To My 13-Year-Old, An iPhone Contract From Your Mom, With Love

You may have seen this viral blog, originally published on Huffington Post about the fabulous US mother and blogger Janell Burley Hofmann who gave her son Gregory a mobile phone for Christmas... and gave him a list of conditions.

Here is what she said:

Dear Gregory

Merry Christmas! You are now the proud owner of an iPhone. Hot Damn! You are a good and responsible 13-year-old boy and you deserve this gift. But with the acceptance of this present comes rules and regulations. Please read through the following contract. I hope that you understand it is my job to raise you into a well rounded, healthy young man that can function in the world and coexist with technology, not be ruled by it. Failure to comply with the following list will result in termination of your iPhone ownership.

I love you madly and look forward to sharing several million text messages with you in the days to come.

1. It is my phone. I bought it. I pay for it. I am loaning it to you. Aren't I the greatest?

2. I will always know the password.

3. If it rings, answer it. It is a phone. Say hello, use your manners. Do not ever ignore a phone call if the screen reads "Mom" or "Dad." Not ever.

4. Hand the phone to one of your parents promptly at 7:30 p.m. every school night and every weekend night at 9:00 p.m. It will be shut off for the night and turned on again at 7:30 a.m. If you would not make a call to someone's land line, wherein their parents may answer first, then do not call or text. Listen to those instincts and respect other families like we would like to be respected.

5. It does not go to school with you. Have a conversation with the people you text in person. It's a life skill. *Half days, field trips and after school activities will require special consideration.

6. If it falls into the toilet, smashes on the ground, or vanishes into thin air, you are responsible for the replacement costs or repairs. Mow a lawn, babysit, stash some birthday money. It will happen, you should be prepared.

7. Do not use this technology to lie, fool, or deceive another human being. Do not involve yourself in conversations that are hurtful to others. Be a good friend first or stay the hell out of the crossfire.

8. Do not text, email, or say anything through this device you would not say in person.

9. Do not text, email, or say anything to someone that you would not say out loud with their parents in the room. Censor yourself.

10. No porn. Search the web for information you would openly share with me. If you have a question about anything, ask a person -- preferably me or your father.

11. Turn it off, silence it, put it away in public. Especially in a restaurant, at the movies, or while speaking with another human being. You are not a rude person; do not allow the iPhone to change that.

12. Do not send or receive pictures of your private parts or anyone else's private parts. Don't laugh. Someday you will be tempted to do this despite your high intelligence. It is risky and could ruin your teenage/college/adult life. It is always a bad idea. Cyberspace is vast and more powerful than you. And it is hard to make anything of this magnitude disappear -- including a bad reputation.

13. Don't take a zillion pictures and videos. There is no need to document everything. Live your experiences. They will be stored in your memory for eternity.

14. Leave your phone home sometimes and feel safe and secure in that decision. It is not alive or an extension of you. Learn to live without it. Be bigger and more powerful than FOMO (fear of missing out).

15. Download music that is new or classic or different than the millions of your peers that listen to the same exact stuff. Your generation has access to music like never before in history. Take advantage of that gift. Expand your horizons.

16. Play a game with words or puzzles or brain teasers every now and then.

17. Keep your eyes up. See the world happening around you. Stare out a window. Listen to the birds. Take a walk. Talk to a stranger. Wonder without googling.

18. You will mess up. I will take away your phone. We will sit down and talk about it. We will start over again. You and I, we are always learning. I am on your team. We are in this together.

It is my hope that you can agree to these terms. Most of the lessons listed here do not just apply to the iPhone, but to life. You are growing up in a fast and ever changing world. It is exciting and enticing. Keep it simple every chance you get. Trust your powerful mind and giant heart above any machine. I love you. I hope you enjoy your awesome new iPhone.

xoxoxo,
Mom

What do you think? Too harsh? Or just right?

'Girls' season two trailer - extended

If you didn't watch season one of new smash hit show 'Girls' you may wonder what the fuss is about... here is a little catch up for you [though best to see season one in its entirety]:

If you're already a fan you'll be hanging for season two - as I am.

Here is a look at the new and extended season trailer. Scroll down for Australian TV screen date...



'Girls' season 2 starts screening on Foxtel from Monday January 14, 2013 at 5.45pm on Foxtel's Showcase channel [channel 403].

New Year's Travel Resolution - "Don't Be A Jerk"

Are you travelling a lot this year? Lucky you. How about you quit the attitude?

