So, Nicholas Kristoff has been writing about the genocide in Darfur for a while now. In the interests of giving the story a little youth appeal, he decides to hold a contest, the winner of which will travel with him across Africa, and blog in the New York Times.
He chose a graduate student in Journalism to accompany him. A chance of a lifetime.
As he wrote of this journey on Sunday,
Wow. What an adventure. What a learning experience. How psyched would you be to be going to Africa with a writer from the New York Times, and get to blog on the Grey Lady’s website.
So, I’m anxiously looking forward to the 23 year old winner’s first blog entry today. What must she be thinking heading off to a place where Lonely Planet had “never heard of any travelers going.”
I present to you a graduate student in journalism. . .
Her fucking goddamn playlist. A snippet:
I thought the generation behind me was supposed to listen to louder music, do crazier drugs, have crazier sex. What do they do? They text each other, make myspace pages, play video games, and listen to emo. How did they get so fucking lame?
No fucking wonder the most interesting thing she had to share on the brink of a journey of a lifetime is what’s on her fucking iPod.
That link requires one to be a Times Select member.
I agree that generally younger folks feel unable, unwilling, or unworthy to opine thoughtfully about anything, unless it’s about themselves. It’s sad that a grad student in journalism isn’t using this oportunity to create something worthwhile.
But this is truly the age of self-importance, where everyone has their own MySpace profile, and what music you have on your new iPod is the important topic of the day.
[/26 year old crumudgeon]
Then has a top-ten list. I cited one gem. Another. . .
Man, I wonder if Kristof is rethinking his decision right about now.
My problem is that I don’t REALLY feel like a curmudgeon. I feel like the people I know who are 50 are cooler than the people I know who are 20. How the hell does that happen?
Do college kids even stay up past midnight anymore? Someone please tell me they do.
“We finally got here, this place doesn’t seem too exciting, lots of poor looking people. I haven’t even seen a mall yet, I hope they have a Banana Republic, I sooo don’t want to have to shop at The Gap.”
Some of the best travel journals are written by people who started out very naive about the cultures they were about to experience. Look back at this journal in a few months. If there is no change in the writer then yeah, there’s cause for complaint. But this isn’t really any different from, say, a nineteenth-century English noblewoman with narrow viewpoints going to Africa and finding her life totally changed by the experience. Isn’t that part of travel writing, seeing how the writer changed? And isn’t it more interesting to read something by a “typical teen” about to experience Africa for the first time than someone well-schooled in the culture? Hopefully this experience will be very transformative for her. (I admit that her playlist leaves something to be desired.)
And I know that the main reason that I don’t use drugs is because I’m afraid of getting caught. Maybe that makes me a coward, but I like having a job and not having a criminal record. I’m always up past midnight though.
I’m not entirely clear on this, but the blog entry in question was made as the trip began, yes? Perhaps it would be worthwhile witholding judgment until we see what the student writes at the end. I mean, if they come home and the blog is still this bad, that would be shameful. But to me, what’s been written so far just proves that this chance of a lifetime has gone to someone who despertately needs it.
(As long as they stay the hell off our lawns, of course.)
I submit that the aforementioned journalism student has provided the answer to this question.
The Information Age gave us the ability to share our every thought with everyone in the world, and it’s just soooo hard to be concerned with trivial shit like politics and national affairs (or traveling in Africa) when the whole world is waiting to hear what’s on our iPods.
Like, duh. You just don’t understaaaaand because you’re old, dude.
Actually I had a post typed up that maybe – just maybe – Kristof was doing exactly that. . .finding someone who really does need an eye-opening experience.
Whether the girl is a co-conspirator in that, or a pawn to Kristof’s machinations, I’m not sure.
Either way, young people should still do drugs.
It doesn’t make you a coward, but it doesn’t diminish my point in the least. Yeah, no shit you could get caught, or have drugs show up on a drug test.
THAT’S PART OF THE FUN!!!
When I was a kid, we could get caught, too. We did GET CAUGHT. We got caught by parents, teachers, and cops. The question is why kids today are such wimps about it.
We got caught plenty. We also had a shitload of fun.
Get caught smoking pot in the sixties: slap on the wrist. Get caught smoking pot now: maybe five years probation, plus mandatory counseling, and your name in a database somewhere that will make it harder for you to own a house, fly on a plane, teach school, or do other important stuff.
Want kids to do more drugs? Get rid of the harsh penalties for doing so.
Of course the problem is that you only see the segment of kids who feel the need to make a myspace page about themselves. All the cooler kids have better things to do, and/or have no interest whatsoever blogging and posting pictures of themselves looking moody. Though, because no one knows they’re out there, people just assume the youth of today ALL live a myspace-like existance.
Well, I always figured that what you’re saying was true – that the cool kids really are out there, laughing at the kids like davenportavenger. (j/k)
And so, I figured, “well, Nicholas Kristoff must have found one of the cool ones ot take to Africa with him.” Naturally, I kind of flipped out when her first entry was this playlist shit.
Um, well, at least I don’t have a Myspace. And I don’t listen to emo. And I’ve never posted a playlist on my journal, which I use rather sparingly anyway. And I DO know people who have gotten probation and counseling on their first drug offense, though five years might be a bit of a hyperbole. But make whatever generalizations you feel like, you’re so great at doing that anyway.
Can you post comments to Kristof’s blog? If so, I would definitely lay out your argument there. Who knows - if it’s entertaining enough, maybe you’ll get to fill in for the Journalism student.
