Media as a social expectation....

General Conference weekend is a funny time in Provo. First off, the streets are almost completely empty during sessions, and suddenly everybody comes to life in the two hours between (don't try and get lunch... seriously). But I think the funniest thing is on Saturday evening when suddenly every man and boy in Provo is in a suit, and every girl is walking around in shorts and T-shirts with a big group of friends and an ice-cream cone. The sad thing is that because conference is a social expectation in Provo, we are all judging those guys who aren't in suits during the Priesthood session. Just a thought...

Happy Hunger Games Day

So far, everybody I've asked is going to The Hunger Games movies- if not for the midnight showing, at least on the day after. I mean, even the professor I asked (who will remain nameless) is picking up his daughter at 2:30. Why all the hype people?! After all, it's just a movie. A movie that we will all probably disapprove of because it's not like our interpretation of the book. And a movie to which that all the people in the theater will attach their own commentary while you are trying to watch in peace. Is this really worth all of us falling asleep in the mock trial tomorrow?
Yes. One hundred percent absolutely no doubt in my mind yes. As much as I cannot understand it, I am in no way exempt from this. Over the past couple of weeks my husband and I will often turn to each other in the middle of a conversation and just sigh and say "I can't wait for The Hunger Games." My husband woke me up this morning by saying "Happy Hunger Games Day!" and grinning like it was Christmas. And not only that, we've one-upped everyone by getting into an early showing at 8pm tonight so that we don't have to wait even a few hours longer. I had a terrible night of sleep last night because I had nightmares (yes, they were traumatizing enough to count as nightmares!) about somehow missing out on getting to watch the film. First, I arrived at the Theater and just as the movie was starting I realized I'd forgotten to pick up my sister like I promised. So I went back to get her, but she wasn't quite ready and then we got stuck in traffic and ended up having to help all these people on the way. When we got back to the Theater, we realized we has missed the entire movie! Heartbroken, I went to try and get a ticket for a midnight showing, but they were sold out. After trying every theater, I finally managed to get some from some random person selling them on the side of the road. By the time I made it back to the theater, I was 45 minuets late, but that's when I had my first stroke of luck! They had just spent the first 43 minutes watching interviews with the actors and I had actually only missed the first 2 minutes of movie. Happy at last, I settled down to enjoy the film. After it was finished , my husband asked me how I enjoyed it, and I realized with horror that I only remembered only the first 5 minutes, and I had slept through the rest. When my husband woke me up with his Happy Hunger Games this orning, I gripped his arm and whispered "we can't be late. Don't be late.... we can't miss it....we must not be late..." over and over til he reassured me that everything was going to be fine.

All I can say is: This had better be good, or we're all going to be pretty bummed out at 3 in the morning tonight.

Oh when the Saints....

If all of today's music videos were like this, I think we would have a better society :)

While watching ESPN....

Coming from the homeland of the advert-free BBC, I struggled to warm to the idea of my program being interrupted seemingly every 10 seconds to try and sell me something I was never going to buy. But the longer I've lived here, the more I've realized that commercials are actually often more interesting than the shows. And I'm not just talking about Superbowl adverts - adverts in general are just pretty awesome now. Yeah, you still get the occasional lame-sauce annoying one, but in general they are funny, sweet, and at the very least, brightly colored and short. That's more than I can say for TV in general :)

Couples in Advertisements

After the video last week, I decided to be more aware of portrayals of women in the media. In being aware, I noticed something else interesting - advertisements only show same-race couples. I have yet to notice any couples that transcend racial boundaries - black men are married to black women, white women have white boyfriends, etc etc. Is this just a reflection of our society? Or of what the media CEOs think our society should be like?
Is this okay?

Over-Empowerment

It's Caucus time and thus I've been watching TV again. I have this one question that I hope won't offend anybody, but why are American Advertisements so weird? Maybe it's just me, but does anybody else think it's odd that you're supposed to watch an advertisement about a drug or medicine (that, by the way, you can't even just go to the store and buy!) and love it so much that you go and pester your doctor into prescribing it for you? Media, and especially the internet, puts information in the hands of the masses - information that was previously only in the hands of the experts. This, of course, can be extremely valuable because it empowers the ordinary people. No longer do we just have to accept what we hear on the news, or rely on expensive estate agents to sell our homes. But I think it's gone a little far when we can tell our doctors the right medicines to prescribe for us (especially when our information is based on what the people who will make money off the product tell you), and at that point we might as well not have doctors at all. And besides, when the majority of the advertisement is made up of someone speaking really fast about all the horrible things that might happen to you if you use the product.... I'm just not sold in any case.   

