Internet Addiction?

Since being at uni, I’ve found that I spend most of my time on Facebook. It might sound sad but when I’m in my room it’s the first thing I check, but then so does everyone else.

Currently sitting at my computer I’ve got Facebook, word press and twitter open because I’m checking for updates, and to see what people are doing. In this day and age, it seems that a phone call is a lot more difficult to make than simply logging into Facebook and writing on someone’s wall and then waiting however long for a reply.  if I meet someone when out, its no longer a case of getting their phone number because that seems to be something reserved for people I’ve known for more than a few hours. Instead when leaving you say “I’ll add you on Facebook!” the thing with that is that I would add someone when slightly inebriated after a night out and then never speak to them again.

I think it is a good thing in a way because it gives me the chance to communicate with people without the intimacy of a phone number.  But then again, I’ve heard stories of people who will never talk to someone face to face, but will gladly post a comment, pouring their heart out to someone on Myspace. this is odd to me…I mean ill talk to someone on Facebook who I would maybe not talk to much in person, but I would at least give a smile or say hello. To me it’s the same as how I am when drunk. If I would talk to someone drunk, then ill talk to them on Facebook, and also talk to them in person, but perhaps not so much.

The only thing that really gets me, is adds from complete randoms who just want someone to talk to or another number on their friends list. I’m only interested in people I actually have met at least once…

is the novelty wearing off?

As my first year of uni is drawing to a close, I can’t help but feel that the novelty is beginning to wear off…

At the beginning of the year, everything was rosy, all new people to meet and experience living away from home for the first time-it’s all very exciting. But I can’t help but feel that the cracks are starting to show. Being put in a house with 5 complete strangers who you may have nothing in common is obviously not going to work 100% of the time. But as I sit at home, preparing to return to uni after the weekend, I can’t help but get a feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach because I slightly don’t want to go back.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the people I live with. We have a right laugh so I don’t know what’s bugging me. I think perhaps the novelty of university living is wearing off. The sleepless nights, bad eating habits and too much alcohol are taking effect on me.

living 24/7 with people is starting to get to me a bit as well…in that I cant spend too much time with anyone…I don’t know why I just cant. Even my best friends and my mum annoy me. but even so the homesickness is starting to set in (I realise I’m at home but its not the same as living here all the time.) today I went for a walk with my best friend around the village we grew up in together and it brought back a lot of memories. And later we met some other friends in the pub and it just reminded me of the good times we had before I left. so I don’t know if the feeling in my stomach is because of homesickness or one of being fed up with uni life…I know for definite university is what I want to do…I absolutely LOVE the course I’m doing, and I have no idea what id do if wasn’t there, but I just cant help but feel that its just not as good as it was at the beginning.

Are American Upbringings to blame?

I was reading a friends blog earlier about the guy who shot his parents over a video game and it has got me thinking…

Why do young people seem to shoot more people in America? I am aware that there has been an increase in gun crime in the UK, but the amount of news stories of American shootings seem to be more extraordinary, in that there is usually a substantial number of people killed in one shooting. For example, in my lifetime, I remember at least 3 high school shootings as well as a man trying to impersonate the Texas chainsaw massacre. Both of these news stories have involved a lot of innocent people dieing.

Whenever there is a shoot out in America, it seems to be a person who has issues…i.e. they’ve been bullied, or had a hard family life etc. Or it’s blamed on violent television or computer games. However I was picked on when I was younger and I’ve also played violent computer games with friends or my brother…you know, the usual games boys enjoy…but I’ve never found the urge to go out and shoot someone. I mean, my parents have stopped me playing certain games when I was younger or wouldn’t let me watch certain TV programmes. However the way I was brought up showed me that they had my best interests at heart, so I think it was the way these individuals have been brought up, not to do with the violence in what they are watching or playing. I know they could play a part, but should it not be up to parents to inform kids of what is right and what is wrong?

My brother is 4 ½ years older than me, and I always looked up to him so always wanted to do the same things as him. I remember sneaking into his room when my parents weren’t around in order to watch South Park, because that was what he was watching, and my mum catching me and telling me off because it wasn’t suitable. I’m guessing this is what Daniel Petric’s parents were doing when he was found to be playing Halo 3 (he shot them because they wouldnt let him play.)…I know you shouldn’t assume things, but the way I see it is that his parents were probably trying to protect him from the violence, the same way my mum didn’t want me to be exposed to swearing and themes that were far to mature for me. I might have been annoyed at the time but I would never  hate my parents enough to want to kill them.  Now I’ve grown up, I realise they just wanted me to have an ignorant, care- free childhood…the way it should be in my opinion.

