MrISkey

There comes a time in your life where you have to move on, you have to asses what’s best for and make a decision. Having grown up in the countryside for nearly twenty years, I thought its time for a change. I got my degree, its now time to put that into practise. So I packed a small travel bag with what seemed to be essentials to survive in an urban environment. Arming myself with clothes, toiletries, books for entertainment, a smart phone for the times you need to be rescued and an A to Z of London the 1980’s version, which in all honesty has never really been used, especially when you have smart phone. Who could forget the laptop, the most essential item, it provides entertainment, helps with the jobs and provides you with the Internet, when you don’t have it the withdrawal kicks in, trust me. We have become so reliant on it, I swear if it was taken away three would be a lot more crimes and suicide rates would go up. Last step of the move a bus ticket and I’m off.

The journey down to London took three hours, of which most of it I slept. I don’t care much to stay awake during long journeys there’s nothing to see, so earphones go in and eyes are shut. As I wake up the journey is almost over, the bus is arriving at the outskirts of central London.Traffic buzzes around the bus, sounds of horns go off, you can see pedestrians roaming the street, traffic is at a stand still most of the time. This is the time to look around see what’s on offer, gauge what you’ve got yourself in for. I’ve been to London before but every time I can’t help staring in awe, the city is a strange place when you’ve grown up in the countryside. There’s wall to wall buildings, everything is concrete with a few trees protruding from paving slabs and life is all go in the city, where no one really gives a shit about you. And here I am in this jungle.

As I step off the bus I am greeted with a warm blast of air, the pollution already works it way into my system and it becomes a struggle to breathe, this is the time I wish I was back in the countryside with the fresh air, but hell here I am. As I take my bag and haul it over my shoulder, I begin to work my way through the streets and towards the tube. At this point I can’t help but think of ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns N’ Roses. A video which portrays Axl Rose step off the bus onto the city streets. And here I am a country boy in exactly the same scenario. But what does the city hold for me? I have never had so many opportunities in front of me. It was now time to sink or swim and in a city which is full of sharks I was sure I was bound to be eaten alive. I continued to my first London destination (East Ham). This was the beginning of my London adventure and the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

Okay it’s not the end of the World, that’s just an over exaggeration. But after watching ‘Meet the Kardashins’ last night it got me thinking about television and the programmes that broadcasted to us. We are offered a multitude of channels which beam to us the latest goings on worldwide, as well as providing us with entertainment, which is supposed the keep us glued to the television for hours on end.

However it seems that some programmes have lost the plot and believe that entertainment comes in the form of portraying the lives of societies idiots and imbeciles. Showing us how humans are degenerating, from the upper class, right down to the lower class. Television shows like ‘The Jeremy Kyle Show’, ‘Cribs and Teen Cribs’, ‘My Super Sweet 16’ and of course ‘Meet The Kardashins’, all highlight the stupidity of humankind.

‘Meet The Kardashins’ a show which as the title gives suggests, gives the audience a chance to meet and see into the lives of the Kardashins. A bunch of brainless so and so’s who have more money than sense. While the show deals with their turbulent life, you soon come to realise that their life isn’t hard. As for example they get all weepy because their boyfriend is cheating on them. Meanwhile I’m laughing hysterically. This is quickly followed “lets take a trip to New York or Miami”. Oh dear! Isn’t life just so difficult for them. As an audience you just can’t sympathise with these people when they start flinging money around like theres an endless supply and they can do whatever they want, except the right thing which would be to help those in need.

So its survival of the fittest…or who has the most money now and we as an audience will sit back and embrace this, watch it with intent, aspire to be like these people. And sure if things carry on this way it will be the end of the World, but strangely I feel fine. I’m content to sit back, let this all happen, shout, laugh and bleed my emotions till my hearts content at the television until I feel perfectly fine.

Situated in the Cotswolds, Minchinhampton rests on top of the hill, located between two of the five valleys. The town relishes in the past with the 17th century Market House standing tall in the centre of the town posted up by stone columns. The town itself has nothing more than a few corner shops, a church, a post office and the local pub. With a small population you find yourself becoming ‘local’, everybody knows everyone.

Moving out of the town, there is the roaming fields of the common, which depending on the season are occupied by the cows. It is there land. As you move across the common land one can see down the valley spotting specs of houses in the distance, but no sign of built up areas. Continuing on, the nearest towns are Nailsworth and Stroud. Towns which thrive on the counties local produce. These are Market towns, occupied by independent traders. The distance between each town is roughly five miles suggesting a bit of distance, a short car journey, or a long walk.

Words to describe Minchinampton: Remote. Isolated. Rural. Cut Off. Backwater. Deserted. Picturesque. Quaint. Quiet. Perhaps words which a young boy don’t want to hear.

Social networking sites have been appearing over the internet for many years now, with people hopping from one bandwagon to another, in order to chat, post up images and videos and just generally let everyone know how they are doing. We have seen the rise of Bebo, Myspace and Facebook, which have dominated the way in which people interact with each other. But what these wesites allow, is for you as a person to keep up to date with your friends, or those people you once knew but are never going to talk to again. With the success of social networking we are now offered new ways to make friends.

Chat roulette is a site in which you opt to play the titular game, but with the added spin of your going to be chatting to a random stranger, generally an unwritten rule is you use a web cam to show the people out there what you look like. You can shuffle around the potential online candidates just be clicking ‘next’, giving you endless opportunities to meet and greet new people from around the world. There maybe language barriers in some cases, but for that you just wait to find someone who shares the same language as you, and so the journey beings, ‘the world is your oyster’…well the online world anyway, with plenty of online candidates you’re just a click away from meeting a random person.

So with the webcam primed, and the finger on the next button its time to get playing. As you cycle through the potential strangers, what you will soon discover, is that its no longer social interaction, the realms of bizarreness and human depravity seep through into world of interaction, but I guess its no longer surprising as the internet itself is packed full of the weird and wonderful. Now these are just some of my conclusions, but what you can find is flashers (showing naked body) this comes in the form of chronic masturbaters, to people showing the odd naked body part (boob, bottom or penis), leading to questions is this what social communication will eventually lead to, no longer using our voices to discuss current events. But flashing in hope of getting a response.

Don’t worry the site is not packed full of these sorts of people, this only just a select few, I guess the rest, sit at their computer cycling through hoping to find the one normal person, while others sit in packs, taunting each other till one group decides to leave. So a site based around social interaction, is now seen as anti-social, a way of not talking to someone, a way to abuse someone, without suffering the consequences and to top it off a way of pleasuring oneself without the need to communicate.

So while you sit at your computer and think its time to meet some people just remember that’s why you’ve got facebook, or whatever site you use to keep your friends on close call. Chat roulette is a way of social suicide, suggesting you can’t leave the house and go and socialise. The internet becomes an easy way out, a social barrier which no-one can break and you can hide behind your computer screen pretending to be someone your not, or chat to someone you may never meet. So while thinking about Chat roulette, remember you can make more friends locally, and if you are tempted by this, Russian Roulette is a lot easier, just make sure you load all the barrels, its quicker, easier and a lot less painful than sitting through Chat Roulette.