Who's Your Favorite Sociopath?

Death Note is about a straight-A, high school senior named Light Yagami, who - through arbitrary circumstance and a Shinigami's boredom - comes across a mysterious notebook called a Death Note. Light learns that if you write someone's name (and envision their face) in the Death Note, that person will die. He then proceeds to use the Death Note to kill heinous criminals, to whom he feels deserve capital punishment, in an effort to create a better world...and be regarded as a "god" of this new & better world.

Unfortunately for Light, the police notice the several dozen criminals meeting an unfortunate demise and come to the conclusion that, somehow, someone is responsible for this. They hire the legendary, world-famous detective, known only as L, to solve this mystery - along with a task-force of the police's best officers (which includes Light's father).

Keeping his enemies close, Light also joins the task-force to find the mysterious murderer known as Kira (which, in reality, is Light himself). The great minds of Light and L compete in a sophisticated game of cat-and-mouse that makes Death Note a must-see for anime fans! 

Death Note is a fantastic series, but what blew my mind? It wasn't until the last episode that I realized: Light is a sociopath! 

I'd been cheering for him the entire time! Every time he was backed into a corner, I'd sit on the edge of my seat hoping he'd find a solution! Then, at the very end, I realized something that was evident from the beginning yet I ignored: the protagonist and his cause are utterly immoral!

Go Light! Kill those criminals! Become a god! Woo!

I recently read an intriguing article on io9 that lists 10 reasons the audience would root for amoral protagonists. Without spoiling the story, Light did some pretty awful things, but he meets a few of the article's listed criteria.

• "1) Make their ends noble (or neutral) even if their means are evil": Light's ideal world without violent crimes was a noble cause. However, he chose immoral means of achieving this goal.

• "3) Someone or something they care about": There were moments when Light showed us he wasn't a complete monster. There were people, such as his father, that he cared about.

Furthermore, I think audiences appreciate strong skill regardless of the morality conflicts. Though Light was a sociopath, he was undeniably good at what he was doing! It was fun to watch him think his way out of sticky situations. After all, the good guys are measured by the strength of the bad ones, right?

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Social Media Anxiety Disorder & You

Snow is on the ground. The trees are bare. The wind chills to the bone. There is no laughing and playing in the summer sun; there is only a heated blanket, Netflix, and your many social networks. You feel depressed.

Is it S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? Or is it S.M.A.D.???

As you may recall from a previous post the business magazine, Forbes, has recently begun focusing on social media. (As well they should now that it is a booming industry.) Well, I came across this startling article on New Year's Day: 3 Reasons to Quit Social Media in 2013

The last two reasons came as no surprise, but the first one struck me. It spoke of a mood condition affecting many social media users these days - Social Media Anxiety Disorder.

Social Media Anxiety Disorder & You!

The Fall term has finally ended, and Jimmy finished his first semester of college with a nice 3.45 G.P.A. Quite the achievement! He decides to leave campus and get some much needed R&R with his parents in Mitchell, South Dakota (his hometown). While he catches up on the past season of The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, he has Facebook up in another tab.

On Facebook, he discovers his dorm roommate is in Guatemala doing charity work. His ex-girlfriend has her big time internship on LinkedIn. Tons of his old friends and classmates are posting pics of their tropical vacation tans on Instagram. Meanwhile, Jimmy tweets: "Dexter is crazy!!!"

He suddenly feels like an unremarkable, lazy, worthless college brat who is wasting his life.

I'm sure everyone has felt like Jimmy at one point or another. You've accomplished some great things, but they've all been overshadowed by the accomplishments of your Facebook friends. Leaving you to feel like your accomplishments are minuscule in comparison and the effort you put in to achieve what you have isn't good enough.

It's a concept in Psychology known as social comparison. In many ways, our self esteem is built from the esteem we have for others. If you're the only kid in class with an 'A', you feel great! Likewise, if you're the only kid in class without an 'A', you feel like an idiot.

Social media plays a huge part because of the number of people you're constantly comparing yourself to on a daily basis. Childhood chums, high school friends, your current co-workers all posting about major happenings in their lives makes you wonder what has been happening in yours. And, unless you've had some major accomplishment recently, (which, let's face it, isn't extremely often for normal people) you feel bad.

Congrats, Patrice! You know what I did today? I made a grilled cheese sandwich. Take that!!!

Yeah, it sucks! But is it a reason to quit social media this year?

What do you think?

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