Granted I was in kindergarten when the 2000's came rolling around--but most 90s trends continued into the early 2000s. I remember N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears. I remember Airheads, Gushers, Fruit Roll-ups and the commercials for them all. I remember Lisa Frank and overalls. But what I most remember, the thing about the 90's that truly has a stake in my childhood, is the cartoons.
Man, those cartoons. My brother and I were those kids who woke up early every Saturday morning to catch some. From SpongeBob, Rugrats, the Fairly OddParents and Rocket Power on Nickelodeon to Looney Tunes, The Powerpuff Girls, and Dexter's Laboratory on Cartoon Network to Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire on Disney Channel...I can go on. So many good cartoons! My mom kept on having to limit our TV time because we watched them too much.
Of course, this was our childhood, and it's natural to miss the childhood days. But something happened to our childhood stations too. Disney Channel led the way--little by little it phased out all the cartoons in favor of real-time shows, and Nickelodeon eventually started following this trend too. Not to mention, all the shows got less funny. I still find my childhood cartoons much funnier than anything on Disney Channel right now, and it's safe to say I'm not a kid anymore.
But something else has happened that sort of worries me a little bit. These shows made for kids are all set in high school, and the characters have crushes and go to high school parties and do other high school stuff. Granted, nothing actually ridiculous has happened yet, but I don't know...I don't think kids should be thinking about dating when they barely know what a good load of schoolwork is yet. When I was a kid, I thought about riding a bike and drawing and playing laser tag, not going to the cool kids' parties. Maybe I'm just too nostalgic, but I feel that kids are being taught that doing grown-up stuff and acting like grown-ups is cool, when it's better for them to be kids. A kid's life is less complex than an adult's for a reason. Can the TV shows please just let kids be kids?
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
I get sad from going on Facebook a lot...
...because it always seems like everyone has such a great social life. Like everyone has found their niche and has a bunch of best friends who they love and the best friends love them back. And I feel sad because I know that I'm kind of insecure about friends right now, and it appears that everyone is getting so close and having a really good time except for me.
But then I looked at my Facebook and I realized that it doesn't say everything about me. I mean, in all of my photos I'm smiling, and it appears that I've found one organization and stuck to it for friends and all that stuff (I haven't, I'm in a couple different ones). And then it clicked--I'm a college freshman. How many college freshmen don't have their entire lives panned out on Facebook? How many college students are kind of insecure about friends right now, just like me? I've found increasingly that it is better to be with people in person than to Facebook message them. I think Facebook has kind of an impersonal feel.
It's strange. Facebook has kind of become a place where you sort of follow people's lives--or whatever they choose to put up--rather than actually connecting with them. I'm not calling for people to post their entire lives on Facebook or for Facebook to die. I think it's kind of dangerous to put up so many life details on the Internet, and Facebook is useful for some things. But I guess I've learned that Facebook stalking in excess is not healthy, especially when you're feeling insecure--in that place you don't see people's insecurities, but you see yours, and it makes you feel inferior when you're really not.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm probably going to have to go on Facebook less. The problem is that I get bored of working...and also, I actually do use the site to connect with some of the groups I'm in and to post inspirational stuff. The problem is that I have mostly been posting my inspirational stuff on Tumblr, not Facebook, for the past however many months. And it's annoying because I have only 20 Tumblr followers, but I have...a lot of Facebook friends. Much bigger mission field/audience on Facebook, right!?
And here comes my blogging story:
I like writing. I used to write a lot of fiction when I was younger, and a year-ish ago I thought I should start blogging. I went to Tumblr thinking it was a blogging site and I found that it's a bit different than that, but I went on it anyway, and I changed my URL and after that I got a couple of followers. But honestly, Tumblr has not been that useful to me. I follow a lot of inspirational Tumblrs but I don't know...it's as if I don't actually read things, and sometimes I end up reblogging cool photos or really good points, but I've not been actually blogging, which is what I actually want to do. And as I said, it's been stealing inspiration from my Facebook. I used to put a bunch of inspirational stuff on Facebook, and it stopped when I got some followers on Tumblr. There are a lot of Tumblrs of the same kind as mine that are doing the job better than mine is, and I have a much bigger mission field/audience on Facebook. Also, I have this actual blog now.
So this is what I'm feeling: I should delete my Tumblr, and continue to update my Facebook with inspirational stuff, and blog here.
But that doesn't necessarily justify my constant going on Facebook and stalking photos/the news feed. I think I'm going to try something. I am going to try to go on Facebook every two days, instead of every day. Sometimes when I don't go on it I think I'm missing a lot, but I know I'm really not.
But then I looked at my Facebook and I realized that it doesn't say everything about me. I mean, in all of my photos I'm smiling, and it appears that I've found one organization and stuck to it for friends and all that stuff (I haven't, I'm in a couple different ones). And then it clicked--I'm a college freshman. How many college freshmen don't have their entire lives panned out on Facebook? How many college students are kind of insecure about friends right now, just like me? I've found increasingly that it is better to be with people in person than to Facebook message them. I think Facebook has kind of an impersonal feel.
