TECHNOLOGY BLOG       

Twitter: Will it be the end of our future generations?

With more and more people spending every possible moment on twitter, what will become of the future?

Abi Thompson

Theguardian.com, Monday 14^th October 2013

 
Will we even go so far as to create a key on our keyboards dedicated to twitter?

“Tweet me later, yeah?” No don’t drop by or give me a call, just tweet me. Why? Because it is the in thing, everyone is doing it. I don’t want to be someone, I want to be everyone.
Is that all we want to be? Everyone? A society so consumed in what “everyone” is doing that we follow every single link to the newest things, buying the newest technology, blowing money we may not even have just to fit in with the crowd, getting the latest social networking site, or the newest x box game that came out today. To me that seems pointless, just like twitter.

Anyone who is “everyone” has twitter. It is the basis of “everyone’s” lives. Instead of going out for a meal with our friends or family we spend our nights cooped up in our rooms on our phones or our computers, on twitter. This is because society has told us to. People are forgetting how to have a proper conversation because the way they socialise is through tweeting.  People forget who their family is because they are so wrapped up in the stranger that has just followed them back and they immediately have to tweet their friend saying “guess what? That guy I followed finally followed me back!” congratulations a stranger followed you because he would feel bad if he didn’t follow you back.

Twitter is brainwashing society, ruining the chances of our future generations having any friends other than “twitter robots”. What a future this will be!

If you have a questions or would like to make any comments about this article please tweet me using @AbiThompson

Nearly there.

 

Just got off the coach. Nearly there. We walked up to the doors and they opened by themselves like magic. I saw three empty seats and I headed for them. Kat steered me away from them and towards check in, where there was an endless queue. Great. We were done in three short minutes, realising when we arrived at the front that it was just a computer and you scan your passport and continue through. On to baggage check we go. Even bigger queue, but we all knew this one would take much longer. When we arrived at the front we heaved our bags on the scales hopeful they were within the weight limit. Few they just made it, just. As we watched our bags disappear into the unknown the man gave us our bag receipt and the precious boarding pass. We headed off the passport control where we hand over our passports and get asked if Kat and I are twins. We move on to the next part where we had to strip ourselves of all jewellery, phones, keys, money, shoes ect. Chuck it all in the crate and send it through the x ray machine whilst we stepped through the terrifying body scanner. Awkward when it beeps on you. Why not Kat? Just my necklace. No more beeping. Finally we are in the departure lounge. Which contains shops, shops and more shops. We still have another hour till take off. What shall we do?

So close but yet so far – Unreliable narrator

 

So I was in New look and there was this amazing pair of shoes that were literally to die for. It was the last pair, they were my size. I tried them on and they looked great. It was meant to be! I really wanted them but I didn’t have enough money. I went over to my sister and told her how much I love these shoes and how much I cannot afford them. I kept dropping hints that I wanted her to split the cost with me. She did not get my hints. Eventually I got fed up of her stupidity and just asked her. No. That was her answer. No. Gutted. Please, please, please. I would not stop going on about it. I was determined to get those shoes no matter what I had to do for them.

I kept begging for about twenty minutes. “You can wear them too, we can share them. Please.” She gave in to my adorable, puppy dog eyes. I was so happy I practically skipped over to my new shoes. Gone. I look around to find them, my eyes stop at the till. This girl is in the queue with my shoes. She is right at the front but I still have enough time to get to her. I run over “next please” is shouted… no, my shoes. My arm is outstretched ready to get her attention. My fingertips just brush the back of her jacket. Gone. They are forever gone.

The day my rubber duck died!
I know what you are thinking. How does a rubber duck die? Surely they are not even alive. I always thought the same things. Until now.

All of Duckies friends gathered for a resurrection party!

So everybody knows that I have an obsession with keyrings. They also know that I have an obsession with rubber ducks. So this christmas I got given the best present I could ever ask for. A rubber duck keyring. His skin is as yellow as the sun, with a beautiful, bright blue light that shines from his beak and the most perfect quacking noise any duck has ever made.

