The Purpose of Being

On friday night I went over to the Student Art Gallery to see the exhibits of art and metaphorical demonstrations that were put on. As I walked through the gallery in my halloween costume of Ronald McDonald with my friend who was dressed as Colonel Sanders we got a few interesting stares but I was delightfully surprised that our appearances were not something that would draw attention over the art displays. As I went out to a friends house I told them about how we had stopped by the gallery while in costume. A friend of mine looked at me and asked me if I was making a statement. And I wasn't really sure how to react to that but then I thought about it more.

The presentation that we went to was The Purpose of Being and how life kind of works its way out with everyone. How everyone has their own kind of journey through life and the way these people expressed those ideas were through art. There were gas pumps hanging from the ceilings and molded heads made of yarn attatched to the walls of the gallery and it made me understand why people participate in the practice of art. I believe that everyone is trying to find their own balance and own purpose of their lives. Now when I walked in there as Ronald McDonald I thought about the kind of statement that might have made in relation to The Purpose of Being. When I looked up the word McDonladism I was connected to this link about McDonaldism and the ways it changes the way people live within their culture. How it changes the way their culture is progressing in the future. It changes the way things have been for a long time and it makes everything commercial almost to a point where everything is going to be run but McDonalds or some other big business. It destroys tradition and individualism. So when I walked in there as Ronald McDonald with Colonel Sanders right next to me it made me think of it almost as a metaphor for commercial business and the way it just walks in to places and simply imposes big business upon them. We walked into an art gallery and represented everything opposite of what art represents. Everyone in the gallery was in the learning and discovery of being a person on an individualistic level as well as a global community of individuals.

The Purpose of Being to me was not something that was just thrown together to be a fun art exhibit but it was put together to make you think about your own purpose in life and how you want to attack it. To live according to your own wills and freedoms as opposed to the big business and commercially owned economies. The power of one is worth more than anything and thats really how I found myself representing more than just a goofy costume on Halloween weekend. I was representing everything that the artist doesn't want to happen but I walked right in anyway.

Media Changing The Way We Change Things?

You know, after reading a few of the article from The New Yorker, read the introduction of Convergence Culture, and watched the presentation of Henry Jenkins I start to really realize that to really understand how media works one has to pull them outside of the spectrum and look at it from afar. Before this class, I never really thought about how media worked through networks of people and how media information acts as a social catalyst for any number of cultural movements. Henry Jenkins really has an outsider's perspective when peering into the media world. He sees the ways that media works through the networks of people throughout the world. I, as a young adult, have been engulfed by this explosion of media since I was just a boy. I never thought about how images and information changes people and how they think. But I'm starting to look from the outside.

In the book "Convergence Culture" by Henry Jenkins, he says that "In the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets sold, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms" (Jenkins 3). I really do believe that and I believe that social networking through the internet is changed who I am and who I am going to be when I'm older. Now is that exactly all bad? I really don't think so. It gives me an understanding of connection between people. It gives me a unique consumption of information everyday that I'm not always exposed to in everyday life. It allows me to reach a broad spectrum of people that I probably have something in common with. I can reach them at almost any moment I need to. Now in terms of gathering people together for a social change? I think this new media we are dealing with is the greatest gift we could have.

After reading about the sit-ins from blacks in the 1970's and the modern day protests that were gathered through twitter I come to think that this ability to rally people who believe in a cause together in a short amount of time is exactly what we need; the ability to create change to a flawed society quicker than ever. We live in a western society where we stress how much change is important in regards to detrimental cultural issues. Through media connections such as Twitter, we are allowing ourselves to rise against the imposing quicker than ever and create that change with less of a push back. It will take not days but hours for people to unite together. I think this will catch on in years to come. Change will be something that happens everyday and it won't seem so drastic as much as it has in the past. It will become apart of who we are as people.

Chicks Man

After seeing "The Social Network" last week and really getting an opportunity to soak it all up, I really see facebook.com in a completely new light. Aaron Sorkin wrote a masterpiece by connecting the three stories of the smartest jerks in the entire world. He showed us a lot about what money can do to people and how being "cool" can be more important than your closest friends. But there was more to the creation of facebook than just this idea of being socially accepted by your peers and accepted into the most prestigious clubs in Harvard (as lame as that is). The single driving factor to this entire explosion of social experiences is girls. Now I know that might sound a little sexist and maybe even trying to dumb it down a little to far but let me explain.

Do you really think that if girls were not into facebook guys would still be tagging themselves in pictures from the night before when they went out for jello shooters and some line dancing? Probably not. I know that without girls on facebook, I think facebook would be the biggest waste of my time (not that it isn't already). Guys don't really care what other guys are thinking, doing, or planning to do or at least any of the guys that I know. Guys are on facebook because they have an opportunity to look at girls online and feel a bit closer to them even if they don't know the girl. I mean of course its a great way to connect with long lost friends and a place to store photos. But its not like it was all that hard in the first place. There are plenty of picture storage sites on the internet and if people really wanted to find Jimmy from down the street 10 years ago, they probably could. Facebook just gives them an easier way to find them without bending over backwards.

Its pretty clear in the film that Mark Zuckerberg is more socially awkward than you or I and had a tough time with understanding what's going on in the brain of the opposite sex. The very first scene in the movie was a girl pretty much telling him that "Mark, you just don't get it". Do you think that if Zuckerberg was a super cute, well groomed dude (that happened to be a genius computer nerd) he would have still created facebook? I'm not saying he wouldn't have but I can't deny the fact that it was easier for him to hide behind a computer screen to talk girls than it was to approach them in person and strike up an interesting conversation. I mean in the film, he got exactly what he was looking for; facebook groupies. Girls who wanted to talk to him for some other reason than who he actually was as a person because in reality Mark Zuckerberg comes off as a real asshole. Now lets be honest, its easier for everyone to do that. So then the creation of facebook is a manifestation of Zuckerberg and his fears of women.

But I can't blame him. The guy found a way to beat the system and it seemed to work out for him. I mean an Asian girlfriend and 25 billion dollars later, it seems like Zuckerberg has the last laugh.

Podcast by Michael Quinones

Podcast by Michael Quinones