I Saw This Video Today...

I was doing homework this afternoon when this video popped up and I HAD to watch it:

Then I saw that this other video along the sidebar had 59 million views and had to rewatch it:

Which reminded me of this other viral video I saw way back when that was super funny, so I looked that one up too:

That might be one of my favorite videos of all time, but this one that popped up on Facebook was pretty fantastic too:

See what just happened? Suddenly half an hour of your life is gone. My homework was sitting unfinished on my table, and I had an appointment in twenty minutes. This is how the media is addictive. There's some great stuff on there, but if we aren't careful, it will eat away our time and we will be left with nothing to show for it except a longer "history" on our YouTube channels and a late night catching up on unfinished work. Here's to being more careful next time.

Weight Loss Ads DON'T HELP WEIGHT LOSS

One has to wonder with all the diet and weight loss craziness floating around the internet... is anyone really buying into it? So many ads on the side of every webpage, so many "secret" ways to lose weight.

 

If you stop eating this one food (never mind if you weren't eating it before), the pounds will magically fall off! If you eat this bizarre fruit that looks like it was photoshopped into existence, you will look like a supermodel! Or, if you take the exercise route, in just five minutes a day you can lose 20 pounds in two weeks!

 

 

Why isn't everyone 110 pounds by now? It's obviously as easy as shelling out a hundred bucks a month!

 

 

 

 

I think it's pretty terrible that we are bombarded by all of these products whether we want to actually lose weight or not. Body image is a serious issue in today's society, and most of us are pretty conscious of ours, but not everyone wants a weight loss miracle. And how does a person who HAD a healthy body image feel when they are reinforced day after day that they do need to lose weight? Fact: the women in these advertisements don't even look like these pictures.

 

The thing is, a lot of these methods teach people to ignore the way their bodies feel, and that leads to further weight problems. If a person denies their body something it needs, eventually everything will bounce back.

 

I've lived in Europe before and in many places people are naturally thin, and surprise, it isn't because they know some secret that they are hiding from everyone in America. They just eat real food instead of our processed junk, they don't snack all day, and they do a lot more walking than we do here. Where are the ads from mypyramid.gov? Where are the ads for sales on local produce? When it comes to health, there is no magic to it. All of these one-trick solutions are lies. And as long as these advertisements keep insisting there is, our health problems here are unlikely to improve.

In Which I Rant About an Offensive Article...

Yesterday one of those Facebook "news" sources recommended an article to me about "female privilege." (found here: http://thoughtcatalog.com/mark-saunders/2014/04/18-things-females-seem-to-not-understand-because-female-privilege) and it really got on my nerves. The whole article was a list of 18 reasons why women have an unfair advantage in the world.

I find a lot of this content on the internet--articles written by people with little to no cited expertise on their topics, specifically created to incite an emotional response, thereby gaining more views.

This article is subtle. It starts with a few points that are pretty universally accurate. But then it moves into controversial territory and publishes half-truths in the guise of fact. Toward the end, some were sexist and a couple were downright false. Take number 12, for example:

12. Female privilege is being able to be caring or empathetic without people being surprised.

Very unfair to men. And of all places one might expect number 13 to be true, any female at BYU could easily discredit it.

13. Female privilege is not having to take your career seriously because you can depend on marrying someone who makes more money than you do. Female privilege is being able to be a “stay at home mom” and not seem like a loser.

The response article was no better. It seems like more and more, people have to take an extreme position when the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Everyone is born into different circumstances and has different advantages and disadvantages because of them. And there is no generalization that can be made to every woman in the world that will hold water without exception. The best part? It was written by a man. If one person breaks his leg, you don't break his friend's to make it "fair." Maybe someday people will learn to use their differences and circumstances to complement those of others instead of pointing fingers.

Reading with my Ears

I go through phases with audiobooks. Sometimes I listen to them for hours a day (walking to class, folding laundry, at the gym--not wasting the day away. Ain't nobody got time for that!) and sometimes I go months in between. The last two weeks I've been listening to the Mistborn trilogy.

I read these books a few years ago, but they're one of those series that is so engrossing you read it too fast to remember what actually happened. They are SO GOOD!! I love how in the midst of world-shattering events and the fall of kingdoms and natural disasters, the characters go through very real human moral conflicts and struggle with their relationships in very human ways. One moment the heroine is conquering armies, and the next she feels small and vulnerable and afraid of rejection by the man she loves.

The violence is pretty graphic, but all things considered, this is one of the best developed trilogies I've seen. Read. Heard. :)