NPR had a cool segment on podcasting on today's broadcast. The best part, I think, is that old big-haired Adam Curry from MTV is apparently an internationally known expert on all this.
I heard the segment while I was on my way over to Chapel Hill for a multimedia class I'm taking at UNC. Being on a campus again after 15 years or so has been really disconcerting. I'm acutely aware that I'm now one of the old farts I used to make fun of back in my undergrad days -- you know, the thirty-something continuing education students who couldn't figure out where to go, how to get properly registered, how to park.
A friend of mine works on campus, and we agreed that we don't even think any of the young hunks on campus are cute. It would be like thinking a 12-year-old is cute. Just wrong, you know? I have been entertained by watching what the students wear and realizing that they really don't look very different from how we used to look in the late 80s. Everyone still wears jeans, though now they're low-waisted and boot-cut (we wore them straight-legged and either stonewashed or completely cut up). They wear their backpacks over both shoulders (we only wore them over one), and North Face is definitely the dominant logo (Reebok was it for us). No one smokes. When I saw a girl with a cigarette today, it was jarring. Back then, the first thing we'd do when walking out of class was light a cigarette; now they flip open their cell phones.
The strangest thing was that everyone looked alike. When I was in college, you could always tell the metal heads (long hair and denim vests over leather motorcycle jackets) from the jocks (sweat suits and baseball caps) from the art students (asymetrical hairdos and thrift-shop clothing) from the College Republicans (khaki pants with blazers and ties. Now everyone looks like they've been shopping at the Gap.
No comments:
Post a Comment