Things I Hate About Twitter

Yeah it may seem a bit strange that I'm about to tell you some of things I hate about Twitter, when I happen to spend most of my time on it. Yes...I love Twitter, but sometimes it all gets a bit much and I find myself running to hide in a dark corner somewhere.

In no certain order, here I go.

1) Unclear tweets.
2) Incomprehensible jargon.
3) hahahaha tweets.
4) Pests who tweet @ you ALL the time.
5) Trolls.
6) Ugly people.
7) People with two, three people in display pic.
8) People who tweet only motivational shit.
9) Flag bearers for causes.
10) Beat the same drum ALL the fucking time.
11) People who swear too fucking much, un-fucking-necessarily.
12) People who ALWAYS tweet in their regional language.
13) They twitpic everything they eat.
14) Foursquare check-ins.
15) Always chatting with people.
16) Multiple exclamation marks!!!!!
17) They ask for a follow-back. They announce now following to all..
18) You Manually RT Tweets of others, and most importantly You Also Add Your Opinion to it  "Oh yeah, I'm retweeting this from somebody else to show my individuality to the world"; shut up, you are clearly an idiot, and  it just plain irritates the hell out of me.
19) They talk to celebs all day like they give a fuck about them.
20) They're mentally disturbed and somehow have a net connection.
21) Political tweets.
22) Sad all the time.
23) DP Changing Syndrome (DPCS)
24) Only talk to girls & Flirts with all the other girls.
25)  Tweets protected. Please! what the Hell are you trying to PROTECT?
26) Guys faking a girl's profile and vice versa.
27) Append a fuck lotta tweets with TWHS TWSS.
28) 140 character long #tags.
29) Music Marathon Madness.
30) Misery machines who want sympathy.
31) People who crash conversations.
32) Fights with people ALL the time.
33) Online 24/7
34) When you updated your bio and you saw everyone has a blog so you made one to be cool, but never updated your blog, or lets say you have no idea what blogging is?
35) Tweets with just links without any accompanying text.
36) You've an i appending your handle, probably stands for idiot?
37) You've a number in your name, like 69, (how mature!)
38) Check DM and #FF Tweets.
39) Excessive blog pimping.
40) Hate petrol price hike, make ur fucking own petrol.
41) Suicide threats.
42) Extremely open about relationship on twitter (No one's interested)
43) Change Handle Every two weeks.
44) Have an animated display pic.
45) You take drugs and tweet about them. & You fake accidents.
46) “My first tweet”, “hello world”, “still trying to figure this one out”, “can someone follow me?” and then pffft, gone with the wind.
47) Miserable poetry.
48) Stand up comedians.
49) Photographers.
50) Over-excited Mothers.
51) Non-native RT
52) Complaining for sympathy.
53) Fat people who are not doing something about it, except eating more.
54) You lie constantly about stuff that no one cares about.
55) Excited hamster syndrome.
56) Movie Reviewers.
57) People who try to show that they're superior by trolling others.
58) Sexual tweets, some of us are trying to eat food.
59) Pointless debates/arguments.
60) Anagram Assholes.
61) Your baby is not that cute, all babies look the same.
62) Always complains about Word limit - 140 characters - If you expect more than this please leave us alone and leave twitter, there are many options available than just blabbering about it..
63) Blog Whore - because blogging is dead n all.
64) Bollywood & Hollywood Bitches.
65) Your handle is sexual, your tweets are equally boring.
66) You copy tweets from funny foreigners.
67) People talking like "Only 3 followers left for 5000" or People tweeting that they’ve achieved 300 followers in 24 hours, like it's an achievement.
68) Overtly patriotic.
69) Disrespectful towards women with wife beating/kitchen jokes.
70) People with egg DP following thousand or more and got Zero tweets. What da faq? you dunno How to type?
71) You RT blood requests without checking.
72) You RT your own praise.
73) You praise others just to get an RT and a follow.
74) You ask celebs for RTs.
75) Using a celebrity name to attract gullible fans.
76) You have the name of a beverage in your handle, coffee, coke, water etc.
77) You tweet shit at customer care accounts, just cuz they can't be rude to you.
78) You're always traffucked.
79) You've a good life, but you whine like a bitch.
80) Disrespectful towards elders on twitter.
81) You give movie reviews, 9/10 or whatever.
82) People giving each other hugs and <3 and="and" kisses.="kisses." p="p">83) You think every sly tweet is about you. or Everyone sly tweets about you. or You sly tweet about everyone.
84) Bios that read something like “Author, motivational speaker, web 2.0 wizard, fitness coach, CEO, marathon runner, Dad to 5 kids, Scout Leader.” Really?
85) Those horrendous “Let’s spread some love today, everyone!” type of Tweets
86) You tweet about facebook.
87) You are on twitter with hopes of getting laid.
88) You've an online girlfriend/boyfriend whom you've never met.
89) You tweet about time.
90) 11.11
91) Your jokes are shit.
92) You ask people for simple decisions in your life.
93) You write open letters.
94) You hold celebs/politicians directly responsible for your misery.
95) You arrange tweetups.
96) People talking about neighbors, babies, unknown music.
97) Too many followers. Life was better with lesser number of followers. Then people start following and take everything you say so seriously.
98) Supreme Idiocy.
99) Fucked up reasoning for causes.
100) Weather tweets.
101) You correct grammar of others.
102) Football freaks.
103) People who add URGENT to every other tweet.
104) People who tweet only after a certain time and make a big deal out of it.
105) The retarded group good morning, good afternoon etc tweets. Sucks even more when the each person tagged in the tweet responds.

