Opinion

Compiled by Natalie KillionPhotos by Trina Pham

THE CREIGHTONIAN

“What was the

most enjoyable

moment during

your break?”

“Sleeping. I enjoyed that very much.”

If you had to make a time capsule to preserve the values and traditions of the 21st century, would you want to include all of the seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” on DVD? No doubt would people in 3012 — that sounds weird out loud — find it enjoyable, but it also seems like an embarrassing thing that describes our culture.

Entertainment aside, watching a TV show with a bunch of women fighting for a man — or vice versa — sounds downright ridiculous. On

the other hand... yes it sounds ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop too many people from watching it.

As the king of all dating shows, “The Bachelor” has a solid 15 seasons under its belt and is currently working on its 16th. Its sister show, “The Bachelorette,” also boasts an impressive seven seasons, with millions tuning in to both shows.

These shows not only represent the declining standards of love, but they represent audiences’ declining standards as well. We watch just about anything to see some drama and maybe even a wedding proposal at the end.

I admit that I watch “The Bachelor.” I know it is a bunch of trash. I know the success rate of relationships it produces — only one couple that met on the show actually married — and I know that it is a waste of my time.

However, I am drawn in, along with the millions of others who call themselves devoted fans. Curiosity gets the best of us when we consistently tune in to see the different types of men and women vying for a shot at love, all while we make predictions of who will stay and who will go.

Logically, why would someone ever sign up to compete against 24 other people for a shot at love? Specifically for “The Bachelor,” the other 24 aren’t just ordinary women either; most of them look like Miss America runners-up. Not to mention when that many women are packed into one mansion in California — and

a variety of hotel suites across the globe — the nails are bound to come out.

I guess if you make it far enough to travel on the show, but leave sans fiancé, your time wasn’t completely wasted — hey you got to rack up some frequent flyer miles!

But honestly, wouldn’t you want the opportunity to travel without needing to remind yourself of the “heartbreak” you experienced in that country? Hypothetically, if I got to experience the best date of my life on the Eiffel Tower and then Mr. Bachelor decided to send me home, I can’t say I would want to run back to Paris anytime soon.

The dates are extravagant, which the audience expects if a popular network foots the bill. However, we can’t expect a relationship built on helicopter rides and trips to Cabo to last. Once the cameras turn off, they are alone in the real world. No mansions in California. No couple’s suite of the week. They go back to their normal lives, just with the happy bonus of a significant other.

For some, this might work if they actually got to know each other in the brief amount of time necessary for filming. For about 95 percent of the rest of the couples, the relationship fails soon after the show airs.

Why? But they seemed so blissfully happy when she said “yes” to him on the cliff in New Zealand, smiling and laughing with the royal blue waters dancing in the distance!

News flash: they barely know each other. Speeding up the dating process — which alone sounds too calculated and scientific — into two months is absurd, as well as being a formula for disaster.

I know it’s entertaining and I know it’s hard to look away when it’s on TV, but this show is taking away a piece of our intelligence, as well as diminishing our sense of morals and standards. True love is not found through a reality show. On that note, let’s wish winemaker Ben from Sonoma the best of luck on his quest for love! Who knows, maybe this one will work out.

Two out of 16 is a good ratio…right?

‘Bachelor’ needs reality check

I was a lame kid. I just thought I’d share that. My older brother John and I are two years apart and then my younger brother Kevin is nine years younger than I am. So needless to say, Kevin is growing up with nearly adult-aged siblings and left to fend for himself as an “only child” at home with mom and dad.

He has no older siblings to play with and is all by himself with two adults. It must be so boring

because John and I are so incredibly cool. With me living in Nebraska and John living in Connecticut, Kevin is the only one left in the nest in Portland, Maine. Poor kid!

Try again. He is living the life and we are definitely not cool. Kevin has more of a social life at age 11 than I have at almost 21 years old. I know it makes me sound ancient to say it, but kids these days are just so lucky! And honestly, they are just wicked cool.

I look back at kid pictures of myself, donning a corduroy jumper with a patterned turtleneck, not to mention the Barney socks and jelly sandals (long live the 90s!). Kids these days are FaceTiming on their iPhones, wearing Ugg boots and designer jeans. Yeah, that was definitely not me.

Kevin, always active and a tri-season athlete, is rarely not wearing Under Armour or Nike gear. Even his basketball team is outfitted with various styles of basketball shoes that exceed $80 a pair, easy. I’m pretty sure that our basketball teams in middle school were rocking the Famous Footwear deal of the week on “boy’s basketball” shoes.

