Facebook et al.

I have recently taken the plunge (about 10 minutes ago) and signed up for facebook. It is light years ahead of Myspace in pretty much every regard. However it must be noted that facebook and myspace both draw from the same pool of consciousness, namely Planet Earth, so I'm unsure whether or not the experience will be any better. I think it's likely txt spk and various superfluous replacements for LOL will bring it down to the level of a book with cardboard pages and an attached squeaky toy.

As I was flicking through page upon page of a seemingly amaranthine list of people I shared my school years with, it occurred to me how many of the names had not been at the forefront of my mind for what seems like eons. I am only 21 years old and yet I had almost completely forgotten certain names. Even a girl whom I spent most of my final year with was something of a stranger to my head and if I were to meet this girl tomorrow I would be dumbstruck and unable to speak despite the fact I spent a great deal of time with her in a state of undress.

I find myself quite distraught with the knowledge that some of these people thought of me as an arrogant and self-absorbed prick and I made countless mistakes throughout my school life to further that idea. Superficially I did relatively well I suppose. I achieved decent grades and left school fairly optimistic but overall I failed to learn the basics of integrating with society. I have paid dearly for this and I officially apologise to all affected.

Adulthood

I now belong to one of the largest fraternities on the planet, adulthood. One could argue that I have been an adult for a long time. For quite a while I have had several of the trappings one would expect from an adult male. A long term relationship, a mortgage, several platinum credit cards, a 5 door family car, a large penis, an overdraft, bills... the list goes on.

Would you like to know the one artifact of power I have recently aquired which truly bestows the honour of adulthood upon me? A tesco clubcard keyring.

America's Abstinence Policy?

It seems that each week I discover something new about the worlds most powerful nations that deeply concerns me.

The BBC recently ran a story on their website regarding the US's sexual abstinence programme for teenagers. It seems that rather than educating their future generations on the possible dangers of sex they consider it more sensible to essentially adopt a puritan and religious right viewpoint and promote a no sex before marriage policy. I'm 21 and still not married. In fact, i plan to never be married. I feel it would be height of hypocrisy to declare 'til death do us part'. I could perhaps declare 'til the £30 divorce papers from staples do us part' but I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate the gesture.

To me it seems that this policy promotes one of two courses of action for American teenagers. Their first option is to get married as soon as possible and I've spoken to many American girls on the Internet who are under the age of 18 and are either married or engaged. That is frankly shocking. The second option is to simply not have sex until you are married. I know lots of people who are 25-30 years old and still not married. Does the American government suggest that these people should still be virgins?

Also remember that this policy essentially blocks comprehensive sex education in the US which is frankly irresponsible and unacceptable. Allow me to quote a young 15 year old girl called Mildred on the subject

"They don't touch on subjects like sexuality, STDs (sexually transmitted
diseases), birth control - it's not allowed because of abstinence-only
education. It leaves you on a cliff-hanger - and a lot of teenagers become
sexually active in their middle school years."

When 15 year old girls called Mildred are talking more sense then your countries administration perhaps it's time to instigate a few changes. Mildred for president!