Gory, Gory What a Hell of a Way to Die!

“Sir… Sir they’re shooting at us.”
“Well shoot back.”

Almost any soldier who has been in a combat situation can relate to Black Hawk Down. For me though, it’s a special movie. I always feel silly when I tell people that it had a lot to do with me joining the Army, but it, in fact, did. I saw it in the theatre with three friends and midway through it I leaned over to one of them and said, “We should do this.” All three of us went to join the Army and were deployed to combat zones. Initially I just thought that it was a cool movie. Being a Ranger looked like the coolest most hardcore thing that a person could I was down. I probably watched that movie a hundred times before I ever shipped off to basic. I would watch it and get excited thinking about the extreme scenarios and situations that I might soon find myself in, and the crazy missions I would be conducting. What I saw then was an adventure movie. Of all the times I watched the movie before I went to combat I can honestly say that I never once “teared up”.

The movie that I see now that I’m out of the military and have done it all, isn’t the same movie that I saw then. It strikes me in a completely different way. I don’t see a bunch of young guys gearing up for a day of excitement, but rather a group of friends who just wanna get the mission over with, cracking jokes to hide their nervousness. I actually feel anxious when they’re in the birds on their way to conduct the raid. It’s the ending though, that truly gets to me now. I never understood before, the final two speeches at the end of the movie (the video clips that I have added). I just kind of thought they were sappy scenes to end the movie with. However, now I understand that those two scenes sum up the entire point of the movie, that war is hell and the only thing that keeps you going is your friends. I never understood that. Now I know exactly what the guys in these scenes and saying, and honestly, I got choked up when I was finding these clips.

Evil Media or Fair Business?

Is there such a thing as “pure media” anymore? Was there ever? After considerable time spent researching the topic, I’m inclined to say no. However, being an optimist, I’m hoping that I’m wrong about that. Are media conglomerates really as evil as everyone makes them about to be? Again, I’m inclined to say no. After all, is it really the sole responsibility of the media to ensure that the public is informed? Unfortunately I think the general public has misplaced trust in these institutions. Wasn’t it Michael Eisner of Walt Disney himself that said, “We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.”? A CEO can’t be any more honest about their company’s motives than that. This however, is where I find myself torn on the subject. As a capitalist and an American, I want to say, “What’s wrong with a company working in their own interest to make a profit?” I mean isn’t that one of the principles this country is founded upon? But another part of me thinks that, considering we’re the ones consuming the goods of these media conglomerates, they owe us something more; At least an unbiased opinion if nothing else. I don’t believe however, that there can ever be a clear solution to the problem of big media; the entire problem itself is far too complex. The only answer is government regulation on media. To me though, this isn’t much of a solution at all. In fact this seems counterproductive. At least as the media institutions exist today, flawed as they may be, they are able to give at least their view on any topic. In a government regulated, or controlled system you have the possibility of seeing even more biased views than already exist, or worse some stories or programs being cut completely. I wonder if the opponents of the mass media institutions have taken this possibility into account at all. No matter what happens on this subject in the future I don’t think people will any better or worse off. Even if government regulation occurs I believe that it will just change the form of the debate. For this reason I think people should just relax on this subject a bit, there are probably more worthy causes, with positive outcomes for people to devote their time to.

The Kids are Alright

As a parent myself, I admit that I haven't given a tremendous amount of thought to the appropriateness of the multitude of media content that my son is faced with. Of course, he's two, and isn't exactly trying to stay up late and catch the new episode of The Walking Dead (right now). For that matter, he doesn't understand the internet or technology in general. He thinks the sole purpose of the iPad is to download Elmo's World. He still doesn't understand why the "big TV" is ever tuned to anything besides Sesame Street. At this age I'm not sure there is much to worry about in the form of media exposure on him. I know that someday soon all of this will change though. Monitoring my child will be completely different from when I was a child. I didn't grow up with a computer in my house. The only media exposure my parents had to worry with was basic cable. It makes me wonder what new parents, or rather "newish" parents, are doing to monitor their children.
My sister has an 11 year old step-son that she has been helping to raise since he was 7. I figured that since we have completely conflicting ideologies, she would be an interesting person to give me some perspective on this topic. She told me that she heavily monitors what her step-son watches on TV. He has his own TV in his bedroom...however; the parental controls are activated on it. He isn't allowed to watch anything rated TV13 or higher. She said did tell me that sometimes exceptions are made, but if this is case he must watch with my sister and his father. He isn't allowed to use the internet unless an adult is in the room, and even then he's only allowed to visit "family-friendly" gaming websites. My sister told me that lately he has wanted X-Box Live. Apparently, they told him absolutely not, and said that the issue wouldn't be readdressed until he turned 13. She said the reason for this was that they wouldn't be able to sensor or monitor what was being said by other players. I found the whole x-box situation to particularly interesting, because they monitor everything else so intensely, yet he's allowed to play any video game he wants, regardless of content.
When I asked about positive media content, she and I had a bit of a disagreement. She said she believes the shows on the Disney Channel, which are aimed towards his age demographic, are positive. I disagree. I think those shows are no different from the garbage that adults waste hours of their time watching. There is definitely something more positive than watching those shows that children can be doing to better themselves. That, bettering ourselves, should be the goal of every person, period... especially parents.

I digress, as you see; though the subject of media and children can be a touchy one, it's one that should be addressed. It's especially important now that media is everywhere and that exposure to its content is almost constant. As for parental discretion though, obviously the choice as to what their children can view is theirs alone. I think no matter what, as long as questionable topics are addressed and concern shown, the children will continue to be alright.

The Dark Side of Digital

I'm sure at one time or another we have all stopped and thought about what technology has done for us. We have all marveled at our cell phone capabilities or a new video game system and the crazy functions that it's able to perform. Now, in our digital world, it seems that we only thrive if we have the most modern and fastest of technologies at our fingers. Have you ever stopped to think though; about what being connected is doing to us as a culture, the dark side of digital?

Today we are more connected than any group or civilization has ever been. Perhaps a more appropriate way of saying that would be, "today we have the ability to be more connected", because it seems that even though we have this connection that there is a fundamental disconnect. People don't seem to talk to one another anymore. That is to say that people don't seem to carry on conversation anymore. Now it seems that each of us exists within our own little world, and anyone not stored somewhere in our contacts isn't part of that world.

What about the effect that all of these "digital distractions" are having on our young children? In my Communications class, we recently viewed the documentary "Digital Nation", and I believe that it brought up both relevant questions and good points concerning the younger generations. One such question was, "is the brain capable of handling, on a daily basis, all of the information it receives from multiple media outlets?" Most people would say yes, but all studies point to the contrary. Young people are spending an average of 50+ hours per week with digital media. We have only recently begun to see the effects of this. The movie gave an example of teens in South Korea going to "technology rehab" centers, and recently read an article about sleep texting, and sleep emailing. Really, this is now recognized as a true medical condition, similar to sleep walking or apnea. Doctors say that this new condition is caused from the stress of having too much to do during our waking lives. One Doctor explains, "People are doing so much during a normal day that it can mean that they feel like they're "on call" even at night, because it's so easy to receive emails constantly, and get notifications from smartphones, it becomes more difficult for us to separate our waking and sleeping lives."

The world seems to be moving at a much faster pace now, and instant gratification seems to be the preference of everyone. The video at the beginning of this blog is David Fricke, Senior Editor of "Rolling Stone". I'm inclined to believe the same as he does, that people don't stop to really enjoy things anymore, that everything is done in a rush, or at least with a sense of urgency. I Hope in the future we learn to slow things down, and once again discover the art of conversation.