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Saturday, January 17, 2015

Insta-Love: Teens, sex and technology

In a role inspired by the DPS MMS scandal, a still of actress Kalki Koechlin in the Bollywood film Dev D
A still of actress Kalki Koechlin in the Bollywood film Dev D in a role inspired by the DPS MMS scandal  
Mehak and Ishaan met on Instagram, when, following the hashtag #happy, Ishaan came upon Mehak’s selfie of herself wearing a white and black striped T-shirt, with a sleepy pout on her face. He left a generous comment – “Cute” – which set her all aflutter. They had a mutual ‘follower’ they were both vaguely acquainted with and so they began to follow one another too without qualms, clicking on the heart symbol to ‘like’ one another’s photos almost daily for over a year.
It turned out that Mehak, 15, and Ishaan, 17, were both based in Delhi just a few kilometres apart, though they went to different schools. With Instagram providing a daily reminder and chronicle of each other’s lives, they felt reasonably close enough to initiate a Kik chat and then a WhatsApp conversation a year later. (“WhatsApp is about giving your mobile number, which is not something I’d do with any random stranger, duh?” says Mehak, using an expression best described as condescending when asked to explain the difference between the two chat apps.) In a few months, by when Ishaan was old enough to drive, the teenagers progressed to Facebook, thus crossing the ultimate intimate frontier, sharing their daily lives, families and opinions with one another. This quickly led to phone calls and, finally, to their first meeting in person when Ishaan drove his Maruti Wagon R, picked Mehak from the main road a few discreet steps away from her south Delhi home, and went with her to a coffee shop in a mall.
They fell in love, and other arsenal was brought out of the cellphone to feed the flame – Snapchat, where they could send messages and videos that self-destructed after a preset amount of time; Hike, where they could ‘hide’ messages from the folks; Twitter, where they followed one another’s working-professional parents out of general curiosity; Viber, to make phone calls late into the night without a corresponding rise in the phone bill; and Skype, for video chats when they went on family holidays where roaming didn’t work. They continued to meet once a month in public places, going as far as “second base” in the privacy of Ishaan’s car.
The modern-day fairy tale fell apart when Mehak entered class 12. By then, the pressure of studies (for her) combined with newfound college freedom that brought with it prettier shores (for him) led to bitter quarrels, insecurity and heartache. They officially broke up through WhatsApp (“Why would anyone want to break up on the phone?” asks Mehak), and deleted each other from Facebook but were forced to be part of each other’s lives through other apps that did not allow for such clean breaks. They could not, in Toni Braxton’s words, ‘un-break their hearts’. And so they did what any normal teenager would do: they promptly fell in love with someone else, and boasted off their new, improved partners on Instagram, passionately hoping their ex would notice.
“Technology has made romance harder, not easier, for teens,” says Sujata Chatterjee, a Delhi-based clinical psychologist who has worked with Mehak in the past. “A lot of the qualities of the interaction are often imagined, especially when people meet online and not in person. Often our deepest needs are searched for and found in the image of the person we create for ourselves. When that is not confirmed in reality, there are a lot of disappointments to survive.” She points out that the onset of puberty has become earlier in recent decades (now at the age of 8-12 for girls, 10-13 for boys), but stable relationships are achieved and marriages are taking place later and later, leading to an extended adolescence with its tumultuous stretch of love and longing.
“With smartphone messengers that allow you to see when the other person has read your message and to gauge the rate of response, these teens are on tenterhooks all the time. There’s no intuitive ‘knowing in your heart’ that comes from face-to-face boy-girl contact that people would have to wait for… Today, the waiting of minutes is just unbearable. It’s a huge burden on the relationship,” she says, adding that educated, urban parents are at a crossroads. “Different people respond differently. Some just blame peers if something goes wrong – ‘she got into the wrong company,’ they say. But that makes a victim of your child. If you take away choice, you take away responsibility. The key is how you negotiate your way through the needs of the situation as a parent. Blanket bans only drive teen romance undercover – and total permissiveness doesn’t work either; children need to learn to think through a course of action and its consequences while discovering real-life boundaries through their own experiences of hurt and happiness,” she points out.