Content or Medium?

I watched TV for 4 hours on Tuesday! 4 whole hours of my life! I turned on the TV to watch the Republican Presidential Primary in Michigan, and I was kind of sucked in. Not only was it incredibly close as the votes came in, but there were plenty of speeches and panels to watch. So... here's where I come to the question. When we talked about books, we talked about how the content is more important than the medium (i.e. we shouldn't be okay with inappropriate books just because they are books). For me, I felt that the content of the Primary was valuable; I was getting involved in the elections (personally I feel like that is part of my civic duty) and learning about some of the most important issues. So is the fact that I was watching TV for that long bad? Would it have been different if I had been reading about the elections? Or is this just a question of excesses?

My Life

Does anyone want to explain to me the point of MyLife.com? I just saw a commercial on TV for this unheard of social networking site. The commercial went something like this: "Announcer: See how many people are searching for you online! Attractive lady, with extreme surprise: I have seven people searching online for me? Seven?!"
I mean, why don't they all just get on facebook and find each other?
Additionally, after our discussion on social networking, I don't think we should be rushing to add another site to our collection.

Distractions from the Spirit

We had stake conference this weekend. At the adult session, our stake president reminded us to be careful of our media use during sacrament meeting. He made the good point that even if we have our scriptures on our phones (or Ipads or whatever), we don't need to use our scriptures in sacrament meeting! Anyway, it was the usual media distracts from the spirit etc etc, you know... good stuff. But then he announced that we were going to have a question and answer session and wrote a cell-phone number and email address on the board for us to send questions to. So we all pulled out our phones and ipads and assorted media items and... I was amused :)
that's all :)

Concubines

My husband's two younger brothers are over today, and right now they're playing NCAA football on the PlayStation. Paul (11) is doing that thing that kids always do: singing one line of a song over and over again. It was a song I'd never heard; kind of catchy, but I would have preferred more than one line. In any case, the tune was so upbeat it took me a minute to realize just exactly what the lyrics were:
"All the other kids with the pumped out kicks, better run, better run.... faster then my bullet".
What the heck? Did I mishear? Is my 11 year old brother-in-law actually singing a song about kids shooting other kids? Does he understand what the lyrics are? I asked him what the song was, and Stephen (14) said it was a song about the Concubine Shootings. Unfortunately, because this caused some unintentional laughter from my husband and me, I had to explain exactly what concubines were. But in any case.... wow. I just not that sure what to think about a top 40s pop song detailing the Columbine shootings, especially one with such a misleadingly upbeat feel.

Here's the lyrics, in case anyone's interested:
Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette hanging out his mouth
He's a cowboy kid
Yeah, he found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things
And I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah, he's coming for you

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Daddy works a long day
He be coming home late, yeah, he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise
Because dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah, the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair's on fire
You must have lost your wits, yeah

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet

P.S My husband is going to make one good dad. They are out tossing the ball to each other right now, and I love to see how well he interacts with his brothers :)

Proof that people on the internet are all idiots....

So the other day I was doing that whole looking-up-recipes-for-barbeque-chicken-for-dinner-and-click-on-an-interesting-looking-link-and-end-up-reading-random-articles-online-while-I'm-supposed-to-be-doing-homework thing (You know that thing, right?) and I discovered that all people who post on the internet are idiots. This is how it went down....
The article, entitled "The Great Spanking Debate", was on the site of a popular parenting magazine. I found the article to be surprisingly... intelligent and non-sensationalist (especially for a parenting magazine that also runs columns on how to tell which Glee character you child is most like, and how to dress them accordingly). In fact, it seemed to be a completely accurate representation of the all the research I've studied here at BYU (a rarity in the Media!). Here's the basic sum up:

• When we refer to spanking, we are not referring to abuse of any kind (which is, of course, universally accepted as wrong). Although often not the case, spanking can be performed in a calm and rational manner.
• However, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all urge parents not to spank in any form, in any circumstances. Their conclusions are based off decades of careful research showing a higher risk for negative outcomes across all cultures and circumstances.
• Not all people who were spanked show negative outcomes (such is the nature of development sciences) but the higher risks are real and cannot be dismissed.
• Additionally, spanking doesn't even work. Spanking is effective only if your only goal is to have your child stop doing a certain behavior in your presence. It does not help kids internalize the things you want to teach them, and it does not help behave when you are not there. It can solve short term problems, but will create long term ones.
• Not spanking your kids does not equate to overindulgent, permissive parenting, and nor will it lead to a society of undisciplined, spoiled and entitled kids. Discipline is a essential part of parenting, but that should not include corporal punishment,  

Basically, the article was trying to remind people that even though they turned out fine, following in the footsteps of your parents and spanking your kids is not a good idea - you are placing you children at high risk for a strategy that doesn't even work.

That's when I started reading the comments at the bottom of the page:

My mother has (13) bothers and sisters. Each of them have generally had 2-3 children. when we meet every year for our annual family reunion it is a large group. I would say that 80% of the siblings of my mothers brothers and sisters have college degrees and can be described as being successful. The common denominator with all of us...we were all raised being spanked. It's amazing, but you can pretty much look at the kids that are not successful and generally...their parents decided not to spank?

My sister got two spankings in her life. I got one almost every day. Today at 40 something we both have different lives. I have a wonderful family, husband, daughter, grandson. A great marriage of 24 years. Just great. My sister on her second terrible marriage, 4 children, and dead end job- she's an alcoholic. This is the case more often then not.
I think it is time our society stops listening to "experts" and start using some common sense. We put way too much confidence in these experts, each person reacts differently to the same thing. We are not exactly alike so I do not understand why these experts are supposed to know everything.

Spanking is the best way for most children to understand that what they did was wrong and NOT acceptable. Spanking is not beating it is (or should be) a form of punishment. I see kids in public that I would love to spank so the rest of us would not have to be around such brats.

If we all lived by the bible which was written for us by our Lord God who created us then we would not be confused as to how to discipline our children. If we live by his word , we would have better, more disciplined children. Please read the bible folks!!!  Proverbs 13:24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Proverbs 23:13-14 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. Proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother

The fact of the matter is, if anybody who was spanked when they were little grew up without having any of these conditions - well - good scientific skills will draw you to the conclusionssion -> spanking is NOT the cause!


Spare the rod spoil the child. Spankings are necessary when needed. No one said beat your child, but they do need disciplined. I am a Kindergarten teacher and I can tell the difference between the children who are disciplined and those who aren't.


I'm not even going to get started on what is individually wrong with all of these arguments (I'll save it for another blog), but what really struck me is that all of the issues brought up in the comments were addressed directly in the article. I was left wondering: "Seriously People?! Has anyone actually read the article, or are we just so wrapped in our own lives that one anecdote means more than the combined evidence of decades of research and common sense?" Then I wrote it as a comment.  Then I posted it.... And then I felt like an idiot. Why? Because now I'm arguing petty points with complete strangers online. And calling people names. And thinking badly of their intellects. And feeling sorry for their poor kids, even though I know nothing of their circumstances. And now I'm writing a rant blog entry on it.
See? Don't tell me that's not idiotic :)

It's such... such a perfect day....

Do you know what I really love about Coldplay? I can't understand what in the world they are talking about! They could be singing about Sex, Drugs and all sorts of things and I wouldn't even know! The nice thing about the lyrics is that they can be interpreted in many ways. Take these lyrics from the album Viva la Vida:
"No I don't want a battle from beginning to end, I don't want a cycle of recycled revenge, I don't want to follow Death and all of his friends".
Are we talking about being scared of death? Of how life is a struggle and just ends in nothing more than death? Or is it a criticism of the "emo" movement, and is trying to show a better way of living? I like it, because I can put in whatever positive messages I like, and that's what the song means to me.
Now lets all go listen to the album right now. Because it's cool.

Journey to the River Sea

My favorite book as a child was “Journey to the River Sea” by Eva Ibbotson. The story is simple enough (a girl travels to the Amazon to live with cousins after the death of her parents) but for me, it was magical. When Maia, the novel’s main character, arrives in the Amazon, she finds that her cousins are trying to pretend they are still back in England, and they live in a shuttered grey world, closed off from the jungle around them. Maia eventually manages to break free of their restraints and finds a captivating world waiting behind the walls. From the indigenous population to the decadent Russian Counts that live upriver, Maia begins to understand from the people around her how to truly live.