Okay, done for today. All these points were written in a humorous tone, but if you have a problem with any of these, feel free to bug me on twitter @datsdawayitz

Got any favs? Hate any particular number? Leave a comment! Nice way to let other readers know your view!

Cheers!

Are we a Wasted Generation?

The United Nation’s definition of youth defines youth as those who are between the age of 15 to 24. By definition, then those who are below the age of 14 are considered children. However the Article I of the United Nations’ convention on the rights of the child defines children as persons up to the age of 18. Some countries define youth at the age at which a person is given equal rights under the law, which is often referred to as the “age of majority” and in many countries age of majority is 18. Once a person passes this age he or she is considered an adult. There is also a noticeable division between teen agers (13-19) and young adults (20-24). Approximately 1 billion youth live in the world today; 18% of the world population. This means that one person out of five is in the age of 15- 24. Interestingly this is the first time in the world history that the world witnesses such a high concentration of youth on its surface. The majority, 85%, of the youth live in the developing countries with 60% living in Asia alone and a remaining 23% in African countries. It is calculated that by 2025 this 85% would augment in to 89.5%. But what is most important to comprehend is that the notion of youth is subjected to different socio-cultural, political, economic and ideological variables and it is these factors that determines who is a youth despite of all the definitions provided by any institution.

Now let us take a look at the Maldives definition of youth. In general perspective the youth fall in to the age category of  18 to 35. However the intriguing aspect of defining the youth in Maldives is to touch on the ideological perception of them by the masses. To put this in to simple language, what comes in to your mind with the utterance of youth? For most, youth is the icon of trouble. Youth is defined as an unemployed, druggies, restless minority constantly struggling along with violence to achieve their rights. Youth is also defined in terms of school dropouts and this population is one of the overtly representative fractions of the youth in Maldives. With all the hullabaloos that have been continued by this lot in the history of Maldives, the general pessimistic perception of the Youth by the masses can be justified.

With all these in mind, I base this article on a discussion we had few weeks ago. Are we a wasted generation? The question was quite shocking; something which we have not contemplated ever before but gave away few fascinating point of views of different genres.  Half of the people stated that we are a wasted generation and a few justified that we are not but most interestingly some were neutral of which the reasons and threats will be discussed later on.

One of the major arguments dragged in to justify that we are a wasted generation is that we have nothing to gain by a struggle; political achievement, and struggle obviously does not mean a physical one. Most of the young people do believe that there is no prospect for a major political revolution in the world per se. No opportunity to revolutionize the whole system as Karl Marx or Lenin did. Thus this political opportunity absence has convinced them to believe that youth has no important role to play in the political arena. But what is tragic and ironical here is that they do not grasp the importance of rightful, adequate and substantial political involvement by youth which is indispensable right now to Maldives.

