Fireside Chat

            Since the beginning of the semester I have been dreading the fireside chat, even after it was expressed in class how awesome it had been in previous semesters. I do not have a performing bone in my body, so I was unenthused in getting up in front of everybody. That being said, while it was still not my favorite thing to perform my slam poem, I absolutely loved the fireside chat. It was so cool to see the variety of different things that people came up with, and especially interesting to see what they chose as their belief to explore.

            It took me a while to buckle down on exactly what I wanted my belief to be, but I knew from the beginning that it would be a slam poem because of a certain slam poem that I am beyond obsessed with right now (link here, please watch), because of the connection I feel to it because of the honesty of the woman’s words. I knew that I wanted to try to capture the same sort of passion, so I eventually decided on Facebook because ever since I deleted my page, I’ve had to defend my reasons for doing so. My belief is that Facebook is a destructive entity. I believe it is encouraging young people to be bully’s and be social in all the wrong ways, as well as being a black hole that sucks you in and wastes your time while distracting you of what’s really important in life. I was also inspired by Susan Sontag’s essay, “Regarding the Pain of Others”, one of the things she talks about is how pictures aim to make things look better than they actually are, and I believe that’s exactly what Facebook does, makes peoples lives appear better than they actually are, which is unhealthy when people start comparing their lives to others because it is unrealistic.

            Performing my poem was nerve wracking, and even though I basically had it memorized, I looked at my notes far too much because I was so nervous. I think it would have been a lot more powerful if I hadn’t have brought them up with me. It was also really interesting to me that basically Seth and I were the only ones who decided to defend a negative belief. I’m glad that basically everyone else was doing positive things because it kept it light hearted and fun throughout the evening. But I’m still glad that I chose the belief that I did because the social media life take over thing is something that is really important to me, and I hope that those who listened to me took it to heart and will take their time on social media websites more seriously.