Hello...Is Anyone Out There?

Right now I am imagining myself in a dark room, approaching a door that is labeled: "The Internet".

I'm opening that door and peeking out...."is anyone out there?" I ask...

Well..............................?

As I am writing this, I'm wondering if anyone will read it? I'm not a famous person, whose blog people would seek out. I don’t have a TV show, or a radio show, or even a podcast that has listeners. I don't have any connections to the world that people would even care about. Why would I even care to write a blog? I’ll tell you why…because just like everyone else, I have a desire to be heard. Not that I have crazy extreme views, I guess every once in a while I feel like I have something to say, and this seemed like an acceptable forum to express my thoughts.

Hopefully people will read this, otherwise I guess all I’m doing is writing in a diary. That doesn’t sound very thrilling at all. Teenage girls write in diaries. Not 27 year-old men. So, bottom line: I surely hope at least one person reads this. Then at least it will be a diary that someone stole and read once.

Now, for the name: “Nostalgia Ruins Everything.” I can’t even claim this title as my own. I heard it on a podcast. A very funny man once said it in response to someone opining about the past, and how it wasn’t really THAT great, but because it was the past it seemed better than it really was. Not all of my posts will be about the past ruining things, but I just thought it was a clever title.

The most recent thing to remind me about the negative effects of Nostalgia was the announcement that the alternative radio station in Atlanta – 99x is shutting down. Well, it’s not really shutting down, it’s moving to HD radio and will still be heard on the internet. But as an FM station, it will cease to exist. I am a child of the 80s, so I was a teen in the 90s. Therefore, alternative music was what I listened to most of my life. By alternative, I mean Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc, etc.

Alternative music hardly exists anymore, and alternative radio is completely dead. Everyone wants Rap or Hard Rock, or Pop music. The Baby boomers want Classic Rock, and my generation isn’t old enough to have our music as “classic” yet. Well, 99x hasn’t gone off the radio dial, it will happen this Friday, but the announcement has been made. I got to thinking about how much I was going to miss it, and then I realized…no, I’m not. I have all the 90s grunge music I need on my iPod, and they haven’t played anything new and good for several years. The DJs suck, and I’m honestly not going to miss it at all.

But for a second…Nostalgia was about to make me sad about the death of alternative radio…then, I turned on my iPod, and all sad feelings went away.

Well, that’s it for now. As I said, hopefully someone reads. If you do, please let me know what you thought – I promise I will be more fun next time. (I’ll promise it, but can’t guarantee it)