My laptop had been my constant companion almost every morning this year as I do my hair, brush my teeth, make coffee, cook breakfast, ect. I dislike excessive silence, so I think this is the perfect solution to my otherwise very quiet solitary mornings.
The things that I watch in the morning while I go about getting ready for the day vary widely; anything from the latest social or economic documentary to the trashiest reality TV show I can find. Hey, say what you want, but my taste is anything but narrow, and I pride myself on the ability to enjoy just about everything.
Furthermore, for those of you who scoff at my reality TV ways, I challenge you to spend the entire day reading scientific publications from a number of journals, or grading a giant stack of APA papers and not want to relax with some mind-numbing trash. Ok, I'm done being indignant.
Anyway, recently I've been on quite the documentary kick, and I'm starting to wonder if I haven't learned more reasonable lessons from those reality shows than some of the messages I'm supposed to be taking away from these documentaries.
This is going to be a short post...it was originally a Facebook status, but it has since grew to the point of being much to large (and fun to write) to make a casual post. So here it is: the list of things I've "learned" from Netflix documentaries.
1) people are overweight and sick because they don't eat organic food exclusively. They also don't exercise enough, so you should force yourself and your family to work out like a fiend or you will die.
2) but people shouldn't worry about being too thin because it leads to eating disorders. Encourage your family to eat what they want without worrying about body image and try to be happy with their personalities instead.
3) don't have babies in the hospital because you will not have as good of a connection with your child as someone with a home birth, and even though we're not saying that people who have hospital births are less good parents...we are.
4) but appreciate the healthcare you have access to, because there are enslaved women dying of diseases in 3rd world countries and being denied basic human rights! And for some reason, sending Meg Ryan and Gabriella Union to interview them is somehow cooler than a non-famous trained social scientist...?
5) the collapse of the world trade centers is not only possibly, but likely a conspiracy of the US government......
I got nothin' for this one, I can't even make fun of this one.
6) schools in the United States are horrible.
7) except that people are going into obscene amounts of debt in order to attend some of the top Universities in the world..which happen to be in the US.
8) the school system will not protect you from bullies, even if you video tape them getting hit repeatedly on a bus.
Things I "learned" from:
Keeping up with the Kardashians
1) be nice to your friends and siblings and support them when they need it because in the end they will have your back
2) keep the lines of communication open and during a relationship and you might not always be happy, but you will work toward being happy again
3) when you hurt someone, apologize...and tell them their boob is really squishy.
4) sometimes following your dreams is more important than satisfying the people around you
5) put your family first
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
6) live within your means and spend money on the things you love to do
like hanging out with a pig...
7) find ways to have fun in every situation (even a corn field...thanks Honey Boo Boo)
8) mairnase is not a meat!
9) don't give your kid mountain dew or pure sugar (this was an inadvertent lesson, but a lesson all the
same)
Pretty Wild
10) spend time with people that will influence you positively
11) thank people who give you career boosting opportunities, and then work hard in a professional manner to show them that you appreciate their faith in you
12) call the people you love on the dumb stuff they do -- unless they are writing a blog about reality TV lessons :)
Ok, so maybe I'm a little bias. But sometimes a little dose of reality (haha..see what I did there?) would be nice, social documentary makers! Not everything is so black and white, all or nothing, and do or die. I find it fascinating that not one of these films promotes eating a balanced diet (growth hormones or not), exercise a few times a week, and spending quality time with your kids. Make sure they do their homework, and for God's sake teach them how credit cards work before you send them off to college.
Look, problems fixed, and you didn't even have to make any overly dramatic life altering decisions.
Thanks Entertainment News Network and TLC for keepin it real :)
No comments:
Post a Comment