on my mind

I have a lot of opinions and I love the way I think about things! This is my blog to nowhere.

[artsycatdoodlez]

You're old, but you never got smart. You're just mediocre at what you do.

Mefisto in Onyx (1993) - Harlan Ellison

[artsycatdoodlez]

Beauty Standards & The Aging Up of Children

11/29/23

There is an issue that is becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s technological society that’s altering our world’s physical and psychological one. Beauty standards are running rampant as ever on commonly used social media, and the stresses of them are becoming bad as ever. These pressures are targeting younger and younger women on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and plenty of others that are being integrated into daily routines. Beauty standards through social media in the current day are targeting and becoming harmful to today’s children, speeding up the aging process and ruining self esteem in the long term through that process. 

The common use of social media is a net negative to women, especially teens, regarding their body image and self-esteem due to the subconscious need to compare themselves to others even if there is an understanding that what is in front of them isn’t real. Dove, the soap brand, has an ongoing campaign talking about women’s struggles and giving insight into the hardships of simply being a woman. They surveyed about 1000 women, of whom 56% stated, ”they can’t live up to the beauty standards projected on social media.” Numbers speak, and they’re saying that over half of 1000 girls can’t compare to the falsities shown online to them everyday. This goes to show, plain and simple, how unrealistic standards have become. Beauty standards are unachievable because they aren’t naturally occurring, computers and filters are altering reality to be unrecognizable but are still put on a pedestal as if it were truly reality. Technology has improved so much that many of these differences made with filters are undetectable. The growing addiction of social media has made this far worse as well. Instead of seeing these heavily edited photos of people put up as role models every so often, they’re being shown to the public on a constant basis as social media is used so commonly. Platforms such as Instagram or Snapchat “promote photoshop, filters, plastic surgery, and makeup. Young users believe that the fabricated appearances that these methods create are natural. So, when young people can’t look like Instagram models, it impacts their self-esteem and mental health greatly” (Solomon). Teenagers already have a surplus of insecurities arising because of bodily changes and the awkward transition in their life. Adding more mental and self-esteem issues do far more harm than good at such a young age. Things that happen to teenagers and children last a lifetime.  The primary way to shake insecurities that sprouted in the teen years is extensive self-reflection and therapy, which can get costly and isn’t guaranteed to help. Issues like this get embedded into their brain chemistry. Why should young women be subjected to unrealistic expectations that are unachievable? 

There are ideas floating in the air that early use of technology isn’t bad for the younger generations, and is actually better for them compared to other ways they could be spending their time in childhood. Technology and different media on the internet is regarded as an escape, a pass-time, a hobby even. It grants unlimited information that older generations have never had access before, but is perfectly available to toddlers nowadays. From a very young age, any and all information is available at their fingertips. Instead of asking “How?” questions to unknowing parents, they can google it and get straightforward answers beyond what they can even understand. The escape aspect of the internet is also very relevant with the war threats going on, homeless crisis on the rise, political powers changing, and the generally torturous time we are all living in now. It’s hard to face that as a young child. It’s hard to see how this power will produce the coming generations, but it’s looking bleak. Kids and teenagers who were born in recent years have been born with technology. The toddlers in walmart carts with their ipad in front of them have no clue what’s happening in the real world next to them. They believe what they’re looking at on the screen, they think it is the reality they are missing out on. To really speak on the matter though, minors would have no idea that all of these issues are happening without the social media that is ‘so good for them.’ The very same technology that is being praised is rushing children to act like adults and raise themselves quicker, as a Nursing entry talks about Hurried Child Syndrome states, “Our young children today are often exposed to information beyond their developmental needs and understanding. The media is also equally responsible for hurrying children through both information and emotional overload” (Mangrule). An emotional overload like that at such a young age causes distress, anxiety, and stress in the long term. Not even to mention what that does to the mind of somebody, seeing the issues in the world as they are at an age where they can’t even decide what their favorite color is. The disconnect and blur between realities with long-term issues is not worth losing what kids could have, if all they’re doing on those devices is waste their life away with addictive visuals and false beliefs. Growing up on technology cements that hardship of the distinction between what are real images and what is edited. Beauty standards catch up along with that. Bishop wrote in BBC that “the average parent allows their child a smartphone at age 10.” For young girls, the remarks about their appearance can start earlier than that. 10 year olds are very impressionable because they are still growing, social media gives them false realities regarding how they think they’ll grow up to look like. There are many connections between mental health, age, and internet use, specifically remarking that “more social media use at a younger age has been correlated with dissatisfaction with one’s appearance. Social media promotes photoshop, filters, plastic surgery, and makeup. Young users believe that the fabricated appearance that these methods create are natural” (Solomon). Mental health and the recognition of self-worth should be placed above all else. They are often overlooked and overshadowed by the need for improvement and to be better than. Bodily dissatisfaction creates lift-long issues and a feeling of discontentment with oneself. The long list of issues created by beauty standards placed on teenagers, that are practically children by age, is an intense mass of problems to confront even as a grown adult.

