Dog With a Blog

For my coding project, I have been viewing television shows geared towards preteens and adolescents. The humor is often base and the plot lines are consistently predictable and unrealistic. But that's besides the point. What bothered me was the portrayal of their leading ladies. As I watched "Dog With a Blog", I was utterly shocked. The star of the show is a young teen girl...who only gushes about her boyfriend, and wears enough makeup, fitting clothing, and hair products to pass for a thirty year old woman. It broke my heart. I felt uncomfortable viewing her, recognizing that a 13 year old was more glamorous than I, but also because I realized that this girl was the new role model for tweens. It shocked me further as I looked at pictures of her from the previous season: the difference between the two was astounding. The fresh-faced, loose clothes, spunky little girl had been robbed of her carefree appearance in a matter of fifteen episodes! Yet, I think she was robbed of more than her wardrobe. Her character was quickly revolutionized from a kid that was completely absorbed in her love for her dog, to a young woman whose dialogue only revolved around crushes and boys. It's tragic. I wish I had something more remarkable to post about this subject, but I'm too bummed about it to think of something profound to say...the only words that come to mind are "ick", "bummer", "gross", etc.


Season One Images:










AND......

SEASONS TWO AND THREE







***Granted, the young lady is consistently dressed appropriately--nothing revealing or terribly provocative, which is actually pretty refreshing. But the whole basis THE DOG ON THE BLOG, was hardly mentioned anymore...because she was too busy flirting! Yikes.
There's so much that needs to be said regarding the implications of media portrayals on young ladies. But I won't delve into it. I'll just say this: we are what we watch. As we continue to show girls TV content where characters are only good for flirting, young ladies are going to adopt a similar perception of their own worth.

Normal Relationships

I was raised in a conservative, Christian home; I was surrounded by conservative, Christian neighbors; and I only had conservative, Christian role-models in my life. I had wonderful, dedicated relationships to reference as I grew up. I always knew what ideal relationships looked like. But I couldn't help but wonder, as I grew up, whether these relationships were applicable to me. I figured that my parents, neighbors, and the parents of my peers were wonderful models of how a desirable relationship should look like, but that I could not personally relate to them because I was a young woman living in the 21st century. I began to assume that these lovely relationships were ideal--but not particularly realistic. I mean, I grew up in a utopia--Utah is, after all, quite removed from what one would experience in other parts of the world. Since I grew up surrounded by Mormons, I could only compare relationships to what I'd seen in a Mormon context.

Where, then, did I look for "real-life" examples of relationships? Well, Grey's Anatomy and Friends, of course. Those shows portrayed relationships that I knew I would never encounter in my small hometown of Centerville, Utah. And though I certainly never aspired to the depicted relationships in these shows, I did assume that their characterizations of love and romance might be more close to what I might experience than the blissful yet dull characterizations I saw at home. I assumed that what I witnessed at home was idyllic, but something that I couldn't personally aspire to. I figured that my parents and neighbors were remarkably lucky, but that I would have to be a little more cautious because relationships simply weren't that squeaky-clean today. I assumed that my home life was far too removed from what really happens in the world.

This makes me so sad. I mean, how does that even MAKE SENSE? Television is more realistic than the things I see in real life???

 No. I refuse to believe that. While sexual promiscuity, including relationships based on sexual gratification as opposed to personal commitment, may be becoming the increasingly popular norm of our culture today, that does not change the fact that ideal circumstances can be MY normal. Yes, my parents' committed relationship does not match what we would expect to see in the "real world", but why on Earth does that matter? It thrived in MY world! I lived it--and so I know that it can be achieved.

I'm not going to lower my expectations about love, dedication, and fidelity in relationships. The experiences of my family and friends may not be "normal"--but I dare say that I knew that from the start. They've always been much, much better.

Email=Efficiency?

Many of my friends rave about the supposed efficiency of email. 

"You can avoid awkward conversations with email."

"You can reply at any time. There's no pressure."

"It's SO MUCH FASTER."

Well, I think they're all full of it. Emails are less than efficient. It would be faster for me to simply walk the twenty minutes across campus than to write a simple email.

Why? Oh, you know, just because I'm the type of person that over-analyzes. Every. Stinking. Thing. 

Honestly truly, it takes me twenty-five minutes to write a one paragraph email. I'm never certain whether my joke is going to come off as sarcasm or if it's not obvious enough to be a joke so that it's instead perceived as a really really dumb comment. But if  I leave it out, I might be considered far too serious and boring. So then I overcompensate, by including smiley faces and exclamation points after every comment. This results in my email appearing to be written by a giggly 12 year old girl...which is just marvelous.