My nephew came to visit and he was interested in Duckie, very interested. He is not yet two so I could not say no to him otherwise he would cry. He always does cry when he does not get what he wants. Spoilt. When I handed Duckie to him there was a moment when our eyes locked and I saw a murderous gleam in them. My heart was racing, what should I do? I can not just take Duckie off of him just because I contain too much fear, I will be named the worst Aunty in the world. I should not worry so. How much could a little boy do anyway? It struck me that I actually do not know. But what I do know is that single glint in his eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life. It was so creepy and malicious it was like looking into those of a serial killer.
I had nothing to worry about, he was just playing nicely just holding down Duckies silver button, to hear him quack and see his beautiful light. Laughing happily to himself. Suddenly the whole atmosphere changed. A heavy weight fell all across the room, the sun had been clouded over and the room turned cold and dark. A storm had arrived.

It was a most horrific death. My nephew, being the horrible little boy that he is, kept bashing poor Duckie on the floor and the walls and then he threw him! CRASH! I watched as he crumpled on the floor. I dashed over and picked him up ready to give CPR if I needed to. His colour was no longer as bright as the sun, it faded. I pressed his round, silver button on his side. Nothing. No sound. No bright, blue light. Nothing. Just one massive clump of nothing. I am devastated.

My nephew laughs. If only he knew what I was thinking. I can not even bare to look at him. He waddles over swaying from side to side. He picks up Duckie. I am about to tell him to put him down when he throws him again! How dare he? He has already murdered him, how could he take it even further as to tortue his poor defenceless body even more. My evil nephew picked Duckie up and to my surprise he just pressed the silver button as if he expects everything to be as it was. He worked. His skin returned a brighter yellow than I have ever seen, his bright blue light shone like saphires and his sweet sounding quack returned as beautiful as a song. My nephew is a genius and he is not even two. I think he will be the next Einstein.

The way of the world

MILLAMANT: Vanity! No—I'll fly and be followed to the last moment; though I am upon the very verge of matrimony, I expect you should solicit me as much as if I were wavering at the grate of a monastery, with one foot over the threshold. I'll be solicited to the very last; nay, and afterwards. Oh, I hate a lover that can dare to think he draws a moment's air independent on the bounty of his mistress. There is not so impudent a thing in nature as the saucy look of an assured man confident of success: the pedantic arrogance of a very husband has not so pragmatical an air. Ah, I'll never marry, unless I am first made sure of my will and pleasure. I'll lie a-bed in a morning as long as I please. And d'ye hear, I won't be called names after I'm married; positively I won't be called names—Ay, as "wife," "spouse," "my dear," "joy," "jewel," "love," "sweet-heart," and the rest of that nauseous cant, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar—I shall never bear that. Good Mirabell, don't let us be familiar or fond, nor kiss before folks, like my Lady Fadler and Sir Francis; nor go to Hyde Park together the first Sunday in a new chariot, to provoke eyes and whispers, and then never be seen there together again, as if we were proud of one another the first week, and ashamed of one another ever after. Let us never visit together, nor go to a play together, but let us be very strange and well-bred. Let us be as strange as if we had been married a great while, and as well-bred as if we were not married at all. I must be at liberty to pay and receive visits to and from whom I please; to write and receive letters, without interrogatories or wry faces on your part; to wear what I please, and choose conversation with regard only to my own taste; to have no obligation upon me to converse with wits that I don't like, because they are your acquaintance, or to be intimate with fools, because they may be your relations. Come to dinner when I please, dine in my dressing-room when I'm out of humor, without giving a reason. To have my closet inviolate; to be sole empress of my tea-table, which you must never presume to approach without first asking leave. And lastly, wherever I am, you shall always knock at the door before you come in. These articles subscribed, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into a wife.

