This Is Your Brain Online
What is constant connectivity doing to our brains? That, in a nutshell, is the question Newsweek writer Tony Dokoupil explores in his July 16 cover story for that magazine, “Tweets. Texts. Email. Posts. Is the Onslaught Making Us Crazy?” The short answer? Maybe so. Dokoupil launches into his subject matter with something of a cautionary […]
Our Continually Coarsening Culture
Working at Plugged In, I have a front-row seat when it comes to observing trends in our culture. And one of the ones we’ve talked about for years is our society’s slow-but-steady descent into increasing coarseness. You don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of this, especially if you’re tuned into to what’s […]
Monkey See, Monkey Do—Olympics Style
My family and I have been watching the Olympics over the past week. A lot, actually. You see, my wife started swimming competitively when she was but a wee lass, and she continued doing so all the way through college. (I, in contrast, mostly just played Marco Polo.) Her history, combined with all the drama […]
I Want It Cheap, and I Want It Now!
One of the ways technology and consumerism interact in our culture is this: Technology is ever advancing, it seems, in its ability to give us exactly what we want, as fast as we can possibly get it and at the cheapest possible price. Once upon a time, for example, we shopped for goods at small […]
Why Batman Must Die
The Dark Knight Rises lands in theaters on July 20. And already there’s feverish speculation regarding just how high the opening-weekend box office will go—specifically, whether the final film in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy can top The Avengers‘ record of $207.4 million. There’s also rampant speculation regarding whether Batman will make it to the […]
The FCC and the Future of Broadcast Indecency Standards
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday on whether or not the Federal Communications Commission is constitutionally free to impose fines on broadcast television networks for instances of fleeting profanity or nudity. The short answer from the nation’s highest court to the FCC? No. The long answer? Well, it’s quite a bit longer. But it’s worth wading […]
Tom Cruise and the Postmodern Spirit
Tom Cruise recently gave a well-publicized interview in Playboy, quotes from which made the rounds in all sorts of other news outlets. The 49-year-old actor held forth on a variety of subjects, but the comments I found most interesting had to do with his religious beliefs. He basically said that regardless of what he says […]
Movie Tuesday: Smith’s Back in ‘Black’
Earth’s mightiest heroes finally met a foe they could not vanquish at the box office: Will Smith. Nearly 10 years after he last donned a dark suit, Smith’s Agent J has faced down Marvel’s The Avengers at the multiplex. In its first three days in theaters, Men in Black 3 took in an estimated $55.0 […]
In Facebook We (Don’t) Trust
What do you think of Facebook? That’s a question lots of people have been asking recently. In fact, the Associated Press and CNBC conducted a poll before Facebook’s initial public stock offering last Friday trying to determine American users’ attitudes toward the site. And even though the social networking sensation has amassed more than 900 […]
A Deluxe Addendum to Jason Mraz
Three weeks ago, we reviewed Jason Mraz’s new album, Love Is a Four Letter Word. And apart from a couple of passing allusions to cohabitation, it was a sweet album full of earnest, optimistic reflections about life and love. So much so, in fact, that I wrote in the conclusion of our review, “Jason Mraz’s […]