I think it’s important for kids to believe in such magical places – those places where courage and kindness mean everything, and where the very world in front of your eyes is truly magical and exciting. This book still affects me in many ways. I crave travel, not to go to beaches or Disneyland, but to see and understand new cultures and people. I’ve since gone back and re-read the book that I’ve read so many times. Honestly, it’s a little simplistic and definitely written for children. But for me at that young age, those words painted a picture I’ve never forgotten, and from then on I’ve always believed that the world is an extraordinary place, if you only know how to see.

My Media Addiction

This weekend I came to the realization of the full extent of my media addiction. Here's the story:
It was like any normal day. I was having a great time learning in my history class (read here: feeling bad about continually nodding off) when I had the overwhelming need to see if my husband had sent me any text messages . But when I reached for my phone.... IT WAS GONE! Surreptitiously, I started going through my bag to try and locate it (I know! Sleeping AND texting AND cleaning out my bag in class! Please don't judge me...it was Friday afternoon). It was then that the truth hit me: I had lost my phone. It was no more beside me to comfort and guide me. A shadow passed over my day, and the world was just that little bit more of a scary place. After class I began to retrace my steps, but it was to no avail. I was alone. Withdrawal symptoms had begun.
The next morning, BYU lost and found called to tell me that they had my phone. REJOICE! During the time that it was missing (... 18 hours at the most) I missed:
1. 8 phone calls from my cousin-friend trying to tell me that she got engaged
2. almost-but-not-quite 8 phonecalls from my mom reminding me that I needed to help set up my sisters nook
3. one pleading phone call from the RS President asking me to help our with some dinners that evening. (Sorry about that Jill)
4. 506,823 texts from my sister trying to organize our exercising plans for the next day
5. love messages from my husband

Being cut off from the world was very difficult for me. I'm still in recovery mode. Pity my addiction....


P.S Sorry for the melodrama and sarcasm. Sometimes I like to try keep the 18th century Gothic novel writer inside me alive.

Twitter

My husband convinced me to get a twitter account today. I created an account about 10 minutes ago and so far I've been impressed - the background is pretty.
I guess I'm not super demanding when it comes to my social media

The grand question of this generation is whether a single person can simultaneously use more than 5 forms of Media at once, say for example, writing a blog, watching the Jimmer-Jazz game on TV, listening to music, texting, and playing Plants vs. Zombies on my husbands Ipod.......

Let's just say this blog post is taking a little longer than usual to write.

The funniest show on TV...

... is obviously Top Gear. But since a friend of mine introduced me and my husband to the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb, I have decided to put it on the list. I find it surprisingly amusing, which often makes me wonder of kids are enjoying it as much as I do. After all, some of the jokes seem kind of... adult. Not "adult" in the sense of being inappropriate, but its not an easy cheap laugh that I would expect from a kids show. Like when they play on grammar: "I, for one, am starting to get bored, and boredom is something of up with which I will not put!". Or how the best jokes require you to remember random scenes from previous episodes (I obviously won't give an example of this because... it just couldn't be appreciate out of context). Or how everything is so off the wall and unexpected - I mean, they have a pet platypus for goodness sake! You just have to experience it people. Or maybe I just have a childish sense of humor - I would accept this conclusion. 
But now it's time for a Phineas and Ferb Best Moments Tribute!

"Behold, the Melt-inator 6-5000! It has a melting capacity... of 7! That's on a scale from 1 to 5, so that's a big number." 

Isabella: Hey Phineas. 
Phineas: Hey Isabella. 
Isabella: Watcha doin'? 
Phineas: We're making S'Winter. 
Isabella: S'Winter? 
Ferb: It's a unique and logic defying amalgam of Winter and Summer.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Ah, Perry the Platypus, what an unexpected surprise... and by unexpected, I mean completely expected!

Linda: I see your point, Candace. No crazy person would scream at a post like that. I'll be in the dairy section if you want to come yell at some cheese or anything. 

Phineas: We're gonna need a blowtorch and some more peanut butter. 

Phineas [when he sees a satellite]: You know, if that thing falls to Earth, Candace is in charge.

