Materialism

Between the two ideas expressed by Amel Saleh and Lauren Smith, I agree with Smith and her idea that gift giving is not materialistic. I love to buy gifts for my family because present time during Christmas is such a fun time. Every Christmas, my family likes to spend the day with extended family in an awesome Chirstmas party and at night, we go home and open the presents we got each other. We don’t rush and tear up each wrapped-up box.  Everyone sits in a circle and one by one, we each open up a gift and see what we got. During the process, everyone is talking, laughing, and having a great time. It is something that is more fun than I make it sound. Just because gifts are a highly anticipated part of Christmas, it does not take away the meaningful moments that Christmas brings. If anything, it enforces selflessness and quality family time. In the spirit of selflessness, my family donates some of our clothing and old toys to Goodwill each Christmas season.

            In my family, everyone usually gets a present for one another, whether it be home-made or not. My parents give each of us, four kids, forty dollars and we get to come up with our own present ideas. When it comes to gift buying for our extended family, we all play Secret Santa to make sure everyone gets a gift without each of us going broke. Throughout December everyone tries to find out their Secret Santa and so they send obvious “subliminal” messages to everyone on the list. It is hilarious and makes the whole month fun. Then comes the Christmas party where everyone reveals who they got and some people realize their quest to find their Secret Santa was horribly off track. We have done this for as long as I can remember and it makes the holiday season something I impatiently wait for, each year.

Reality TV

Reality TV has a negative influence on our society. It fills a lot of hours on television and promotes an unreasonable view on happiness. Have all the nice cars and fancy clothes, and be famous for doing nothing. It also does not send a good message about how to live. These shows do not show much about people working to make a living or even helping others. A lot of it is unintelligent individuals partying or going on trips to exotic islands, always having fun. That is not how the real world works. It is a selfish way to live. In the real world, people actually have to work and they do not have enough time to spend all of it partying. These shows have a history of rewarding bad behavior. Back then if you were 16 and pregnant, you would get into trouble. Now you get a TV show. Compromise your morals and make a sextape, it can get you tons of attention and fame. These reality TV shows may earn high ratings and money, but it sends the wrong message to viewers. It is okay to do morally questionable actions; it may even make you famous.

Usually with these shows comes alcohol consumption. Young adults watch and think that drinking is a cool thing to do. It may be all fun and games but there are risks to alcohol abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked alcohol consumption with homicide, suicide attempts, serious accidents, and high-risk sexual behavior. I am not stating that nobody should drink alcohol. I am stating that reality TV shows should not show a biased opinion of drinking it. However, correlation does not mean causation, but there is a trend.

I know that not all reality shows are about spoiled kids with zero responsibilities. There are some good, inspirational stories out there. “The Biggest Loser” from NBC promotes healthy eating, exercising, and determination. I watched one episode and I felt like throwing my chips in the trash and going for a run, which I did not do due to the fact that it was 1 a.m. and I am lazy. These kinds of shows can push someone to better themselves instead of sitting and pondering about their lives if they lived like the Kardashians. Another good example is “Dirty Jobs.” It is about a man named Mike Rowe who goes around country and finds all the dirtiest, grime filled jobs in the country. The show offers a glimpse of hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make normal, modern day living possible for the rest of us. There should be more of these shows that promote learning and determination towards a goal.

Personally, I do not watch much TV and do not care much about what they air, but I think shows like “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” should not be aired. Shows like these do not promote a healthy way to live and glamourize the party lifestyle. Instead, they should be replaced with shows that can inspire people, either to lose weight or chase their dreams to be the next American Idol. Shows that demonstrate hard work and determination.

           

Friends Forever. Just Kidding.

  All throughout high school, graduation day was the day to look forward to among students. Meeting new people and getting along with them was all apart of the process. You make some new friends here and there and get very close to some individuals. From those individuals, you have a group of peers whose bond seemed unbreakable. You journey through high school and senior year is finally here. We’ve all been through it together and the talks of college and moving to different places was inevitable.
          From those talks, the subject of always keeping in touch with each other was brought up. “Don’t worry! We’ll hang out during summer”, was said frequently among my group of friends. We all reassured each other that we would keep in touch and not let the end of high school be the close to our friendship. At that point, I was ecstatic to graduate and just be able to get together with some close friends and have the best summer ever.
          Graduation day came along as I said my goodbyes to all my friends and again, exchanging the usual promises of not losing touch with one another. One week into summer, I contacted some friends to make some plans but our schedules just didn’t seem to work out. Two weeks pass, then three, then four, and same result. Summer was already halfway over and those people who “promised” to hang-out were unheard from.
          Somewhere along this time, I had a sudden realization of how different high school socialization and real world socialization really was. High school really is it’s own world as well as the people who are in it. I see these group of people every single day of high school so it’s easy to communicate with one another and socialize. Outside of high school is a whole different story. Communication is a two-way street and if one person doesn’t try, then you’re just at a standstill with that other person. It took me a while to realize this change after a month of not hanging out with the people I actually wanted to get together with. With this, it taught me to not expect much from peoples’ words and to judge them based on their actions. Actions truly speak louder than words.