Twitter – the must-have network or “the devil”?

Twitter is gaining popularity, and at the same time it is criticized. What is the point of twitter, might many ask, since compared to facebook, twitter is only updates. No real interaction with others like facebook, even though there is an option on twitter to twitpic, to put pictures up for your friends to see. You just post updates of what you are doing: what you eat, what you are doing with other twitter users, etc. from which most are things that make you wonder – do people really need to know all this? On your twitter page, you can also see what you are writing to others, and @ in front of the user name shows who you are writing to. There are also “trending topics” which start with #, for instance #imsoglad, #thingssomepeopledonthave, etc where people tell there own opinion about things.

Twitter might seem “useless”, since you are just mainly updating what you are doing, but it also has other issues to it. It is even less private that facebook. On twitter, most people do not choose to “protect their tweets” and this is why even a person without a twitter account, like myself, can see twitter uses pages and see what they are up to. Many people do not think about what they post on their pages, and they even less likely think that someone without twitter may be looking at their pages.

It may turn interesting, because what people say and do in reality and what they post on twitter, might be very contradicting. And for people, who are not even on twitter to be able to read it, can lead to problems, like finding out a bit too much that what you are supposed to. Some might say that it is sneaky to go read someone’s twitter account, without them knowing that you are doing that, but isn’t the internet an open place for everyone? Is someone posts it, you have the right and sometimes you can’t even help reading it. This can also get out of hand, because when you start secretly “following” someone, it is hard to stop and you start to look for contradicting things, wonder about who someone on twitter might be, etc.

To me, twitter is something that I would never set up, because I think it is useless and some people live a life on twitter that is not even real, they just create an image through it. That is why, I think that twitter is more like “the devil” in the network world than it is a harmless, fun pass-time.

Holiday after another

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, the Christmas music is playing in stores. As soon as the Halloween decorations are cleaned away, the Christmas ornaments are put for display. It seems like holidays are all about advertising and sales, the holidays have lost their original meaning.

In the beginning of the year is all about New Years resolutions like losing weight, after that Valentines Day, then Easter, then Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. These are the biggest “occasions” of the year so there is a lot of commerciality going around them and things have became all about what can be sold.

Now around Christmas, things are all about the presents. There are advertisements everywhere about what you should get your “significant other” or what your kids want for Christmas. What about just spending time with your loved ones and remembering why Christmas is really celebrated?

Black Friday

This concept of black Friday is very new to me, since I am from Finland. I just heard that there are a lot of discounts in every store and there are advertisements everywhere. First I was excited, “Cool, I can go shopping for cheap!” But then after I have asked my American friends if they want to go shop, everyone tells me that definitely not. They tell me all the roads will be full, no parking will be available, the discounts are not even that good – it is just not worth it.

I have not experienced it before, but I think they might be right. I have seen a lot of ads online; especially all the big markets: Target, Sears, Best Buy, Walmart, etc are advertising that there is electronics for cheap. ”Black Friday: $87.99 HDTVSamsung 50″ LED HDTV for 95% off! Black Friday Blowout Sale.” This is a very big discount, but will it be worth it to wait in line since 6 am?

Maybe I will just go check out a few stores which I like, but won’t go crazy with all the “great discounts” that there are.

 

Technology evolving – now also in the church!

I was at church last Sunday, and it was my first time at that church. It was a Lutheran church, but only more modern, not so traditional. The message was very good and I enjoyed it, but I could not help but think how the evolvement of technology is present even in church!

One of the longer parts of the ceremony, a message about praying with all parts of your brain, was given through a power point presentation. It told about how it is proven that meditation helps the brain focus and how it helps you use all parts of your brain while praying. The emotional and rational parts, because many times only only of these parts works at once. It also taught that we can “repair” our brain cells by working and using our brain in various ways.

The presentation was very interesting, but what is also interesting is how an ancient “invention” of church also uses this kind of technology at Sunday service. In the more “traditional” churches, this kind of power point presentation would not be seen, and some priests would perhaps see it as wrong or weird.

In my opinion, it was a bit strange to see this sort of presentation about the brain and all its different functions, etc. in church, but the message and point of it was good and helpful, so I think it was fine. I think in Western countries, as the technology evolves, it affects all around: not only at hospitals, school, malls, but also it places like the church. I guess as it is accepted elsewhere, it also should be in church – just as long as the idea and meaning behind is good and beneficial for the people using it.

Actors and their movies

I wonder if actors watch their own movies and worry about how they look? This morning, I heard an interview on the radio; Denzel Washington was being interviewed by the people at Hot 106. They were asking him about his new movie “Unstoppable” which just came out, and if he watches his own movies.

