Entertainment And Our Lives

Last tuesday I decided to write a blog post. I did absolutely everything in my power to make it a very shameful, stressful, and embarrassing situation if I did not blog in a timely manner. I knew ahead of time that I needed a substitute for the motivation I had during the competition, yet my plans backfired. Despite numerous reminders, I kept on getting distracted by coding or by the Hunger Games (great book, by the way). In fact, I feel kind of disrespectful for in a sense ignoring my reminders. That wasn't a good feeling. Anyway, here it is tuesday and I only just finished. To make up for it, I made the post extra-long. Please forgive any rambling.

I wrote the above section of text this morning. I intended to finish this post before writing my paper, but the good thing is that it didn't happen (otherwise I would have never finished the paper). I don't know what it is about this post. Even though it isn't as lengthy as I envisioned, it seems to take so many thoughts and give it form. And yeah, even though it's lame that it took so long, though in the competition I would have easily finished in a day, it is kind of nice to be able to take a long time for something. And not just make it good, but make it great. The sad thing is that I read this over again and actually this wasn't really that good of a post. Oh well. At least it is done!

Movies, television, video games, books, etc. They all tell a story, usually one which is either completely fictional or heavily modified. I'm not denouncing these mediums of entertainment, after all I use each one liberally myself (let's be honest, probably too liberally). In fact, I undoubtedly have more experience with versions of society as presented in these mediums compared to that of reality. Okay, we all know that these stories are fabricated. Fake. They were written by people for the sole purpose of providing entertainment to people like me who don't like having actual lives. Okay, duh. Everyone knows that. Whenever we watch a movie, we know that it isn't real (one of the many reasons being that Hollywood has no idea how technology or guns work).

But whether it be rational thought or not, our daily lives seem to be tainted with the idea that we aren't doing things right (this is completely unrelated, but I'm feeling fancy because I used <em> instead of <i> for those italics back there. Also, the semantics meaning makes more sense, but no one really cares about that anyway).

Entertainment often attempts to imitate real life. And often they do a pretty good job of it too. And yet at the same time the entire structure of real life is so different.

In movies and tv shows, especially from when we were younger, a common example of "being nice" was to reach out to those who are lonely. A classic case of this is a school cafeteria (yeah, yeah, I know. We're homeschooled so we wouldn't have to even think about this) where a lonely person sits by himself day after day. Finally the person who is being nice decided to sit down next to this lonely person. This is presented as being a very good thing to do. And yet, this lesson which we've been taught so many times is fundamentally wrong. There was at least one time (I was in either in ninth or tenth grade) when I was in a circumstance in which I didn't know very many people very well (most were a few years older than me). But when people I didn't know talked to me, it was like it was charitable act. Here is this lonely person over here and I need to help him. Now I wasn't lonely or anything. I don't think there has ever been a time in my life when I was "lonely". So I didn't need help at all, I was quite fine as it was. Sure, a person being friendly is one thing (I personally love friendly people). But to be given the feeling that I needed the help of someone else to socialize? That was kind of harmful to the old pride. Of course, it is hard to blame said people. They were just trying to be kind. But I think it is a good example of something that is ground into our head's as being a nice thing to do, but ends up going the wrong way.
(P.S. I hate the thought that I have to clarify the above paragraph, but I probably should. If you reading this, you probably don't know said people, and it really wasn't a big deal at all. It was very forgettable, yet I've remembered anyway so that I myself won't fall for the same blunder)

In Literature Club we sometimes talk about habitual character traits. Because it is very difficult to relay efficiently every aspect of a character, an author might focus on a few certain traits or habits and repeat them often in the text. Thus, when you think about the character, those will often be the first thing you think of. Now in a story this is all well and good, but not exactly in real life. People can't really be defined to easily. You see, that's why I don't like talking negatively about people when they aren't around. Not only are they unable to defend themselves, but the person is confined to a few sentences.

And what is up with the distorted views on friendship? If a boy and a girl are together for any period of time, they fall in love. No exceptions. Seriously, none. Kind of really lame.

Most tv shows seem to follow the same tired-out formulas. No matter how desperate the situation, it's probable that by the time the episode finishes it will have all been tied up in a neat little bundle. The following episodes aren't affected, and everyone forgets about the whole thing. And even if there is lasting consequences (such as someone dieing), it is all to further the plot.

Not to mention the fact that everything has to be "exciting". The bar goes higher and higher all the time, until it is impossible for the main character to take a nap without waking up with aliens all over the place. Yeah, yeah, I know. It is all entertainment. But have you noticed the cultural shift? Our lives become "boring" in comparison to these fantastic worlds we see in our entertainment. This isn't necessarily bad, I just don't think we have enough perspective.

I read through everything again (don't you love how I'm spending as much time talking about blogging as I do actually blogging?). You'll notice how I have paragraphs which are are only a sentence or two long. Those are the ideas that I wrote down quickly, and then went on to the next one before they got finished. And now these nuggets of ideas will never enter full bloom. Kind of depressing.

Looking Back At 2011

Step one: go to this link.
Step two: add Tag Team, replace Allie with Ryan, and take away anything that I wasn't actually part of.

And there you have it, my New Year's post!