Social Media – The Orbital

11Jan

By Kiera GarciaNo Comments

Opinion

The Death of the Cool Girl Act

I enjoy the concept of a Gone Girl vengeance storyline just as much as the next girl, but you don’t need to be an enigma to those close to you. Intimacy is a scary concept, and I used to fall victim to the romanticisation of being the Cool Girl, but this isn’t a good mindest to have. As much as I will defend Amy Dunne until the end of time, if I actually knew her, I would find her insufferable. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the archetype of a Cool Girl I’m referring to is derived from the ‘Cool Girl’ monologue Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, later adapted into a film in 2014. The Cool Girl is simply someone who never allows others to get to know her. The Cool Girl is supposedly every man’s fantasy. She loves everything he loves and does everything that he wants, but she isn’t...

11Jan

By Maddy SidgwickNo Comments

Opinion

How Long Should I Wait to Reply?

‘Is romance really THIS dead?’- a question I believe all of us have asked, or possibly screamed at a wall, at some point in our lives. In an age where social media undeniably consumes us it is clear that intimate relationships, both romantic and platonic, have been affected by the internet. Being able to easily contact those we connect with has many positives however when considering intimacy, I would suggest that the internet has done more to hinder deep connections than build them. The internal questioning of ‘how long should I wait to reply?’ ‘Do I seem too keen?’ ‘Which is worse being left on delivered or on read?’ are ever present as we try to figure out what on earth both our friends and potential romantic endeavours are thinking. Now I am not suggesting that chivalry is dead, bu...

21Jun

By Hannah ArmourNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Be Real App: The Next Big Thing?

It’s deadline season, and for the third day in a row, the ‘Be Real’ notification goes off while you’re in the library. You take the picture, capturing your front and back camera views: an exhausted face in one corner, an empty coffee cup, and a computer with God only knows how many tabs open. This isn’t the life you wanted to portray online. Be Real, a new social media app, sets itself apart by going for pure authenticity. With the tagline “Your friends for real”, the app sends out a notification everyday at a different time to capture and share a photo in two minutes. The only problem? It’s exposing how mundane our lives really are. It should be refreshing; isn’t this what social media was supposed to be? After all, isn’t there beauty in the everyday? Without the potent...

Mind the Gap: Good Enough to Make Even a Londoner Smile

19Nov

By George WhiteNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Mind the Gap: Good Enough to Make Even a Londoner Smile

It's easy for an abstract drama production, while aiming for a profound, almost philosophical execution, to slip unwittingly into turgid verses of stilted disarray. Entering the Student Workshop’s latest production, Mind the Gap, whose social commentary, I had heard, bubbled at the surface of the show, I was convinced it would follow the same conceited creed. While watching the opening scene, I chuckled sombrely to myself, having found another esoteric piece to lambaste relentlessly. However, come the dropping of the figurative curtains, I had come to the resolute conclusion that my initial interpretation was entirely and profoundly incorrect. Anton Ego had his taste of ratatouille. The cast radiate a comforting exuberance throughout the show, allowing it to narrowly avoid the classic t...

29Oct

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Features

Loneliness in Young People

Loneliness is something most people experience at least once during their lifetime. Whilst generally associated with older generations, it has come to light as an issue increasingly affecting young people. In April this year, the BBC published an article which suggested that loneliness is “more likely to affect young people” than those with greater life experience. The question that must be asked is this: why are young people suffering from loneliness? One contributing factor is the swift digitalisation of our modern world. The reliance most people, especially teenagers, place on technology is a major cause for concern. Frequent communication via Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram detaches young people from raw social experiences such as talking face-to-face. Whilst this issue is not exclu...

27Jul

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

The Cost of Social Media

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal and the #DeleteFacebook trend that followed, have posed important questions about the price we pay for social media. What do we really pay in return for a social internet that is ‘free of charge’? Although we don’t pay with actual currency, an argument can be made that we pay with our data. But do the benefits of using social media outweigh the costs? Todd Rosenblum, a former secretary to the White House under Barack Obama, outlines how social media companies collect our personal data as a commodity in exchange for letting us use the social media platform and its services free of a monetary charge. The more we use the platform, the more details we provide and the more third-party advertisers pay for it. However, such a willing exchange of our person...

6Feb

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Opinion

A Forecast for Social Media in 2018

As we welcome in the new year, it’s an important time to reflect on the previous one. Our ups and downs, our successes and our failures. One important thing to reflect on is our use of social media. Research shows that there were approximately 3 billion active users of social media, 2 billion of which were avid users of Facebook alone. It brings a large number of benefits and is clearly the most preferred form of communication these days. However, it’s important to know that social media comes with a lot of downsides too and so should be used with caution. Social media has many advantages. First and foremost, it gives us the ability to connect with people from all over the world, quickly and in real time. It helps us maintain strong relationships with friends and family and gives us the...

3Feb

By Hefina EverardNo Comments

Lifestyle

Put it down, Look up

The New Year is the perfect time for starting a clean slate, or simply trying something new. Social media around this period is usually swamped with resolutions, but one in particular I’ve seen crop up a few times now- ‘Limit the amount of time I’m on my phone’. Mobile phones are both a blessing and a curse, yet society is finding more and more ways as to how damaging they can be for our mind. This isn’t a lecture telling you to stop using your phones, but I think it would be rewarding for society to not be so reliant on a mobile phone and live in the moment instead. Typically, we are accustomed to documenting everything on our phones; whether it be a concert, a trip, funny photos with your friends - there will always be an occasion where people have their phones out. It is not necessar...

27Oct

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Lifestyle

Disconnect To Reconnect

No one can deny that we, on the whole, are a social media obsessed generation. The average person has five social media accounts and spends an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes browsing these networks every day, according to the latest quarterly report from Global Web Index (GWI). After finding out about these staggering statistics, I decided to take a break from social media and delete all my apps for a month. These are some things that I learnt. My levels of procrastination decreased wonderfully and it was incredible. I was doing double the work in half the time. I felt amazing. Mostly because this all meant that I had more time to do what I loved with the extra minutes that I had left over. I was painting more, writing more and feeling much more satisfied and content knowing that I...

7Jun

By Victoria ChapmanNo Comments

Lifestyle

The Politics Of Social Media

Victoria Chapman discusses how social media is used to engage people in current affairs and why it has become such an influence on modern day politics. A day doesn't go by where you don’t see a disgruntled socialist complaining about Theresa May’s cutbacks, or a Conservative supporter making yet another statement about Labour’s debt and denial. And whether you’re into politics or not, you have to agree it makes for an interesting debate on Facebook. But how exactly does social media have such an impact over politics? Everyone’s on social media now; politics can be accessed through every technological medium, allowing it to reach out to everyone rather than the select few. Anyone can get involved in a discussion or movement on Facebook, Twitter, you name it. Even Instagram had users ...