Me:
3 Hipster-ish Media Passions:
Three types of media that I am most passionate about are the Internet, books, and theatre. The Internet is the best invention since sliced bread and it’s like tots older then I am, so that makes it vintage and I breath all things vintage! I honestly don’t know what I would be doing without the Internet; I wouldn’t even have this blog. I would have to go outside and that just isn’t an option. I think every teenager has a deep love of the Internet because it is just so handy and nifty and useful and awesome! I could be IMing my sister across the country while video calling my family in England. The Internet is seriously awesome!
Books are also really awesome because they also provide me with an excuse to not go outside! It’s like a little movie inside of your head! Plus you could like tots make people sound really dumb with all of the smarticle words that you learn. But seriously, I love books because they provide a means of escape and I connect every human being I know with a character. Yes, I am a book dork and I love it.
Finally, theatre!! I have been a theatre kid for as long as I can remember and anyone who knows me knows this. Like the Internet, it is really hard to imagine myself without theatre in my life! It is how I express my self and how I explore my creativity and ambitions. There is a really great YouTube channel called AVbyte that makes weekly mini musicals about the so called “nerd culture” and all things Internet. And this one is my favourite:
On Modern Pop Culture:
Being a self-proclaimed hipster, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on pop culture. However, what is included under “pop culture” is always changing depending on what the newest trend is or what’s cool right now. And right now, pop culture kind of sucks. Celebrities are doing completely illogical things just so they could have an extra 15 minutes of fame! Take the loveable and very Canadian, Justin Bieber for example. I understand that he is still a “normal teenage guy” and he’s just doing this for attention. But seriously? Peeing in public? That is just rude and really gross. But this bad boy rude image is popular and girls love it! What?! I don’t think that I’m the only one who thinks this is weird. But these celebrities have cult followings of teenagers. These cult followings, also called fandoms, are really crazy! I mean I am super protective over my many fandoms, but like many lovely celebrities, the fangirls (and boys) are becoming plain bullies. Fangirls are bulling other fangirls just because they aren’t a “true fan,” whatever that means. Fandoms are supposed to be about connecting with people who like the same stuff that you like. They are supposed to be a happy, drama free zone where a fangirl can rant about all of the feels.
Fangirls equals Tumblr and Tumblr equals hipsters. Or does it? It seems like the latest cool thing among the Tumbling community is trying to not to be cool, while trying to be cool at the same time. This means either being a hipster or a geek. I don’t really get why this is the lasted trend, but nerd culture is suddenly making a come back. It is now cool to be into the “geekier” fandoms like Star Wars or any genre of Sci Fi. I am perfectly happy with Sci Fi and Fantasy becoming a thing again. But I loved it before it was popular (does that make me a hipster?), so it pains me to see all of these girls forcing themselves to try to fit themselves into this bracket just to be cool and hot. Wow, I am sounding like a critical fangirl more and more…
But be it that I like to see the positive side of things, like a hippie-hipster-thing, I also think that there are some good things about our pop culture. I am a creature of the Internet and professional fangirl, so I know that bad side of the fandoms, but I also see the supportive and hilarious side of them as well. Our pop culture should be more about uniting teenagers, but at the same time still celebrating our differences and less about trying to be the perfect hipster.
Moving right along! Along with the expansion of fandoms, new technologies are opening up the doors to communicate. And I am all for this! I think that we have to keep innovating our technology in order to keep up with our ever-growing reliance on media to update everything that we do. And hey, if that means trying to explain emailing to my grandparents for 3 hours, I’ll do it. I will want to stab my eyes out, but I’ll do it. Plus Google Glass just looks so damn cool!
ERMAHGERD BOOKS!
I am a book junkie, through and through! My bookshelf reaches my ceiling and it’s double stacked. Books have been so important to me since I was first read Harry Potter in my crib. I can’t describe why I love books so much; there are just too many reasons! But here is a selection of a few examples.
I have been curious my whole life. To me, everything is interesting and I want to explore as much as I can. Having so many interests is a challenge and trying to express them is even harder. This is when I turn to written words. To me, I would rather have someone write me something, then say it because I know that it is real and I know that it is there. Words have a way of wrapping you inside of them, even if it’s a simple hey. Language it’s self is fascinating in the way that some weird looking runes make up a word and you can then communicate your thoughts with a string of these weird looking things. This has influenced me so much that I want to study linguistics and cultural lore in university.
Fantasy is my favourite book genre, mainly because is feeds my immense curiosity. But I also love fantasy because it allows the reader to create a world in which to escape. One of my favourite worlds is that of King Arthur and Merlin. There have been so many spin-offs and book series of the legend and it is a bit ridiculous. My favourite spin-off TV series was BBC One’s Merlin. I loved this show so much and it as only made me love fantasy more! The sassiness within that show is too much to handle and there are just too many feels! But that unfortunately is beside the point. The reason why King Arthur is so important is because it is one of those legends that has lasted hundreds of years and is still being written into different forms. I think that is why I love fantasy so much, because no matter how many different ways that you write it, it is still an escape and it still is one hell of a story!
Speaking of escapes, this brings me to my 3rd example/point/reason why I love books; they provide an escape. I think any book lover could tell you this, but I like to put my own lil’ twist on it. Not only do I live within a fictional universe in my head, but I also so IRL. I connect people to characters, the same way that people connect memories to music. In my head, I take traits from people that I know and match them with the traits of fictional characters. I know it’s a bit weird, but it is a way to extend that escape and still looking like a functional human being!
Well, that was fun!
-Kennedy
