Reading the news rationally

I don’t understand why people repeatedly go to one specific source for their news. It also infuriates me, when they then discredit any other source. “Oh, The BBC is just brainwashing you,” I hear from behind their copy of the Huffington Post. The truth is, every news corporation has some sort of agenda. As much as we like to see it as impartial, there is always some sort of political or societal slant on a particular article. What can you do about this? Who can we trust?

It’s silly and naive to think that we can put our trust in news organisations ran by corporate behemoths with the truth. Money makes the world go round, and if one opinion has more money or power hanging on it, then that is the one that will be published. Yes. The journalists job is to gather information, and present it in an unbiased and consumable form for the public. However, it is not our jobs to form your opinions.

Media giants like to think that they control our opinions, but that does not have to be the case. It IS the case however, when you allow your self to be sucked in to the trap of only trusting ONE news source. Editors opinions change, political agendas change and if your only reading one newspaper, then that is the only type of information you are consuming. Don’t be a Guardian reader, don’t be a Daily Mail reader. Be a rational person who forms his own opinions based on a variety of sources.

The thing is, people like to think there smart but remain stuck in their own opinions. True intellect has opinions, but allows them to be changed based of new information. If you stay stuck in your own opinions, you become comfortable and don’t learn anything. So please, put down that copy of The Guardian and go pick up a copy of The Daily Mail. Yes, I hate the Daily Fail too, but when you gather a range of information from different people, you can form your own opinion, rather than the editors.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Cruel enlightenment

I was 15 and it was the usual Friday night. A group of middle-class white kids hanging around the local park basking in the essence of the foggy night. Nobody had any worries or dreams, it was all about what was happening right now. We didn’t care about current affairs, school or even our future. The main agenda was just to blow our parents money on as many mind-altering substances as we possibly could. Simple days but fun times if I’m honest. Tonight was nothing special, it was actually pretty standard and ‘usual’ for us. Nothing out of the ordinary, just excessive cannabis consumption and the usual bland teenage stoner talk.

The night dragged on and the conversations grew tiresome. Every sentence muttered brought on anticipation, then plummeted into disappointment when you realized the other person was too stoned to realise what they were even talking about. I had the usual high. Body relaxed, heightened awareness and general slowness. However, after smoking our last joint something changed. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was odd. It was like someone had came and changed the very essence of the atmosphere. It was then I realised my perception had twisted dramatically. I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t move, I just watched everybody. I watched and I began seeing the most fascinating but disturbing truths. They all talked and talked but I didn’t. I just observed.

I saw everyone for who they were. It was as if everyone was wearing this metaphorical mask, to hide their true selves. There insecurities, their doubts and their flaws. Even the drug dealer that was with us, the ‘gangster.’ I even saw his mask. Everyone had a façade of confidence or ‘front’ to hide what they truly are. I watched and saw every single lie these people told to prevent the barrier from being broken. I realise now, this is the ego, but back then this shit freaked me out. It felt as if I was seeing the world for how it truly is and I’ve not been the same since. This simple shift in perception has completely shaken and changed me from the core.

When I walk through the street everyone just looks like a robot. I feel like I’m the only person that knows what’s going on. Greed, control, jjudgementand corruption it just doesn’t make sense to me. People worship shallow celebrities who are idolised in the media. The only reason they are their is to make you work harder and contribute to the corporate mechanism, in the flimsy hope that one day you might end up like them.

People are fake and manipulative. They don’t listen. They wait for their turn to speak and do everything for their own mental gain. People are stupid and don’t have the faintest clue what’s going on. When you try to tell them their living a lie they resist. They tell you your being silly. Your crazy man, them drugs are fucking you up. Quite the contrary. There making me realise how fucked up the world is.

I can see through the bullshit now and it’s driving me insane. Contemplating reality and frequent psychedelic use has shown me the raw and unadulterated version of reality, and at times I wish I could go back. I’ve opened a door that can’t be shut and now living life is like watching a movie were you can see the set and all the cameras. I look at an advertisement and I don’t see a new potential product. All I see is consume, obey and conform. Live the lie and become the lie or you can’t survive.

