Friday 17 September 2010

Born At The Right Time.

I am glad I was born when I was. I was born at the right time.

Going back to my childhood, I wouldn't have wanted to be any other age than 8 years old when the Bay City Rollers made their big breakthrough. If I had been older, I would have been cynical and been reluctant to like them. I wouldn't have wanted to be any other age than 10 years old when I watched Starsky and Hutch for the first time. The detectives were very impressionable upon my childhood, and I loved watching it on a Saturday night with friends as a child growing up. I wouldn't have wanted to be any other age than 12 years old when I first set eyes on Debbie Harry. It was another couple of years before I fully appreciated her, and she was predominantly on my bedroom walls for a few years afterwards. I have since grown out of that phase of fancying pop stars. Ahem.

Being a child back in the 70s was completely different from what it's like today. Back then, most days were an adventure. On any given day, we would go off somewhere on our bikes. Usually a different place every time. Other days, we would play football, tennis, or even cricket. Other times, we would go on adventures in the country. Playing Subbuteo with my friend was always great fun.

Do children today have as much fun? Do they enjoy varied 

adventures and activities with each other? Sitting in front of a computer playing games doesn't sound much fun to me. Spending hours and hours on the internet on Social Networking Sites wouldn't have appealed to me as a child. Texting endlessly to friends on mobile phones doesn't capture the same excitement for me as the things we enjoyed in my childhood.

For the vast majority of time, we were active. Today, many young people's habits involve sitting down and not doing much exercise. Yes, times have changed, but are children today enjoying themselves in the way they should be? I'm so glad that my childhood happened before computer games, the internet, and mobile phones. Days wouldn't have been as much fun if those things existed back then.

As for the music, dear me. Back in the late 70s, music was vibrant and exciting. The charts were of a high standard packed with classic songs. There was always something new and exciting being released. This continued right through the 80s and started to decline in the 90s. Look at the state of music today. Mediocre to say the least. Pop music today is a shadow of what it was back in the days when I was growing up. The popularity of rap and hip hop doesn't help, and rock music has been declining like pop for many years now. I would hate to be 14 years old today having to listen to the bland and nauseating music that is being produced today. I was 14 years old when I started buying music seriously. Back then, The Police, Blondie, The Jam, the Clash, Abba, Kate Bush, and Stiff Little Fingers were all in their prime. U2 released their first album that year. What is there today that can compare with those classic musical artists?


I am glad I was born when I was. I was born at the right time.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Surveys.

The media is obsessed with surveys. Or polls, if you prefer to call them that. For instance, last week in a survey, it was reported "New figures show people in Britain are drinking 13% less alcohol than in 2004." Now, how in hell did they work that one out? Have they recorded all the alcohol that has been sold each year? Do they know how many people were actually in the country each year? It would be impossible to find accurate figures for that. Very rough estimations, I would think.

My point is, everyday there is another survey. Every time I watch someone on tv reviewing the newspapers, they always highlight a survey reported that day. Accompanied with the usual hilarity. Oh look, "25% of men do this. 47% of women do this. 16% of us prefer doing this to that. 61% of our children spend their time doing this."

Utter nonsense! If every person in the country was asked the questions in the surveys, then yes, the statistics would be accurate. Of course, this would be impossible to do. So usually, a few thousand are quizzed for these surveys that are released to the public almost everyday. They're not a fair representation of the whole country - just the opinions of a tiny percentage of our population.

It gets up my nerves when they keep reading out these survey results as if it includes everyone. Stop it! It doesn't. It's just a few thousand. The media and lifestyle tv shows try to brainwash us with this crap. I couldn't care less if 75% of women aged 21-30 prefer doing this or that 58% of teenagers prefer doing this to that. Simply say how many people took part in the survey before reeling off the statistics. Just don't report it as if the whole bloody country was asked!