainy growing season draws in the reader’s attention. What a good way to bury the real news behind the illusion of state happiness.
Many years ago, I was a subscriber and an avid reader of the Courant. It was larger and incorporated what I considered the best that Connecticut news papers could offer. Looking at the its competition of the New Haven Registrar, the New London Day, the Connecticut Post and so on one was to ascertain that the courant offered its readers the best articles and the best quality over the other options. That was until one day when they realized that they were beginning to lose their customer base and decided to dumb down the writing rather than making strives to raise the quality and maintain its, better than most, reputation, thus leaving the public with ramblings of writers that were writing for the 3rd grade reading levels. It was around this same time that the editorial staff began to stop correcting the writer’s grammar and punctuation. It seemed that sentences were going on forever, as they read like they were written by immigrants that just got of the boat from wherever they came.
Today, the Courant consists of 3 measly sections: CT News, CT Sports and CT Living. Hidden, amongst the section entitled CT News, is the World and Nation section that, at most, is 3 pages long. This section appears to give each story equal press. Roman Polanski’s arrest shares a page with the story about economic sanctions, created by the west, are affecting Iran’s young people forcing them to change their “nuclear ambitions.” It seems that the most important world news does not seem to be an investment that The Courant cares to make.
The all important sports section still the highlight of the day to any sports fan. There is nothing like waking up on a nice crisp fall day and reading about the BOSTON Red Sox, New England Patriots, New York Jets , Giants, and Yankees. You can check the scores and compare them to scores and records from all around the league. There are injury reports for the gambler and box scores if you missed the game. However, if you want to read about your state’s professional sports, you need to move to Massachusetts or New York. The state of Connecticut cannot sustain a professional sports team. Why? I don’t know? Last week we even got news that one of our semi pro teams are relocating down south. Maybe they are all running away because of the bad press. The Courant is a bad paper. It once stood tall and held itself up with respect. Today, the Courant only is a sad degraded newspaper that seems to insult its readers with subpar writing and less meat than its competitors. Yesterday, there was news about Obama wanting to extend the school year as a way to raise student achievement circulating around the internet. It was showing up on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, however, there is no mention of this anywhere in the Courant. I find it ironic that the Courant dedicates the exact amount of press to the funny pages as it does for their coverage of World and national news. If that does not work as a metaphor for its media presence, I am not sure what would.
After reading some of the articles, I had a hard time swallowing the poison pill that was being served to me in the form of right winged media manipulation. I am not sure why it was so hard for me after seeinhow many correspondants also worked Fox 61 news. It occurred to me that a state that is populated, mostly by democrats, this line of persuasion would fall upon deaf ears. Just mylast and final thoughts on the dying institution tht was once so noble.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Murder Draped in Ivy
MURDER DRAPED IN IVY is a title that has a ring to it that evokes the memories of Saturday afternoon serials, from the time of yore, or a pocket novel that is dog eared because you have been carrying it around in your pants for days, or possibly weeks. The cover consists of bloody letters, that try to spook the unsuspecting on lookers, and a bare leg wrapped in Ivy.The words just ooze media hype and cheesy cop show. YET IT HOOKS!
When you think of the media bizarre that occurred during and post the investigation you begin to realize why. This was not a gang banger without future that died in the service of his brotherhood, it was a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life, that is about to take the next step towards her limitless future by exchanging nuptials with her fiancee. The future was full of promise and looked bright. The media circus paraded pictures of Annie Le as if she was on "Next Top Model." Her beauty was only than parrelled to her intellect and academic pursuits, she was a Yale grad student. A prestigous school and a "beautiful mind" don't seem like the neccessary elements to make up the background of a murder victim.