The open door within my mind messed me up for a good few years until I started to learn to accept it. People who haven’t had this “awakening” or whatever you want to call it won’t understand. For people who have, they will know exactly what I mean. I’ve been to the darkest reaches of the human mind and it’s left me with new eyes to see the world with. These new eyes can consume you if you dwell on them. You think of how you can ever live in this world again, after seeing the true nature of it. Well… It’s hard but there’s nothing you can do about it, other than use it for your advantage. Keep the perception, but don’t live it’s seclude none societal lifestyle. Use these new eyes to see through societies lies and rise to the top, otherwise you’ll just end up another acid-burnout sat at home watching documentaries about the Illuminati.

Maybe all this means something to somebody… Or maybe years of drug use have fried my brain. Either way, I’ve grown accustomed to my version of reality, and to be perfectly honest with you… I like it.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The Silk Road Ideology: A simulation of a free market economy

In February 2011, Ross Ulbricht opened a black market website known as the Silk Road. Little did he know, it would soon facilitate the selling of $8million worth of narcotics each month. With high quality drugs being shipped around the world 24/7, this multi-million dollar enterprise sent shock waves through the media. It thrived and it’s customer base got larger, along with it’s huge middle finger pointed at drug regulation and law enforcement.

Better known under his pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” Ross was seen by many as a hero, constantly preaching his libertarian values to his loyal users.

“Silk Road was founded on libertarian principles and continues to be operated on them. It is a great idea and a great practical system…It is not a utopia. It is regulated by market forces, not a central power (even I am subject to market forces by my competition. No one is forced to be here). The same principles that have allowed Silk Road to flourish can and do work anywhere human beings come together. The only difference is that the State is unable to get its thieving murderous mitts on it.” –  Dread Pirate Roberts

The way I see it, Ulbricht was trying to change the perception of how we see our government and economics system. He created virtual space were a simulation of a free market economy can flourish. The effects this had on the black market, used as evidence for how a free market economy could benefit society.

“Ross Ulbricht’s Linked-in bio”

What a better way to put this simulation into practice than the drug trade. An unregulated market with HUGE demand. As long as there is a demand for drugs there will ALWAYS be a supplier, regardless of how much the government try to intervene. If there is no way of stopping drug supply, then why not allow the supply of it to be safe and regulated? After all, the drug trade will never cease… People like taking drugs. As it stands, the drug trade is a risky and un-regulated business. Mindless violence caused by criminal gangs for the sake of untaxed revenue.

The silk road bypassed all of this and allowed the consumer to be safe. Away from the dangerous streets, we the people acted as it’s self regulator through the use of the sites feedback system. This forced vendors to sell un-adulterated they could get sales. As if they weren’t up to scratch it would be reported by the consumer.

These are the basic concepts of a free market economy. A decentralised economic system (Bitcoin) were the consumer acts as the products regulator. Ross Ulbricht and many people using and regulating the site believed in this libertarian philosophy. What better way to show people that it works, than creating a free market economy for people to use in a huge public sphere such as the internet.  With the amount of users and lack of violent crimes through the use of these sites, it’s clear that it did work.

It took them two years from the sites creation, but the FBI finally managed to shut it down. Now that’s a story in itself. I remember vigilantly watching various forums as the drama un-folded. Feeling some what part of a collective revolution as the people tried fighting back against the government. Here’s the kicker. We won. Just a mere month after it’s closure, a Silk Road 2.0 launched, lead by and equally as self-righteous “Defcon.”

The middle finger to law enforcement only got bigger and bigger as more sites started spawning from no where, all offering the same black market services. The problem was that the FBI shot themselves in the foot. By seizing the Silk Road it only added more media attention to these sites, bringing in more customers and more demand. It also gave people the incentive to fight back against the government in a sort of digital “V for Vendatta.”

It took another year, but just yesterday the second silk road was taken down, along with a few other darknet sites. ALREADY, just hours later, a Silk Road 3.0 has spawned. You only need to look at this list, to see the sheer amount of black market websites being created regularly.

