That Girl from Derwent dwells on the value of religion this Christmas.
That Girl from Derwent has learned a few more things about prejudice since moving up North.
That Girl From Derwent reckons if you're going to be offensive, you should find a better reason.
That Girl from Derwent considers why it is that some words have wider implications than others.
The internet is a revelation.
Could you imagine your world without it? I’m not going to lie: I can’t. The world relies on it. Much like the mobile phone, it has revolutionized communication: it is a thing to be savoured and adored - a miracle of modern creation.
However there are a few little problems.
As I said, the internet has changed communication. Facebook has revolutionised the way we interact with each other. Its creation has just been made into a film. YouTube has offered a creative outlet for anyone with an Internet connection and has been bought by Google for millions and millions of pounds. YouTube allows people to post videos of themselves across the world and anyone can watch – giving each person an equal chance of coverage and popularity, YouTube works as a kind of bizarre talent scout – yet people are encouraged to comment on the videos - and herein lies the problem.
Obviously, it’s now reached the stage where the odd nutter deserves a bit of abuse for posting a video blog of how they organise their sock collection but, Jesus, have you seen some of the comments on just normal videos? Here is one I once saw on a video for a Kings of Leon video: ‘I love this song and a great video, this song was playing at my cousin’s birthday last night, if you are the girl in the red dress that was stood by the bar, send me a message’. At first I laughed, a lot, and then I really thought about how insane this was. I mean, the chances of her seeing it, she’d have to look this up on YouTube and then scroll through pages of comments to find it, then identify it was definitely her, and then have the interest to reply! Mad.
A friend of mine once pointed me to one comment that opened up a whole world of comments you would not believe. If you really want to see the world at it’s most insane, look up any video on YouTube that features an actress/model/singer that may have some kind of titallating effect on the male species and read, in awe of the comments section.
They basically fall into two categories and I can’t decide which I think is the most insane. The first is the graphic descriptions of what these people would like to do to these girls (not for those of a sensitive nature) they are, at best, simply disturbing. The second, in some way I think may be worse: they defend the object of lust with things like ‘I think she’s lovely, I’d like to date her’ - but it doesn’t stop there, it goes into detail, like “…then I’d take her dancing and I’d give her a kiss goodnight at the door’... this is a person you’ve never met! This is why I reckon that YouTube commentators should have to put photos of themselves up. I want to see what these people look like so I can cross the street if I think I recognise them.
Or at least maybe it will stop them saying ludicrous things, starting arguments with people called ‘jivebunny1984’ or dismissing people for liking music if they didn’t hear it before it was on some famous TV show.
Seriously guys.
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