What I’m trying to get at here is that the media try to give excuses for why events take place. For example, when Daniel Petric shot his parents because they wouldn’t let him play Halo 3, it was blamed on the violence of the game. However I have a lot of male friends who play games such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto and so on. I even have a friend in the army who is trained to kill, but he doesn’t feel the urge to go out and shoot random, innocent, people. So is it upbringing or environment that shapes peoples minds? In my mind it’s a bit of both, but mainly upbringing, seeing as 100% of people who play violent computer games do not decide to go out and buy a gun. The way Daniel Petric was brought up probably made him think that what was going on in the game made it acceptable to act that way in life. There is the theory of nature or nurture. In this case I believe it to be nurture, because in life it is wrong to kill someone, but if you are brought up to see it as ok, then that is how you will think.

As I said, I am fully aware of the increase of gun crime in the UK, but in America there seems to be a lot more…could this be due to the ease of obtaining a gun. Also, UK gun crime statistics are a lot lower than those in America so perhaps it is American culture that has this effect on people?

I realise this blog is slightly incoherent, but it baffles me. I don’t know anyone who plays violent games that would ever even consider murdering someone. I just really don’t get it. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts.

Are Journalists getting worse?

When I tell people that I’m studying journalism, I often find that the response is a sucking in of breath, followed by the person saying “ooh”. To be honest I’ve always known that there is a certain stigma attached to the profession but it doesn’t bother me.

However, the other day I was talking to a housemate and she told me about how her ex-boyfriend has just lost four of his close friends in a car accident. It’s hard enough to lose one friend, let alone four and all in one go. Also all four of them left girlfriends behind who would undoubtedly be distraught.

However it wasn’t the story of the four boys dying that shocked me the most, although it is terrible. It was what my housemate told me afterwards. Apparently, one of the local newspapers had gone onto one of the girlfriend’s Facebook pages and taken quotes from what she had written to her boyfriend, and then put it in the papers.

To find out that your boyfriend has died, the day before Valentines Day and then see your personal message to him spread across the next day’s news must be heartbreaking. So this is why I wonder if journalists are getting worse.

I’ve heard of doing whatever you can to get a story but I think that these journalists went a step too far.

Times are getting harder.

Over the last few months all I’ve heard is credit crunch this and recession that…but I hadn’t really started to feel the pinch until a couple of weeks ago.

To begin with I didn’t think it would affect me, seeing as I’m currently unemployed apart from during uni holidays, and I have a student loan and an overdraft. However the first time I realised  how bad money is getting, is when I tried to extend my overdraft, but was denied because I have, and I quote “quite a lot of savings”, which I think is ridiculous. All my life I’ve been encouraged to save my money, not go out and spend it.

But, saying that, I have been offered a student credit card three times now. Really I think that the banks just want me to be in debt. I feel it’s a bit irresponsible to be offering credit cards to someone of my age, who really has no idea how to handle their money. I’m the first to admit that I’m awful with my money. I’ll get paid and I will have spent a month’s wages in one or two weeks. I’m the worst for going out to buy essentials and coming home with a new outfit, so to be offered a way of seemingly being able to afford things I want without having the money at the time seems like a brilliant idea.  I’m just glad that I have been brought up to know about the small print and the ridiculous charges that come with unpaid bills.

Also, isn’t a bit ironic that when trying to open a new student account, I failed the credit check due to the fact that I have no credit rating, and yet I’m eligible for a credit card?

So if I’m asking to extend my overdraft limit because I’ve maxxed it out, does that really suggest that I should be given a credit card to go mad with…not in my book. In my opinion, it’s just another way for the bank to get money out of me, which I clearly don’t have, hence why I want to extend my overdraft in the first place.

midnight walking

Lincoln Cathedral

Well tonight being a Sunday night means that everyone is getting over hangovers and eating lots of food. And tonight was no different.

We started off going to Jen’s for bangers and mash and watching Blade 1 and having a laugh with the girls.