So was Ross Ulbricht a hero? What about Defcon? If you believe in libertarian philosophies then Ross Ulbricht is definitely a pioneer in getting the message of a free market economy out there. Regardless of how many sites they take down, the message is still there. The ideas left behind by Ross are still ingrained into the people who supported the cause. A domino effect has started. Maybe one day we will live in a free market economy and we’ll look back at these times fondly as the start of a revolution.

Here is a video made by Ross Ulbricht’s mother during the Silk Road case in 2013.

–THE LONELY WEST–

The social machine

The world is a strange place. We spend our lives learning how to contribute to a system we are trapped in by it’s own design. Obviously, you need an incentive to slave day in and day out at a job you hate, so we created money, just for that purpose. What do we pay for these flimsy pieces of paper and shards of metal? Our time and our energy. Probably the two most valuable things we have. Without time, we cease to exist and without energy, we cease to make use of our time. The jobs we so desperately sought over strip us of our time and energy. It begins to make you think… Is it really worth it?

Sadly, many people believe it is. And while some work may be fulfilling, when you becoming an anonymous cog in a social machine, that’s when they’ve won.

Who is they, you may ask? Is it the evil bankers? The corrupt politicians? Maybe secret societies? No. When people discuss the ills of society they often try to envision a set of people or beings, consciously calling the shots. What people fail to realise is that many wrongs in our world are not brought upon us by independent thought. Rather, they are created by systems, set in place through our own ignorance and the never-ending thirst for power by all humans.

Near enough everything set in place in our modern times, is consequently designed as means to make us contribute to the economic machine and feeding the beast that never be full.

We work almost like autonomous robots, slaving all our lives as one single entity in separate sectors to keep this machine we call society going. Children in third-world countries are used as the building blocks. Their paid minuscule amounts by the rich elite, to create products for us to consume. We work as cogs keeping the machine together. Then there is money as it’s lubricant. The thing that keeps it’s going on a consistent cycle.

The terrible truth is when we earn this money for our labour we feed it back into the machine, and it goes round full cycle again. Consumerism exists, but it is not an option, we are force-fed it.

You sit at home and gaze solemnly your television screen, bombarded by celebrities and people that are happier than you. It makes you feel more miserable about your own life, so we consume. We buy that overpriced smart phone or fancy car because material items are the only perception of success and happiness we are presented with. We feed the money back into a system that fails us again and again. The system gets stronger, reinforces itself and we become conditioned to believe everything is okay.

Our society breeds unhappiness by it’s own design. It’s okay though we’ve got pills for that. Take these and you’ll be fine. Straight back to work. We don’t need any of them human emotions showing and causing cracks in our system. There’s a lot of money invested in this system. Numb them with drugs before they start catching on.

Every machine need all of it’s parts to work properly. One dysfunctional cog and the system starts very slowly falling to pieces. But it’s okay. We kill them people.

 

Maybe you are one of these dysfunctional cogs. Maybe I am. Then again, that’s too much thinking for one day. I think it’s about time you got back to work reader. The machine isn’t going to feed itself.

The purpose of misery

I hate being happy. I find it near enough impossible, to write anything particularly soulful or thought-provoking. I can sit in front of a computer screen for hours, and be left with nothing more than a half-hearted twitter post. Even picking up the guitar just leads to a few generic open chords and the odd murmur of vocals.

When you create something, you put a little bit of yourself into your art. Ourselves, or as many like to call, the ego, is created from a multitude of experiences throughout our life. Good or bad, it’s all there and sadness seems to bring out the best, most powerful and emotional pieces of work out there.

I mean, were would Hemingway or Bukowski be without their crippling alcohol problems or misanthropic tendencies? How about Ian Curtis or Kurt Cobain without debilitating depressive disorders? The sad thing is, many of the greats end up offing themselves, leaving nothing more than a legacy and eventually, a footnote in a tattered old history book.

Pain and misery brings out the most raw and real representation of the human experience. Something we can all relate to and emphasise with. After all, sadness, loneliness, anxiety and depression are some of the most powerful and overpowering feelings one can experience.

Everything we do is to avoid negative emotions. But the truth is, we need misery.

