Tuesday, October 23, 2012
That's the motto
YOLO (You Only Live Once) was super huge in around spring of 2012. A song called "The Motto," by Drake and Lil Wayne created a massisve phenomenon of teenagers saying YOLO after every sentence. This motto that teens lived by for those couple months had a huge impact. At least in my life and with my friends when we said it it gave us an excuse to do something crazy or funny just to 'live.' This motto could have positive effects like causing people to have more fun and live life more in the moment. For example when my friends and I jumped in the lake in the middle of the night we used YOLO as an excuse that we should do it. It potentially could have had some negative effects in the same reguard. For example people going out and partying harder, trying new drugs or drinking more. I know some of my friends did some really dumb things and used YOLO as an excuse to justify them. It's amazing to think that one song could cause such a fad in recent times. It shows how much influence stars and the media can have. Within the context of the song I don't think that YOLO was supposed to have a meaning which caused people to go out and do worthwhile and uplifting things, but I think that for many it did have this positive effect. YOLO had a massive impact on people, especially teenagers, during this spring and created this nationwide feeling of carpe diem.
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WOW i love this. Yolo is something that i use everyday and so does everyone else around me. i am in a sorority so being around all the fraternity you hear it a lot. Everyone thinks it just the coolest thing ever and can be used whenever. I think this will be a wonderful topic and i cant wait to see what you write about it. Everyone uses it when they are drinking and they fuck up or get into trouble which is really funny because it doesn't make what they did any less stupid. But it makes them sound so cool when they say it and everyone laughs about it.
ReplyDeleteI think using YOLO is a great cultural artifact to use!! Seriously that saying is just everywhere. Its good to use personal example too, because it shows you have personal experience with the artifact, and that you have sound first hand knowledge on it too. I think you should talk in a more persuasive manner, like whether or not YOLO is a good thing. Right now you’re just stating that YOLO I a thing, I’m not entirely sure what you next paper about YOLO will revolve around. I think you have an awesome artifact though. It could work out so well if you use it in the positive or negative connotation. I would definitely suggest forming a stance on YOLO though.
ReplyDeleteJust a point I will make, you come from a background where you saw it's positive effects. I came from one where it proved very negative and I kicked and screamed as it caught on around me. But the point I come here to make is that depending on the situation it has positive effects or negative effects. My belief is that it works like a multiplier in math. If you have a positive group, YOLO will be a positive. If you have a group that is negative, drinking and illegal activities, it has a negative effect. I will share a brief example, and the reason I fight it still. Before I left my home town I was the "leader" of a group of about eighty members, this group had every variety of people, goodie two shoes, and heavy drinkers, but when they came together there was a putting down of differences and just having a good time. The big issue was for when I left a divide occurred, that is still a developing issue. The goodies kept hanging out with the other goodies, and the bad kids, hung out with the bad kids. This has caused a separation that has led middle grounders to choose a group, and either end up partying, or studying. When YOLO came out I was a huge critic because I saw members who wouldn't normally suggest negative activities begin justifying it, while we only had two kids under 18 in the group, there were only about ten or twelve over 21, and the idea of bringing alcohol on our camping trip without me knowing (I was like the enforcer, CA, etc). I talked to all the 21+ year olds and they knew not to buy alcohol, but as I can point out it really creates culture divide and makes less of a middle ground for people to coexist. In my personal opinion it is negative, but you can make your own choice, just figured this might be grounds to help you focus in on your topic. (Wow this is long)!
ReplyDelete--Alex Chandler