It's strange. Facebook has kind of become a place where you sort of follow people's lives--or whatever they choose to put up--rather than actually connecting with them. I'm not calling for people to post their entire lives on Facebook or for Facebook to die. I think it's kind of dangerous to put up so many life details on the Internet, and Facebook is useful for some things. But I guess I've learned that Facebook stalking in excess is not healthy, especially when you're feeling insecure--in that place you don't see people's insecurities, but you see yours, and it makes you feel inferior when you're really not.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'm probably going to have to go on Facebook less. The problem is that I get bored of working...and also, I actually do use the site to connect with some of the groups I'm in and to post inspirational stuff. The problem is that I have mostly been posting my inspirational stuff on Tumblr, not Facebook, for the past however many months. And it's annoying because I have only 20 Tumblr followers, but I have...a lot of Facebook friends. Much bigger mission field/audience on Facebook, right!?
And here comes my blogging story:
I like writing. I used to write a lot of fiction when I was younger, and a year-ish ago I thought I should start blogging. I went to Tumblr thinking it was a blogging site and I found that it's a bit different than that, but I went on it anyway, and I changed my URL and after that I got a couple of followers. But honestly, Tumblr has not been that useful to me. I follow a lot of inspirational Tumblrs but I don't know...it's as if I don't actually read things, and sometimes I end up reblogging cool photos or really good points, but I've not been actually blogging, which is what I actually want to do. And as I said, it's been stealing inspiration from my Facebook. I used to put a bunch of inspirational stuff on Facebook, and it stopped when I got some followers on Tumblr. There are a lot of Tumblrs of the same kind as mine that are doing the job better than mine is, and I have a much bigger mission field/audience on Facebook. Also, I have this actual blog now.
So this is what I'm feeling: I should delete my Tumblr, and continue to update my Facebook with inspirational stuff, and blog here.
But that doesn't necessarily justify my constant going on Facebook and stalking photos/the news feed. I think I'm going to try something. I am going to try to go on Facebook every two days, instead of every day. Sometimes when I don't go on it I think I'm missing a lot, but I know I'm really not.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
CRUNCH TIME!
I have really been introduced to college now.
Granted I've been here for a month. I spent the last two weeks getting used to living in my dorm, getting lost trying to get to places, trying to make friends, socializing, and getting used to the college class schedule. I was kind of floating through, thinking somewhat of classes but largely paying attention to my social life and finding out how not to get locked out of my room.
Then, last week, I got my first grades back. Let me just say that they were a nice abrupt introduction to college as an institution of higher LEARNING.
Let the games begin.
I'm actually happy, though, that my first grades were something of a smack in the face. Before that classes were kind of a haze. I knew that I needed to do well--I had only been told that seven million times by parents, siblings and everyone else before going--but I didn't know what I needed to do, and I didn't know necessarily how this was going to happen. Now I feel ready to tackle these classes and make them obey me.
I've gotten into more than one conversation where the other person mentioned staying in the library until 4:00 am or 6:30 am to study. Quite frankly, I can't do that. I'm not very good at staying up past 1:00 am, and I've learned from junior year that getting zero sleep during the week and crashing on the weekends is not the way to go. Med school/grad school/the next few years might prove me wrong on that, but for now I reserve my right to sleep for a reasonable amount of time. I've also found that I'm much better at studying pretty much anywhere that's not my dorm.
I've figured that I should probably spend most of my time out of classes or extracurriculars in the library or a computer lab doing work. If I do that I'll actually be able to sleep at night.
Go classwork!
But, but, but, I also somewhat feel that if I do this rigorous schedule I won't have any time to rest or do some type of quiet time. I'm not exactly used to scheduling that but it's going to have to happen sometime.
Granted I've been here for a month. I spent the last two weeks getting used to living in my dorm, getting lost trying to get to places, trying to make friends, socializing, and getting used to the college class schedule. I was kind of floating through, thinking somewhat of classes but largely paying attention to my social life and finding out how not to get locked out of my room.
Then, last week, I got my first grades back. Let me just say that they were a nice abrupt introduction to college as an institution of higher LEARNING.
Let the games begin.
I'm actually happy, though, that my first grades were something of a smack in the face. Before that classes were kind of a haze. I knew that I needed to do well--I had only been told that seven million times by parents, siblings and everyone else before going--but I didn't know what I needed to do, and I didn't know necessarily how this was going to happen. Now I feel ready to tackle these classes and make them obey me.
I've gotten into more than one conversation where the other person mentioned staying in the library until 4:00 am or 6:30 am to study. Quite frankly, I can't do that. I'm not very good at staying up past 1:00 am, and I've learned from junior year that getting zero sleep during the week and crashing on the weekends is not the way to go. Med school/grad school/the next few years might prove me wrong on that, but for now I reserve my right to sleep for a reasonable amount of time. I've also found that I'm much better at studying pretty much anywhere that's not my dorm.
I've figured that I should probably spend most of my time out of classes or extracurriculars in the library or a computer lab doing work. If I do that I'll actually be able to sleep at night.
Go classwork!
But, but, but, I also somewhat feel that if I do this rigorous schedule I won't have any time to rest or do some type of quiet time. I'm not exactly used to scheduling that but it's going to have to happen sometime.
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