BLOG: Then and now
Undefined
By Corey Cook, Staff Writer
June 19, 2008 | noon
This may be an obvious thing to say, but things always seem different when you are child. Candy tasted sweeter, and vegetables tasted nasty (or not). Our greatest fears were not rising gas prices but the monster hidden in our closets or under our beds. We explored and discovered, while getting plenty of ouchies and boo-boos along the way. After having my 19th birthday come and go, I stopped myself for a second and thought about who I am as a person and what sorts of things influenced me as a child to become who I am now.
Television is something that always fascinated me when I was younger, as it still does today. I would always like to sit close to the television screen and be amazed by how the small glass ovals of red, green and blue made a large, colorful picture. I can remember laughing my heart out to "Rugrats," being scared senseless by" Tales From the Crypt" and watching "Wild Discovery" on the Discovery Channel with my grandmother at my side. Television was my portal to the world, as cliché as that sounds, and I loved every moment of watching it.
Today, that magic that I once had has faded greatly. As I grew older, the shows I once loved had either faded, went off the air or tried to update to that “hip” look most shows sport now. Today the landscape has changed greatly, with more shows that are viewer-driven, raw and sexual. I was a part of the generation who grew up with that TV ratings box, which is now almost an after statement of the reform movement in the '90s. The TV I once knew inspired me to think about the world differently, and while I will not debate the current state of TV, I will say this: TV still is a window to the world to me, albeit that window is starting to get foggy.
One of my other passions in my childhood was reading. I started reading at an early age, and by the time I hit kindergarten, it was almost as important to me as TV. I read everything and anything, from "Time" magazine (note: not the kids version), to the Columbus Dispatch and even advanced chapter books.
Today, I admit I do not have that same strong zeal for reading like I used to. My taste in what I read has greatly changed as well. If you asked me what was my favorite book when I was nine, it would have been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now, it is George Orwell’s 1984. However, my love for reading has now translated into something else: my love for writing. I would not have been the same kind of writer today if it was not for the reader I used to be when I was younger.
Finally, one thing that has endured through out my life with almost the same passion as many other things is video games. I cannot remember a time when I never played video games or at least had one (or two) video game consoles where I have lived. I remember playing "Super Mario Bros." and "Duck Hunt" in preschool, "Donkey Kong Country" when I started elementary school, "Goldeneye" during all of my middle school years and "Grand Theft Auto 3" as a freshman in high school. Video games were incentives to do well in school, meant family time and were the subject of a few sibling arguments as well. It was how I made friends, sometimes enemies too. I remember being very vocal during elementary school when "Sonic" vs. "Mario" debates would arise.
Today, things have not changed for me that much. Now, I approach video games not just as a time killer but also as a valued part of our media and society in general. I feel that video games as a whole have matured in such a small span of time, becoming cultural reflections of our values and world values, too. I still do frequently play them, but they have opened me to many possibilities in life. Video games have influenced me to pursue a career as a video game journalist and maybe someday, to make my own.
Turning 19 has made me think about where my views on life come from, especially toward the media. The three that I have listed in my blog, while very important, are not the soul reasons where my views come from. To me, the most important factor on where my views on the media come from is the family and friends I have grown up with. Their opinions and continued support has, and forever will, be the driving force of where my perception, and I can only think of one thing to say to them:
Thank you.
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