Social media and societal standards for beauty are unattainable and instill false ideas that influence younger and younger women to have worse self-esteem. However, there is not such a clearcut solution for such a complicated issue. To change, society needs to change. That is above the general public’s capabilities. Beauty standards shouldn’t be as much of an issue as it is but the truth is the truth. Individuals can monitor their hours on social media, become more aware of who they’re following and how real their posts are, and work towards having a better relationship with technology as a whole. 

Bishop, Katie. “Kids Getting Older Younger: Are Children Growing up Too Fast?” BBC Worklife, 24 May 2022, www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220324-kgoy-kids-getting-older-younger Dove. “Toxic Beauty Standards on Social Media: The Stats – Dove.” Dove, 31 Oct. 2022, www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns/social-media-and-body-image.html Mangrule, Pallavi R. “The Hurried Child Syndrome.” International Journal of Research in Paediatric Nursing, 2019. Solomon, Dahlia. “Social Media Has Made Beauty Unattainable — Next Generation Politics.” Next Generation Politics, 9 Mar. 2022, www.nextgenpolitics.org/blog/social-media-beauty

[artsycatdoodlez]

Personal Cultural Identity

9/22/23

Cultural Identity seems pretty straight forward, it’s what makes a person and encompasses what that means, but it really isn’t. To me, I never really analyzed what my cultural identity was. It seems as though I don’t even have one. Everyone has one, to an extent, but the issue is finding it. And finding it was hard. My life was the standard American nuclear household, me, my brother, my parents, and a dog and cat. We lived in the suburbs, ate dinner on the couch while watching late night family feud, went camping every now and then, but it seemed regular while it was happening. That’s just my pessimistic view. I put that aside and really dug for who I was. My culture is inherently dynamic, while being not so regular.

My upbringing truly is the heart of my identity today. I grew up in the standard American suburbs in the Valley, during the early 2010’s. My parents made it seem different though. They kept me in an environment surrounded by music, with the drastic difference of my mom’s rap and my dad’s heavy metal and rock. Music is integral to how I operate, it influences my mood, and means a lot to me. We had a wall filled to the brim with cd’s they loved. I remember late nights where me and my brother were home alone, maybe with a babysitter, whilst my parents were out seeing Korn, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, or Tool. Those are household names. My mom would make sure to get Little Caesar’s so we stayed fed. I would try to stay up to meet them in the morning, but I could never stand it. They have always treated me as an adult. I was never babied. I was always spoken to as if I was at the same level as my parents, even when I clearly wasn’t as a child and couldn’t even write a full sentence. This allowed me to excel in my reading and literacy, so as the youngest kindergartener I was already at a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level. It also assists how I interact with people, but I feel out of place when I’m talking to people in my age group even when I’m younger than half of them. I’ve mentally grown out of my age and it feels wrong. I grew up Christian with Christian values but never truly believed in any of that. I just went along with it since saying no to church isn’t really a question as a 5 year old. We slowly stopped going, but my mom still went to bible study with my Nana, and I finally got to a point where I accepted I didn’t believe in a god. VBS, Sunday School, and church activities were more of social events than celebrations of a greater being. Christmas and Easter meant family get togethers more than I thought about the birth and rebirth of Jesus. If anything, to my extended family I turned out the complete opposite of what they had expected. I have a shaved head, don’t care what pronouns people use for me, openly atheist, leaning towards the liberal side of thinking, and am also an open book as to my sexuality. I love women, men, and anything in between, and I have no shame of it. Nowadays, I surround myself with people who have similar ideals and similar interests. Theater and art kids cater towards my hobbies and way of thinking. Wrestling, waterpolo, and track are like families to me. Especially wrestling and the thrower team for track, they’re really some of the closest groups of people I’ve been around. I participate in fright club, the horror movie club at my high school, because I love analyzing films and especially horror. I keep a journal for all the horror films I watch and give in depth reviews of them in there. My upbringing brought together all the different possible parts of me into a whole, and that’s who I am today.

