Selling yourself short; or selling yourself for more?

NBA champion years 2012, 2013 and 2014. NBA MVP 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. NBA All-star 2005-2014. Olympic medalist and USA's basketball player of the year in 2012 and upon many awards in high school and throught out his whole basketbal career; Lebron James has a lot to be proud for and worked real hard to get to where he's at today. It didn't come easy to him, being rasied by a single sixteen year old mother but today Lebron James is known as a basketball legend and besides him leaving the heat, people don't have many bad things to say about him.

As a notable athelete such as Lebron James, you want to be recognized and credited for all of your hard work. Obviously companies are going to want to use him, him being a star athlete and a familiar face. Not only that, but some people look up to. I honestly do not think it degrades the image of the athlete, if anything it shows that they are involved and well rounded. They don't just want to do their career get their money and leave it as that. He's an endorcement for nike, beats by dre, dunkin, mcdonalds, gatorade, coca cola products and state farm. Besides that Lebron has co-hosted awards shows and saturday night live. He is an active supporter in the boys and girls club, onexone and childrens defense fund; and has donated money to presidents obamas campaign.

As a celebritiy, it's all about publicity. If you can get it in the right way which many don't, why not. Like I said before; Lebron is not known for doing wrong. He doesn't have sex scandals and he doesn't abuse his spouse. He gets his publicity by not only being an amazing athlete; but also being involved in so many different ways. Theres a possible thing as a celebrity selling themselves short; but in this case not so much. It's important to not have yourself labeled as just an athelete; but as a real person and show what you're passionate about on and off the court.

Heres a commercial sprite put out in support of Lebron switching back to the cavaliers from the heat;

They're not ALL bad people

The moment we hear about a certain news station or the people on it; we automatically think about how much of a liar they are or how bad or awful of a person they are, we assume they have nothing but biased opinions they're forced to state because of the new station they're from. But are we correct for thinking this way? Why let one news commentator  ruin our opinions of all of them. There are some of them that are not full of lies and really do believe in what they're saying and not just because someone told them to.

Lets take Nancy Grace; she is a TV commentator and formal prosecutor. Nancy is a huge activist for "victim rights". She is the only justice themed debate/news show. Nancy has caused a lot of hype between letting her opinions be well heard and sometimes way ahead of the evidence that she has. But don't we all get defensive about things we're passionate about? In the early 80's, Nancy grace was on the track to becoming an English professor when her husband was shot to death, this event taking place sparking her interest in the criminal justice field, her career is something she obviously feels very passionate about and does it with complete pride. Who are we to judge anyone based on their opinions on something someone is passionate yet well educated about? Nancy Graces purpose is to give those a voice who no longer have theirs and can't stand up for themselves and to gain justice for those individuals. Even though Nancy gets her point across with a little attitude and rudeness, sometimes that's one of the only ways you're going to get people to listen to you.

But on the other hand; we have people like bill O'Reilly. A strictly political commentator who claims he does not want to be on one side, yet he wants to exploit every political situation he possibly can and some people really despise him because of this. bill O'Reilly tends to really offend people and catches them off guard YET he is said to be one of the most trusted news commentators. He is a registered republican yet claims he is an independent, that's something that's pretty important when it comes to this stuff. So is he really one we should trust or thinks a liar just like the rest of them?

Its really up to nobody but ourselves; to pick and choose who and what may be worth believing. Not only that; but to realize why they are preaching about whatever said topic. Also, to remember that with passion lies truth and credibility.

It might not be our reality; but it's someone elses

When we think of "reality tv" we think of the trashy fights, random hook ups, the dramatic behavior and just over all drama and disappointment in the human race shoved into a tv show with a specific group of people that for some reason other people seem to care about and find  entertaining for whatever reason.

For some examples: Jersey shore, COPS, 16 and pregnant and dance moms.

As you can see; I chose a wide variety of shows and they all have something in common other than of course being a reality tv show. They are all shows that we attach a stereotype to. We watch these shows and become brainwashed that that's the way all of these people act in that social group. We watch jersey shore and think that everyone from jersey is a fist pumping idiot, we assume that all cops do is handle idiotic situations fairly poor, every pregnant teenager is doing it just for the tv show and to be an over dramatic brat and beat on their boyfriend when they're not even legal yet, and that every mom in competitive dance is living through their daughter because they were too fat to do that when they were her age. You're probably agreeing with everything I'm saying and that's, that's exactly my point.

But just step back for a second.. put yourself in the shoes of a person who is living those specific life styles every day but without the tv show. How do you think they feel when they watch these shows expecting to bond with them and they just see people making damn fools of themselves? Not all young mothers are over dramatic brats; some young mother actually change for the better when they become pregnant at a young age. But, you do not see that side. You see the "entertaining" aspect. Not all people from Jersey act like the jackasses from jersey shore, but do we think they do? of course. Because that's the only thing tv is exposing us to. They're not showing us a bunch of moms and daughters getting along and pursuing a passion all together through hard work and dedication.

Therefore; if we're not exposed to both sides, we stereotype. In this case, what else are we left to do? Are we supposed to somehow know better?

Read what some of the teenager's on teen mom have to say about the teen pregnancy culture as a whole here: http://www.npr.org/2011/08/16/139676173/does-reality-tv-misrepresent-teen-parenthood

Local VS Not really that local

As we enter or exit our local super markets, gas stations and even restaurants, we pass these stands that contain a bunch of papers with out dated news (like two days ago) on them, "news" that we probably already heard of via social media or tv and that we are almost over by the time we even see it on the stands in our local stores. We live in a world where so many people are concerned about what others are doing around them and who's screwing up and who's not, rather than what's happening half away across the country. We as people want to know what's going on right here; right now.

Let's take it back to the VERY beginning; when you're walking through that grocery store, gas station or restaurant and see one of these ancient piles of paper. Are you more likely to pick it up if there's a story that happened hours away or s few streets? What about if it has your neighbors face on it compared to some random that committed a crime? If your child's high school is mentioned  compared to another school you've never even heard of? If I'm guessing correctly you would rather much hear about the things that you can easily relate to or know about personally. Not only are we interested in what's going on around in our community but we are just god damn nosey. Not only by reading your local newspaper will you know what's going on, but out of your family and friends you will be the ultimate gossip Nazi. Who doesn't want that within their community? By reading your local newspaper (The Dundalk Eagle) you'll know the latest news such as what's going on local schools, parks, stores, sports, obituaries, engagements, stuff that's on sale, just pure dundalk-y things  and so much more just from the little Dundalk community packed into one  paper that may be written on a like third grade level that all can understand and read easily (hopefully), We are talking about the dundalk paper here.

Television...Social Media... Word on the street.. Don't we already know what's going on in the world around us without really even being around it or knowing anything at all? If we want to know what happened half way across the country are we going to go rush to the store to buy a paper and then spend the time to look through it to make sure it's in there? Yeah, absolutely not. This is 2014, not the stone age. We are going to either A) Go to social media B) Turn on the TV C) Google it D) All of the above. We don't care about what they put in the paper, this is old news to us. By the time this paper is out, we have already googled, heard about the situation 14 times on TV, and someone has made an inappropriate joke or picture via twitter or instagram. Like what's the point?  Papers such as USA today should be on life support; the plug will be pulled eventually due to the fact it's already telling us things we already know or don't even care enough about to know, because we are simple minded individuals.

Don't believe me? Read this article from last Friday:http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/03/usa-today-layoffs/15035885/