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Is Facebook The New & Improved Biological Clock?

by Ryan Shea

Credit to: Wikimedia.
Credit to: Wikimedia.

Oh great, you are engaged and just got a promotion. Thanks Facebook!

Even though parts of society seems to change throughout the years, some of it cyclical and some of it changing for the new, one thing remains the same- the pressure to be like the Joneses.  What do I mean by that?  The simple fact that we are all aspiring to get ourselves to that inevitable checkpoint.  To achieve whatever our hearts desire- be it a great job promotion, a marriage, a kid, whatever it takes.  So now that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter is thriving in today’s digital age, is that biological clock of ours that much more magnified because we see it on a daily or even hourly basis?

When you reach a certain age, let’s say 30 for instance, you are expected and almost expect yourself to reach particular life goals.  Straight or gay, you may feel like you should be married at this point, have a kid or two, live on your own of course with a pretty profitable job.  But what happens if one of those things are missing?  Let’s say you are looking for that dream job of yours yet can’t seem to find it.  You then open up your Facebook page and see that your friend Jenny or Scott has just achieved that particular promotion or even started to run their own company.  Certainly you feel happy for them, but subconsciously you feel like why them and not me?  Why can’t it be me getting that great job?  I have the qualifications, so what’s the difference here?  Hence that feeling of, “Oh shit.  I gotta get moving, I gotta do something”.

The biological clock before digital times was just an inherent feeling of my time is running out to do accomplish something, and I don’t want to know how I will feel if I don’t get it done by then.  I have a ton of my girlfriends who tell me on a consistent basis that they want love, they want commitment but it is hard to find in such a big city like Manhattan.  Then they go on their Facebook page and find that that girl who they had a chemistry class with back in college just got engaged, and then the panicking begins.  Shouldn’t this provoke something good and not bad?

Credit to: Transformation Marketing
Credit to: Transformation Marketing

 

Facebook originally started the same year I began college back in 2004 really as a social networking site between college kids.  It was a mixture of meeting new people on your campus yet keeping in touch with all of your high school friends, sort of a digital Yearbook of sorts.  Now, almost ten years later it has developed into such a life that I don’t even think Mark Zuckerberg was really prepared for (IE Snapchat’s 3 Billion Dollar rejection from Facebook itself).  It has just designed itself into keeping us up to date with what everyone is doing on a very large scale.  Will Facebook represent this quote un quote “Biological Clock” type of atmosphere for a while?  Not too sure.  It really all depends on how you view your life versus someone else’s life and really how you compare yourself to them.

Do you think Facebook is the new Biological Clock?  Sound off!

 

Filed Under: OPINION Tagged With: biological clock, Facebook, history, mark zuckerberg, News, snapchat, stories, Twitter

It’s Official: Citibike Has Launched!

by Andrew Gutierrez

Photo: Dmitry Gudkov/#BikeNYC
Photo: Dmitry Gudkov/#BikeNYC

If you haven’t noticed, the city has been taken over by Citibike users.  Monday was the launch day for the Citibike program and this week is technically a preview week for annual membership holders. The Citibike blog has posted some stats on usage, popular stations, and trip details.

Trips since launch: 12907

Avg Duration (current day): 14.22 minutes
Miles traveled since launch: 32,265 miles

Most popular starting stations
8 Avenue and W 31 Street: 50
E 17 Street and Broadway: 48
Christopher & Greenwich St: 39

Most popular ending stations
E 17 Street and Broadway: 52
Pershing Square N: 41
Pershing Square S: 40

Annual Members: 19389 total Annual Members

As of 5 PM today Citibike has 19,389 annual members! That’s pretty fantastic yet slightly scary at the same time—fantastic because it’s great seeing a positive embrace to alternative transportation and scary because drivers and pedestrians are going to face a sea of blue bikes every day!

Check out the Citibike website for maps with bike station locations and availability.  There’s also an app which you can download onto your mobile device to check out available bikes and docking stations in your area or around the city. As stated in my last post, Citibike is currently only available in Manhattan below 59th Street and the downtown Brooklyn area (aka grown up Brooklyn).  There are plans for expansion to all of Manhattan and the boroughs in the future. If you’d like to sign up for a Citibike annual membership, use your Citibank debit or credit card for a $15 discount.

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, NEW YORK, U.S. Tagged With: alternative transportation, bikeshare, citibike, News, NYC

NBC Saves Parks and Rec, Cancels Four Other Comedies

by Michael Tyminski

(Source: Wikipedia)
(Source: Wikipedia)
(Source: Wikipedia)

Last night I rifled off a story to my editor about up-fronts and taking wild guesses about how NBC was going to handle its’ once vaunted comedy lineup with intentions of posting it today. Between then and now, NBC took a lot of the mystery out by renewing Parks and Recreation for a sixth season and canning Guys with Kids, 1600 Penn, Whitney, and Up All Night.

Needless to say, I wasn’t shocked with any of these decisions. Parks and Rec is the closest thing NBC has to veteran hit right now, going into its’ sixth season and drawing a moderate viewership (Oh how the mighty have fallen). One could also see the network realizing how weak their slate was when they got a back nine tacked on their order this year (the season was originally supposed to be a 13 episode order like Community and 30 Rock).

Similarly, three of the four cancellations I had as inevitabilities.