Sadness and despair gives contrast to the good things in life. If you were happy all of the time, then you would ultimately end up being unhappy. This is because humans always want more, it is in our nature. If everything was euphoric and amazing 24/7, then your original version of happiness would become less satisfying then your ever increasing standard of fulfilment. Your standards would rise. Misery makes us appreciate happiness for what it is, so we don’t become desensitised to good feelings.

The issue is, it feels like a lot of the time artists are stuck between the choice of happiness and doing what they love. Which is to create. It seems that misery always comes around eventually to pay you back for all that undeserved happiness you’ve been getting lately. Still though if you want creation gives you energy, it’s hard when you don’t have the powerful emotions of despair by your side to help you create. Then again, you enjoy being happy. What is there to do?

I still haven’t quite cracked this yet but lately if I’m too happy and content, I try to sprinkle a bit of misery onto my day, just to invoke them powerful emotions. It’s not too hard.

Make your self a really disgusting coffee in the morning. Don’t even think about putting sugar in that thing. Miss the bus to work and walk in the pouring rain instead. Get hit by a car on the way back from work… Okay, maybe not that far, but once you find that nice balance of happiness and misery you’ll have all the tools to finish that novel/screenplay/short-film you’ve been working on. How is that novel going anyway? Oh what’s that. You haven’t started it yet? Never mind.

–THE LONELY PROCRASTINATING WEST–

Technology as a weapon

There have been many predictions of the future all throughout history. Many ridiculous, others terrifyingly accurate. What I don’t think anybody could have predicted, is the alarming rate in which technology has progressed in the past decade or so.

If you told somebody in the 1920’s that you can connect to somebody on the other side of the planet, through an imaginary space called the internet, they’d probably lock you away. Damn, if you told them that mental illness was real and people weren’t locked away for it, they’d probably think you were crazy.

Technology is a catalyst in an ever-changing world were we are evolving and seeing large amounts of worldwide, economic and societal change. However, the sheer speed this technology has progressed has left us all dumbfounded, with not enough time to face the potential and unknown repercussions of these changes

George Orwell predicted a world were this seamless connectivity backfired on us and created a hellish reality of corrupt aristocracy and constant government surveillance.

This is frightening when you think about recent controversy with the NSA. A huge government agency using technology as a weapon for relentless surveillance.

Oh but it’s okay “You shouldn’t worry if you have nothing to hide.” Like the slogan in Orwell’s novel for Big Brother…

Ignorance is surrender. When you ignore the fact that we are heading towards a dystopian society where we are simply cogs in the ever turning economic machine, you can rest easy. You can just ignore the fact that our freedom of expression is being taken from us by the likes of net neutrality and censorship.

The technology which initially was meant to benefit our society is slowly being contaminated by a dogmatic government who use it negatively, to reap the benefits in our very primitive economic system.

Any use of this technology that takes you away from government control and helps you be free is often attempted to be destroyed. Bitcoin, Tor even the internet in general. The powers above don’t like it when they don’t have control over what we do with these powerful new digital aids.

Technology has pierced through the very seams of our society at a speed we couldn’t even fathom. We had no time to understand the potential dangers. It can be used for good. Or it can be used for evil. It can level cities to a pile of dust and update twitter, all at the same time.

What we do with this technology is up to us. It is time NOW for discussion. We need to work out exactly how we can use it  beneficially, and what adverse affects it can cause when in the wrong hands. Otherwise, we may end up living in a world were privacy, freedom and happiness are just fictional concepts, on your watered down and censored television set.

How close are we to reaching George Orwell or Aldous Huxley’s brave new world?

Well, the FBI have recently finished their facial recognition system. A system holding a database of at least 52 million faces, making it even more easy to infringe privacy and find the identity of every human on the planet. How far away from dystopia are we? This happened last week So I’ll let you be the judge.

