Over the last 5 years, I have dramatically altered my consumption of mainstream media. The leading influences in driving that change were Neil Postman’s work Amusing Ourselves to Death and Ryan Holiday’s Trust Me, I’m Lying. These two books enlightened me as to how mainstream media and technology – the internet, our smartphones, social media, etc. – were affecting me, and our society at large. The messages in these books are not weakening as time passes. The messages are getting stronger and becoming even more relevant.

A couple of years ago, Seth Godin wrote a great post that reinforced the messages of these books titled, What’s the next step for media (and for us)? Seth admits that it turned into a bit of rant, but I don’t fault him for it. I agree, and here’s why.

It’s always great to get to celebrate with someone when they achieve a major milestone in their life, especially when they’ve worked hard and waited a long time to get it. Such was the case with Amanda’s boyfriend Bryce who recently became a firefighter with The County of Los Angeles Fire Department. He graduated just before Thanksgiving as a member of the 152nd Recruit Class.

I had the opportunity to attend the graduation ceremony, which I’m glad I did. It was a great event, and most likely the only firefighter graduation ceremony I’ll ever get to go to. The ceremony had all the usual speeches, pomp and circumstance that you would expect at a graduation, but it also had a few entertaining surprises as well.