The Peer Pressure Challenge

Me and my husband decided, rather than bend over to the new societal craze of pouring ice (or sometimes not even icy) water over oneself to raise 'awareness' for ALS, we would commit to donating to two charities each month: the NSPCC and MIND. Two charities that are close to both of our hearts. Not that it needs any justification.

Tentatively, I uploaded the picture of what we had done online, slightly nervous at breaking the plethora of ice-soaking 'hilarity' recorded on smartphones nationally. It's not a snub but I'm sick of charitable donations being conceived as a one-off phenomenon whenever facebook tells us to do so; a second of charitable donation, wiped from memory quicker than you can run to the towel that your ice-bucket accomplice holds readily for you. No more self-less than self-indulgent, counting up the facebook likes and exclaiming to your peers "Did you see my ice-bucket challenge!?". Of course we fucking did. 

Technical Difficulties

Recent issues in major companies, RBSG (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group) and O2, have posed the question as to whether we have become too heavily reliant upon technology.

Some people are unable to fathom how a 'computer' is able to cause such issues, and continue to blame the 'computer' profusely for this. The majority simply blame the programming or find some way in which this must have been some extravagant human error. To some extent these people forget that the technology can only be as good as its creator: us. Therefore it is purely egotistical to presume that technology is flawless.
The principle in which we presume that technology is  a perfect, magical creation is purely myth, and this idea only highlights how humans have deserted their own responsibilities and left them to 'the technology'. For example: remembering someone's birthday. For many this is no longer a responsibility and is simply retrieved from Facebook, or more usefully from your mobile phone's calendar in the morning which is nevertheless connected to Facebook and alerts you of this birthday. In some way this removes the sincerity of human actions. How can someone be appraised for wishing a 'happy birthday' or 'happy anniversary' any more? Surely forgetting to do so is simply pure idiocy- or ignorance of the new technological age. A new technological age which is, although leading us technologically forward and showing the abilities of man kind, is leading the common man backward; to laziness and forgetfulness, an age in which 'learning' is retrieving a fact from Google. Regurgitation over understanding. Computer games over reading. A lower breadth of vocabulary and understanding. Unrealistic idolisations plastered everywhere in this virtual world in which some have difficulty deciphering from reality. Utter absorption into something that does not exist, be it video games or social networking. Dependence upon technology to wake us up at the best time, rather than using our best resource: the sun. Our whole world lays in the palm of our hands, our journal, our agenda, our contacts and our information. Without this, what are we?

Animals.