Okay, obviously I don't know what kind of traveller you are but according to this piece in Huffington Post, there's a good chance you're a nice person in your 'normal' life - and a tad nasty when footloose, fancy-free and on the road.

In an article titled: 'Your New Year's Travel Resolution? Don't Be A Jerk', author Christopher Elliot says:

Here's a New Year's resolution we can probably all agree on: Don't be a jerk when you're on the road.

There's something about travel -- whether you're flying, driving or sailing -- that brings out the jerk in all of us. Like the guy in seat 26B just in front of me right now on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, who is probably a nice guy on the ground. But put him on a plane, and shortly after takeoff, he jams his seat into my knees without so much as an apology.

Jerk.

He then continues:

I've spoken with psychologists about this phenomenon, and they tell me that there's something about travel that just makes us insufferable. It is, they speculate, the fact that when we go somewhere, we are away from the social restraints that make us behave -- our friends, family and community. It could also be the fact that we know we'll never see the people we meet again. So we treat them like props in a movie, as if they are not real.

To read the entire story, click here.

What do you think of this 'phenomenon' - and what are you like as a traveller?

Here is a diagram from the site 'Travelocity' on their 'rudeness poll' - what are you guilty of?

Ten Trends for 2013 - in Two Minutes

Before brand communications company JWT published this list on '100 Things To Watch in 2013' [click right here], they released this cool vid on 10 Trends for 2013 - summarised in just two minutes!

Watch:

100 Things to Watch in 2013: JWT

What will we be mad about this year? What are the new trends we will embrace - after marketers put their spin on it?

Here it is - a comprehensive list by marketing communications company JWT: it's the 'JWT Intelligence’s 100 Things to Watch' list, predicting what will be big in the year ahead.

The list is based on research across sectors such as travel, technology, food, retail and sustainability. This year, technology is the focus yet again with “appcessories,” digital ecosystems, flexible screens, and responsive web design topping the list.

Have a look at some of the 'things to watch' this year - let's revisit the list this time next year and see how many were on the money:

100 Things to Watch in 2013 [here are the first 50]:

1. 3D Bioprinting

2. Adult Playgrounds

3. African Tech Stars

4. Allergen-Free

5. Alternative Brand Currencies

6. Ambushed by Amazon

7. Appcessories

8. The Arabic Web

9. B2C/P2P Partnerships

10. Bee Venom

11. Biometric Authentication

12. Blocking Social Media Bores

13. Chia Seeds

14. Click-and-Collect Shopping

15. “Cloaking”

16. Coaching Brands

17. Cool Techie Camps

18. Crowdsourced Translation

19. Cutting out the Middleman

20. Cyber War

21. Dads in the Aisles

22. Data Scientists: The New Hotshots

23. Decline of Chinese Bling

24. Desalination

25. Detoxifying Life

26. Digital Ecosystems

27. Drones

28. ecoATM

29. Egg Freezing

30. Emotion Recognition

31. The End of Voicemail

32. Faux Meat

33. Fitness Beyond the Gym

34. Flexible Screens

35. Food Sharing

36. Frontier Markets

37. G20 Devolves to G-Zero

38. Gender-Blurred Toys

39. Geofencing

40. Green Growth

41. Handwriting = Hieroglyphics

42. Hotels in Africa

43. Human-Centered Tech

44. Humane Food

45. Hyper-Personalized Customer Service

46. Impact Sourcing

47. Imperfection

48. Individual Attention

49. Instant-Erase Apps

50. JOMO (Joy Of Missing Out)

To see the entire list, click here:

http://www.jwt.com/blog/consumer_insights/whats-big-100-things-to-watch-in-2013/

1990s websites - DIY yours now!

Ah, the good ol' days of 1990s websites [some sites are still so out of date - they're still living in these techy dark ages].

Look at this old-style site:

Now there's a nifty way to turn your Facebook page into a Nineties disaster! Temporarily, of course.

Check mine out. It's frightening:

http://geocities.buzzfeed.com/84136d11a3ca1df13af21963cff1223833

And you can do yours here:

http://geocities.buzzfeed.com/

Viral Videos of 2012 - what's in store for 2013?

Viral videos of 2012 - this may not be the 'best' list or the most comprehensive, but these are the ones that I recall the most. What about you?





















What will we be obsessed with in 2013?