This is something I've thought for a wile, and I've finally decided it deserves its own blog. It doesn't matter how ridiculous a fashion trend is, if it's the in thing, people will flock to it, nevermind looking good- it's all about blending in.
Oversized T-shirts, tights, blinding neon colours...it's like a bad '80's flashback, but all the purpertators are dead serious that this is the new black. And the really annoying thing is, anyone who dressed like this prior to it becoming trendy was laughed at. Once a celebrity or a designer made it famous, it became hot hot hot, but it's the exact same look that was ridiculed not so long ago.
I'm under the impession that was was about goo quality and enhancing what you had. Oh how times ahve changed.
Thanks to the greedy schmucks that lent money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back, and to our economies depending on each other, first time home buyers (a fair few of which a gen Yers) can't buy their own home.
At the moment, the price of the average first home is about $300,000. This is 8 to 10 times bigger than the average wage, while the Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who got us into this mess only had to pay about 2 to 3 times the average wage to get their first roof over their heads. We on the other hand, can't afford to move out on our won, so we're pooling together with friends. Mortgage lender MyRates.com.au states " the number of co-ownership mortgage enquiries has trebled over the last six months". Whether it’s with siblings or friends, groups of would-be first home buyers are jointly buying properties because right now they simply can't afford to buy a place individually.
Now, while being co-home owners can make partial home ownership a reality, what comes next? I mean, do you all still plan to be living together in your 30's or 40's? What if someone wants to start a family- you surely can't all live under the same roof, but how can you move out when you have more mouths to feed?
And if you do decide to go your own separate ways, who gets the hose and for how much?
More facts and figures about co-homeowner ship can be found here.
Allergic reactions to hair dye have risen by 800% in the past 30 year- no, I'm not making that up. Source. As more and more (young) people dye their hair to be scene, health services are becoming increasingly burdened by puffy faced, swollen eyed victims of hair dye, some of which require hospital admission.
A recent study in Japan found 13% of teen girls and 6% of women suffer form these allergic reactions, which a London survey found 7.1% of people who visit a dermatologist do so due to hair colouring misadventures. Read about it here
So I was checking out the news headlines when I cam across this startling claim; Gen Y spending less time online: study. pfft, as if, I thought, but the study finds that we are indeed spending less time online and goes on to claim we're beginning to think negatively of the internet.
The Australian survey was carried out on 1600 people aged between 16 and 30 and finds that we're spending 30 minutes less online per week than last year while we increasingly prefer to stay home instead of going to 'noisy clubs'. WTF? What hermits did you survey to come up with those findings? I mean okay, yes, I'm not a huge fan of having to shout over the rest of the club to talk to my friends when we've gone to dinner somewhere., but it's not the end of the world. We're generation we like It Loud, so these findings are surprising to me. And I do hope that comment about noisy clubs wasn't referring to nightclubs, I mean, about 90% of the fun comes from the fact that the music is so loud you can feel the bass thump
This entry is a little bit of a curve ball. We don't hear much about Iceland, so I've decided to update you on what the young people if this Nordic country think of police-run workshops and seminars on issues such as drugs and traffic regulations. The findings come from this report. This entry also wraps up with stats of what eh general attitude towards police is. Enjoy.
Firstly, 87% of the participant’s ages between 18 and 20 had, at some point, received education from the police. Most of the remaining 13% which did not receive this education stated it wasn't available to them
The UK has the highest rate of knife violence, with one article claiming knives are responsible 6 deaths a week. While other nations have not yet reached such high incidents of knife violence, there can be no denying that knife violence is on the rise.
In Australia, the Premier of the state of South Australia has proposed amendments to existing laws to stamp out knife violence. The full article can be read here, but the proposed changes include
Baghdad's been in the news constantly since the US led invasion of Iraq some 5 years ago. We’ve all seen the tanks rolling through the streets and heard news story after news story of yet another deadly explosion in the country. Surprise death and ever-looming violence have become to Iraq what shrimps on the Barbie and 'G'day mate' are to Australia. Despite this extreme contrast in stereotypes, a documentary by the BBC shows that the youth of Baghdad, Iraq's capital, are not so different form youth the world over. The documentary The Boys from Baghdad High follows 4 teenage boys in their final year of high school trying to pass their exams and deal with the unsafety that has come to characterise Iraq.
I'm back for the winter with new resolve to keep an eye on my pears like the KGB kept on Russian citizens, and I'm beginning this new mission by finding out who goes online, how often and what they go online for.
WE begin with U.S figures, for which the prime source for my information is this paper.
I'm sure we're all heard about it and probably seen some footage of it; people, quite often teens in school uniforms, gang up and assault one person while more than a few people capture it all on their phones. Generation Y- best known for sadism. Blood sports were big in Roman times, but I thought we'd done some evolving since then. You know, become more civilised. Guess not.
Of all the forms of entertainment we have, and all the good things in life, there are still those among us that decide to get their kicks from the suffering of others. The fact that they now document this, presumably to pass around and watch repeatedly, makes me wonder how far civilisation has come