My Roommate.

Because I have a shocking and quite depressing number of blogs left to do for my project, I’m going to start interviewing some students on campus. Hopefully I’ll be able to find students that represent many different angles and views, especially ones different from my own. I really need to stop talking about myself; it’s a problem.

On that note, I’m going to start by interviewing my roommate, Sydnie Cotter. I do this for a number of reasons; the first, she is a freshman psychology major and I’m interested to see how the average, non-journalism major goes about their media consumption, the second, because we are sitting around waiting for the plumbers to come fix our bathroom (I will not elaborate) and we have nothing else to do. I also want to try a less conventional interview style; I find Q and A interview style sort of awkward when I’m talking with my roommate for a story that will ultimately end up on Facebook.

Like I said, Sydnie is a freshman psychology major; she may go to law school after getting her B.S. (ironic), or she is quite interested in the minds of criminals, I don’t know what that profession is called. She hails from the tiny town of Miami, Arizona, with approx. 15,000 people (It’s tiny in comparison to my hometown anyway). As far as a political affiliation, she tends to identify more with the Democratic party, but she remains open-minded. Well, a very “in-your-face,” assertive, opinionated kind of open-minded.

Sydnie is quite knowledgeable about the world, for someone who isn’t graded on her mastery of current events; she watches the news once or twice a week, leisurely. More or less, she feels like she keeps up on current events; “I’m not totally ignorant to what’s going on in the world. I don’t enjoy watching the news; I just don’t want to feel dumb. Being at college has definitely made me more aware of current events. Because there isn’t a single person I really talk to everyday, like my parents, I have to rely on myself to stay informed. If I didn’t know something, most likely, someone around me did and could tell me what was going on.”

But my burning question for her had to do with her upbringing in a smaller town, and the possible differences in her political beliefs after not only moving to college, but a college in an urban area. Regarding this, she said; “In a smaller town, people don’t seemed to be as bothered with staying on top of what happens in the outside world. People there aren’t ignorant; they just are more concerned with their close-knit relationships within the town.”

So looking at Sydnie’s media habits, I didn’t see the shocking difference between her and the average journalism major I expected. I’m pretty sure there has to be a painfully ignorant college student out there somewhere (because seriously, this is ASU); I’m ready to find them, not with the premeditated intent of making them feel stupid. However, if my questions have that effect, I won’t feel bad about it.

There is no relevance to this link. It’s just funny. Had to get my Colbert fix for the evening. Those stinkin’ writers are depriving me of new, fresh comedy. I had to watch Scrubs reruns; it was such a tragedy.