Finalize.

I was up till 5:30 am this morning working and finishing up my last paper and photo essay. Both are, honestly, works of crap, but that's what happens when you try to think critically at 3 in the morning. I love college life.

Then I woke up at 7:45 to go to class where we had our class debate on whether or not the media is responsible for the moral decline of American society. The teacher called it a draw in the end, which was suprising because I thought we totally got destroyed (we had to defend the media saying that they are not responsible). It's hard to take a side you don't believe in.

But there were some good points brought up like the responsibility of media control is strongly leaned on the parents. Parenting is a very important role in society, and bad parenting leads to destructive effects in the long run. I think that parents must keep in touch with their children and teach them the moral values and the difference between in what is presented on tv, played on the radio, and simulated in video games and how it really is in real life. Of course, it is an ideal situation to have perfectly raised children who will always see the wrong in media entertainment and never act upon them in real life. No doubt there have been situations where children have mimicked what they see on tv.

My teacher did ask a very good question: Since media has such a strong impact on society today (whether negative or positive), shouldn't the media take some responsibility in what they show? Clearly there is a lot of violence and sex on tv and in games. I believe that the media must take some responsibility in what they present to the open public in entertainment (news is a whole different issue), but it is also within the family to keep a steady and good upbringing of children. It is one thing to enter a fantasy world in a tv show where there is violence, but it is another thing to take it to heart and bring it into the real world. Besides, there are shows out there that do not glorify violence, yet depicts how wrong it is to resort to such things. Crime shows like CSI is a good example where homocide takes place and there is serious consequences for it. Shows like 24 fight terrorism for the preservation of innocents and maintain peace and order in our nation.

Anywho, this is really long. It was a hard debate, and there is a lot of research out there that proves media's negative effect on soceity. It was hard to find solid info on its positives. Except they brought up video games in their argument. I hate that because I love video games, but it's so hard to defend it in this context.

After class I went to sleep around 2:30 pm and didn't wake up until 7:30 pm. I woke up in the dark and really confused. I almost went back to sleep thinking I was waiting for the next morning.

Coolio.