The free market economy is explicitly a dominant feature of our lives. It is not exaggerating to state that we do not decide for ourselves any more but it is the free market economy which decides for us. My argument at a first glance would appear intimidating. But the explanation to this phenomenon is as follows. The term “free market” designates the fact that it is “free” and the consumer has the power to control the market by “demand”. Yet what we do not perceive is that our demand is conditioned by the “supply” it self and therefore our scope of independence in the free market is limited. Thus the supply decides what we should consume. On the other and most sophisticatedly the free market uses advertising to condition our decisions. The conditional psychological techniques executed by the advertisers unconsciously decide for us in all most all aspects of our lives. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist once did a research using a dog to investigate how external factors contribute to the gastric function of a dog and results in salving. He rang a bell before giving the food to the dog and eventually the dog started salving to the sound of the bell even without the food which is now known as “ring a bell“theory. This simply means how external factors condition a beings internal urges. The free market economy advertisers use the same theory. For instance they show us a guy using a perfume and then get a hot a girl. The condition of this phenomenon is that “the perfume” is necessary to get the hot girl and therefore urges the viewers to purchase it in order to get the “hot girl”. Thus the desire of the Other becomes the desire of us. Therefore some of the youth believe that we are denied the right to free decision making by the unconscious conditioned deciding factors of the free market and thus we are, in fact all of us are, a wasted generation.

Another cliché tic argument of the youth to justify that we are a wasted generation is the unemployment experience by the youth and the less opportunity to “higher” education especially in Maldives due to various reasons. It is on one hand a fair argument to produce because of the high rate of unemployment among the youth of the country. However this has been discussed enough and I do not wish to explain it further.

And now let us contemplate on whether we are actually a wasted generation. In my personal opinion why do we have to struggle to prove that we are not a wasted generation? Is “struggle” and indispensable part of youth? It is this ideology and discourse of youth being a noticeably a radical group that has lead us to this conclusion. Yet there are enough opportunities for us to struggle in this country. There are hundreds of political injustices and human rights violations taking place but how many of us do notice them. It is here that we again come across the irony of our youth. Most of us are blind to the ongoing political discourse or are not rational enough to analyze the political situation here, not just political but our society’s concerns. Most of us are neutral to socio-political happenings of the country and then complain that we need a revolution. Thus isn’t it our fault that we are wasted?

But now let me entertain you in the most crucial part of this article. It is the first and the only time in the world history that we witness such a vast concentration of youth on the surface of the planet earth. More than three fourths of that population lives in the developing countries and more than half of that population lives in Asia. This on one hand is a very unique and on the other hand extremely risky situation. The high concentration of youth in Asia can be translated in to so many controversial problems starting from augmenting the present unemployment rate.

However I would like to concentrate on socio-cultural perspective of this massive phenomenon. The high concentrate of youth, without doubt, predetermines a series of socio-cultural issues not necessarily pessimistic. One of the main points pointed out by the UN is that this new generation is highly sexually active. This means that there will be a high birth rate in the future which will lead to a massive apocalypse of human population and therefore the means of full filling the basic needs of this next generation should also be given a thought. Furthermore this high sexual activeness would invariably lead to unwanted pregnancies which will result in a high rate of abortions. This will also lead to the spreading of HIV/AIDS epidemic and other STIs among the youth which will lead to a desperate destruction of the youth generation. Thus as the youth, there is a struggle for us to initiate. It is time for us to contemplate on the possible solutions for the expected issues. Our youth do lack the basic sex education. Even though a diminutive syllabus is included in the education system the lessons are either not taught or loosely dealt and consequently the lack of sex education has lead to many unsafe sex practices which is even apparent right now. Thus we need to find methods to extend the sex education among the youth. Furthermore awareness of HIV/AIDS and other STIs should be given in order to decrease the high rate of epidemic infection. We would also be responsible to find solutions to feed a massive young population in the near future about all this and drugs. Following this issue there will appear other problems such as housing, health, infrastructure, education etc when accommodating a massive population.

Thus we have to question again and again, are we a wasted generation. It is as important as this to analyze the arguments of those who claim that we are a wasted generation. But above all the personal perception of this issue by the youth itself matters overtly in examining this phenomenon. The majority of this young population lives in developing countries and in Asia. Thus the responsibility that we as youth have to share is enormous. The solutions for upcoming problems must be predetermined in excess and strategies must be implemented in advance. Thus calling us a wasted generation for not having apparent struggles or simply because of the consequences of free market is highly problematic and illogical without contemplating on the future issues of the young generation. The old school theories should be dealt with proper integration so that they would not influence us pessimistically to look forward to the future. Finally, children will become young one day and young will become old and it is our duty right now to get prepared to accommodate all on the surface of planet earth despite our intensely self occupied prejudices.

