Last weekend, after taking my SAT, I decided to log into my Facebook after so many months of ignoring my account. As I was uploading funny pictures from my cell phone, writing on other people’s walls, and looking through the photo albums of my family and friends, a thought came up to mind. Why is Facebook so popular?
Let’s get one thing straight. With over 500 million people around the world using Facebook, it’s just one of those things that we simply can’t ignore anymore. Not only are everyday people using it, but now celebrities and the media use Facebook to connect with these everyday people. Yet Facebook isn’t really any new, innovative concept. There were many predecessors to Facebook such as Friendster, Xanga, and Myspace and all of them have essentially the same features: posting comments on your friend’s walls and uploading pictures. What makes Facebook so different?
Based on my experience, I certainly can tell you how I feel towards Facebook compared to Myspace, which was the largest social networking site prior to Facebook. I remember making my own Myspace account back in middle school to try to socialize with some of my friends. When I discovered Facebook in 2007 and made an account, there were some technical aspects in Facebook that made it more user-friendly and appealing. There were a lot fewer ads that distracted me, fewer strangers would friend me on Facebook, and connecting with friends was much easier via tagging others in photos, playing games like Farmville, joining fan pages, and “liking” other people’s comments and photos. It was all these factors combined that got me hooked on Facebook.
Obviously, changes have been made to all these social networking sites since I first started. Nowadays, as Facebook continues to grow, Myspace is trying to keep up by eliminating their advertisements and adding more games and fun features. The technically appealing factors of Facebook are certainly part of the roots of its popularity. However, as more and more people start making Facebook accounts and start relying on the Internet for more things, it seems that others have the urge to follow suit and join the in-crowd to connect with their friends.
Facebook, to me, has become so popular because it is so popular. It has become one of the simplest means of communication between friends and family. We are such a social species and Facebook allows us to keep socializing from the privacy of our own homes. Even though there is nothing new about the concept itself, we can all agree that Facebook has become part of our culture. Surely, it will change the lifestyles of future generations to come.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Are movies not what they once were?
Several days ago, my dad and I were in the car and my dad told me:
Over winter break, besides catching up on my reading and studying for my SAT, I decided to watch a whole list of movies that I have always wanted to watch. These movies ranged from disaster movies like “2012” to comedies like “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” to action movies like “Avatar” and “Inception”. I didn’t limit myself to these movies though. I decided to also rewatch some of America’s most timeless classics like the Die Hard series, “Back to the Future” and “Star Wars”.
If I had to look back at all the movies I had seen over break, it would be impossible for me to choose my favorite movie. I noticed, however, that there were a number of significant qualities that these timeless classics had that the more recent movies I saw didn’t. First off, the characters and plots were much more memorable. When I was watching the first “Back to the Future”, I remember the awkwardness of Marty’s father as a high school student, the crazy antics of Doc Brown, and the suspense I felt when Marty was hurrying back to his own time to save Doc Brown from terrorists that planned to kill him. In some of the other movies I saw like “Die Hard” and “Star Wars”, one of the great things about them were the famous quotes that the characters said. Things like “Yippie ka-yay motherfucker” and “Luke I am your father” are some of the quotes that will always be with me forever.
Some of the elements I have just mentioned are things that I could not see in the modern movies I saw this past break. In "Avatar" for example, although the CGI effects were amazing, the story about the war between the Na'vi and the humans was much too simplistic. Other movies like "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (a movie about a boy named Scott Pilgrim who tries to win over a girl named Ramona Flowers by defeating her seven evil-exes) and "Inception" (Don Cobb is hired for a mission to search into the dreams of a corporate businessman, only to discover secrets about himself) also had something fresh about their plots and special effects, but things like dialogue were lacking, and, to me, are not yet ready to become timeless classics.
Obviously, I am comparing only a very limited number of movies. And I understand that there are people that will probably agree with what my dad says when he said that the movies nowadays could never surpass the movies in the 70’s and 80s. To me though, I feel that these timeless classics were not just spontaneous. While “Back to the Future” takes in elements of comedy, high school drama, and time travel movies, other movies like "Star Wars" take in elements of science fiction, romance, and even western movies.
Everything in this world goes through phases and what we are currently undergoing in terms of movies is just a phase. Sure, movies like “Avatar” and “Inception” have yet to be hailed as timeless classics. In the future though, I am sure that there will be a whole new generation of directors that will take elements from these kinds of movies in order to create a brand new set of timeless classics that we will never forget.
“I feel that movies are not what they once seemed. There aren’t those timeless classics I remember seeing as a kid back in the 70s and 80s.”
At first, I felt my dad was just being cynical as usual. But when I got back home, I sat down at my desk and was thinking to myself. Are the movies nowadays worthy of remembering or are they just movies to enjoy and pass the time?Over winter break, besides catching up on my reading and studying for my SAT, I decided to watch a whole list of movies that I have always wanted to watch. These movies ranged from disaster movies like “2012” to comedies like “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” to action movies like “Avatar” and “Inception”. I didn’t limit myself to these movies though. I decided to also rewatch some of America’s most timeless classics like the Die Hard series, “Back to the Future” and “Star Wars”.
If I had to look back at all the movies I had seen over break, it would be impossible for me to choose my favorite movie. I noticed, however, that there were a number of significant qualities that these timeless classics had that the more recent movies I saw didn’t. First off, the characters and plots were much more memorable. When I was watching the first “Back to the Future”, I remember the awkwardness of Marty’s father as a high school student, the crazy antics of Doc Brown, and the suspense I felt when Marty was hurrying back to his own time to save Doc Brown from terrorists that planned to kill him. In some of the other movies I saw like “Die Hard” and “Star Wars”, one of the great things about them were the famous quotes that the characters said. Things like “Yippie ka-yay motherfucker” and “Luke I am your father” are some of the quotes that will always be with me forever.
Some of the elements I have just mentioned are things that I could not see in the modern movies I saw this past break. In "Avatar" for example, although the CGI effects were amazing, the story about the war between the Na'vi and the humans was much too simplistic. Other movies like "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (a movie about a boy named Scott Pilgrim who tries to win over a girl named Ramona Flowers by defeating her seven evil-exes) and "Inception" (Don Cobb is hired for a mission to search into the dreams of a corporate businessman, only to discover secrets about himself) also had something fresh about their plots and special effects, but things like dialogue were lacking, and, to me, are not yet ready to become timeless classics.
Obviously, I am comparing only a very limited number of movies. And I understand that there are people that will probably agree with what my dad says when he said that the movies nowadays could never surpass the movies in the 70’s and 80s. To me though, I feel that these timeless classics were not just spontaneous. While “Back to the Future” takes in elements of comedy, high school drama, and time travel movies, other movies like "Star Wars" take in elements of science fiction, romance, and even western movies.
Everything in this world goes through phases and what we are currently undergoing in terms of movies is just a phase. Sure, movies like “Avatar” and “Inception” have yet to be hailed as timeless classics. In the future though, I am sure that there will be a whole new generation of directors that will take elements from these kinds of movies in order to create a brand new set of timeless classics that we will never forget.
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