Not only do they look cooler than I could ever dream of at that age, (the Limited Too was the only version of cool that girls my age knew back then), but they have intense social lives.

I got home over break and my parents asked, “what are you up to tonight?” and as I hesitate on an answer, my little brother is texting (probably about cool plans) while also sprinting for the house phone when it rang. He knocked it out of my hands because “Christina, it’s going to be for me!”

Thanks Kev, way to rub it in. Within 10 minutes he was asking me for a ride to his buddy’s house a couple streets over and I was re-examining my social life. Oh well. I later joked with my parents that Kevin was way cooler than John or I ever were.

They didn’t explicitly agree, but they sure didn’t disagree. Love you too Mom and Dad. But it’s true. Plus, that night of watching a rental movie with my dog was really fun…right?

Even babies now are cooler than I was. I look at baby clothes’ sections at department stores and see dresses that are fancier and cuter than ones hanging in my closet. Clothes that make more of a statement than my one-snap, zip-up, sock-style onesies. Yep, even the eight month olds dress cooler than me.

I guess it’s just a different time. It’s scary to me that kids are already so focused on social acceptance, brands and popularity, but they are. So until I am “mom-age” and am able to decide how to dress my children, I will remain in this taboo period of being jealous of the coolness of kids while trying to find my own version of “cool.” Good luck to me, right? Maybe I’ll ask Kevin for advice.

I really hope that I am not the only one who feels this way, as it would make this column far more embarrassing than it already is. Drop a line or stop me on campus if you agree. And please, someone, even if you don’t agree you should pretend like you do…humor me.

My Voice

Modern children have increased ‘cool factor’

My Voice

My Voice

I’m taking time in this column to focus on an obsession that I have found I share with many of my friends and peers; my idolization of arguably one of the greatest female performers of this century, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles.

While the Beyoncé adoration is one that has been around for a while, it seemed to increase this past month with the birth of her first child, daughter Blue Ivy Carter, with husband Jay-Z.

The media reached stalker-ish levels when false rumors spread that Beyoncé gave birth on New Year’s Eve. Every news outlet seemed to be clamoring for the exact moment when the child of one of the country’s top entertainment couples would enter the world.

Yet Mrs. Jay-Z seemed determined to not let this media circus affect her child. She first revealed her pregnancy during a performance at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, but kept relatively hush about it afterwards. She and her husband have also yet to follow along with the common celebrity trend of selling baby pictures for millions of dollars.

This tasteful restraint is something that I feel is one of the reasons why Beyoncé has become so incredibly popular. She knows she’s a superstar, and she knows that she’s already relevant. Even when she began dating Jay-Z she kept relatively quiet about her personal relationship and kept the focus on her career. Today, she still does not feel the need to document every single move she makes by talking about her pregnancy to every single news source.

This also highlights the focus that Beyoncé and Jay-Z have on their daughter, rather than on themselves. Two days after their daughter’s birth, Jay-Z released a song, “Glory,” that was dedicated to his daughter. He also featured Blue Ivy’s cries on the track and after the song debuted she became the youngest person ever to be featured on a Billboard chart.

Upon reading this fact, after the initial crushing realization I felt thinking about how much more a three-week-old baby has already accomplished than me and cursing myself for not being born Beyoncé’s daughter, I thought again about how touching it was for Beyoncé and Jay-Z to dedicate a song purely to their daughter. Instead of going for the five-page, awkward “People” magazine spread, they kept it classy and simple.

Of course, there still could be a chance that Beyoncé and Jay-Z will go this route

and that they are just waiting for the best offer to come along to publish pictures of their daughter. I sincerely hope that they choose not to do this and will instead keep following the quiet path they have chosen so far.

So my advice to Beyoncé is to once again keep it classy. Continue to be the strong, independent woman I admire and do not blindly follow the advice of those who tell you to sell baby pictures. Keep focusing on the love you have for your daughter without always feeling the need to force the spotlight on her and act as a role model to other new mothers.

Beyoncé keeps it classy

Photo courtesy of mp3waxx.com via flickr.

-Emalie PriceArts & Sciences senior

ANNA HENSELColumnist

CHRISTINA MOOREColumnist

ANN DUFFYColumnist

Opinion Views from the Perch27 January 2012

Snooze button threatens REM sleep

It is now the fourth week of January and all the confetti has fallen, John Lennon’s “Imagine” has stopped playing, gym memberships exploded but are slowly beginning to subside and people have returned to their ordinary lives of either work or school signifying the start of another new year.

The beginning of any new year means New Year’s resolutions. In the spirit of

fresh starts we make promises to ourselves about how we are going to be better individuals in the New Year with the clean slate given to us by the power of the calendar. We dump our bad habits and mistakes in the garbage with our puppy calendars, for a new calendar with 12 new pictures of man’s best friend.

