January | 2015 | The Lebanexican

Archive | January, 2015

Goodbye to all of that: for Andrew Sullivan

My Dissent of the Day

I was saddened today when I read on The Dish that Andrew Sullivan will be retiring from the blogosphere to focus on his health and his family. Some have suggested that these are just more histrionics from a writer famous for his freakouts (Buzzfeed collected his reactions to Obama’s first debate performance. In Andrew’s mind Obama had all but lost the election there). I began reading The Dish on a very consistent basis about six years ago- I remember when because not long after I began reading the site, the Green Movement happened in Iran. I was recently unemployed and so had both the time and the inclination to follow The Dish’s liveblog of the protests in real time. It felt like this blog was doing great work, and I had to keep up. It soon became a daily habit.

Andrew Sullivan is, like me, someone with iconoclastic views, who supports gay marriage (he is the intellectual architect of it), marijuana decriminalization who vocally supports the Obama presidency and denounces the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. I don’t always agree with him, and am sometimes infuriated with his opinions. I find that he is quite insensitive to women and women’s issues, and his insistence on a connection between race and IQ is abhorrent. Nevertheless, his blog was always an excellent source of not only smartly written opinions, but curation of the best links around the web. From poetry to economic analysis to theology to those gorgeous window views, the site is thoroughly original. Also, Andrew’s commitment to not accepting an ad dollar, and his condemnation of sponsored content are further reasons that his blog will be sorely missed in this media environment.

I, for one, will always remember the feeling I got when I saw that my email to him was the dissent of the day. And I hope Andrew reconsiders. I hope that his underbloggers take up his mantle and keep dishiness alive. And if not, I am thankful that Andrew has contributed so much to my own intellectual development. I hope he enjoys his semi-retirement.

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Categories Cultura, Politics

I do not care what Mark Zuckerberg is reading

8 Jan

Book Club

It is a New Year, time to look ahead to a vast expanse of 12 months full of possibility. A natural optimist, I like the positivity that takes hold during this time of year, when people take stock of the past year and look to the New Year with hope. Last year I resolved to read 12 books in 12 months, and I came very close, completing book 11 on December 22nd. I’ve always tried to have a good book on hand for empty hours, and have always enjoyed reading both fiction and non-fiction.

So imagine my surprise when I saw that Mark Zuckerberg, so ably portrayed onscreen by Jesse Eisenberg, decided to start a book club. He has said that he would like to pick a new book every other week and discuss it through a forum on Facebook. I appreciate that he can encourage people to read something they would otherwise never read. But because it is not Oprah Winfrey, but rather the founder of the world’s biggest social network who is starting this initiative, I am a bit suspicious. Is this about encouraging reading, or mining user data (I suspect the latter is the motive for any move by Facebook)?

One reason I don’t consider myself to be a Millennial (although technically I’m on the older side of this generation) is that the way that I relate to the digital world is so different from the way people just a few years younger than I am do. I’m still wary. I don’t want to publish too much. Also, as someone who works in digital media, I am familiar with the glee with which digital advertising types discuss mining user data to sell users more and better stuff. The more highly targeted, the better. As a marketer, I think it makes perfect sense. As a consumer, I don’t like feeling so trailed. And so I think that, while it’s entirely possible that Mark Zuckerberg has the purest of intentions and wants to turn Facebook into an intellectual hub, I think it’s more likely that this is a further attempt to turn our reading habits (and our comments on said reading habits) into something that can be monetized.

So thank you, Zuck, but I’ll keep my book reading offline.

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Categories Cultura

And why are YOU still single?

3 Jan

In order to put in motion my New Year’s resolution to simply write more, I thought a good way to accomplish this would be to do the 30 day blogging challenge put forth by The Single Woman. I’m normally not inclined to write posts that are too personal, but I crossed that line last year when writing about my experience moving abroad. So I hope I can do this in an honest way without being too self-indulgent.

Why am I still single? As someone who had her first kiss when I was 20 years old, I always knew my life was never going to go along with others’ schedules. If other people married at 26, or 28, or 30, I knew I was still going to be tip-toeing into the deep end. I’ve not had many relationships in my life, so perhaps I just haven’t kissed enough frogs. In any case, I’m not surprised that I am single in my 30’s. I always expected this. I also am someone who never settled into long relationships because, whether right or wrong, I often sensed when there was little to sustain a relationship after the initial two dates. So in the past I used to feel sorry for myself for being the two date wonder. But in retrospect, I think it’s because I just don’t force things. I won’t push forward into a relationship just out of fear of being alone. Either you hit it off with someone, or you don’t.

So that is the long version of why I’m still single at almost 34 years of age. The short answer, of course, is that I just haven’t met the right guy. Which is true. On my own schedule, and of my own accord, I will happily leave my single status behind. But not quite yet.