If we stand up against the powers above, like Orwell, I predict we will be looking at astronomic social change. The abandonment of  hierarchical government, a better thought out economic system and the evolution and disembodiment of the mind, body and soul.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Generic, over personal, drunk and angry post

I have a tendency of going through phases of motivation, confidence and general happiness. These are however ultimately followed by long stretches of depression, hopelessness and procrastination. When I started this blog I was in one of the motivated and happy phases. However, if you observe my posting throughout time you will notice a slow, yet progressive and noticeable downwards trend. I am a cynic at heart but the early posts still convey a sense of optimism. Some sort of solution to the problems I present. However, as time goes by… My articles have gotten a little darker, bland and are just generally, starting to consist of me moaning about things. The motivational touch I add is getting so generic that I stop believing it myself. Overall, just sounding like an angry teenager who doesn’t know life outside of his parent house, an Xbox controller and last nights greasy, rotting kebab.

Well guys, I’m sorry.

When I started my blog, I made a personal oath. An oath that I am currently breaking as I write this. I completely devoted myself to posting regularly REGARDLESS of the circumstances. I wanted to keep a steady audience despite the dark depths of Google search in which you currently find this blog in. I promised I wouldn’t get lazy and this site wouldn’t become another digital graveyard. A waste of internet space along with all the other “Did you know I write a blog” bloggers.

Even if I failed all of this, there is one thing I swore I would never EVER do. The ultimate cliché that just sets aside the lazy underachieving pieces of shit from successful writers, vloggers and bloggers alike… I swore I would never make this post.

You know the one. It starts a little something like this.

Hey guys! I know I haven’t posted in a while but…

Yes, That one.

Well… here it is. My manifesto. My descent into failed, vain and inane blogging with the rest of you fuckers.

For that… I am sorry.

Hey guys! I know I haven’t posted in a while but… The truth is, I feel like shit.

I feel like shit for feeling like shit.

I feel like shit for being drunk AGAIN.

I feel like shit for not being able to wake up until noon.

I feel like shit for all the pretentious shit I pretend to give a shit about.

I feel like shit for writing this stupid post like a 15 year old girl posting shitty poems on her shit tumblr.

There’s a lot of things I feel shit about, but most of all… I feel shit for giving up. I feel shit for laying in bed all day not being able to write because I feel so dead. It’s hard. My head is a wreck. It seems like a lifetime of bad habits and poor decision making is taking a toll on my mental and cognitive abilities. Maybe my brain is just disaggregating into a fried and over stimulated puddle of mush. Maybe I’m dead?

I don’t know what’s going on but I just want to apologise for publishing this rambling of self indulgent and egomaniacal tripe. If you are still reading, then you are a stronger man than I.

The truth is, I’ve had my fun of being a hedonistic waster and now I want out. I want to be that guy that wakes up everyday at 5.am and does something productive. Someone who makes a positive impact on this world. The truth is though, this deep pit of self loathing and pity only feeds an ongoing and perpetual cycle of more and more misery. Wake up, feel like shit then repeat until you feel like so much like utter shit you can’t even get out of bed.

Maybe one day, I can get up and do something useful that will actual impact society rather than just rambling on behind a computer screen. Maybe one day I can get up before noon and do stuff that normal people do for once. Yes, being a normal functioning member of society sounds nice…

Who am I kidding, I’m just drunk… Pour me another one.

–THE LONELY DRUNK–

Missed the starting gun

“You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”

---

The quote above is from the Pink Floyd song “Time.” I can hear all you “cultured” writers/bloggers/hipsters scoffing already because I didn’t choose a Nietzsche or Mark Twain quote. I have a blog post here. So the quicker we get through this… The quicker you can get back to playing vinyl’s and shopping for clothes with triangles and random words like “OBEY” printed on them. Or for that matter… whatever it is you kids do for kicks these days .

The first time I heard this song, it really struck a chord with me. It’s one of them pieces of music were the lyrical content just jumps straight out at you. Gilmour’s soothing but powerful vocals, combined with such eloquently thought out lyrics, really help you understand what the artist is trying to convey on a much deeper level. I found the particular lines above the most relatable and moving. I think this is because, well… I personally, have missed the starting gun.

