this is how i spend my time

So, I just finished watching the last season of Lost. I never wanted to be the kind of person who devotes themselves to a tv show, jonesing to watch the entire series (Scrubs and House don't count...they're educational), but that sort of happened with Lost.

I didn't care about the relationships, how Kate jumped between Jack and Sawyer back and forth and back and...I wasn't really drawn in by the mythology either; once you have a black smoke monster killing people, seeing polar bears on a tropical island doesn't seem like a big deal. Honestly, if I had to watch the show on tv, waiting week after week for what happens next, in all likelihood, I would have dropped the show long ago.

I've (obviously) been watching the show on DVD, so I make my way through each season as I'd like. The narrative stays fresher, connections are easier to make, and the ability to rewind helps dissect scenes to see what the creators really intended for the storyline (bonus: no commercials).

I think that's what got me: the storyline. The arc. Even when the show became a bit self-indulgent, the pool for the "making it up as they go along" crowd, there was a direction. In retrospect, it's a difficult series to get through: making the connections, finding significance in the little bits here and there and how they reflect/add up to the end of the story.

It takes an attention span to wade your way through it. I feel like a lot of social media reflects the opposite of this. Everything is so instant, simultaneous, direct and un-apologetically in-your-face. There were moments when Lost was as loud and as obvious as fireworks, and there were moments when it was slow and took time to accept. Nevertheless, there always was a continuing narrative, a story that required an attention span long enough to remember names and emotions, faces and events. Sure, it's pop culture, ripe for parody and criticism, but in a time of Jersey Shore and that John and Kate bullshit, it was one of the best we had going.

Barcelona

This still fascinates me.

the social network

The entire time I was watching this movie I was thinking about the monster Facebook has become.

True, Zuckerberg may have stolen ideas to put it all together, but the fact is this thing, this website that literally has changed the way society sees socializing, was put together on a few laptops in a dorm room. This worldwide revolution and all the controversies, lawsuits and mania that followed all stems from a few kids screwing around in their college dorm. Everything stemmed from an simple idea that came from a few college kids.

Kind of makes you think.