Only two weeks left. This year went by quickly. The following topic is one that I would absolutely be honored to have anyone reading this play along with. I’ve had it on my radar for months. When I first attempted to do it back in the summertime, I has Tweeted out for suggestions. I don’t know why I never finished it, but I wanted to get it in before the end of the year (that’s what she said). Please feel free to leave your responses in the comments section. I think there’s a lot of different ways this could be answered and all of them are fascinating!
“List five cultural events that impacted you greatly. Then write about one of them without mentioning yourself.”
Part One:
- P2P Media Sharing – For example, Napster or bit torrent websites. I wouldn’t have been exposed to half of the amount of music or TV shows if not for them.
- The Rise of Social Media – MySpace, Facebook, and Blogger changed my life. They made the world a little smaller and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Blogger gave me my first real outlet with the original Blogspot that hosted this blog.
- The Era of iTunes/iPod – iTunes introduced me to podcasts which led to me meeting my husband. Also, because they’re both awesome.
- The Harry Potter Series – Renewed my love for mysteries, imagination, and reading. It’s also the reason I started listening to podcasts.
- 9/11 – I will never forget where I was that day or the feeling I had the very first time I saw the towers fall. The disbelief, the sadness, the anger, the sense of country I suddenly felt. Subsequently, when the U.S. declared war and entered the Middle East yet again, it was the first time in my life that I felt uneasy about my country. Going to war was a big deal; once you start the process, you can’t take it back. The deaths it would lead to would be permanent. I actually genuinely understood the arguments on both sides, but for the first time didn’t know if I agreed with it or not. I can’t say if I were in a decision-making position that I wouldn’t have done the same thing, but to this day, I still can’t decide how I feel about it. It also impacted me because it forced me to see that we as Americans can be strong when we want to be and ugly when we want to be. I guess you could say for that for me, 9/11 awoken a sense of conflict and that adult realization that not everything in the world is black and white.
Part 2:
Out of everything on my list, the 9/11 attacks on the United States, I think, had the biggest cultural impact on the most amount of people. It impacted all Americans and changed a lot of our way of life. It sent us to war. It brought all of us together momentarily as one nation, united together. Where it brought out society’s best qualities (the many who risked their lives saving others’ lives that day), it also brought out the worst in society (racism against Muslims). It led to the creation of a brand new government agency. It also made air travel a helluva lot more complicated. But mostly, it taught us that we aren’t safe nor infallible. Society and the American way of life is very different now than it was before 9/11. I think it woke a lot of people up in my generation and shaped each of us in different ways. National crisis will do that to you, I suppose.
I know you love that I had five non-serious things on the list and I choose to talk about the one serious, depressing thing, haha.
