A socially alien nation!

Well by 'Alien Nation' I actually mean 'alienation'! Now as much as I am a tweeter, facebooker, blogger and the like it does often make me wonder as to why we 'need' social networking as an every day part of our lives? For some it simply whiles away mundane hours in the office, on a train, waiting for a never-on-time friend to turn up so as you don't look like you've been stood up in the pub, or when they pop to the loo and you don't want to look like Billy no mates (I digress). For others however it is a way of being part of something, something engaging, fast moving and exciting. A place where your opinions matter, where you can be as cool as you want people to percieve or perhaps a forum for a good old debate. I do wonder though as to whether all of this is brought about or even fueling a great loss, the loss of something vital in every day society...'community'.

I'm not sure at what point community and face to face interaction seemed to become near on obselete (well comparitively) but it is happening. We email and IM colleagues sat opposite, we arrange, cancel and rearrange social events with friends. We even feel it is ok to Facebook a birthday message to a close friend or relative without even needing to actually remember their birthday as we are reminded by the oh so clever powers of Facebook.

But surely social networking can't actually take the place of real networking...can it? Do people no longer crave an actual telephone conversation, a face to face chat or day I even say it, the pleasure and excitement one gets when they recieve a letter that isn't a council tax bill, credit card statement or junk mail but an actual letter from an actual friend? Maybe even through all of the 'mod cons' that surround my life I am living in the dark ages...

All I know is that it never fails to suprise me how we can know so much about people we have had little or no interaction with by simply 'Facebook Stalking'. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be too controversial on this subject as 'everything in it's place' and all but, for those of us who can vaguely remember a time before facebook and twitter don't you wonder what we did with all those spare hours? How productive we must have been and that our neighbours might have actually known us by name. For those of you who have known little else well, my point is lost, you don't care about issues such as this. Community in that capacity will be something studied in history books...

Rant over. I must go. I promised a friend I would catch up with her over Facebook chat, haven't seen her in ages...

A passion for kitsch

Thinking back I can remember as I was growing up looking at my mums collection of vintage china tea sets, cross stitch masterpieces and antique books and thinking surely people have better things to waste their time and money on? Growing up is so dull! Almost ten years later I too am now harbouring a collection of china cups and saucers, patchwork quilts and developing the urge (and desire) to knit. I'm not quite sure at what point the 'old fashioned' became 'in fashion' but the resurgance of all things kitsch and vintage seems to have swept up a generation.

We now pay highly for the 'homemade' look, where tatty quilts, expensive handmade soaps, wooden hearts and vintage china are the makings of that perfect gift for a friend or loved one. It is certainly kitsch to be kitsch. An old school friend has recently started up a boutique 'Strawberry Lemonade Designs' (http://www.strawberrylemonadeboutique.com/ ) selling the most stunning range of jewellery, home accessories and fab products for kids. Even the most outrageous product would appeal to the masses these days. A homemade gift seems far more appropriate these days then anything else (even if it does cost twice the price to buy or make it!).

Gone are the days where I want my flat to have an 'Ikea' feel with all neutral colours and furnishings but I now spend my spare hours in salvage yards or car boot sales eyeing up a new project to sand down, spruce up and locate somewhere in my incredibly modest flat. Nothing matches, everything is second hand and the thought of buying 'new' furniture is all but foreign to me.

My local area is over run with art making classes, stitch n bitch sessions and antique furniture stores, not to mention the boutiques that are popping up everywhere with patchwork this, polka dot that and flowers galore...Cath Kidston may have started it but a new generation are running away with it.

So while it lasts I will relax with a pot of tea from my bone china cup and curl up with my knitting in my floral vintage quilt and no longer dismiss the irregularities of a peculiar but charming British past time!