A major part of my culture is my convoluted and unsure ancestry. It makes my history, but there’s a question about whether any of it actually matters. My parents each took DNA tests to figure out anything related to their ancestry just out of curiosity. The results were surprising to say the least. On my mom’s side, she was always told she was a large part Portuguese along with just being caucasian. The biggest shock was that she was 0% Portuguese, along the standard euro countries. My personal theory was that part of our past family was Portuguese by nationality, not by blood. She doesn’t believe my theory, but she still practices the traditions we adopted from her family relating to it. This has reflected in my tastes in cooking and food preferences. Chorizo has always been a large delicacy in my everyday eating habits. On my dad’s side, he was always told from a young age that he was moderately Native American. From his looks alone, you’d never think that. He has practically platinum blond hair, blue eyes, and the whitest of white skin. From when he was told about that part of him though, he had participated in classes that taught traditional methods of crafting and carrying on traditions. I myself participated in these when I was younger, such as bead work, working with natural leather, and basket weaving along with a lot more. From the ancestry report, it was about 1% or less. Otherwise, it was practically every single country in Europe, along with possibly a bit of russian. Even without being blood related to those areas, I still happily adopted ideas from them and carried down traditions even if they don’t feel like “mine”. 

My identity may not be so straight forward, but it is still my identity. I do have one after all. With all of the DNA tests, actual history, memories, actions, parts of the past, and everything that makes it, it all reflects in that. My maturity over my age group, the way I was raised, the way I think, and my personal ideals. The majority of my identity, when you look deep, is not so regular. This all makes me.

[artsycatdoodlez]

Mr. Frog, Smiling Friends, And The Humor Behind It

5/11/22

Everyone makes mistakes, but being a celebrity can broadcast it to a much larger audience and blow it out of proportion. Even if it isn’t blown out of proportion, more people are likely to be upset because more people are seeing it. Most people in the current age love looking at celebrity news, keeping up with it on the daily, and just hearing about it. This episode of Smiling Friends parodies this. In Smiling Friends, season 1 episode 2, the works of Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack are shown using high comedy alongside the element of surprise or shock and satire to reveal a universal truth about how the public eye reacts to celebrities, regardless of their problematic actions, in the present day. 

Surprise and shock value are both also a very frequent occurrence in the show of Smiling Friends. Zach Hadel utilizes it by making the entire episode very fast paced and makes the cuts between scenes very stark. This makes the surprising actions of characters seem nonchalant or regular and fitting to the cast. As just one example, in the same episode of Smiling Friends, Pim (a smiling friend who is there to fix people’s problems) and Mr Frog are speaking together earlier in the episode to help Pim understand why Mr Frog got canceled in the first place. Mr Frog refuses to listen, just saying “Uh huh” or nothing at all when Pim asks questions. He only stares at Pim’s singular “hair”. He finally decides to ask, “Um, can I pull your hair?” Pim obviously responds, "No, please don’t.” Only for the immediate reaction to be that Mr Frog aggressively grabs the hair and pulls Pim up, lifting him off of the ground whilst Pim screams. This moment is so fastly paced that it takes a minute or so for the audience to process the scene, especially because it cuts away as soon as Pim is picked up and he starts yelling. This has many funny parts intertwined for being only a few seconds long. One section of it specifically is humorous because it highlights how unwilling some celebrities are to listen to criticism. They tune out the people interviewing them and seem like they could care less about what they did. Hadel does fantastically at imitating the distant glances and the body language in the animation. Another section of this short scene is funny because of the shock it may give the average viewer. It catches them off guard in a way. They expect Mr Frog to understand Pim and not pull his hair because Pim is only trying to help, but it goes the complete opposite direction. Shocking the viewer like that may invoke a laugh or two because of the surprise, adding to the humor of Hadel’s and Cusack’s complex writing. Later in the episode, Mr Frog goes sober because Charlie and Pim feel it will help him calm down or tone it down a notch. Him going cold turkey does the complete opposite. Mr Frog is standing on a stage holding a massive check to donate whilst an older woman thanks him. He is breathing heavily and appears to be in withdrawal. Finally, he snaps and “accidentally” cuts off the old woman’s hand with the check. Blood is going everywhere, people are running and screaming, the reaction that you would expect ensues. A very proper response considering they just witnessed a celebrity cutting off a charity worker’s hands. This on paper sounds absolutely horrifying and trauma-inducing, but the composition of the scene, the facial expressions, the sudden-ness of it all, makes it funny. It all adds up. Cusack has practically perfected the scene in all of its terrifying glory. The main part of this scene though is once again the surprise and the cut-away. Something happens to surprise the audience, a short scream / reaction ensues, and then it starkly cuts to the next scene. This technique is repeatedly used by Cusack and Hadel, used in almost every episode of the show. Of course this isn’t used in every scene, as you need some breaks to breath, otherwise it would appear overused and over-done or even annoying. The show constantly switches between overly long scenes that feel awkward and condescending to fast-paced montages, shocking scenes, and short dialogue that may be concerning but is never mentioned again or ignored. All of this combined is the core of Smiling Friends. This is the humor behind it. 

Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack both utilize satire and shock-humor, along with the element of surprise, to highlight a universal truth about how the public eye treats celebrities and how they react to their problematic actions. Mr Frog and his audience are a great example of this. Fans who are dedicated to him will hate him for one thing and act like it’s the end of the world, but those same fans will turn a blind eye to anything problematic he might do in addition and forgive after they begin to miss him. Everyone makes mistakes, but being a popular celebrity can put it right in the eyes of any average person, most of which will most likely severely underreact or overreact depending on the majority opinion.

[artsycatdoodlez]

Are we in a time-based crisis?

Short-form Addiction and Movie Exhaustion

As a current highschooler and self-proclaimed film buff, I ask my friends about what media they’re watching when we get home from school. I always have new films to talk about, and I constantly berate my peers to watch them too. For the most part, my friends get home, doom scroll on tiktok for five straight hours, and go to bed. It's as if having hobbies became a rarity. What new shows are you watching? Mind blanks, no response. They check out mentally for hours on end and check back into reality just to repeat the cycle. Is this lack of response new with the times, or has doom scrolling just replaced a previous activity? Has there always been a sort of displacement for movies or have they just been phasing out of our society? 

Attention span is lowering. That is a fact. The new generations are being born into a dystopian society based online, born into technology that they will always have access to, and a plateau of technological development. As soon as the child becomes old enough to annoy their parents, an ipad is placed in front of them. Living online is fast paced and detrimental to child development, altering their brain chemistry forever as they get used to that type of living. Today’s teenagers, who have also been born into the technological age although during a period that was still in development, have found an addiction in spending time on their phone. Through newfound technology, online platforms such as TikTok perfected the formula to keeping eyes as long as they can. Other social media platforms have tried and succeeded to replicate it. Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and other short-form videos. With fast-paced, eye-catching, non-stop videos, it becomes harder to get away from the screen. These short and fast dopamine hits are comparable to taking drugs. The more you do it, the more your brain subconsciously likes it, but the worse you feel, with your senses depleting. The time-consuming act takes away from valuable time to spend doing other things. The state of boredom does not exist anymore. During any point of downtime, the canned response is to take out your phone and scroll. We as a society have a national crisis. Phone addiction and the drastically decreasing attention spans to it.

Have movies gotten longer? Yes, actually. It’s not just a feeling, they have genuinely increased in length. Significantly. In the last thirty years or so, the runtime of popular films has increased by over thirty minutes. Calling for more commitment, these films have turned off interest because audiences think of the lengths as “outrageous” or “a waste of my time” despite happily, and regretfully, spending seven hours on short-form videos at home.

Less interest in the film industry, combined with the cinema closures of 2020, means overall less attendance to watch films. The loop never ends. In addition to these turn offs, the big wigs in Hollywood are almost exclusively approving sequel or remake films. There is an audience for remakes or sequels, especially with pre-loved franchises with established audiences. For example, the recently released Snow White (2025) movie. It is a live-action recreation of the very well loved animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). 

