Letter to NBC

To the Producers of The Office:

In the past I have enjoyed watching the popular television show, The Office. However, as I have viewed it recently I’ve noticed a few things that are decreasing the quality of this show. This letter addresses those concerns, specifically about the increasing amount of sexual content and a recent occurrence of blasphemy.

The Office has been noticeably increasing the amount of sexual content over the 6 seasons it’s been aired. Let me share a few examples:

“I love Phyllis. I think Phyllis is beautiful, and I am not afraid to let anyone know that. In fact, the only thing I am afraid of is gettin’ a boner.”

“My Indian cultural seminar was going great until Toby decided that he was too immature to deal with culturally explicit images. It’s just sex, people. Everybody does it. I’m doing it with Carol. Probably tonight.”

“In my opinion the third date is traditionally the one where you have sex. Does Holly feel that way? I don't know. I will probably find out tonight. If she starts having sex with me I'll know for sure.”

“That’s what she said.”

Research has consistently shown that repeated exposure to sexual content does increase sexual behavior in individuals. The problem with this is that much of the viewership includes teenagers and young adults. The rates of teen pregnancies and STDs are increasing—and I’m not saying it’s The Office to blame. There are many factors to consider, including social, environmental, and individual factors. But one factor that is less often looked at is the influence of the media. When sexual behaviors become the norm in television, many individuals adapt this to be their norm as well, and encode those behaviors into their current schemas.

All of the sexual comments in The Office are completely unnecessary, and could easily be thrown out. The show would still be humorous without them—probably even more so.

Another aspect of this television show that disappointed me was the recent occurrence of blasphemy, by Dwight Schrute. Let me share the exact quote:

“Salesman is king. As the best salesman I am king of kings. Oh, you say Jesus is king of kings? Well, what does that say to you about how I think of myself?”

In the past I have been a fan of The Office. I’ve enjoyed watching the humor and the different personality traits of each character. However, as I’ve viewed the increasing amounts of sexual content, I’ve started to become less of a fan. And this new addition of blasphemy has finally been the last straw. I’ve now decided that I don’t need to view The Office, and that it does nothing for my life.

I hope you can consider these complaints and strive to make changes so you won’t lose many more viewers. Sexual content and blasphemy are totally unnecessary, and throwing them out of this show truly will increase the quality of The Office.

Thanks for your time,

Jessica Hilton

YouTube Recitals

I was able to watch my niece's and nephew's piano recital this past week thanks to YouTube. They live in Las Vegas, so I'm not able to see things like that. It was awesome!! Thank you YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpvshAWCsIM

When the media goes awry...

I can hardly stand it!! Whether its my i-pod, phone, the DVD player, or the internet, I always get so frustrated! This time it's a broken website link. I'm trying to look at beatifullymodest.com and I can't get to it for the life of me. Why does this happen? Why am I so dependent on the media that it gets to my emotions? And I don't mean I'm like...crying or anything over it. But I do feel frustrated! It's crazy how dependent on the media we can become!

General Conference!

Can I just say I am SO excited for General Conference in a couple of weeks? I hadn't really thought about it much, but then there was a talk in church on how to prepare for General Conference. They stressed that we need to prepare in at least 3 different ways: Temporally, Mentally, and Spiritually.

For the temporal aspect, we need to make sure we have adequate sleep. We should prepare meals either before or after so we don't distract ourselves. And finally we need to dress appropriately to set the tone for the meetings. Examples that were given were mostly focused on the Savior. If the Savior were talking to us, would we fall asleep during his council? Would we leave the room to prepare meals? Would we be in our pj's? In reality, the Lord IS speaking to us, through the voice of His servants!

Mentally, we should get in the mindset that we will take action. Listening to the talks is great, but if we can't take anything from them and apply those principles to our life, why make the effort to sit and listen to talks for 8 hours? We should come to conference with questions we need answers for, and listen intently for those answers.

Finally, we should spiritually prepare ourselves for General Conference. By taking time for the Lord through daily habits (such as scripture study, prayer, etc.) we will be more receptive of the Spirit. This will help us to receive personal revelations.

I hope I can continue to prepare for conference, and I hope this post may help some of you better prepare as well. Happy conference viewing!

The Power of Advertisements

They got me again...I was walking home to my apartment and I saw the stand for Girl Scout cookies by J Dawgs. That was it! I told my roommates, and we went to Macey's and got cash. Conveniently enough, there is also a stand right outside of Macey's for Girl Scout cookies! So what kind did I buy? The one and only...Samoa's! Mmmmmmm so good. I just barely ate them with my Samoa ice-cream. Thank you advertisement.

Wonderland

I LOVED Alice in Wonderland!! I went and saw it in 3D with a couple of my friends. I loved how this felt like it had more of a plot line than the original. Maybe it was about the same..but I understood it much better. Johnny Depp played an excellent mad hatter. I would totally recommend this!

Sexual Content in the Media

In The Office, there were many references to sex. These included the following: sexual remarks about body parts, Dwight requesting Angela have sex with him, and other casual references to sex. In Bones, there weren’t any sexual comments made in this particular episode. Although Psych did not have as direct sexually comments, there were more innuendos than in the other television shows. Overall, I was pretty surprised that the television show I most often watch (The Office) is the one with the most sexual content. It's made me reconsider my viewing habits!!