Workplace Internet

I live in constant fear of losing my job.

I am not a terrible worker. I do exactly as I’m told, I give great ideas to my boss and I’m always willing to pitch in. I am the girl that is constantly asking for something else to do, just to keep myself busy. Where my fear comes in is when I have downtime. Idle hands make me a little anxious. I sit in my desk chair after I’ve finished all my work and I wait while my students take their tests. I am expected, at this point, to sit patiently and quietly until a student has a question. Imagine, sitting in a chair, staring at a computer, waiting on someone who is taking a three hour test to need your help. It’s madness, especially for someone as restless as I am. And I have found myself turning to the internet for it’s guidance.

Out of an eight hour day I spend six of them on YouTube. Only two hours of my day is devoted to answering questions, taking pee breaks and snacking on chips from the concessional. The minute someone looks like they are going to ask me a question I jump up to help. I do not use the internet to avoid work, but to make it go by faster with nothing else to do. This act alone is enough to warrant my fear.

I’m not watching porn. I’m not watching anything particularly controversial.  I am usually perusing MineCraft videos and watching Jenna Marbles play with her dogs. It’s mindless and numbing, but it takes up some of the dead time in my work day. Somehow though, it is always seen as a terrible thing in the workplace. I am no doubt looking up different way to murder my coworkers and I obviously do not have enough work to do. Only half of that statement is true. There isn’t enough work for me, but there also is just enough that you need me here. I am terrified that my boss will walk in and be upset that I’m watching StacyPlays lose over and over again to Graser10 in Mineclash.

The moral of this story is: You may lose your job one day because you can’t sit still for a few hours, but do you really want to work someplace that bores you so much that you need to make a new Pinterest board?

Personal Opinion Vs. Actual Journalism

As this is my first blog post I wanted it to be a little sweeter to digest, but I’m not a sugar coated kind of person. So I will dive right into my thoughts.

I have been involved with someone lately; a lot of someones, actually. Specifically an entire group of people who post to YouTube. I’m more concerned about missing videos on YouTube than I am my favorite television episodes. Since this great love affair has started, I now have over forty subscriptions to different people. Some of these people interact in “Real Life”, so they bleed from channel to channel. It’s almost as if I’m a part of their lives too. Watching as an outsider, but still privy to the intimate knowledge that a friend would have. I care about these people and what they do each day, their life goals and their heartaches. It’s borderline wierd, I know, but I have more contact via Twitter to these strangers than I do to some of my own personal friends. I’m a closet introvert.

This leads me into my topic of choice. A specific YouTube personality that I take interest in is Zoella. (https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390). She is a spunky, adorable girl that does makeup tutorials, hair tutorials, daily vlogs and participates in great antics with her live-in boyfriend and plethora of other companions. She recently launched a line of bath products titled “Zoella”. I’ve watched her post videos for about a year now and have grown to love her delicate charm. We have similar traits as to our face shape and hair texture, which is why I find her videos to be helpful. I have implemented a lot of her tips, tricks and recommendations into my personal life and I appreciate having someone to show me these things that I would not normally purchase in a store for fear that it wouldn’t function the way I would hope.

Alas, not everyone feels this way about Zoe. I recently read a blog post from The Independent from Chloe Hamilton. “It’s maddening that a girl who has made it her business to tell teenagers how to put make up on, or get their hair just right, now feels she’s in a position to admonish them for “fretting” about their appearance.” (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sure-teenage-girls-need-role-models–but-not-of-the-zoella-kind-9809136.html)

Clearly a statement from someone who is not a subscriber of Zoe’s. When you watch a single video that Zoe has posted, sure, you can get the impression that she only cares about her appearance and teaching others to value expensive makeup to make one’s self look perfect all the time. The same could be thought of Bethany Mota, Ingrid Nelson or other such self-proclaimed “Make Up Guru’s”. But to follow the timeline of Zoella tells a different story. Make-up is a passion she has, not a part of who she is. Hamiliton goes on to say that Zoella is a bad role model for young girls because she is a hypocrite. I find this to be completely untrue. Just because you like mascara and lipstick does not mean that you are perpetuating the stereotype that women must be perfect. Women like to feel good about themselves and makeup is an expression some use to show confidence. Never once do you hear the words “You have to have this to be complete” escape from Zoe’s lips. She simply wants everyone to feel as beautiful as they are.

Hamiliton continues in her editorial to say that “If she did away with beauty tutorials altogether and instead used her soapbox solely to speak out about the pressure girls are under to look pretty all the time, or the unfair advantage given to boys who need not worry about the latest eye-liner trends, Zoe could become the face of accessible, digestible feminism, adored by legions of female fans.” I question this statement with the following, then is she truly being herself, or being told what to do by a feminist who would rather ban makeup from society than try to grow with our ever-changing world?

Zoe is already adored by so many girls because she is a caring, fun, genuinely excited person and is the kind of woman you would want as a best friend. That is why she is so unbelievably popular, not because of her message, but her personality. YouTube is a place for people to express whatever they want however they see fit. A place where everybody fits in with somebody else. Zoella is posting what she loves and what she cares about and it’s nobodies place to tell her that she should change her content to suit someone else’s perspective. Although I do agree with Hamiliton’s idea that girls need better role models, there are much better options to slander than Zoella.