I’m not a big fan of Thursdays, and the reasons are pretty simple. School has happened for almost the whole week, we’ve traversed Hump Day and Taco Tuesday, yet all we have to look forward to is another day of school. I’m sure students feel the same way.
The day ends, though, and there are always ways to wind down, to decompress and figure out the plan of attack for tomorrow. Writing helps. A good piece of chocolate helps. Some lemonade with lime added to it for that tang. Music at high volumes before the wife gets home. Shoes off. On hot days, pants off (Hey, you kids, get off my lawn!!!). Mindless television. News that I may have missed. Perhaps a good dinner that features salsa, beans, rice, tortillas, and a protein–yes, Mexican food solves most problems for me.
Today, in class, I watched a BuzzFeed video on people drinking their own urine. Students had to present something they found interesting, and my student sold the video well. She didn’t find drinking urine interesting, but how many clicks it received and that, in a weak moment, that she had actually watched it out of boredom. I suppose I find that interesting, too–that people gravitate toward anything. And, hey, it’s a media-literate class for seniors, a place where questioning and looking outside the usual box is encouraged.
After all, you could be doing ALL THESE OTHER THINGS, but, instead, people are watching videos about pee. I was going to upload the video at the end of this post, so I went to YouTube and typed in “buzzfeed d” which quickly gave me the option to click on “buzzfeed drinking urine.” So I clicked, and, right at the top of the list, there was the video we watched in class with 2.7 million views. It gets worse. Scrolling down you can easily find these videos–
What Happens When You Boil Urine? 1.7 million views
Drinking Each Other’s Pee 5.8 million views
People Drink Sewage Water for the First Time 3.7 million
People Share Horrifying Pee Stories 2.5 million
and so on.
It’s no wonder books have become hard to read when there are all these urine videos out there. And I know there’s this voice in the back of their heads that says, “Hey, who ever got rich reading books? We could make a video about drinking something foul and parlay that success to big riches.” At Long Beach Poly, kids were going to rap or play sports to get out of the city–now they can make a video and put it on YouTube and millions can enjoy their urine.
Go ahead, do a YouTube search on most-watched videos. You won’t know any of them. And, if you do, nothing I’ve written on this blog probably makes sense.