Then decided that a midnight walk would be a nice way to clear out the cobwebs so charli, me and Rich walked up steep hill to the cathedral. It’s a nice walk up there, although a little tiring… with the old cobbled streets set to a beautiful cathedral backdrop on the right and the castle to the left. Once at the top we did the touristy thing and took pictures of us sat on the steps up to one of the doors.  And we then walked back down the hill again, looking in all the shop windows, which seem to hold a lot of culture in that they are mostly Ye Olde Shoppe types that sell old sweets and vintage books and clothes, which makes a nice change to the corporate high street.

It seems a shame though that we take it for granted. Being at university in Lincoln means that I live in a sort of bubble where I do the same things everyday and go to the same places with the same people. Which, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy, but I don’t feel that I ever get to experience the real Lincoln.

In the 5 months I’ve been at the university I’ve only ever been up the hill three times, and one of those times was because I had to go to the court inside the castle. tonight was the first time I’ve ever even passed under the gate thing in front of the cathedral…I’m yet to cross it’s threshold. And I know people who haven’t even ventured past the point where the hill actually gets steep.

Even in my hometown of Cambridge, I walk past the colleges without a second glance. I think that we should be more like those Japanese tourists I used to see all summer long taking pictures. I remember having a conversation on the way into town one day with one of my friends. We were walking along Hills Road past the big catholic church on the crossroads, and the people in front of us stopped to take photos and I actually looked up at the church and looked at it properly, something I had never actually done in all the times id walked past or been stuck at the traffic lights right next to it on a bus. Instead I was more interested in checking my watch to see if I would make the bus home.

I just remember being taken to Cambridge by my parents because I wanted to look in Topshop, but was ‘dragged’ around Kings college grounds and thinking “why am I here”, but looking back, I wish I’d taken more notice of the history, because now I don’t see it all the time, I miss it and realise just how much I took it for granted.

But tonight made me realise what a beautiful city Lincoln is. I love it here…and I do often look up at the cathedral and think how amazing it looks in all of its lit up glory. Looking up at the at the sheer size and detail of it really makes you think about the effort that went into creating it.

Every time I drive to Ely to visit my grandparents, I do feel a small pang of pride that I am able to look up at Ely Cathedral with its octagon, whenever I want to really. This is something I never used to do…I think it’s because I love anything historical that has a story of it’s own, and i think I’ve begun to embrace my inner geek.

A week in the life of a student

Our kitchen after a night of socialising

Living the student life is a hard one.

We have to suffer through with late nights, small rooms, no money and facing a lot of debt at the end of it, not to mention the hard work we get…

Ok so I may be exaggerating a bit. Well, a lot

At the moment its 5:45pm on a Sunday evening and I’m sat in pyjamas attempting my first assignment of the semester…blogging. So it sounds like an easy task…which I agree in theory. However in practice, it’s hard to know what to write about. So I’m going to attempt to give you an insight into student living.

This week has been eventful to say the least- and  it shows if you look into our kitchen at the moment…it’s strewn with beer cans, various alcohol bottles and even a condom. And of course there’s not a clean knife or plate to be had. So your previous conceptions that students live in squalor is pretty much bang on…although it’s not always like this, honest.

The week really starts on a Tuesday night, but this week it really started with a bang. We began this week a little differently to usual by going to someone else’s apartment for pre drinks before hitting the town and it was all really nice. After pre-drinks we headed to the shed for one, but I ended up leaving and coming home to find another of my friends passed out in her room and I couldn’t find my keys so had to kip on her floor. If you’ve ever had the experience of trying to go to sleep on the floor in one of the uni rooms at Lincoln you’ll know that it’s not a pleasant one…especially in February using a coat as a blanket…so I gave in and rang security to let me into my room, where I was dead to the world as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was so out of it in fact, as I found out in the morning, that I had missed all the commotion that had been going on outside my own door.

a fight broke out while everyone was out and resulted in everyone being thrown out of Ritzys, and coming back to ours to continue it. I woke up to broken glass outside the front door and blood smeared across it. But don’t worry, no one died or was seriously injured…I think just a few bruises to the face and ego. Oh, and a lost tooth.

But after that we thought nothing more would happen this week, but we were wrong. Over the next couple of nights, events included a fire alarm, a “drugs raid” and one of my friends spent the night in a police cell after breaking a fridge in a club.

That’s a lot to happen in the space of about 5 days.

So that has been how my week has panned out…but it’s been a good one I think despite all of the drama. I promise it’s not always so dramatic.