On November 27th, I had the pleasure of attending the Stockton A Cappella Fall Concert. Having been an avid member of the choir at my high school and a music aficion, I’m always excited to watch musical performances and this was no exception.

Allow me to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. I have often listened to a cappella music and sung a great deal of it myself in choir, but this was my first a cappella concert. Having never even watched so much as a video of one, I had imagined something along the lines of Glee meets Pitch Perfect, complete with choreographed dancing and whatnot. Like I said, this was my first. I was a choir singer, which is a rigid art if I ever knew one, at least for my choir. A particular posture had to be maintained at all times and faces were meant to remain pleasantly emotionless, mouths opening in a uniform o-shape. We wore thick robes and were organized by vocal range.

When the performers from all ensembles entered the stage and began to sing their opening song “Already Home”,  I was pleasantly surprised at how familiar and yet unfamiliar I was with it all. The chorus was situated around the peripheral of the stage and in the center were the soloists. It was so…casual. No one was dressed in heavy robes  or standing rigid and unemotional. Quite contrarily, they were dressed in regular clothes, color coordinated according to their ensemble. They all bounced and swayed with the music.

And the music was phenomenal. All of the singers were very talented and harmonized perfectly with each other. And the repertoire was fantastic and apparently assembled and personalized by a Stockton team. And they were absolutely genius. My favorite song was sung by Stockapella. It was a mashup of  “Every Breath You Take” and Grease’s “You’re the One That I Want”. And at first, I couldn’t even identify these iconic songs. The mashup began with a slow and haunting rendition of “You’re the One That I Want” and melted into “Every Breath You Take” in the most chilling and emotional way. I had goosebumps.

The best part of the entire concert was the way the audience could feel the singers’ passion for making music and being on stage in the way that they bounced, swayed, and danced to the music. No doubt, the music was great, but a show is always better when you can tell that the performers are enjoying themselves as much as you are.

At the beginning of the semester, I was considering joining Stockton A Capella and decided against it, thinking it probably wouldn’t be something for me. Now having seen one of their concerts, I feel that I might have to audition next year. It seems like a blast.

Overall, I think the concert was amazing. The songs, the music, the atmosphere were all perfect for a music-lover like me and I can’t wait to see what Stockton A Capella has planned for the Spring Concert.

On October 19th, this past Thursday, I attended the Stockton Democrats vs. Stockton Republicans Debate. I would like to applaud the efforts of both the Democrats and the Republicans who got up and argued for their party’s ideals. I know from personal experience that debating is hard, as it requires a broad knowledge of many topics and the ability to efficiently get your point across in the time given. Both sides did a good job in eliciting their side of the argument and made some very interesting points concerning the topics at hand.  

The issues I had with this debate stemmed largely from my involvement in the debate team at my high school, where I was given a resolution a few weeks before a debate, but not a position. My position I would receive the day of the debate, so I was forced to understand both the affirmative and the negative sides of the argument, and the strengths and weaknesses they had. I understand that this was not a competitive debate, but my point is that those rules forced me to do research in a nonbiased way, without opinion clouding the big picture of the argument.

Coming to this debate, I had expected the same of both the Republicans and the Democrats, but as it progressed, I became increasingly aware that both sides had an underlying and deep-rooted I’m-right-you’re-wrong attitude that prevented them from understanding the weaknesses in their own arguments. At which point, I felt like I was watching the 2016 Presidential Debates all over again.

Towards the end, there was some campaigning for the upcoming election, which I didn’t think was the point of this debate, nor was it very appropriate. Debates are for unbiased discussion, rallies are for campaigning.

The takeaway from this debate, I think, is a tragic one. Tensions rise and tempers steam in politics all around us. It’s everywhere—in the news, on our Facebook feeds, in dialogue between our friends, and yes, in our very own Stockton debate. From what I saw, neither side displayed a bipartisan understanding of the topics and neither were fully aware of the validity of their opponent’s argument and the fallibility of their own. In their emotionality, aggression, and campaigning irrelevant to the resolution, I see a microcosm of American politics. Americans have become so adherent to their own beliefs that those in disagreement are no longer valid, and there is no longer an in-between. It is tragic that at our own Stockton University, we have come to portray this very polarization of American politics.

I was looking for a quote by a founding father to conclude this blog post and found something else instead: a quote from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In the words of the character, Judge John Taylor, “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for” (Lee 232). Maybe the way to reunite our divided sides is to see more than what immediately agrees with our opinion and to listen to people with opposing views through an informed and objective lens.

I didn’t hate Trust Me I’m Lying when I first read it. But I certainly didn’t like it either. Media manipulation isn’t exactly a secret, nor is it some abstract topic hard to understand. Actually, I would think it’s pretty simple: powerful individuals with ulterior motives exploit an unsuspecting public for money or otherwise. Going into the event, I had expected him to reiterate this theme of the book a few more times.

Yesterday, on September 28th at the Stockton University Freshman Convocation, Ryan Holiday did speak. And he did reiterate the themes of his book. He discussed a how the media system is broken and how bloggers manipulate information and often lie to catch the public’s attention and gain more page views.  He also talked about how people encourage this system by getting their emotions involved and sharing it with their friends. But again, all of this was already laid out in the book, and therefore not the takeaway from his presentation.

The things I found interesting about Holiday’s presentation were those that were not illustrated in the book. For one, occasionally throughout book, one could get the feeling that he did not ardently disapprove of the media system, as he didn’t seem very vocal in his condemnation. In fact, he even tells his audience to do what they want with the information that he has laid out and during one of his interviews, I even got the impression that he was still in the business of media manipulation. But during his presentation, he seemed very discontented with the media and the way that it works, and clarified that he is no longer in that business, that the book was his way of breaking those connections and walking away from this thing that was increasingly itching at his conscience. Or perhaps have current events, including Donald Trump’s rise to presidency, altered his views over time?

He went on to discuss the importance of “media literacy”, which I think isn’t something that is talked about all that much. Actually, it is apparent that it isn’t because, as Holiday disclosed in his presentation, 44% of Americans get their news from Facebook and 7% legitimately believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. And yes, I did check. He wasn’t lying. We live in a world where fake news spreads quicker than real news, and the online media industry understands that and fully exploits it. Holiday explains that it is increasingly essential that we are able to discern what is and isn’t fictitious and what is and isn’t relevant to us and our lives, because it is so easy to get pulled into the trap that is laid out for us.

Holiday’s presentation at Freshman Convocation was, in a way, more thought-provoking than the book was—at least for me it was. It encouraged me to look beyond the pages of his book into the world in which I live and look critically at my own usage of media and question whether or not the news I am reading is important and relevant to me.

Finally, I had one question for Holiday, which I never got the chance to ask, and I now leave for you, dear audience: if everything we read and see in the media can be fake, how do we discern what is real and what isn’t? Or have the lines between the two become so blurred that they no longer exist?