Someone said, on Monday night, that all the plot points are acconted for to be able to write a Law and Order: SVU episode and that point could not be more spot on. The tevision media with heir whilwind of intel. and moment to mment updates continued to keep the sensational plot in constant rotation via crawls and special update cut ins durig or favorite show so we don't forget that we are witnessing news tht can't be missed. I can't remember what day it was, but it was the day that our perp. was holed up in the hotel in cromwell, I know this becuse every 5 minutes the TV had to remind me of these very important developments. In fact I felt the TV was beginning to proke me into some sort of vigilant stand. The constant bombardment of iformation streamig in front of me, and I am sure thousands of other people, appeared to me as a way to constantly provoke an emotional reaction to late breaking news regarding Annie Le. I tried to round up my possee, but my six and three year old were already in bead.
When you think of the media bizarre that occurred during and post the investigation you begin to realize why. This was not a gang banger without future that died in the service of his brotherhood, it was a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life, that is about to take the next step towards her limitless future by exchanging nuptials with her fiancee. The future was full of promise and looked bright. The media circus paraded pictures of Annie Le as if she was on "Next Top Model." Her beauty was only than parrelled to her intellect and academic pursuits, she was a Yale grad student. A prestigous school and a "beautiful mind" don't seem like the neccessary elements to make up the background of a murder victim.
Someone said, on Monday night, that all the plot points are acconted for to be able to write a Law and Order: SVU episode and that point could not be more spot on. The tevision media with heir whilwind of intel. and moment to mment updates continued to keep the sensational plot in constant rotation via crawls and special update cut ins durig or favorite show so we don't forget that we are witnessing news tht can't be missed. I can't remember what day it was, but it was the day that our perp. was holed up in the hotel in cromwell, I know this becuse every 5 minutes the TV had to remind me of these very important developments. In fact I felt the TV was beginning to proke me into some sort of vigilant stand. The constant bombardment of iformation streamig in front of me, and I am sure thousands of other people, appeared to me as a way to constantly provoke an emotional reaction to late breaking news regarding Annie Le. I tried to round up my possee, but my six and three year old were already in bead.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Just when I was beginning to think that we could not become more of a "me" dominated society, and I don't mean the me that is writing. If it was not bad enough to outfit ourselves with televisions that had so many channels that when surfed them all, it was time to do it all over again because the hour changed along with the programming. Well after reading about the future of radio, which seems to morphed into the notion of sound altogether, I realized that "I-world" is here with all of it's I-pods and I-phones and I-TV etc. Well the trends that are coming with radio seem to be more of what you want when you want it. It seems to be becoming The Burger King of Sound I guess.
While the strength of the sector still remains AM/FM stations their hold seems to be loosening grip upon the market with new technologies each taking a nipple from the proverbial pie. HD-Radio, Satellite Radio and Internet Radio like Pandora are up and stealing some of the public response the heavy handed use of regular radio. However Pandora, a favorite of mine, is said will face problems that are set to come down the pike with copyright issues that will dwindle the number of participants putting out the music.
Along with copyright issues, financial issues plague this me, me, me-verse with the price of special receivers for satellite and HD radio. Radio has moved from the primary source of news in many homes and has become a source of etertainment only. When you want to beebop around the office or sache across the room with the broom there is noting to fear because radio will not be going anywhere, except to episitomology old folks home. Goodbye Radio. Hello Audio!
While the strength of the sector still remains AM/FM stations their hold seems to be loosening grip upon the market with new technologies each taking a nipple from the proverbial pie. HD-Radio, Satellite Radio and Internet Radio like Pandora are up and stealing some of the public response the heavy handed use of regular radio. However Pandora, a favorite of mine, is said will face problems that are set to come down the pike with copyright issues that will dwindle the number of participants putting out the music.
Along with copyright issues, financial issues plague this me, me, me-verse with the price of special receivers for satellite and HD radio. Radio has moved from the primary source of news in many homes and has become a source of etertainment only. When you want to beebop around the office or sache across the room with the broom there is noting to fear because radio will not be going anywhere, except to episitomology old folks home. Goodbye Radio. Hello Audio!
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