***
The rules have changed, the battleground has moved, the allies and foes are interchangeable. Conservative values and sex-shy family communication are clashing with overtly sexual media messages wherever you turn, from Bollywood songs to Western TV shows to front pages of newspapers. One can forgive today’s urban parents for pulling their hair out in bewilderment at just where to draw the line when it comes to the thorny maze called adolescence. The infamous MMS scandal of over a decade ago – when a class 11 student of Delhi’s famous DPS RK Puram school shared with his buddies a video of his half-naked girlfriend performing oral sex on him, which consequently led to the MMS going viral, the boy being expelled, the girl reportedly being ‘exiled’ abroad by her family, and a 2009 Bollywood movie Dev.D made of it – only let the cat of teen sex out of the bag, but didn’t bring with it any rulebook on how to deal with it. With the advent of the Internet, lusty young hormones have much to get them buzzing. With the coming of the smartphone, the devil is in your pocket. With apps and social media serving as a resource across all generations and social groups, the average teenager’s parents are damned if they clamp down and damned if they don’t.
Meenakkshi Jaiin, mother of two teenage daughters
Meenakkshi Jaiin, mother of two teenage daughters
Meenakkshi Jaiin, a feng shui consultant whose two daughters are students of DPS RK Puram, admits to being part of a minority of parents who are open-minded when it comes to teen relationships. “I think the present generation of teens is less hypocritical than ours. There are fewer double standards, unlike the older generation who did the same things in secret when they were teenagers themselves,” she opines. When her younger daughter, age 15, had to make a heartbreaking choice in love, Jaiin told her to relax: “Nothing is the end of life. Go with the decision that feels ‘light’ – that’s a good benchmark for every major decision.” She says she would rather make home a welcoming space for her daughters to return to than a prison full of rules. “We talk about sex; they tell me what happens in class, who is having sex and who isn’t. It is all very light-hearted. There’s no stress attached to these discussions. It’s more important for them to make good choices when it comes to friends – that’s where they get the maximum support from.”
She’s right. A study of 78 American middle-school students published in Child Development found that teens who picked healthier partners were mentally and socially healthier a year later. A more extensive 2007 study done in collaboration between Cornell University, University of Rochester, the New York State Center for School Safety and Cornell Cooperative Extension of New York City found that romantic relationships are central to social life during middle to late adolescence (age 15-19). The study found that three-fourths of American teens age 16-18 had dated or ‘hooked up’, with over half of these having been in a serious relationship – figures for urban, online Indians may not differ too vastly. Most youth spent more time with their romantic partners than their family and friends, which in turn led to crucial developmental milestones such as forming a sense of identity, refining personal values and interpersonal skills, providing emotional support and boosting resilience. This was even more significant in the case of sexual minority youth compelled by social norms to keep their orientation a secret – their romantic partners were the only people with whom they could feel comfortable and safe sharing thoughts and feelings.
Of course, there are also those who don’t do so well. In India, it appears boys face greater amounts of stress in relationships both as aggressors and as victims. In a study of adolescents in the age group of 16–22 years from Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana, it was found that boys had higher self-esteem and larger egos than girls, which made them more sensitive to ‘loss of respect’ by others. They also got angrier if their girlfriend did not pay enough attention to them – a possible outcome of our social codes that require girls to be quiet and less expressive about sexuality and deep feelings. Sex education could address some of these problems.