When you are young its seems like life is long and you have all the time in the world. There is time to kill today so you put your dreams on hold. You put your dreams on hold and end up in this sort of purgatory. Just on the borderlines waiting to get older so you can go and show the world what you’ve got. Throughout childhood and being a teenager, for me at least. It always felt as if we were building up to something. almost like we were in training to become human. The moment we reach adulthood is when the race starts; we put our skills to the test. Life suddenly changes. We change and become part of a grander scheme.

The truth is, the race has already started. There’s nothing that dictates were your life begins. The world just happens, and it’s happening right now. It’s so easy to sit there and not do the things you want to do, until certain circumstances change. i.e. Oh, I’ll do that after I get my degree. Do it now. The universe doesn’t wait around for you. 

The fact is. Time passes by at an alarmingly fast rate. If your waiting until you finish university to write that book or waiting to move out until you go on that awesome trip. You’ve missed the starting gun. Do what you can right now, with the resources you have. Otherwise. You may look back one day and find that ten years have got behind you.

No. no one told you when run, but I’m telling now that the race has already started and if you leave it any longer, it may be too late to catch up. And yes, I know you’ve missed the starting gun. If you hadn’t you’d be doing something cooler than reading this blog. Go. Go now…        

–THE LONELY WEST–

Addicted to distraction

The internet is a wonderful thing isn’t it? I mean seriously. It is a WONDERFUL thing. It’s a lot like many other inventions created in the past few decades. You lived fine without it before, but now it exists you could not possibly imagine a life without. How on earth could you survive without millions of cute kitten pictures at you disposal. How could you EVER think that you could live on oxygen, food and water alone without seeing that fat kid fall over for the 50th time this shift. We are never far away from a virtual world were you can get consumed. Then left wondering were in the hell the night went and why on earth am I watching videos on how to build a greenhouse (“Related” YouTube video binge anyone ?) With all of this new technology available 24/7 and in such a short amount of time, are we really ready for it ? Is it possible that we may just all be obsessed ? Addicted. To distraction.

“How did I get here ?”

I grew up in the age of the internet and the explosion of computers. By the time I was thirteen every room in my school had a computer and internet connection. A mere one year later near enough every household in the UK could access porn. I mean the internet. Well the internet practically IS just a gigantic porn database but lets not get into that. A few more years passed and technology progressed to a point were you could access and endless sea of information simply by pressing a few buttons on a small black box you kept in your pocket. That’s pretty crazy isn’t it ? No. It’s FUCKING INSANE. Near enough every development in human history was a progressive one. Our bodies and mind had time to adjust to the changes happening around us. But I can’t help thinking the smart phone and internet era happened far too rapid. We all jumped in blindly like a pack of wild dogs, draining our last sheds of dopamine in front of an LCD screen.

“A  useful diagram I made to illustrate the ratio of information on the world wide web”

As I have stated I grew up in the internet age. I remember spending hours in front of my parents state of the art COMPUTER (Probably worth about 50 pence now.) Sitting there on Newgrounds, Youtube, getting traumatized by 4chan all from such a young tender age. We don’t know if excessive internet usage is damaging because it is so new and fresh in our minds. There is no control group. All you reading who grew up on the internet. You are the experiment. You are the guinea pigs. For all we know the radiation from computer screens could make gigantic horse penis’s grow out of your armpits. We won’t know if it’s damaging until our generation gets older and becomes some sort of mutated creature who can do nothing but read emails and live on a steady diet of pixels and Facebook likes for sustenance.

“Don’t  check your Facebook too much kids !”

These topics nether would have crossed my mind until the unspeakable happened last week. A pain no man should ever undergo. My smart-phone broke. It had become so natural for me; The second I get in to rush upstairs, load up my dopamine receptors and mindlessly browse for a few hours. I was unusually distraught by the fact it had broken. I had a perfectly good laptop to use and the Ipod had seen its days. However, it was more the fact that I could access the internet QUICKER on my Phone than the laptop which resulted in INSTANT gratification. This is the issue I think. There is no need for working toward or achieving anything now as we can swiftly satisfy ourselves with something digital. Google truly is turning us into idiots. Can’t remember something ? Google it. FUCK LEARNING. Don’t have a partner ? Watch some of the sickest pornography you can find and overload you mind with happy chemicals until there’s no need for anybody else other than you. Just you and your FUCKING CANDY CRUSH (Sorry I just don’t get the hype.) Don’t get me wrong. The internet is a beautiful and great part of our society. It is completely decentralised so anyone in the world can read other people’s opinions away from censorship and the mind warping machine that is the media. You can connect with people around the globe simultaneously. Isn’t that what we want ? To be connected too every other human on the planet. Maybe so. At the end of the day, There is no getting away from this digital revolution. Whether you like it or not the internet is hear to stay. Thanks for reading and remember. Browse responsibly. –THE LONELY WEST–

