Social Media Path by Lydia Jones

It took me a while for me to decide in which direction I wanted to head towards for my career. I tried to think of everything that I wanted to do and outline it with my greatest ambition. To be published. After reading up on job roles, on career options I knew straight away University was not for me. It might be the constant sitting in lectures or the time wasting experience, I just knew I didn't want that. I wanted to be able to give my all each time, to get straight into a job that I would thoroughly enjoy. The no-debt fee was also a great upside.

I knew the path I wanted to take was to find a job that could support me and my career. When I stumbled across The Juice Academy Apprenticeship scheme for Social Media, I wasn't too sure that I had a chance. Yes, like all other young people out there I use social networks actively and hold my own Blog. But I didn't think I could see myself in the position. Without any other thought, I read around the job roles, around companies and the definition of social media and knew this was the step I was willing to take. I was impressed with everything The Juice Academy had to offer, earning what I would have spent on a University degree doing something I love.

At first I was reluctant to want to step backwards into education, I was so relieved when I was out of it. I found myself on one foot getting my head back into the world of learning. However, from experience I have found myself settled and handling each task in a well thought-out way. I was happy to resume into this world and to come to grips on what social media does to industries.

I believe if you doubt your options, doubt your career path and what you want to do. Wait, plan and choose. There is never a rush on what choices you have to make, University is always going to be there. Jobs are always going to be available. However, getting into them jobs are the important aspects. Decide yourself. But never forget to ask questions. I could always see myself entering a career surrounded by the media. Maybe not in the sense of which I am in, but there is always room to change, this is step one. There are plenty more steps to come by. Always believe in you. 

Lydia S Jones

The Juice Academy

Is it a Dystopian World? Is it run by technology?

What exactly is the Dystopia genre? It’s a genre which manifests a world in the future which focuses on society and how they have challenged ways in politics, science, religion or technology. It’s the complete opposite of Utopia, which is an ideal world we see as to live in.

I, as a young reader have become enlightened to this futuristic genre that has set aside from Science Fiction. I believe that dystopia is the perfect setting and lifestyle that we as a generation are happily walking into without the acknowledgement. It may seem like the little things first, from the invention of the internet and little message groups you joined so often on forums, or sources like MySpace (2003) checking out bands and sharing your profiles. Our social media insight has risen over the past 10 years, to create this way of connecting; sharing, viewing and searching become easier and well-known interaction among young people. We take it for granted these days, it’s just a way of sharing our weekends, searching through others profiles, who’s with whom and what they look like. Thanks to Facebook (2004) and Twitter (2006) which our most used social media applications and sites to date.

The writers of the dystopian genre have manifested worlds which mirror our own. ‘Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (2005)’ creates this community which believes you are only pretty when you turn 16 and under-go cosmetic surgery, this shows how social media creates a version of yourself that you want to be. In their society they believe their ranks are everything, what their feeds are, what stories they have revealed and how high they can get. It’s much like how many views you can gather on YouTube (2005) or how many likes on a post on Facebook. It creates a world where everyone is someone else, their ideal person with no emotions over anything that they can do.

  ‘The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008)’ a well-known adaptation has an incredible social media platform. By using TV as a source of entertainment creating a death-ring as an arena and placing 24 children ‘tributes’ into the arena to fight for survival. The world Collins has created is set within the future, in Panem. Within’ the Games the tributes must connect with the audience in order to grab the sponsor’s attention to send them medication, food or survival tools to help them survive the games. It uses so many ways to create a new world which uses social media, the main aspect being playing a game in order to win over society to help them survive.

‘Delirium by Lauren Oliver (2011)’ is another dystopian novel which is a world created around the idea that love is a disease which can only be found in people who have not had the procedure to remove ‘the deliria’. Society is sectioned off by the idea of love where partners are created by a test which chooses for you depending on your own results. However, would that actually ever work? Love happens to anyone, it’s a journey around society coming against fears which they are blocked from. Where the internet is watched, sites are blocked and they are sheltered from the real meaning of what love is.

There are many more clear examples out there in the world, from books to television shows to films. Like Doctor Who (1963), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Falling Skies (2011) to well-known blockbuster films such as The Island (2005), Elysium (2013) and The Matrix (1999). We live in a generation where everything is centred on technology. Who say’s we won’t turn into that society who can click their fingers and their profiles show up in front of their eyes, or touching walls to check your daily feed? We have progressed immensely over the past decade through technology and we will enter many more decades to even brighter and scarier society driven sources. We will look back in years to come and realize what was and what now is.

Lydia S Jones

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Doctor Who 

The Twilight Zone

Falling Skies

The Island

Elysium

The Matrix 

Bill's Book by Lydia S Jones

Bill's Book

by Lydia S Jones (Own)

Impressionable experiences or stories are incredibly difficult to narrow down. However, one that empowers me the most is one tale told by my Gran, Dorothy Cartwright. My Gran loved to speak of her family, she was proud of them although her husband, Lesley’s side casted her out from them. One of the people she was mostly proud of was her brother Bill Cartwright. Bill was a young writer who tried his very best to be successfully published. During this time when he was growing up he drank numerous amounts each day, which was vastly popular within that time period. He spent the most of his youth and young adulthood writing his novel, he expressed his cheeky personality into his writing. My Gran was always enlightened with Bill’s charisma, which made him into the cheeky chap he was. Bill and Dorothy grew up in the old homely home, which she still calls home. Her house holds many memories inside that have made my Gran into the most headstrong women I know. Numerous publishers, as my Gran recalls declined Bill’s book, regrettably by the explicit content that was bind in one book. In that year it was deeply frowned upon for any racy books to be written, it was unknowledgeable to anyone. This is saddening, as I would love with passion to read the words that Bill once brilliantly wrote. A writer’s personality and characteristics reflect within their work. My Gran never had the chance to read his book as it became missing and susceptibly remains with his own family. Bill died at a young age by a heart attack, this shown that he never had the happiness of any writers dream by being rightfully published. My Gran’s love for Bill and his passion for writing impressed my incredibly by sharing the same interests as myself. It is said it’s likely aspirations get passed down in generations.

4th November 2013

Lydia S Jones