Blog Post #2

Mike Hendrickson’s, “Music Television Mike,” grasped my full attention immediately and continued to intrigue me through the last word of the essay.  The writer kept me attentive through the humorous phrases, but also helped me to fully understand his point through his straightforward honesty in his essay.  This sense of bluntness helped me to relate to his personal thoughts.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this essay, because not only does it completely and totally relate to the era and generation I have grown up in, but it also sparked a train of thoughts through my mind while reading the article.  Mike reflected on television series that played a role in his idea of society’s expectations and also influenced his character and individuality.  Of course the media has always been a common source of influential trends and expectations for my generation, and I have pretty much always been aware of this.  But Mike’s essay really got me thinking about how the media has influenced my individual character.  I found some similarities with Mike’s ideas that I can identify with myself.  I liked how Mike acknowledged some of the “garbage” television shows on MTV, such as “Next” and “Parental Control,” but he explained that these series actually influenced him against the ideas that were at the basic foundation of these shows.  I can completely agree with Mike on this, because I remember when these “reality” shows first came out, I realized how completely dumb and unrealistic they truly were.  These MTV series showed me exactly what I did not aspire to be like.  Although many critics and people in general believe that MTV reality shows have encouraged teens and children around the world to act like the characters and people in these shows, I have actually found that, at least for my own self, they have discouraged me from acting in these particular manners.  Of course there are television shows that I absolutely love and could watch over and over again, and these shows are filled with characters that I somewhat admire to an extent.  I feel that I learn from these characters, because I can relate and identify with them in some way, shape or form.  For example, I love the show “Friends,” and I always find myself being able to relate to the character Rachel Green.  I have been able to identify with her compassion, sensitivity and wit.  So, yes of course, I believe that certain aspects of her character have influenced and encouraged me to strive for some of the qualities I admire in her character on “Friends.”  I agree with Mike when he explains that he is in fact part of the MTV generation, but that does not imply that he is so easily influenced to act, dress, talk, etc. just as characters in these reality television shows that make up our popular culture today.