Analysis

To me this extract seems like a woman who lives in a world where women are trapped, she doesn’t want to be trapped “the way of the world” this shows that she cannot do anything about it and that’s just the way it is. She wants to be free to make her own choices and do what she wants to do “No—I'll fly” this metaphor shows she is a powerful woman possibly quite young and naïve thinking that she will change things, this empowers the reader (especially if the reader is a woman). 
She almost laughs at the names married women get “"jewel," "love," "sweet-heart," and the rest of that nauseous cant, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar” she sounds disgusted at the fact that as soon as you are married you are labelled with these names she finds them unbearable and horrific.  She sounds quite jealous of men “to have no obligation upon me to converse with wits that I don't like, because they are your acquaintance” she despises the fact that women have to follow their men and do whatever their men say just because they are a man and she a woman, this shows the diversity between men and women in the 1700s years but it shows this through a woman of that eras point of view, I like the fact that she opens up her hatred of “the way of the world” through her writing. The fact that she writes it possibly instead of saying it to somebody shows that men still have that power over her, because she can’t say it and she can only write it makes the reader feel quite sympathetic towards women in the 1700s to have lived under men’s rule and not be able to do anything about it.

She compares the relationship she may have to have with the relationships of others and states that they will all go the same way “like my Lady Fadler and Sir Francis; nor go to Hyde Park together the first Sunday in a new chariot, to provoke eyes and whispers, and then never be seen there together again, as if we were proud of one another the first week, and ashamed of one another ever after.” She mimics the others relationships by being very sarcastic but quite blunt in what she says. She makes it out as if she has seen a million relationships and they have all gone the same way and they all will, almost like it is a curse placed upon men and women to never truly have a happy marriage. This gives the reader an insight into what marriage really was like in the 1700s and that most of the time it was quite unhappy marriages possibly making the reader greatful that the times have changed so much now that we are lucky that we can choose what we do with our lives and who we spend it with.

Louis CK talks about how technology ruins society

In all the thousands of words expended this year on Twitter abuse and Ask.fm bullying – including the ones I contributed – no one nailed the problem as effectively as C.K does in the clip above. He says:

 I think these things are toxic, especially for kids … they don’t look at people when they talk to them and they don’t build empathy. You know, kids are mean, and it’s ‘cause they’re trying it out. They look at a kid and they go, “you’re fat”, and then they see the kid’s face scrunch up and they go, “oh that doesn’t feel good to make a person do that.” But they got to start with doing the mean thing. But when they write “you’re fat,” then they just go, “mmm, that was fun, I like that.”

Unlike Franzen who outright dismisses the role of Twitter and other social media in building friendships and communities, CK offers a nuanced critique:

 You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s why the phone are taking away…the ability to just sit there. That’s being a person. Because underneath everything in your life there is that thing. that empty – forever empty. That knowledge that it’s all for nothing and that you’re alone. It’s down there.

…sometimes when things clear away, you’re not watching anything, you’re in your car and you start going, “oh no, here it comes. That I’m alone.” It starts to visit on you. Just this sadness. Life is tremendously sad, just by being in it…

 …that’s why we text and drive. I look around, pretty much 100% of the people driving are texting. And they’re killing, everybody’s murdering each other with their cars. But people are willing to risk taking a life and ruining their own because they don’t want to be alone for a second because it’s hard.

 I think smartphones can be incredible tools but we have come to a sad point where we are slaves to them. Tied to them and fed little moments of delight to kick out a dopamine hit in our heads. Smartphones and tablets have ruined concerts. Instead of people engaged in the moment, bands stare out at a sea of glowing rectangles. They have also ruined the pub quiz, people reliant on Google over their own trivia knowledge.

Talk to any cabbie and you’ll discover what zombies many Britons have become. Rather than talking to the driver they stare down at their phones, speaking to their disembodied friends in the cloud, the same fascinating celestial choir that distracts them from dinner conversations with friends and family who have bothered to be there in person. I love technology but Louis CK is right. Smartphones have become a blight.