Denzel said that he doesn’t watch his own movies and that after the movie is done, he puts it in the past. He said that he doesn’t even own his movies in his movie collection. Apparently he is not worried about his performance or how he looked in the movie; he sees it as work and moves on to the next project. This shows that he is a serious actor, who really focuses on what he does for his living.

Many actors may be in the acting game for the wrong reasons and just to be famous and seen. They watch their own movies, are worried about how they look on screen, talk about their roles, etc. This is more superficial than how Denzel sees his career.

It was also interesting to hear that many people call Denzel by names that he plays in his movies like “coach” or “my man”. It seems that when people see celebrities on TV and movies, they feel like they know them. Denzel said that most people call him “my man” and that he finds it funny. He seemed very down to earth and serious about what he does. It is nice to see that there are still “real” actors who act because they love it, and not just to be famous.

The image of spending money

“I mean, why don’t you just stay at ‘The W’; it’s a great hotel.” My friend was told by a female friend. My friend had just moved to LA and has been here for a month now, staying at a hotel, because he hasn’t found a suitable apartment yet. He was trying to look for a cheaper hotel than spending 100 dollars per night, but his friend gave him this advice, suggesting that he spent around 270 dollars a night, which is the cheapest rate at The W in Hollywood.

So in a month that would be 8100 dollars..for what? Just to stay at a “good” hotel? The W hotel brand is described as “an innovative, contemporary, design-led lifestyle brand and the hotel category buster with 37 hotels and retreats in the most vibrant cities and exotic destinations around the world. Inspiring, iconic, innovative and influential, W Hotels provides the ultimate in insider access to a world of “Wow.” Each hotel offers a unique mix of innovative design and passions around fashion, music and entertainment.  W Hotels offers a holistic lifestyle experience that is integrated into the brand’s sensibility through contemporary restaurant concepts, glamorous nightlife experiences, stylish retail concepts and signature spas.

Words like glamorous, innovative, stylish, inspiring and exotic are used. The description presents a luxurious image of the hotel – if you stay there, you are cool. The W is a very nice, stylish hotel, but for a “normal” person, spending over 8100 dollars in a month for a place to stay is not a “normal” amount of money to spend. Should my friend stay there just because it will be “cool” for him to stay them, and he will portray a certain image of himself, that he can afford it. He told me that as an entrepreneur, why would he spend those kind of amounts on housing, when he can stay comfortably for under 3000 per month? Why spend money just to show other people that you are someone else.

These days the media asserts pressure on the consumer, because it portrays certain things to be “cool” and “stylish” to do and to wear. Certain luxurious places, hotels, clothes and cars all state something about the user – luxury items want to be used to show that you have the money to spend. The media controls the minds of people by doing this, and people want to better more successful, more rich than the next person.

These images are not a good thing, because they are not realistic and attainable for most people. The craziest thing also is, that the woman who told my friend to stay at this hotel, is struggling herself with money and rent, but still she is telling by friend that he should spend money in a ridiculous way. The reality of things got lost somewhere on the way.

“Dumpster diving”

The  issue of homeless people in California has been in the media lately, especially the homeless living in Venice Beach. Venice Beach in Los Angeles has become the latest California community to put strict new regulations limiting street parking and banning R.V.’s from beach lots. The community wants to keep the homeless people that are parked on the street away from their yards; the wealthier people are more concerned about how it looks to have homeless people in the area you live in, rather than the fact that these people do not actually have a home.

It is often discussed whether the homeless have made a choice of being homeless or whether they truly do not have any other option. Many times these people have been unlucky: they have perhaps committed a small crime, gone to prison and after that they haven’t found a job, so they do not have any option than to live on the streets. They have been forced into a circle, which they cannot get out from. Of course there are also those, who do not want to work a “bad” job, so they would just rather “barely survive” on the street by begging money and finding food from dumpsters.

I just read an interesting story called “On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner. It told about a man who was homeless, not by choice, and had to support him and his dog by “diving into dumpsters”. It was very hard for me to read the story and it made me sad, because even though I see homeless people daily here in Los Angeles, I do not know what they really go through. The story showed how hard it is to find food and when you do, you have to make sure it is fresh enough to eat. The detailed description was very horrifying and made me realize how grateful we are to have a roof on our heads and food on our table.

When I walk by homeless people, sometimes I give them a few dollars, sometimes maybe a protein bar that I am carrying around, at other times my leftovers from a restaurant. Obviously I cannot help everyone out, but i feel like we should all try to help the less fortunate out every once in a while, with at least something. The situation of the homeless people is heartbreaking, whether out society wants to realize it or not and I wish there would be more solutions to resolve this problem. With the economy being bad, it is of course hard to come up with solid answers to the problem, but we should all remember that even if there are regulations that ban the homeless away from certain streets, it does not mean that there are any less homeless people out there.