An education

In these final weeks of my high school life, I have imposed several sanctions upon myself in order to promote healthy study habits. Most significantly, this includes a wilful ban of Facebook on all computers in my household, much to my sixteen year-old brother's dismay. Yes, yes, very courageous of me. And no, I do not have the discipline to simply not sign in to facebook everytime I open my computer. Who does? Anyway, ideally, this decision would lead to a level of isolation from incessantly distracting friends or acquaintances, who may coerce me into a stultified state of inaction and effectively jeopardise my future. Surely this Facebook 'censorship' would force me to close my macbook, open my school books and proceed to learn the ways and means of Sir Thomas More and just which aspects of the Aussie political system are in need of change.

However, despite my best efforts, the macbook has not closed. In fact, it has remained open for the past 8 days, counting. It seems that Facebook is not the only thing to do on the computer.. The following is a list of the things I have learned since SWOTVAC began:

1. Twitter is not just a medium for John Mayer to express his feelings about his long-suffering girlfriend Jennifer Aniston, as MX had led me to believe. Actually, as my third tweet states quite concisely (as is the style of this Haiku-esque social network) 'thanks twitter for allowing me to follow the french language, politicians and holden caulfield. studying is now effortless'.
Yes, who knew that simply by clicking the little button saying 'follow' I could a) be told a new French word everyday; b) effortlessly uncover the narrative voice that is Holden Caulfield and have insight into his way of thinking; c) receive news updates, informing me of the status of the CPRS and the how the beloved "scum of the earth" is going.
Moreover, following tweets from the likes of Stephen Fry and Leigh Sales led me to uncover this next intriguing aspect of-to quote the infamous 'Voxy' of the 2009 VCE English exam-'digital technology'.

2. Blogging is really an informative and innovative form of journalism (does that make me informative and innovative? probably not...). Actually, perhaps even more significantly, blogs provide an outlet for people of all shapes, sizes, intellects, cultures and political views to express their deepest thoughts and emotions, explore and expose the ebb and flow of society-or just to have a massive bitch about the dire state of the English language. But, though I am still new to the whole phenomenon, I'm getting the gist that most people just use blogging as a means to give some meaning to quotidian life, be it celebrating the excitement and wonder of today's society, wallowing in the mediocrity of a working-class lifestyle, or just expressing their existentialist emotions. Ha, but that said, given this is my first attempt at writing a blog, I am no position whatsoever to make assumptions about individuals' blog-writing motives. Personally, this is nothing more than a procrastination technique. Perhaps Ms Sales and those from The Scrivener's Fancy (my favourites) are just procrastinating, too. And, just as an afterthought, I might add that I have just come across blogs by girls who express their deepest desires to be 'loved by him forever' and a blog with advice on how to get a bod like the Russian 'spicy masala' girls.. so I guess it's not all innovative journalism. Informative, though...those spicy masala girls are babes.

3. Torrents, though a perversion of the law, facilitate 'worldly' knowledge. I confess that I am very ill-educated in the areas of sophisticated cinema, TV shows...even the latest vids on YouTube. Some may say that I am not 'well-read' in the form of audio-visual literature. This is not from lack of interest, it is more likely a result of my inability to concentrate on any one thing for more than a very brief period of time. And, to be completely honest, I had never really understood how people find these things. Well, now that I'm all technologically-literate, I know just how easy it is to get one's hands on those art-house movies that appeared in selected cinemas only, and to gain access to those life-changing films that everrrrrrybody has seen and the satirical television series that are only on SBS and the ABC or just go straight to DVD... Of course, due to my very busy studying schedule, I haven't actually watched any of the things that I may or may not have downloaded. But, I do have 'Trainspotting' first in the queue, with Mad Men and Curb your Enthusiasm also in the line-up. And, maybe someday soon I'll stop having to listen to the sharp gasps of horror as I tell people I've never seen 'Fight Club'. Oh, and let's not forget the music torrents. All I can say is 'I love the Bloody Beetroots'.

Okay.. so, I guess the lesson to be learned today is that Facebook is, amazingly, not the only form of procrastination that this computer-oriented world provides. I may not know what parties are coming up, nor who is deprecating the name of their ex in their status (actually I do...but that's by sheer word of mouth)... And I am unable to untag myself in potentially degrading photos and I can't get rid of the awful scamming 'quiz' someone posted that is completely ruining the ambience of my profile (okay.. so I may have stalked my Facebook from someone else's computer..but that's beside the point). But, I now know that there is another, somewhat more enthralling side of the internet: a side which does indeed provide an ounce of education.
Uhmmm.. although, I do wonder just how writing this post (and spending hours on end practicing all the exhilarating activities discussed above) will help me ace my Literature exam on Thursday...
To wrap up this 'innovative and informative' blog of mine, I'll say that no, I still haven't learnt whether the electoral system is in need of reform, nor just whether Sir Thomas More was a 'hero of selfhood'. But, I do know that after these 'most important three weeks of my life thus far' are over, I have many a movie, numerous orange-bound novels and countless nights of binge drinking ahead of me. Oh, and I know what I'll look like with brown hair... surely the selection panel for PR or Journalism will be impressed with that, right?