A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MY FB
By
Vincent Chavez
THE FUNNIEST AND MOST ACCURATE DEPICTIONS OF MEDIA CONSUMPTION IN THE MODERN AGE
Last year, we had a few media offerings that really nailed what it’s like to experience social media and digital entertainment in the modern age. These are the movies and TV shows that held up an iPhone camera with that turnaround mirror feature up to society and truly depicted life in the present. Without further ado, I present a short list of the top three most honest representations of our digital age.
Parks and Recreation |
This is 40 |
Pitch Perfect |
| Parks and Recreation has a strong track record of writing their characters with a passion for social media bordering on addiction, particularly Donna Meagle and Tom Haverford. But this season’s best example of digital addiction came from the “Sex Education” episode in which Tom receives a court ordered technological detox after he gets into a tweet and run car accident. His struggle involves him crafting an iPhone out of cardboard and sadly tapping the drawn-on buttons. Honorable mention goes to Donna Meagle’s live tweeting of Death Canoe 4, where she spins Twitter gold like this: “I mean, who goes swimming at this hour? Really? In the lake? It’s all dusty and dirty in there. #Midnightbackstroke #whitefolk." |
One of the most prominent themes Judd Apatow tackles in his latest film This is 40 is how to raise a family in the digital age. A large portion of the movie involves parents having to compete for their children’s attention against the multitude of screens. Smartphones, tablets, HD TVs, iPods, laptops, !is is 40 has them all. The scenes that both tickled me and rang the truest were the ones where Paul Rudd would escape to the bathroom for a moment of peace, quiet, and a game of Words With Friends. Oh and his daughter’s devotion to Lost was by far my favorite gag in the whole movie; it perfectly encapsulated the rabid fandom that comes from having seasons of television at your fingertips. |
Pitch Perfect may have been a by-thenumbers crowd pleaser, owed mostly to freakishly entertaining musical numbers and Rebel Wilson’s winningly toothsome grin, but mid-way through exists a scene pulled straight from the life of any college kid. The scene involved the film’s two romantic leads huddled around a laptop watching The Breakfast Club, the only light coming from the glow of a Macbook screen. Quiet, romantic, and undeniably modern, it was the one moment where I believed anything this movie was selling. |
Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 January 2013 00:59
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