1600 Penn had all the signs of a show that wasn’t going to outlive its’ first 13 episodes. It’s ratings consistently plummeted in it’s post-Office time slot, it came in at mid-season and had its’ season finale in March, it stuck out like a sore thumb in the same lineup as Community, Parks and Recreation and The Office, and last but not least it would be eventually bumped so that network favorite Go On could close out after The Office.

Up All Night, was not nearly as weak a show as 1600 Penn, but after much of the backstage turmoil you couldn’t help but think this show was going to get mercy-killed in May. Between the stars’ departures, the show runners’ departure, and an anticipated shift from single-camera to multi camera that got axed, it was tough to imagine Up All Night surviving to a third season.

Guys with Kids is the sort of show that most people were surprised made it out of its’ first six episodes, let alone a full season. It was one of those shows that existed as a way of NBC signaling its’ turn away from fairly intelligent comedy into the Lorre-esque dreck that pervades CBS.

Whitney, however, came as a little more of a surprise to me. While many people have reacted to most cancellations with a variation of “but they kept Whitney?” the impression I always got of the show was that it was the sort of show that the Peacock was never going to let die if only because it was a key part of network head Bob Greenblatt’s vision of a couple of years ago.

This leaves Go On (which I think will be renewed) and Community (which is a coin toss) as shows whose fates are to be determined, though it also signals that regardless of the situation that NBC needed to look in a new direction for its’ comedy lineup after a disastrous 2012-13 season.

UPDATE 4:20 PM: I was horribly wrong about Go On. The sitcom was just cancelled by NBC. This one surprises me a lot at it fits NBC’s strategy of bringing it’s “must-see TV” stars out of the mothballs and this series always seemed disproportionately adored by the network. I’m not sure whether this increases Community’s chances of survival (in a two similar shows one could survive sort of way) or is a potential foreboding doom (NBC manages to cancel just about anything with the intent of getting laughs from its’ schedule).

Next week is upfronts week: Keep posted to Manhattan Digest for more news and opinions!

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, TELEVISION Tagged With: 1600 Penn, Guys with Kids, Must See TV, NBC, News, Parks and Recreation, TV, Up All Night, Whitney

NBA’s Jason Collins Comes Out!

by Andrew Gutierrez

jason-collins-profile-single-image-cut
Image by Kwaku Alston/For Sports Illustrated

Yesterday news broke with NBA player, Jason Collins, coming out as the first openly gay and active men’s professional athlete. Sports Illustrated’s website has an article/open letter from Collins detailing his reasons for coming out. While  being gay isn’t as controversial as it once was in the past, it still takes an amazing amount of courage for anyone to come out of the closet, especially for someone in the public eye.

Collin’s started his NBA career in 2001 with the New Jersey Nets after attending Standford. After spending 7 years with the Nets he went on to play for the Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, and finally the Wizards. This summer he’s slated to become a free agent with intent to pursue another contract.

Though Collins has received mostly positive and supportive reactions from athletes and non-athletes, there’s definitely been some shade thrown his way. According to the NYTimes, Mike Wallace, wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins sent out a Tweet saying: “All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys.” The tweet was later deleted and Wallace apologized for the comment. Also, on ESPN, NBA analyst Chris Broussard called Jason Collins a sinner. Who the hell isn’t a sinner though? Here’s video of Broussard’s comment.

Collins wrote in his Sport Illustrated piece, “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation.” Although he admits he would rather someone have come out before he did, he decided to do so since no other athlete has.

It’s great that Collins chose to come out and be the first to go through the motions so that other athletes and other people in general can see that coming out isn’t the death of a career, image, etc. The unfortunate part about Collins coming out is that it might not create as much change as an All Star, championship winning athlete coming out. Nonetheless, congrats and best of luck to him.

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, SPORTS Tagged With: basketball, breaking news, Coming out, gay, Jason Collins, NBA, News, SPORTS

NBC decides to return Sing-Off to airwaves

by Michael Tyminski

Season 3's Judges: (l to r.) Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles, and Shawn Stockman. (Source: NBC)
Season 3's Judges: (l to r.) Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles, and Shawn Stockman. (Source: NBC)
Season 3’s Judges: (l to r.) Ben Folds, Sara Bareilles, and Shawn Stockman. (Source: NBC)

In what has to be a stunning reversal of events, NBC’s other singing show The Sing-Off is finding its’ way back on to the airwaves in the fall of 2013.

The show’s return was announced via a casting call from show judge Ben Folds, who posted it via his Facebook earlier today. A new production team is supposed to be involved, as Entertainment Weekly notes that Mark Burnett Productions (who also does the Voice and has been a juggernaut in the reality genre for the past decade) is working to revamp season 4.

The show, which ran for three seasons between 2009 and 2011, was cancelled when NBC opted to double down on its’ hit competition franchise, The Voice for the 2012 season. It’s most notable winner was YouTube sensation Pentatonix, known for putting a futuristic spin on the a capella genre.

This is a stunning surprise in a year where networks are suddenly looking to bring back old favorites such as CW returning Whose Line is it Anyway? (without Drew Carey, but with many of the show’s original favorites).

I for one, enjoyed the original series, which encouraged creativity in arrangement and overall musical talent versus the never-ending audition process that plagues shows such as American Idol and The Voice. It should be interesting to see if they bring back the full panel (i’m going to go out on a limb and say that Folds is involved seeing how he publicized the casting call).

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, TELEVISION Tagged With: Ben Folds, NBC, News, Pentatonix, The Sing Off, TV Returns

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