Social Media Update, Diversity, & the Golden Globes

It's January 5th. I've had 5 days off of social media, which I explain in more detail here. I also got new glasses, which are a little too big so they keep sliding off my face. I share that because that's kind of how I feel right now: seeing things more clearly, but then every so often, things slide around because I'm not yet fully adjusted. (My glasses appointment is next week ). ​

But overall, the past four days have affirmed what I had hypothesized previously: that I spend a lot of time on social media, and on my phone in general. And as a result, during this break, I find myself misplacing my phone often. And in all of this, I've enjoyed my holiday time with my family more because I am both figuratively and literally more present. I didn't think it'd be that much of a difference, but it has been. Admittedly, I also feel somewhat disconnected, which I had also hypothesized— it's part of why I was scared to delete these apps because it's so much of how I stay in touch with friends. Thankfully, people have texted me more, which has been lovely, and I'm glad that on the 31st, I posted that I was going on break for the month. 

​In that, I totally missed the news about the boycott for the Golden Globes. I already had a slew of criticisms for them, which have been aligned with the critiques about the lack of diversity from the Hollywood Foreign Press Assocation and corruption (all of which can be read here and here), But my critique has also been deeply personal in the ways that the Golden Globes categorized Minari under the "foreign" category, despite the narrative being about Korean Americans, written by a Korean American, and a cast that is largely Korean American. While I grew up not in Oklahoma, where the movie takes places, I felt like the stories and snippets, the small details in that film were taken verbatim from my childhood memories. Memories, according to Hollywood Foreign Press and the Golden Globes, that are foreign.

​Scholars have written at length about this: about Asian Americans being perpectual foriegners, of how Asians are reduced to the model minority myth, and the ways the model minority myth  further perpetuates anti-Blackness. So even as the Golden Globes awarded Bong Joon Ho and Parasite many deserved awards (which I write about here) and I, like many others, was excited about Lee Jung Jae of Squid Game receiving a nomination for Best Actors, I also know that this representation isn't enough. Representation won't bring us transformation: at most, it is what Dr. Sarah Ahmed describes as a function of the diversity check-list.