By the time I finally compose the letter, and I'm about to press the send button, I begin to wonder: did it take me too long to respond? Oh my goodness. Are they going to assume that I'm not committed enough to them to email quickly? Do they assume that I'm incompetent because it took me so long to email back? Or worse, do I seem overeager by emailing them so quickly?

Oh heavens. It's just the worst. 

Oh my goodness. Look how great this is! With the recent push by church leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to flood the world with the gospel, LDS.org has also pitched in to make church more easily shared through social networking and pinterest. Those little sweethearts have even begun creating their own "memes" of inspirational quotes. Here are some of my favorites:

Living Beneath My Privileges

"You are growing up with one of the greatest tools for good in the history of man: the Internet. With it comes an elaborate buffet of choices. The abundance of choice, however, carries with it an equal portion of accountability. It facilitates your access to both the very best and the very worst the world has to offer. With it you can accomplish great things in a short period of time, or you can get caught up in endless loops of triviality that waste your time and degrade your potential. "
--Randall L Ridd, April 2014

Isn't it cool how I have access to nearly every form of media on my Iphone? In class we've discussed ads, music, books, TV, and video games. Check, check, check,check, and check. We haven't yet talked about social networking sites, but BOOM those are accessible through my Iphone too. Surfing the internet is also a possibility through my phone, and of course there's the means of using my phone to communicate through text messages, phone calls, skype, and snapchats.

What I'm trying to get at is that I have unlimited potential through my phone. Unfortunately, I consistently live beneath my privileges.

I have access to all forms of information--but I usually only access IMDB.
I have a variety of apps that educate me about the gospel--but I only use them on Sundays because I don't want to carry my heavy scriptures.
I have databases full of educational and riveting videos--but I only use Youtube as a means of looking up funny cat videos.

I hope that we can remember the privilege we are entrusted with when we can use such powerful, enabling technology! If we are wise, we literally can use these devices to transform ourselves. We can become like God with these things. It's just a little concerning to me that these devices are often drawing me further, rather than nearer to my Heavenly Father.

Here's one last great quote from our church leadership:

There is much that is good with our easy access to communication and information. I have found it helpful to access research articles, conference talks, and ancestral records, and to receive e-mails, Facebook reminders, tweets, and texts. As good as these things are, we cannot allow them to push to one side those things of greatest importance. How sad it would be if the phone and computer, with all their sophistication, drowned out the simplicity of sincere prayer to a loving Father in Heaven. Let us be as quick to kneel as we are to text.
--Ian S. Ardern, "A Time To Prepare", October 2011

Small Potatoes

As my niece and I were watching TV today, a music video began playing. We were immediately entranced by this brief music segment. The stars of the segment were....SINGING POTATOES.

Needless to say, it was remarkably bizarre. 

My niece and I were a little disturbed by the whole experience. I mean, seriously: just watch it. 

After the song finished I turned to my niece to make sure she wasn't permanently and emotionally scarred by the experience. 

"Audrey, ummm. What did you think of that song? Are... you okay?"

Audrey stared at me. Her eyes were wide open, and her lips seemed to almost quiver. Finally, after what seemed like an endless pause, three year old Audrey responded:

"Mandy. Those potatoes weren't even wearing pants. That's so gross."

It's Exhausting

One of my favorite movie clips comes from "He's Just Not that Into You". In the clip, Drew Barrymore's character Mary explains how with technology, we have unlimited means of receiving rejection by men. It's hilarious, because it's very true. Gone are the days where a man simply says "I"m not interested". Instead, you notice that their responses to your texts are delayed. When you post something on their Facebook wall, they simply like it without responding or they might untag themselves from a picture. And then there's telephone etiquette--is it ever appropriate to have a DTR over text? If a date invitation is carried out via a voicemail, are you allowed to also reject them by leaving them a voice message? In Mary's own words, technology truly does make relationships "exhausting".

General Conference

Some claim that media is a negative resource, one that only transmits negative messages and images, and that often robs children of their innocence. I've been known to join this negative mindset, viewing media as the perfect scapegoat for society's problems.

Yet after watching eight hours of completely wholesome media this weekend, I recognized how one-sided my faulty thinking has been. How remarkable that satellite broadcasting can enable the inspired words of God's prophets to be spread across the world--reaching the 15 million members of this church!

I'm truly humbled that our Heavenly Father has allowed the development of this technology, which can transmit his words so quickly to his children. I realized that the sweet spirit I felt was brought to my home, using a (supposedly treacherous) television as its medium.

I love general conference. I love God's word. I'm so grateful that millions of God's children, dotting 130+ nations of this world, were able to listen to his words.