My plan to get fat

We often hear that the media, and television in particular, is contributing to obesity in this country. However, I'm going to put a slightly different spin on this idea, and describe how the media is going to help me get fat and get healthy, all in one! Amazing, I know. Here's the plan:
I have always had problems keeping to a healthy weight. For some reason, I cannot keep fat on my poor skinny bones. Since I am tired of my mom piling man-sized piles of meat on my plate every time I visit, I have decided that I need to get fat and healthy. And thus, my new favorite website in the whole entire world is choosemyplate.gov. If you haven't seen it yet, please, click the link and enjoy a wonderland of healthy wholesomeness. As well as a ton of resources on exercise and healthy eating, you can personalize your account to your own fitness and eating goals. You can keep track of your exercise hours and  plan new activities and schedules. You can get nutritional information for all your favorite foods, and keeps tabs on how close you are to your calorie limits or your folic-acid intake. You can even get a personalized coach to send you annoying emails to remind you to be healthy! I've been distracting myself from doing my homework for a long time now, and I haven't even begun to plumb its depths... so for all of you who are procrastinating writing that essay, go now and get healthy! That's as good of an excuse as any :)

Dear Friends,
It was a day like any other in the Howard Household. After a long hard day of working and studying and cleaning and general productivity, the assignments were finally completed and the dinner was eaten and cleaned up. "Won't it be fun," says my husband, "to sit down and watch something together?". Together we logged on to our shiny new netflix accounts and settled down enjoy some media. Several hours later (slight exaggeration), we had  narrowed it down to these choices:
Tangled
Mythbusters
Doctor Who
North and South
Prince of Persia
Daddy Daycare
A Knight's Tale
Dirty Dancing
That Thing You Do!
Star Trek (I'm going to clarify here- the movie, not the TV show. Sorry Trekkies, I am not one of you...)
Psych
Secretariat
Sense and Sensibility
Phineas and Ferb

Gone are the days when we would just go to out rather limited movie shelf and say "Well... I guess it's Pirates of the Caribbean again!" Life was so simple then...

P.S Just to clarify, and in case my father-in-law (who gifted us the netflix subscription) reads this, Netflix is actually really cool and I am grateful for it :)

In which Emily saves the world, one game at a time.

My Husband and I own a Playstation 3. We love it -we have Netflix and all sort of fun family-friendly games to enjoy together, like Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Ratchet and Clank, and Little Big Planet. However, we do have one video game that would be unquestioning classed as a violent video game. This game is Call of Duty: World at War. In the game you re-enact battles from World War II as either an American or Russian Soldier. It's an exciting, fast paced cooperative game, and my husband and I really enjoy playing it together. The game cleverly appeals to my national pride and sense of morality through assigning you important tasks, such as securing airfields, ridding the world of bad guys, and basically saving the world. All of this, however, cannot overshadow the fact that the main point of the game is to kill other human beings. Violently. And therein lies my dilemma. Is this okay? Is the violence having a negative effect on me and my family?
Most of the current debate on violent video games centers around children and adolescents. Considering the things we read in chapter 1 of our Media Textbook, it seems sensible to be concerned that children may not be able to distinguish the media from reality. I, however, am an adult. I know that a bowl of popcorn on the TV does not spill when you turn the TV over. I know that the people in movies are actors, and I'm even skeptical of the things I hear on the news. I'm not going to start going out and killing people just because I've had practice. So is there anything I should be concerned about?
Just last night, my husband had a nightmare about killing people. And this morning, as stupid as it might sound, I had to check behind the shower curtain for bloody corpse. Do we know that it's not real? Of course. Does that stop it having a effect on us?
I'm still not entirely sure about this issue, but it's worth thinking about.

Why I hate the Hunger Games

There are several reasons why recommending that my husband Chris read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was a bad idea. One, he spent all yesterday reading instead of doing his homework. Two, I spent all of yesterday reading over his shoulder instead of doing my homework. Three, we're starting to have dreams about people eating our legs. Four, I spend most of my time trying to figure out how to convince Katniss to appreciate Peeta. Five, I'm starting to find deep moral lessons in its words. And six, I watched the movie trailer this morning and cried because it was so powerful. I repeat: the movie TRAILER. The Hunger Games is officially taking over my life, and I've already read it once! I know exactly what happens, and still I can't let it go! I propose that The Hunger Games should be required to carry a label saying
WARNING: This book will consume at least 65% of your thoughts for the next 6 months.
Seriously though, if you want to do anything productive in 2012, don't read this book. If you want to live a real life, and have relationships with real people, and worry about real problems, if you have any pride in living.... just stay away.
That's all I have time for.... I have to go read The Hunger Games now.