But in the spirit of fresh starts, let’s also be honest. By now, most if not all of us have abandoned these resolutions believing it was outlandish and ridiculous to think we ever could have done them in the first place. We tell ourselves it’s not that we couldn’t do it, it’s just that life gets in the way or whatever other excuse we can come up with to rationally explain away our failures, not only

to others, but to ourselves.In my opinion there is no reason to sulk and beat yourself

up for not being able to keep your resolutions. We’re creatures of habit. Why would anyone ever think that what they do on Dec. 31, could be broken on Jan. 1?

We all fall victim to the euphoria created by the excitement of the new year, so I can’t fault people for making resolutions initially. But if people make resolutions year after year only to continually break them, then there’s a problem. It’s the old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

I no longer make New Year’s resolutions. Not because I don’t have flaws to fix, contrary to popular belief, but for two reasons. First, resolutions don’t work and second, I feel like I can make changes at any point during the year. I don’t like to get caught up in the hype of the New Year.

For those of you who can’t recognize the self-mutilation that is failed New Year’s resolutions and continue to make them, do not fear, this is why I’m here. I have three pieces of advice to help you struggle through yet another year of resolution disappointment.

First, make reasonable resolutions. Small goals are better than big unattainable goals. The smaller goals will be easier to accomplish, and this feeling of accomplishment will propel you

to continue down your path of “bettering yourself,” rather than getting you discouraged because your goal isn’t happening as fast as you would have liked.

With that being said, we’re all victims of our generation’s desire for instant gratification and many of us are not patient enough to wait for these sweeping radical results.

This brings me to my second bit of advice, and although this may be hard for you type-A personalities to hear, the answer to the instant gratification quandary is to set the bar lower to compensate for your lack of patience.

My final piece of advice is to limit the number of resolutions you make. Focus on just a few things you want to change rather than a complete overhaul of your entire being. Aside from simplifying things, you won’t feel like as big of a failure if, God forbid, you abandon your resolutions. Trust me, I’ve failed enough times to know there are varying levels of failure and the more you can minimize the blowback the better.

So next New Year’s make a resolution not to make any New Year’s resolutions and to avoid the self-destructive forces and entrapments that they bring. Is it too soon to already be ready for next year?

New Year’s resolutions harmful

It is the most tempting thing in the world, as my alarm clock jolts me awake in the morning, to roll over and immediately find the snooze button for those precious few minutes of more sleep.

And who can resist the temptation? Here we are in the dead of another Omaha winter. The freezing temperatures are trying to invade through my window, the sun has barely risen above the horizon and I am safe and cozy underneath

the covers.In a half-asleep dazed moment of weakness I choose nine

more minutes of sleep. Then nine minutes later I make the same weak decision again and again until I’m running late before my day has even begun.

So how come after I indulge myself with all of this extra sleep I still feel tired? The truth is hitting the snooze button might actually be the cause of this grogginess. As you doze throughout the night, the restful REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep becomes longer each time you return to it and is at its longest in the morning right before you wake up.

Continually hitting the snooze button interrupts this final stage of REM sleep and could be the cause of the sleep-deprived hangover that lasts all day. Studies have shown that a lack of sleep can negatively affect memory, comprehension, attention and can increase feelings of irritability and depression.

The solution: if you’re an iPhone user you could download a handy sleep cycle alarm clock that you place beneath the sheets and claims to wake you up at the best time based on your body movements. Or if you don’t like to sleep with your phone quite literally in the sheets with you, you can simply wake up when

your alarm goes off.Be realistic and set your alarm to a reasonable time and stick

with it so that you can actually enjoy the benefits of that last cycle of sleep. If this still proves too difficult, try moving the alarm clock to the other side of the room so that you have to get up in order to shut it off.

This works particularly well if you have a roommate that you are afraid of annoying with your alarm.

You can also try setting a timer on lights or a television to go off in sync with the alarm. The extra stimulation might just be the push you need to get out of bed.

So the next time you lunge for the snooze button and those extra minutes of sleep, think twice because they might not always be as beneficial as they feel.

My Voice

My Voice

-Steele ValenzuelaArts & Sciences junior

“Babysitting my baby sister and changing diapers.”

-Cara FraneyArts & Sciences senior

-Genevieve BettinArts & Sciences junior

“Sleeping and reading lots of books.”

“I took up knitting again.”

JOE WRIGHTColumnist

EVAN HOLLANDColumnist

Created by Katie Thompson