Lakshmi Kumar, director of the Orchid School, Pune
Lakshmi Kumar, director of the Orchid School, Pune
This is in fact something that Lakshmi Kumar, director of Orchid School in Pune, has been working towards. One of the pioneers in implementing the Life Skills Orientation Course in middle school, her school is remarkably progressive compared to others even in bigger cities, teaching adolescents all about sexual choices, consequences and responsibilities, including the hazards of underage pregnancy. “No one talks to them about sex – about power, consent, equality, pleasure, respect. Parents are extremely uncomfortable talking about it, so teens have nowhere else to go but social media, other young adults, peer groups or even porn sites, which give them a completely wrong image,” she says. According to a 2010 National Youth Readership Survey (NYRS) published by National Book Trust India in association with National Council of Applied Economic Research, the internet is accessed by over 35 million urban Indian youth (age 13 to 35), with about 75 percent of users ‘expressing confidence’ in the Internet as a reliable source of information. It is absolutely imperative for schools and educationists to step in and demystify sexuality, says Kumar. Though she believes that knowledge of gadgets and social media can be an immense asset, it can also be a bane if teens aren’t taught the impact and outcome of their behaviour online. “Parents and teens can collaborate beautifully; the teens teach us the grassroots of technology; parents can contribute with the value dimension.”
Kumar rues that teen romance these days appears to have an overwhelming material element, an artificial sense of control, and is dominantly patriarchal with the boy expected to pick up the cheque, to drive the girl and to decide what she wears. The boundaries between romance and sex, between feelings and experimentation, have blurred, she adds. Parents were initially scandalised when their ninth-grade kids went home and said they’d learnt about condoms in school. “We can’t assume these kids will have sex only after marriage. We have to equip them in emotional, social, cultural and physiological ways for every possibility,” says Kumar, who had to hold orientation sessions for parents to explain what the school was up to. “They were relieved but also embarrassed. It was a heavy silence zone,” she recalls.
Oorja Gonepavaram, class 10 student
Oorja Gonepavaram, class 10 student
Oorja Gonepavaram, a class 10 student in Kumar’s Pune school who admits she is “hopeless at romance”, shares that Tumblr and 9gag are still the most commonly used websites amongst the kids in her class – all very innocent when compared with high-school kids in Delhi and Mumbai. “Facebook totally disrupts studies, and we’re slightly afraid of WhatsApp because it reveals our profiles. Our school has taught us all about online privacy and cyberbullying,” she explains. According to her, there are two kinds of students: those who are in a relationship and those who are desperate to be in a relationship. And most of their parents don’t know. “It’s not love. It’s a status symbol. If a girl has a boyfriend, other boys will be afraid to approach her. And having a girlfriend helps boys keep creepy girls away – there’s nothing worse for a boy’s reputation than having a creepy girl fan,” she adds, sagely. Her words echo the findings of a paper called Early, middle, and late adolescents’ views on dating and factors influencing partner selection, by Roscoe, Diana and Brooks, which said that teen relationships are highly egocentric, and are motivated by immediate gratification, recreation and status attainment.
***
For urban, English-educated Indian youth, there’s another problem: the popularity of American TV shows. Parenting expert and the Ahmedabad-based author of Roots and Wings, Raksha Bharadia found paradoxical worlds while sifting through thousands of entries for two books for the Chicken Soup series on Indian teenagers that she edited. “There’s this big physical world of Indian traditions and rituals that these kids inhabit, and then there’s the world of social media and TV shows such as Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Gossip Girlsand Two Broke Girls, all of which influence their attitudes towards relationships and sexuality. But it’s not our world, and so there’s this whole lot of guilt and confusion,” she says. An average literate youth in India spends 98 minutes daily viewing TV and 70 minutes surfing the net, according to the NYRS. The teens in Bharadia’s books shared stories about enormous amounts of peer pressure to be in a relationship, to drink alcohol, explore drugs, have sex, and the overarching need for secrecy. “What these kids need is intervention from a neutral source; otherwise, television is messing them up. They demand the independence of the Western youth they see on screen, but not their responsibilities (such as earning their way through college). They want the benefits and comforts of Indian social structures as well,” says Bharadia, who is a mother of two teenage daughters herself.