Prepare for the future or be left behind

Still being of a young age, I grew up in the glorious era that the internet rose to power. When I was a kid, many had home computers but it wasn’t uncommon not to own one. Nowadays, if you tell someone you don’t own a computer or use the internet, they’ll look at you as if you just walked out of a burning orphanage bearing a swastika across your face. It wasn’t until I got to year six that things started to really kick off and computers became a normal part of every school in the country. We learnt all the basics. Which, let’s be honest… is just Microsoft office and bypassing the schools pathetic firewalls so you can play flash games.

“Come on we all did it”

I absolutely loved toying around with computers and tried to learn everything from Flash to Dreamweaver. Being so young, it was incredibly difficult to do without any guidance and I ended up giving up on my endeavours. Year 9 of secondary school came and I chose I.T as a subject in the hope of learning something a little more in-depth. Boy was I wrong. I had whole Thursday of I.C.T every week. Or as I used to call it back then… “Sitting on Microsoft Powerpoint baked out of my mind for six hours, while the obviously hungover teacher murmurs at you too get some work done every now and again.” Don’t get me wrong it was damn fun. All of my best friends took that course. I passed with flying colours. Not because I am a computer whizz. But because I know how to use Google. I had an acquired skill of wording together nonsensical ramblings until they look remotely like something in the curriculum. The cold truth is guys. I.C.T sucks. You don’t learn anything of value or in-depth. You’d be better of choosing art. Either that or just eating your own shit. At least with that, you might actually learn something (like not to eat your own shit.)

“More productive than any I.C.T lesson”

Technology is briskly moving at such a rapid rate that we can’t keep up with it. Times are changing and employers don’t care how well you can use Microsoft office anymore. Everyone and their mother can shit out a Powerpoint presentation. This constant changing technology may sound bad. It may sound like it’s leaving huge gaping holes in an already bleak looking job market. Don’t threat though. A whole new world has opened up. You just need the right skills.

C++. JavaScript. Java. Python HTML and CSS. Just to name a few of the many programming languages that now make up the majority of the world we live in. From the car you drove to work in, to the machine you got your coffee from in the afternoon. Coding is everywhere. In this day in age, whether you like it or not… Coding makes up the very framework of our society, and it’s here to stay. Employers won’t want word jockeys anymore. Stuff like that these days is just an expected standard in the average human being. It’s a basic requirement like reading and writing. Soon, it will be the same with coding and if you don’t get learning it now you could be left behind.

A recent article by the BBC stated that they’re going to start the big push towards children learning coding. Soon countless children’s T.V shows will be teaching  and bringing awareness to kids about programming. With a business as huge and influential as the BBC, this is bound to spread like an infection throughout every school in the country. This generation will grow up learning how to create software and machines. Skills that will be needed in the modern digital world. A world which we are slowly beginning to find ourselves living in. All the ones of our generation who never learnt code? They’ll be just as useless as someone who can’t use Microsoft office in 2014.

“Just some generic stock photography for you”

It’s easy to ignore and try to deny this fact, but it will happen. So if you want to prepare for the future and not be left behind I highly recommend you get some coding knowledge under your belt. It is a highly valued skill and you’d be surprised how useful it is. Or… you could just not bother. I mean, eventually we’ll build robots that can program themselves. Then they’ll be no need for humans at all.

–THE LONELY WEST–

 

 

Websites

Code academy – A great little interactive site for learning coding

Code school – Offers courses for coding

Udacity – A website by Stanford University that offers a range of courses