Analysis

I think this blog is a very good insight to how society is being affected through the use of technology. It shows the truth about how we do ruin our society by using our phones and the internet all the time. It shows that people cannot live without having their phones on them because they feel insecure or bored without it. I think this blog should show people how society will change the way we live. If we keep loving our phones so much then no one will learn how to socialise properly so we will end up lonely and I think that is what Louis intended to show is that by our constant use in technology we are damaging society. He claims that technology ruins peoples intelligence aswell “people reliant on google over their own trivia knowledge” he makes it out that people will never be smart again due to their use of technology. I think this blog is a bit of an eye opener to people that do use technology too much, it is bad for them to use it too much and they should really cut down or even stop.

The kingmakers daughter.
This book is set in the 1400's. The writing in the book is so formal and really unlike todays language that it is sometimes confusing. for example they say "god speed" when someone is going on a journey, i dont really know what this means but i guess its them asking god to give the person a safe and quick journey. You dont find people saying stuff like that nowadays.
They speak very formally unlike nowadays and they have set roles for women in these times so the writing can be quite sexist sometimes for example "again no one ansers my question as if i am not there." this is also very unmodern. This can make the reader quite annoyed occasionally especially if they are a woman.

Blackadder-Prince George meets the writer of the first comprehensive english dictionary, Dr Johnson.

The writer of this comdey plays with the language alot. He has Dr Johnson as quite posh and proper and the Prince George slacks a little. The impression i get of the Prince is that he is a little thick because he does not understand what DrJohnson is saying to him. The way that Prince George speaks and the language that he uses is quite laid back. He doesn't use good vocabulary like Dr Johnson.
It is interesting that he makes the waiter out to be the smartest in the room and the Prince to be the least intelligent. The Prince should have been highly educated compared to the waiter as he is of a higher class but he does not come across as very well educated at all. The words that the waiter uses and the way he says them makes him sound like a know it all and that he is just rubbing it in the Dr's face that he got something wrong. this is all shown by the language used and the way it is portrayed to the audience.
There is adjacency pairs used in the text. There is certain dialects used but i dont think that in the clip the dialect you would expect to go with each character is correct for example i would expect the Prince to have a good vocabulary and his dialect would show that he is rich and a member of the royal family but instead he has quite a bad vocabulary and if you only heard him talking and didnt know at all that he was a Prince you would not think that he was by the way he talks.

Everything has changed - Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran

And all my walls stood tall painted blue
And I'll take them down, take them down and open up the door for you
 And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies
The beautiful kind, making up for lost time,
Taking flight, making me feel right


Different register

An' all my walls looking high an' coloured blue
An' I'll put 'em on the floor, put 'em on the floor an' hold the door for ya
An' all I feel in me belly is flying things
The well nice stuff, fixin' what I missed
Flyin' away, with me feelin' great

Family.

Family.

Who decides the definition of that word?

The simple definition for family is a group of people consisting of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, cousins etc.
Surely there is more to it than that?
I believe this word is open to interpretation depending on the individual.
For instance, what about your friends? Can they be classed as family?
Does family have to be blood relatives?
Are your pets a member of the family?
There are so many questions surrounding the word ‘family’, leading to so many possible answers.
You, they, we, I. It is the individual who decides the definition of the word.
We have the power to choose who to call our family.
Who we can trust, support and love. Who will be there for us when we need them, who we will be there for.
One thing is certain. Love. Family is always consumed with unconditional love.
So ask yourself. Who is your family?

 

"I look around the yard, at the warm red-brick walls capped with white coping stones that lean against the old chapel, the apple tree bowing low with the weight of the last of the fat fruit, ready for picking, the barn which abuts the granary, filled with hay, and our house set plumb in the middle of it all, warm in the sunshine, peaceful this morning, my children at their lessons."

I chose this piece of writing because I think it sets such a peaceful image in the readers mind. It is really descriptive and detailed about all the little pieces of information that most people tend to miss when they look around them.
I like the fact that the whole paragraph doesnt really have a meaning to it, it doesn't lead up to anything and it doesn't tell you any important information its kind of just useless. Also there are no full stops, it is all commas so it gives the sense that the woman is just rambling on about everything she sees which gives you the feeling that she is talking to you.