Raksha Bharadia (far right) with her teen daughters
Raksha Bharadia (far right) with her teen daughters
It is a typical problem that also confronts Dr Kushal Jain, senior consultant psychologist at VIMHANS hospital, Delhi, who finds that technology has given a boost to availability and impulsivity in teen romance and has added a dimension of information overload without enough time to process the pros and cons. Tech-savvy teenagers – many of whom are now having sex as early as 13 – base their infatuation on text messages and ‘pro-pics’ (profile photos), not on knowledge of past actions, facial expressions, body language and the sheer effort that went into old-world romance, such as writing a poetic, handwritten letter. “This generation makes and breaks relationships very quickly. It’s like two-minute noodles,” he says, adding that the issue has a clear class divide, with affluent parents being far more accepting of teen romance than middle-class ones, who still live in much more conservative social setups. Having met plenty of kids who break down, get into drug use or attempt suicide, he isn’t a big fan of technology and social media. “I think it has only made things worse. Relationships are shallower. There’s tremendous pressure to update your status at all times, to project a certain image of yourself. Everyone is a celebrity online; it creates a false sense of self-importance,” he says. But silence of the folks isn’t helping either. “Mothers sometimes talk to daughters, but boys are a neglected lot. Their knowledge of sex and romance is completely based on hearsay and other unsuitable sources.”
A part of the problem is being tackled by groups such as the Centre for Children in Internet and Technology Distress, Delhi’s first internet de-addiction centre, launched by an NGO, Uday Foundation this July. Helping adolescents regain their self-control on computer use and encouraging them to play old traditional indoor and outdoor games, the centre organises weekends for the children and their parents filled with group activities like yoga, meditation, games and storytelling. Kids are advised to use landlines instead of the mobile phone, to make calls instead of texting, to switch off gadgets by 7 pm, and to avoid social media and gaming while downloading homework.
Family-taught values, however, remain the key to balanced use of technology and healthy teenage relationships. Apps and websites that appeal to baser instincts will always be around, but how the child uses them could depend on the way he or she is nudged. Take for example Ask.fm, a Latvia-based website that offers a platform for anyone to ask anonymous questions. It has a reader base of over 130 million, who post millions of questions and answers a day in 49 languages. Hugely popular with Indian teenagers, it is a space for people to meet, criticise, joke, and generally ask questions they could not do in person. Typical questions on a teenager’s feed are “Who’s your crush?” and “Would you go out with so-and-so?” but, as with any other social media tool, Ask.fm has a dark side. An article published in Time magazine this summer told tales of at least seven teenagers who had committed suicide unable to face the nasty comments left by anonymous acquaintances on Ask.fm. Other critics have also sought to blame the website for enabling cyberbullying without questioning the mindset that leads to such behaviour in the first place. “Yes, there is bullying on Ask.fm,” my 15-year-old daughter admitted to me, “but that happens in the classroom too. You find a way to deal with it and you move on. Those who commit suicide because of something someone said on Ask.fm, or those who bully others on Ask.fm, would do it in any other circumstance too.”
Accepting that we live in difficult times, Raksha Bharadia recommends that parents get support from schools or counsellors to address teen issues related to sex, technology and romance if they aren’t able to bring up the subject themselves. Lakshmi Kumar agrees. “Just because we are not comfortable talking to our teenagers about it doesn’t mean we can brush these issues away. Instead of prescriptive, the discourse needs to be constructive, designed keeping the learner’s needs in mind,” she says, adding, “It’s time to open the curtain.”
First published in the November 12, 2014, issue of Open magazine

Dispatch from Dubai: Kaushik Ganguly’s Chotoder Chobi

Chotoder Chobi by Kaushik Ganguli“I am not handicapped,” says Khoka, the protagonist of Kaushik Ganguly’sChotoder Chobi, when he is offered a seat reserved for the physically challenged on public transport. Khoka is a dwarf. The film by Kaushik Ganguly tells the story of people affected by dwarfism and their fight for existence and a normal life.
