The Morning Hit–9/11/15

Welcome back to The Morning Hit, where we talk about what people are talking about online. The web has become the digital equivalent of the office water cooler, and it’s becoming more necessary by the day to stay in the loop.

Enough of the pleasantries, let’s hit it.

• My 9/11 story. 14 years ago I was a freshman in college at Miami University in southern Ohio in a small town named Oxford. For whatever awesome reason my first semester I didn’t have classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays, so I was able to sleep in a little bit on that Tuesday. I wake up, my roommate is already gone (probably at class), and I see have an AIM message (!) from my friend Bryan that said something to the effect of “what the hell is going on?” When I ask him what he was talking about he told me to turn on the TV, and it was about 10 minutes after the second plane hit. The rest I don’t remember in very specific detail, except for the coverage constantly being on in the background. However, I do remember encountering a lot of different people with a lot of different opinions on what happened, or what they thought was happening, or what they thought would happen next. Looking back, nobody really knew much of anything or really what any of it really meant, but it seemed like everybody felt like they had to have some kind of reaction. Ironically enough, this is where a young person might typically turn to their parents, but here we all were in an environment where you had a bunch of kids away from their parents for the very first time, forced to deal with this on their own to a degree. It was one of those events in history that both brings people closer together and tears them apart at the same time. It was the biggest event that my generation has ever endured, and I can’t believe it has already been 14 years.
• Nick Offerman and technology. Nick Offerman was the closing keynote speaker of Content Marketing World 2015, the conference I have been attending all week. He was very funny, charming, entertaining and intelligent, and I thought he had a very healthy view on technology’s role in today’s society. He pointed out that for some reason, you’re kind of forced to either be pro or anti technology. And that doesn’t make any sense. He spoke of the virtues of technology, but also the virtues of just living life a bit. You don’t have to be all in one way or another. You shouldn’t avoid technology because sometimes it can be fun but it can also provide you with some valuable tools. Like finding a restaurant when you’re out of town, for example. But it’s also perfectly fine to put the phone away for an extended period of time and enjoy the person you’re choosing to have the meal with. It’s all about balance. He thinks it’s like anything else in life that you can indulge in. It’s just fine to do in moderation, but if it’s something that can dig it’s claws into you, know when to take a step back. A simple, yet brilliant approach.

Drinking a Great Lakes Dortmunder

• The Visit. M. Night Shamalayan’s newest film opens this weekend, and it has been haunting my nightmares since I first saw the trailer a few weeks ago.

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again–WHY MUST MOVIES BE SO SCARY NOWADAYS?! I hate this genre shift from scary monster to seemingly mentally healthy people losing their minds or satanic demons cursing real estate? I never thought I’d long for the days of Michael Myers, but here we are.

That’s it for me today. My wife and I are headed out to New Jersey to see family and for the Browns-Jets opener at MetLife Stadium, so I’ll have a report about the game on Monday. If you want to contact me all of my information is in the author box below, and be sure to follow The Chronicle on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with what’s going on around you.

Have a great weekend everybody.

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