Shut Up MTV

In a post below I mentioned my praise of Reality TV. And I stand by it. But one thing that irks me is television programs still trying to convince viewers of its "authenticity"... basically im trying to make a rant against the show "College Life" on MTV. Its tag line is that "This is not reality- THIS IS REAL"*.... GIVE ME A BREAK. I really hope people aren't falling for this!@$# No matter how young they are, I still have hope that the viewing audience realizes that this can't be any more "REAL" than any other reality show out there.

"College Life" gives college freshman a camera where they film themselves and blah blah blah stuff happens. EDITED stuff happens. I don't like this show for a variety of reasons (one of them being that I feel these kids are exposing secrets that should remain secrets about undergrad life...yes underage drinking is heavily prevalent- its a tradition that should be left alone and shouldn't be so blatantly revealed to higher authorities (i.e. parents)).

But anyways, how dare MTV try to undermine my intelligence and tell me this stuff is "REAL"!!! Whenever you give someone a camera or put them in front of it they will consciously or subconsciously avoid putting the most horrible things about themselves out there. True, this show may not be as scripted as others, but that does not give it the right to label itself as being "real"!

I found an interesting article by Mike Vilensky for NYU Local criticizing "College Life" which I think is pretty funny and addresses the crappiness of the show quite well, but it does little to criticize the supposed "authenticity" of the show and he puts it in a separate category from "fake-reality" shows. That's where I think the author is wrong. I would lump them all into one giant "THIS ISNT REAL" category.

And because MTV tried to force its "THIS IS REAL" line in my face- I would also lump this show into the "THINGS ON TV THAT SUCK" category.

- Ari Maz

*for those of you who followed this link- I have no idea why someone would go through the trouble of taping the commercial to this show off their TV... but thank you to that person for having too much time on their hands!

Things That Restore My Faith in Humanity: Part I

Yes, I am a horribly jaded and cynical individual, although as Chuck Klosterman would argue, the fact that I label myself as such actually proves that I am not cynical, "True cynics would never classify themselves as such, because it would mean that they know their view of the world is unjustly negative... a self described cynic is secretly optimistic about normal human nature."*
Thank you Klosterman for outing me, but I really am secretly optimistic about human nature.

I am currently avoiding doing the work of data entry in an office in Anywhere, USA. Behind me two co workers are conversing about nothing particularly important, to the right of me a girl switches between doing data entry and playing the intense game known as Solitaire. This is humanity at its finest- people put together in an arguably shitty situation and collectively making the best out of it. We have this implicit understanding that doing your work slowly or not at all is ok- as long as it eventually gets done, of course. I barely know these people but I am 99.9% confident that they would not snitch on me to the big boss lady.

But if this kind of basic human connection can occur here at the work place without much effort it can happen everywhere! And yes, we are bonding over being lazy, horrible workers. But thats way better than for us to be cut throat bastards trying to tear each other down. WOOO go humans and humanity! I have faith you in you again! At least for the next few hours.


-Ari Maz

*This was taken from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs pg. 14