If Only Everyone Could Hear The Music In My Head...

Basically, it's impossible for me not to use media. This weekend was no exception.

Saturday I attempted to not use media because I was going to be on a bus for 3 hours anyway. I thought, hey I won't use much media. When I woke up, I packed my bags, and hopped in the shower. Then I got a text from my ride saying she's here. There was the first time I messed up. I couldn't help it, it was too early to honk.

So we get to the bus terminal, and eat, then hop on the bus. We get to Atlantic City, NJ and go to the hotel. My best friend wasn't going to sit in silence so the TV was on while I got dressed and got ready to go. Our hotel's wireless internet wasn't working so that stopped me from inadvertently getting online.

We were in Atlantic City for the Boys Like Girls show, and we walked over. I have to give one of the opening bands (All Time Low) a gift, but it happens to be food. So I can't bring it in, so I have to call Alex to give him their gift.

Inside the show was 4 hours of no media, until the show was over. Then everyone was eating dinner so I was doing great without media, until everyone wanted to go dancing, which involved music, of course. When we finally made it back to our hotel room, I can't sleep without the TV on, which of course is media yet again...

Sadly, even the simplest of days required so much media in the end. I guess it's sad that I can't go a full day without media, but everything I do now a days requires it. Little things become necessities, like my alarm clock, a phone call to know it's time to go. Then entertainment-wise, in a lot of cases it's used solely as entertainment. I use media more of as an aid to entertainment.

Dancing, for example, isn't using media, just the music used to dance does. Going out doesn't require using a cell phone, but to know my ride is here does.

Media defines me in so many ways, from a cell phone number, to the software I have on my computer that logs the bands I listen to most. That defines me. Technology has the power to remember our identity in so many ways. Think about all the passwords that get you into certain sites with your own personal user name. Your online banking, your MySpace, your email, even your school account, they're all our different identities, and they all define me and you.

Paglia's Generation

For me, Paglia won on page 289. The use of metaphors all tied together perfectly, and drew me in. The comparison of playing football to watching TV or comparing driving to watching television. Paglia related to the here & now in every aspect of argument. The hair cuts in Charlie's Angels, and pop culture in general. Postman kept reverting to the past for his arguments. Paglia also talks about her generation as a whole "they can't understand how we who were born after the war can read a book and watch TV at the same time." With each argument Paglia makes television much more relevant and necessary to culture as a whole. Postman makes his argument strong but continues to make print sound even more outdated.

With Postman's generation he discusses focusing on one thing over anther. Postman looks at reading a book as a single action that involves your attention. Paglia lives for the here and now, the multi tasking. Paglia show's how television can be analyzed but usually isn't. I believe that television can be held to an equally as high esteem as literature if people were to sit down and actually think about it, rather than scanning it. In this day & age, our generation can scan anything, including a book, thus losing the imaginative aspects Postman refers to.