Cont: Kids lost their childhood?

Ps: Im not a parent nor I look after kids or what so ever!! but i live in this world where everything happens right infront of me, and I cant just Shut up and let it happen..

I sometimes fear that far from feeling carefree like butterflies and enjoying their childhood, our kids might actually be glad to leave their childhood behind them, considering how many of them are being pushed to excel by today’s parents!

Compared to the carefree times of my childhood, today’s children are living under constant stress: the stress of carrying on their slender shoulders the aspirations and lofty ambitions of their parents; the expectations of their teachers; and the incredible load of curriculum. They are living in a world where learning is always equated with competition; activities are all about winning a prize; and classes are joined not based on the kid’s skills or interests but on their snob value. Add to this the tough school schedule, loads of homework, projects and tuition, and the poor child just keeps getting pushed deeper and deeper in the vortex of stress and struggles to cope.

Welcome to the world of ‘helicopter parents’ —  those super-informed, super-involved, on-the-move parents, shuttling their kids from one class to another with the ease of a skilled acrobat! These are the parents that hover around their kids in a colony contest, desperately prompting the child, with a camera in tow elbowing out anyone who comes between them and their super achiever kid. These are the parents that worry about every germ that the child encounters and run after the poor kid with sanitizer in one hand and low-fat, high-protein smoothie in the other. They fill every second of their child’s existence with ‘constructive’ activities.

But if they really do have their child’s best interests at heart, they should stop obsessing over their kindergartener’s handwriting and micromanaging their lives in general. Else, the poor, mortified child would end up a super dependent adult, always seeking approval and unable to make even the smallest decision in life.

I really mean it; lay off parents! Give your child some fresh air to breathe and some space to thrive. Children are so creative and intelligent, they will surprise you with what they can do. If anything is holding back your children, it is your obsessive involvement and not their limitation! Set them free!

Isn’t it a matter of concern that children as young as five are falling prey to depression? There is a very fine line between stimulation and exertion; motivation and pressure. And most parents in my generation are going overboard. What is the need to keep the child ‘occupied’ at all times? Does it truly lead to all-round development? More importantly, how many parents even care?

For, we also have a breed of parents that is the opposite of helicopter parents: the under involved parents! All they want is for the kids to be somehow taken care of by someone because they are struggling to fit in too many things in their own lives.

For these parents kids need to be kept engaged because they do not have the time or inclination to provide them the attention they need. It has nothing to do with both the parents working. I see stay-at-home moms lounging in front of television sets or engrossed in their own social activities, even staying online for hours. In effect, they are unavailable, uninterested and even irritable when the child comes home. They have no time to spare for the child. So, they push the child to go for tuition even at a very young age when they can very well teach the child at home. In addition to this, there are the sundry classes like piano, art and music.

Did the parents once find out what the child wanted? Is she happy doing this or does she have the talent or attitude to cope? Is the child too tired? Can’t she play with friends or engage in a favorite hobby like gardening that is more fun?

And, then we complain that kids are growing up brash and disrespectful and don’t bond with us. Did we spend the time to nurture the bond? Were we there to guide the child, to console her when she needed it, to hug her and tell her that it is okay to lose as long as she tried hard enough, that we love her for being her and not because she won a medal, and that we are always there for her no matter what! The question is, do parents have a couple of hours in their day that they can dedicate to their child without being distracted by their mobile or computer or TV? Do they take time out to talk and laugh together? What has happened to family interaction? Do the tired parents and tired children have time to share their lives, ask for guidance or discuss their fears and aspirations?

I hope each parent pauses for a second and thinks: What kind of a parent am I? Am I taking away the ‘child’ from their childhood?

We can earn all the money we want and do other ‘important’ things, but the time and love lost are gone forever. I wish that parents would not have kids if they did not understand the magnitude of the responsibility that the task of raising them entails. The damage cannot be undone once they are older. It is not possible to rebuild the relationship in their teenage years. There is no greater joy than to raise a well-mannered, loving child, who need not necessarily be a genius.

Let us make the change while we still can!