The war for your attention has given us an era of unparalleled content choices
When was the last time you heard somebody say they were bored?
The last recollection I have of someone telling me they were bored was via an MSN message. (MSN was like iMessage of the 2000s, for those born in the 2000s.) That might sound peculiar in the context of 2019, particularly because it’s difficult to imagine a time when you could have access to the internet while simultaneously being bored. Remember the days of dial-up internet? Oh, how things have changed.
Television still essentially works the same as it did 20 years ago, except there has been an explosion in the quantity and quality of content. The TV season is no longer September to May, with the doldrums of summer reruns in between. There is just one 12-month season, with higher peaks and fewer valleys. Hollywood celebrities famous for being in films, such as Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman, are flocking to the small screen in “prestige” shows. …
As the media landscape continues to evolve, sports fandom continues to be redefined. Yet, archaic TV ratings are still how we measure a league’s success.
2020 was a hell of a rollercoaster for everyone, but perhaps those in the world of sports had the bumpiest ride. Sports — like practically every other industry in the world — was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of that, with athletes today commendably taking a greater interest in social issues, the leagues that employ them are increasingly expected to follow suit, and, for the most part in 2020, they did, while simultaneously dealing with the pandemic. …
Barack Obama recently criticized the “Defund The Police” slogan and was, in turn, criticized himself, drawing further attention to the semantics of the phrase.
Ever since May 25th, 2020, when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, calls to “Defund The Police” have penetrated the public consciousness. The murder of George Floyd sparked protests around the globe, many of which sought to draw attention to the unjust, brutal, and too-often fatal, treatment of black people at the hands of the police. “Black Lives Matter”, both the slogan and the organization, existed prior to the murder of Michael Brown, but reached new levels of awareness after August 9th, 2014. …
The 45th President of the United States has been a boon for journalism. If he loses the 2020 election, how will things change?
After the host of The Apprentice formally announced his presidential candidacy in 2015, Donald J. Trump became a golden goose for the news industry. Not only was he already a public figure of significant interest, but his brand of politics was so shocking and offbeat that you either covered him because he would get you eyeballs and clicks, or you covered him because he was creating such a storm that it would be borderline journalistic negligence to not report it. Oftentimes it was both, which made Donald Trump the perfect storm for journalists big and small.
Then he got elected. Then Sean Spicer tried to gaslight Americans by insisting that Trump’s inauguration crowd was bigger than it actually was. Then Kellyanne Conway introduced the world to “alternative facts”, inadvertently spiking the sales of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Then Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Then he got into a Twitter feud with Kim Jong Un. Then there was the Mueller investigation. It just kept coming. And journalists were there at every turn to report on the newest controversy, or detail the latest scandal. …
“Tenet” is not one of Christopher Nolan’s best movies, but it does overtly reference many of the ones that are, including “The Dark Knight”, “Inception”, and “Interstellar.”
After multiple delays, Tenet, the latest film from summer blockbuster king Christopher Nolan, has finally hit (most) theatres in North America, and as was the case with several of his previous films, the Internet is investigating every frame and every (audible) word of the film, leaving absolutely no stone unturned (or inverted, in this case).
The intricacies of the plot are, as to be expected with a Nolan movie centered on Time, difficult to parse and not without holes. “Don’t try to understand it. …
As the result of its racial reckoning and coronavirus mishandling, the global standing of the United States has reached new lows.
On Saturday, May 30th, 2020, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department tweeted “This is a pivotal moment for the world. It will go down in history. Freedom loving people around the world must stand with the rule of law and hold to account the Chinese Communist Party, which has flagrantly broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong.”
A spokeswoman for the Chinese government responded, in a Twitter clap-back of international proportions, with a screenshot of the tweet and “I can’t breathe”, the final words of both Eric Garner and George Floyd before they were killed by police.
As outrage over George Floyd’s murder spreads around the globe, a reflection on my racial awakening.
The day was August 9th, 2014. It was a Saturday.
Like with dreams, I don’t quite remember how it all began, but I will never forget that afternoon, sitting in front of the TV, watching the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death.
I was furious. I was aware of similar instances of police officers killing black men, but this was the one that really got me thinking, particularly about whether or not what happened to Michael Brown could’ve happened to me.
Michael Brown was 18-years-old, I learned. I was 20.
He was described as being very big for his age, 6'4", over 250 lbs, “intimidating”. While fairly slim, I was 6'3", tall enough where “intimidating” can conceivably be used to describe me. …
The Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s hit novel isn’t as interested in love as it is about the way we love and want to be loved.
Normal People follows the years-long on-again-off-again, will-they-or-won’t-they relationship between Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal. However, to borrow a line from the opening narration of 500 Days of Summer, “this is not a love story.”
Yes, the story is essentially about two teenagers falling in love, but love is at most a secondary theme. Normal People doesn’t have that much to say about love that’s particularly unique or insightful. …
People who are “pro-choice” and people who are “pro-life” can’t agree on anything. Except the subconscious use of this one rhetorical trick.
This article was originally written in July 2019.
In recent weeks, we have witnessed a wave of abortion criminalization. This has occurred through so-called “heartbeat bills”, many of which do not include an exception for cases of rape or incest, that ban abortion the second a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which means that abortion can be banned as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Because this time-frame can often pass before someone realizes they are with child, these bills are rightfully being called out for what they really are: an all but total ban of abortion.
Abortion has been a subject of rigorous political debate for quite some time now. Oftentimes the debate comes down to the specific number of weeks during which an abortion is permissible, and whether you’re “Pro-Life” or “Pro-Choice.” However, most debates actually begin before you realize you’re even in a debate, and this one begins with the taken-as-a-given terms “Pro-Life” and “Pro-Choice”, because those terms are defining the parameters of the debate, acting as what is known as a terministic screen. …
Rachel. Ross. Monica. Chandler. Phoebe. Joey. Who was the best friend of them all?
Monica Geller. Rachel Green. Phoebe Buffay. Chandler Bing. Joey Tribbiani. Ross Geller. You know them. You know their quirks and their faults, you know their best qualities and their worst moments, and most importantly, you know that they’ll always be there for one another.
Friends celebrated it 25th anniversary in 2019, and this particular writer took that as another reason to watch through the entire series, identifying which member of the group is the best friend, or just straight-up the best. This is completely objective, science-based, and has absolutely no relation to my personal views on friendship.
(The “winner” of each episode gets 1 point; co-winners get 0.5 …
