one of the greatest people ever, ashley, is an opinions writer for the Daily Illini. wooooo i'm so proud of you!! she just wrote a great article about the olympics in the DI.

but here's my erhm, "late night", response to it --

i have read tons of articles dealing with the upcoming olympics. food blogs have talked about places to eat at in vancouver, fitness blogs have asked their readers about which sport they're interested in, and gossip blogs have showcased individual winter athletes more than before. so there definitely is hype!

anddd -- when i was in vancouver i bought an official canandian olympic team sweatshirt ;)

but i think the whole presumed people-not-caring-so-much about the olympics has to do more with factors other than our country's lack of consideration for other nations.

first off -- i kind of blame NBC's advertising. think about it -- they're the only company to bring the games to American TV's. it's not like the other stations that we watch would put up a PSA to tune into a competing station for the sake of "realizing we're like other countries".

also, NBC knows they're losing money on the games. they've predicted this as early as last year. i think it was upwards to about 250 million buckaroos?? aka they've kind of given up and have sold the ad-time to companies rather than using it for the olympic games.

secondly, our perception of the olympic committee, well for chicagoans at least, is another thing. for the bulk of first semester, we kept on getting bombarded with new breaks about chicago's run for the 2016 olympics. through this, we realized how much of a crazy beaurocracy the olympics is instead of a peaceful, world-unifying entity that it's assumed to be. we saw ungodly amounts money and effort being wasted on impressing a small panel of officials. i say wasted because what did we end up with? oh yeah -- the panel choosing rio de janiero (for good/bad).

third --with the improvement of the technology, people have cared less about joining and watching an event together at a single time. what i mean is -- people can find out results right away. there's no need for the public to collectively wait around to see something happen, as they might to figure out what that certain symbol meant on lost (obvs just made up, but seeing as how there were 2347029823 people who were peeing their pants for the lost premiere, i'm gonna say that's a good assumption) with twitter, fbook, and online-video-streaming, people have quick-access to information and can learn about results as they choose. it's not an all-or-nothing sort of deal, as it was in the past. each result is just a line of information rather than a monumental once-every-four-year event. just as easily as i can now find out what john mayer is thinking about, i can find out what olympic event is taking place and who has won what. furthermore, i don't have to worry about missing anything because i can always catch a replay on youtube.

but that's not to say that masses of people can't be unified by sporting events. we just had the super bowl with the highest tv viewership EVER. one simple football game brought together 106 millions viewers from around the world. crizazzyy

new orleans, our little city that was in shambles is now on cloud nine. i just read in a blog that a district judge ordered a continuance because he felt everyone needed to take break to celebrate! and we're all so happy for them...i think? i mean, you can't NOT be happy for a city who was under water only a few years ago and now their team to not only appears, but WINS, the super bowl for the first time.

and i know that people are going apeshit over the world cup this summer. i've seen tons of statuses about scoring tickets...and we're still months away!

hell, look at the haiti crisis! there have been breakfasts/lunch/dinners, parties, bake sales, cup nights, text campaigns, and basically everything else done to raise awareness and money to help out this country. so i don't think our campus or country are THAT self-involved...

so while i agree with you that it's a shame that people aren't really caring too much about the olympics and the athletes' hard work (not to brag or anything..but i was a figure skater..lolz), i don't think it's a horrible reflection about the attitudes of our nation. i just think that NBC has done a shitty job with advertising (among other things..team coco, holla) and that our view of the olympics and its events have changed.