The Wrong Deduction

    People in general tend to always think that we know everything; whether it has to do with their educational, personal or financial lives. However the sad reality is that we don't and this isn't any more obvious then when we think we know what's going on in a particular scenario to only later find out that we had misunderstood the situation. Recently I have had a situation like this that was and is still somewhat personal. Without having all of the facts I had come to the wrong conclusion which almost cost me my relationship with my girlfriend.

     Now in a previous relationship I was in, I was being cheated on the whole time and ever since then I have always been very cautious in trusting women and this whole situation developed out of that fear of being cheated on again. Now at the time my girlfriend and I were not boyfriend and girlfriend but we had started dating. We had been really good friends for a while and at that particular time it was starting to develop into something more. We had both been hurt in past relationships due to cheating so we agreed that if we were to be dating, it would be monogamous. Well, one weekend she went with a couple of her friends to a quince out in Wickenburg to dance and what have you. So that night I had talked to her for a bit before she left and I did not see her till the next morning. Now though it is hard to admit, I did get a little jealous because I couldn't help to think that there might be some guys wanting to dance with her and hold her and maybe try to get with her. Also it didn't help knowing that a particular "friend" of hers was going to be there because this friend of hers had been trying to get with her for years. Well long story short, the whole time she was there I was left wondering and hoping that nothing would happen.

The next day I had asked how the dance was and she said that it was ok and later that day I went onto Myspace. I noticed that some of her friends had posted some pictures of the dance of the night before so I figured, "what the hell?" and looked through them. Well one of the pictures I saw was of my girlfriend being held by her "friend" and if that wasn't bad enough, when I went into work, her friends came up to me saying that she has this boyfriend already and that they couldn't believe that she would be leading me on how she was. Now when I heard that I was devastated, it seemed that all of my suspicions were true and that everything that could go wrong was. So when my girlfriend would come up to me I would and want to talk I would just blow her off and ignore her. She was confused by how I was acting and when she went to her friends to talk about it they explained what they had told me earlier at work. Now it turned out that her friends had lied to me, saying what they had said to see how I would react to the news of her being with another guy and though I was relieved to hear that it was all a bad joke, it had put a small rift between my girlfriend and I which over time we got over.

Though we were able to work through that whole ordeal, the whole fiasco could have been avoided. Instead of going to her directly with what I had heard I jumped to the wrong conclusion and allowed myself to dwell on the fact that my love history was being repeated. Just as how Chuck Shepherd had found all the murderers whose middle name was Wayne because he was looking for it, so did I think she was cheating on me because of my self-perpetuating thought that it was going to happen again. So the best thing that can be done is to just go to the source and get the whole story instead of having a couple pieces and trying to make them fit.

The Unforeseen Ramifications

    It seems that now days you can't go anywhere without hearing about how society has entered either the "information age" or "digital age." For the past 50 years society has been introduced to technological advances that have forever changed how we look and interact with the world. With the introduction of television (TV), it was the first time that everyone who had a television set could all get important information on current events or just sit back and watch a show and the internet allowed anyone with an internet connection to access information that would have been extremely difficult beforehand. Though these technologies are making our life easier, the impact of these technologies has produced unforeseen ramifications which are changing our society for the worse.

    Though television is an outlet for relaxation and entertainment, it is attacking not only the health of its viewers but sending out messages that set an unrealistic view of beauty. Before TV, many people had to go out in search of entertainment, whether that was joining a sports team or having a game night with all of your neighbors or having Sunday drive out into the country side. However with the introduction of television into the American home, society no longer needs to go in search of entertainment because entertainment comes straight to us in our very own living room resulting in many becoming very inactive and unhealthy. However television has its good side.  It can be entertaining and even educational, and can show kids a whole new world, allowing them to see and experience things that they many have never been exposed otherwise. But what happens when you replace that positive message with a negative one? Children are spending up to 1680 minutes (that's about 28 hours) a week watching tv. Combine that with a study that the Kaiser family foundation did revealing that kids are exposed to 3,800 images of sexual situations on a regular basis, you have a society that is breaking down the fundamental idea of what true love and beauty is. As a result we have our young folk being more sexually aware which has lead to unwanted pregnancy, STD's and a lack of self respect and self worth.

    The internet has evolved so much since its early days. Once only used by the Department of Defense is now used by 74.2% of all Americans, it allows us to be continually aware of current events, research information, and even allows us to check what time the movie starts at our local movie theater; it allows us to connect with people that are as old as we are and have similar interests as we do. However it's this option of connectivity that has created an unhealthy social withdrawal for many people. The virtual world of Second Life is a fine example of this unhealthy outlet. As the name suggests, "Second Life" allows people to live other lives on the internet, allowing them to be who they "truly are" or who they fantasize to be because the computer acts as a buffer between them and the rest of the world. MTV's True Life did a documentary following Amy, was a musician who was a rock star in Second Life but when it came to performing live in front of people was too shy to do so in I Live Another Life Online. Certainly there many people who use Second Life as well sites like Myspace and Facebook for recreational purposes, these sites have opened the door for creating a lost generation. Japan has to deal with hikikomori's developing in their own society and to believe that it couldn't develop here in the states is a delusion at best.

    Though technology has given us many advances to ease our lives and make it enjoyable, the darker side of such advances is starting to come to light. Though we may like to believe that no harm can be done or is being done to our society, society must recognize that these issues must be addressed if we are to halt the must be done if it is to stop the slow decay of itself.

This is my fist post

So this is my first post, a day before our first blog post. to make sure that i can post things without a problem. Looking forward to doing this.
its something new
--randall