I love going out to eat. As a college student I don’t have a lot of money to spend at high end places. My criteria for a good restaurant focus around cost effectiveness. To me a good restaurant should not be overly expensive. If the menu does not have prices that’s a sign that I will just be having an appetizer. It should give you a lot of food for your money. I hate places where you spend a whole bunch of money for a tiny little plate. Of course the food has to taste good. Nobody wants to eat food they don’t like just to save a buck. My favorite restaurant is Applebee’s because it meets all the criteria. The majority of times I go out to eat it is to Applebee’s. They have a diverse menu to keep you from getting bored. Me and my girlfriend frequent Applebee’s often. They have a two for twenty deal. You can both eat for twenty dollars! (She can leave the tip). When I’m hanging out with my homeboy’s we like to go to Applebee’s. There we can watch sports on one of the many tvs and they are always willing to change the channel to the game you want to watch. My friends and I eat, chill and have a good time. The environment is very comfortable. These are the reasons that Applebee’s is my favorite restaurant.

Since Valentines Day just passed this weekend so that’s what I’ll ride about. I love Valentines Day and it is one of my favorite holidays. This is probably because I am a hopeless romantic. I enjoy planning a special night for a girl that I’m interested in. I, as well as many of my friends, spend a lot of time, thought, and money in order to make Valentines Day a special night. I stress the money aspect. Although I don’t mind doing these things I do have a qualm with Valentines Day. The effort guys put into Valentines Day is not equally reciprocated by females. Most guys (the good ones anyway) spend at least a week making plans for Valentines Day only to receive something purchased from Walgreens that morning. Then we have to pay for dinner too! This simply is not fair. Girls treat Valentines Day as if it is a holiday for them too be pampered by guys. Therefore as a balance for Valentines Day guys should have a holiday where girls struggle to make everything perfect for us and we get to purchase something from Walgreens for $5.99. This is only fair. I have never had a girl pick me up, give me flowers, tell me I look beautiful, and then take me out to dinner. It must be nice. Then at the end of the night I can say I’m on my period.

It is true that every individual is a reporter. It has been this way throughout history. News has always spread through word of mouth. Even children gossip in school. Individual reporting is a natural human tendency. The mass media has simply taken this natural human tendency to report and done it on a larger scale. This was necessary because it was not possible for an individual to mass communicate. However this is no longer true with the advent of new technologies. Now almost every cell phone has a camera. It is possible for anyone to be caught on tape anywhere doing anything. I often see people recording events out of the ordinary on their phones such as fights or rapping homeless people. Camera phones have made every individual a camera man but where do they publish their film? Youtube is a cultural phenomenon. Anyone can post video on Youtube and it is free and easy. Most importantly it is instant. Now the individual has this power of mass communication. The media was necessary because they had the ability to get information to a lot of people when others did not. People relied on media for their knowledge. However now the media has corrupted itself. It is no longer purely an fact seeking entity but has become a propaganda machine. Many people doubt whether they can trust what they see on the news. The result is that many know rely on the internet for information. As technology increases the media will become more and more obsolete. Eventually the media as we know it will head into extinction.