Travelling always gets me thinking – and is the cause of inspiration for many of my blog posts. Well, as I was sat on the train a few days ago, looking around the carriage (and careful not to make any eye contact, of course), I saw newspapers, books, magazines and phones everywhere. Sat opposite me was a woman who was oblivious to the fact that she was about to be the catalyst for a blog post on some strange page with a fish on it.
She was reading a book. And taunting me by guzzling down a bag of Malteasers. Under normal circumstances, this behaviour wouldn't have even registered in my mind. But, like I've explained, I was on a train, you see. So with little else to do, I contemplated life.
This woman was reading the results of one person's imagination, thoughts, feelings and life experiences (unless she was hiding something far less comprehensive in the middle pages of her book...I'm on to you Malteaser woman!) And I'm almost certain that one can't write a book without putting their heart and soul into it to some degree.
Well, in this rate of technological change, will all of our thoughts and emotions become overlooked? We're becoming a nation of instantaneousness; more and more people are sharing their every thought online through blogging. And now, everyone can be followed on Twitter and Facebook – well are we in danger of over-polluting with our thoughts? It takes seconds to tell people what we're doing, what we're thinking...and if you wanted take the 'Interests' section of Facebook literally, anyone could know what, a few years ago, only your best friends would have known. Are we becoming emotional sluts? Now that we've been given the opportunity, many people are pouring their hearts out to anyone who'll listen.
When I first started studying journalism, I was amazed. To think of the scale of every-day journalism, all over the internet, on shelves, on the TV and radio...it really overwhelmed me. I always wondered how there was so much to say about a 24 hour period. Up to now, it's taken me a year and a half to get my head around journalism – and I still haven't succeeded. Which is a good thing I guess, it keeps it interesting. But behind all of the agenda setting, propaganda and hidden motives, how do we know who to trust? Especially with increasing number of people starting blogs, we have opinions attacking us from all angles. How do we know who's delivering information to us for our own benefit?
With so much information shoved in our faces, so many different views and angles, how do we decide what to pay attention to? If you've read my blog before, it may be slightly apparent that I'm a little against the latest technological 'brainwaves'. Why buy something where you can read a book on a screen...when you can read an actual book for a fraction of the price and still get the nice smell of the paper, too?! Let's just hope that the appreciation of good writing doesn't dwindle too much in years to come.
As more and more information becomes more and more accessible, will we start to pay less attention? I'm sure I can explain this in relative terms – this is blog post number 80.... and are you really paying attention?
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