Less interest in the film industry, combined with the cinema closures of 2020, means overall less attendance to watch films. The loop never ends. In addition to these turn offs, the big wigs in Hollywood are almost exclusively approving sequel or remake films. There is an audience for remakes or sequels, especially with pre-loved franchises with established audiences. For example, the recently released Snow White (2025) movie. It is a live-action recreation of the very well loved animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Disney made olympic mistakes in every aspect of this film. For one, Marc Webb’s casting choices caused outrage in the Disney fandom. Instead of the seven dwarves being actual actors with dwarfism looking for work, he opted for VFX dwarves to achieve the look he wanted for the film. There are many things wrong with this decision. One, depriving seven possible actors with dwarfism of the Disney type of exposure, which could change careers; two, if the film is realistic, why do we need caricatured dwarves when you could be providing jobs? Cast as Snow White, Rachel Zegler as a person also posed as a PR risk, voicing her political opinions and discrediting the movie during her PR tour for the film. Snow White (2025) failed horribly at the box office and in reviews. Receiving a whopping 1.6/10 on IMDb, a generous 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 1.3 / 5 through Google Reviews. With a budget of $209 million, the box office grossing is just short of $86 million. Snow White is, hopefully, the turning point in greenlit remakes. Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong, which is the amalgamation of why movie remakes (usually) suck. Audiences are exhausted and plead for new material, only to talk to the brick wall that is Hollywood executives in hope for interesting movies. 

The reason for constant remakes and sequels is that they rely on pre-existing audiences. This proves as a safety net of sorts for production investment, supposedly guaranteeing audiences in theaters. This is not always the case, seen by Snow White. Along with the Marvel universe, with non-stop movies constantly churning out, audiences get tired. But new, interesting, innovative movies are too much of a gamble on success; even if audiences are shouting that new movies are what we want. 

Hypothetically, let’s say a new movie interests you. You’re a fan of Dune. You remember reading the books, years back. They weren’t too difficult, a long read but you still got through it enjoyably. You had good grades and paid well enough attention in school. You watched the movie Dune (1984), with a runtime of a little over two hours, enjoyable but a little lengthy. This is now your favorite movie. Time goes on until the 2020s, Dune: Part One (2021) is being released with Timothee Chalamet. You look at the runtime, two hours and thirty five minutes. Yikes! Go with some friends, make it a day, you leave the theater bodily exhausted and eyes tired, but still feeling fulfilled seeing a new interpretation of your favorite book series. You hear Dune: Part Two (2024) has a runtime of two hours and forty six minutes. Yikes! For the past three years, you have been spending most of your off-time on tiktok, scrolling endlessly. You are less apt to go see the second film, especially with its runtime, but drag yourself in the theater anyways. Thirty minutes go by, and you feel boredom for the first time in years. You take out your phone to begin scrolling, and get kicked out of the theater for being disruptive with your phone light and sound. Now you’re stuck right outside of the theater waiting for your friends to finish the movie. What do you do with those two hours? Scroll on TikTok until you don’t realize the time, only being sucked out of that trance when your friends make it out of the theater. Your friends don’t even see you during the ride home, talking about how great the movie was and talking about how excited they are for Dune: Messiah (2026), while you continue scrolling. You get home, finally realizing what happened while checking back into reality as you put your phone away to unlock your door. That was a waste of time. You will not be going to see the next movie. If you were worth inviting in the first place, anyways.

This lifestyle is unfortunately many people's reality. The addiction to scrolling and the attention span of the public today is ruining relationships. This is why so many gen Z are shut-ins, seen as antisocial, and hate their lame lives. It’s a well-hidden addiction, as many affected blame their isolation on “society” and “everyone else”. In reality, it is up to the individual to get off the phone. The assumption is that fast-paced intake of various media spreading over many categories would increase media literacy, along with social understanding. Instead, the modern generation becomes “masters of none”, knowing just a little bit about everything but that “everything” is something nobody will benefit from. Short-form videos are slop. While there are educational videos, there is not one person who truthfully watches exclusively that genre of Tik Tok. The algorithm will always try to pull them back into the cess-pool that is the general algorithm. It's up to the user to find an escape.

Maybe it is “the damn phone”. 

^ graph showing the drastic increase of movie runtimes