VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Dinah|DATE|1365676396|CONTENT|When I was young, admittedly a long time ago, there were no mobile phones, no personal computers, no on-line networking or email.  I had a transistor radio, a Dansette record player and on the telly there was an off and on switch and the choice of two channels to watch.  If I wanted to communicate with someone and was unable to do so face-to-face I could either ring them up on the single family phone at home (with anxious parents hovering, worried about the bill), go out clutching some old pennies and attempt to find a telephone box where the phone was in working order, or write a letter.  Most of my teenage angst was communicated to a diary, which no one besides myself ever read.  To the best of my knowledge, none of my letters written as a teenager survives.

I am certain had I had access to a mobile phone, Facebook, Twitter etc., I would have said many impulsive and crass and even cruel things.  Teenagers can be like that – selfish, egotistical, immature and lacking in judgement.  Even now, as someone clinging on desperately to the tail-end of middle-age, I regret some of the things I have written on-line.  Unlike a letter, there is no opportunity to reflect on it and tear it up in the morning.  Unlike speaking to people directly, whether face-to-face or over the phone, the online world seems to free users from obligations and inhibitions about the feelings of others.  This may not necessarily be a bad thing when, for example, people are being dissembling or dishonest, but perhaps a new kind of etiquette is needed to cover these instant communication methods.  The trouble is, things move on so fast in the virtual world that that any pause for reflection often results in losing the opportunity to get an opinion across in time.  Even on POTD there is little point in commenting the day after the Rev Dr Peter has written his parody, which he does amazingly quickly after the broadcast, since by then we are on to the next one.

I feel sorry for Paris Brown, because like Matt W, I don’t think she was mature enough to take on the role, or cope with its pressures.  Teenagers can be cruel, but so can the media who take delight in exposing weaknesses and in kicking the people they have brought down.
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