Mary Versus the Trumpeting Legions of Apathy

So I've been thinking a lot lately about FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out , supposedly a psychological anxiety increasingly endemic to our society of Facebook posts, photo texts, and, even, blogs like this one. Everyone, it seems, is going around telling everyone, "OMIGOSH, I'M HAVING THE BEST TIME EVER!!!!" and this is making us look around and think, "I thought I was happy, but maybe I could be even happier." "Rebekah Nathan" discovered in My Freshman Year that young people posted pictures of them having THE BEST TIME EVER!!! on their dorm walls and kept trying to one-up each other. Picture of you kayaking? Well, here's a picture of me skydiving. A picture of you fishing down by the lake? Check out my picture fishing for marlin...in Cuba...on a handmade boat...with George Clooney. Facebook encourages this kind of thing even more, consciously or unconsciously, because we need to defend out own way of life, especially those of us who are still i...

So according to a recent study out of Northwestern , minority kids use media 4 1/2 hours more than white kids. Turns out that they're also early adapters--using iPhones' new features--and listen to more music. Is that such a bad thing? I mean, this isn't 1970 when listen to music meant sitting down with LPs. I may be pulling up the average a little, but here was my day when I read about this study: 7:30-9:00 morning weight training, listening to music 1/2 hours, listening to Planet Money and Get Fit Guy podcasts, some shimmying 9:00-9:30 Showering, eating breakfast, reading the news on iPhone, 20 minutes 9:30- 10:30 Bus ride, 1 hr reading 10:30-12:00 Library, 1 1/2 hr reading 12:00-12:30 Lunch break. Also, walking around campus listening to music, 15 minutes 12:30-1:30 Internet--answering email, checking Facebook, looking up a Wikipedia article about Lizzie Borden 1:30-2:30 Library reading 2:30-3:30 Bus ride, on iPhone reading news, getting health tips from Jullian Michae...

I must have texted a dozen people. Easily a dozen. No one, though, wanted to go to Roller Derby. This is partially my fault--I didn't let enough people know about it early enough and I didn't realize that this would be the last game I could go to this summer. But I had just met with M. nee M., who went to UT for her grad work and now is married with two wonderful daughters, and we discussed living the full life, so I decided I could go all by myself. So I took myself on a Saturday date. First I went to the library to return a book. Then I took a lovely long walk down to the convention center (read: was deceived by Google Maps as to its proximity). But on my way I ran into some British tourists, which reminded me to be a tourist in my own city. I witnessed a rally on the steps of the Capital. I read the historical markers. I wandered downtown to flat track derby. It was less like Whip It and more like a cute, minor-league baseball game. People chatted with their beers. Little ki...

There are some books and movies that take you to a dark place. And there are other movies that can get you out again. Sometimes it's correcting a philosophy, sometimes it's just a different perspective. Often it has to be the same kind of story, or an alternative view on the same thing. For example... In Out The Call of the Wild White Fang The Road Peace like a River Night Man's Search for Meaning Whip It An Education Tess of the D'Urbervilles The Silent Partner All My Sons The Moon is Down Does anyone else have suggestions of books, movies, plays that counterbalance each other nicely?