Khoka (Dulal Sarkar) works as a clown in a circus. His life takes a turn when his colleague- Shibu, also a dwarf-meets with an accident. Khoka is entrusted with the responsibility of handing over the compensation to Shibu’s family. He meets his daughter Soma and strikes a bond immediately. Soma suffers from the same physical condition as Khoka.
The story examines various issues at deeper emotional level- self pity versus self respect, survival versus existence, choice versus compromise and ultimately realism and romanticism. Ganguly successfully shows how most dwarfs who work in circus live a sorry life far removed from the laughter they generate through their performances. His characters articulate the day-to-day challenges of normal existence and all they need is a chance to fit in and assimilate in the society. Soma and Khoka are strong characters that help avoid cliched reactions like sympathy and pity. It’s commendable that the filmmaker makes a conscious effort to not show the characters as victims.
The lead actors and the supporting cast in the film are all non-actors who deliver genuine performances. The film has its high points like Khoka describing Shibu’s tragedy to friends wearing a Mickey Mouse mask.
Ganguly succeeds in conveying how the protagonist feels through a series of sequences with care to minor details like the way crowds stare at them, children giggle and how objects of daily life as chairs pose challenges to them.
With films like Chotoder Chobi, the filmmaker, and also the audience, need to be prepared for the natural disconnect with the protagonists because the film shows you life from a perspective that you can’t see on your own. Ganguly’s Chotoder Chobi is commendable but I also feel that his latest remains a smaller effort in comparison to his earlier work shown here in Dubai like Shabdo.

Ten Social, Digital, Mobile Commandments

Number One:
The CEO needs to be on Twitter. The CMO needs to be on Twitter. And they have to tweet everyday.
Number Two:
Stop thinking everybody has to love you. Deal with the hate, learn from the rants, and ignore the trolls.
Number Three:
Choose Instant Messaging groups over email. Everytime.
Number Four:
Be personal, but don’t get personal. Ever.
Number Five:
A press release isn’t a blog post. It isn’t a Facebook post. And it shouldn’t be the only tweet on the subject.
Number Six:
You have a camera on your phone. Use it. Images speak more than 140 characters.
Number Seven:
If you’re social when the going’s good, it’ll be easier to deal with a crisis.
Number Eight:
Don’t count followers and fans, build relationships.
Number Nine:
Talk about things you care about, not about the things you want people to care about.
Number Ten:
Have fun. Nobody wants to be social with a bore.

The 10 Top Bloggers In The World

The 10 Top Earning Bloggers In The World
Blogging, so much a part of daily lives today, actually took a while to catch on before becoming enormously successful – practically overnight. Blogging began to rapidly spread in 1999 and shortly thereafter thanks to a few nearly-simultaneous creations of blog tools: Open Diary (1998), LiveJournal (1999), Pitas.com (1999), and Blogger.com (1999).
In 1997, John Bargerm, editor of Robot Wisdom, coined the term “web-log” while attempting to describe the daily list of sites that he “logged” onto during his web travels. A few years later Peter Merholz used the word in his sidebar but made the creative decision to split the word into two: we blog. It wasn’t long after that, that Evan Williams at Pyra Labs began using the word “blog” on its own as both a verb and a noun, before finally creating the term “blogging” in association with Pyra Labs’ Blogger product.
Today, blogging is more than a familiar term. Many of us interact with blogs on a daily basis in one way or another; whether we write our own blogs, contribute to a blog, or just enjoy reading and commenting on them, blogs are huge part of the online experience.
Many people have chosen to make blogging their lifestyle, and their livelihood. And as we delve into the earnings associated with the top ten bloggers in the world today, it becomes clear why these people decided to make the success of their blog down their career path. Blogging, as a profession, has proven to be quite lucrative but not many people realize just how lucrative a successful blogging career can be.
However, creating a wildly successful, lucrative blog is no easy feat. The blogosphere is competitive, and it takes an extreme amount of dedication, a fair amount of talent, a good amount of business sense, and a whole bunch of luck for a blog to become one of the most popular in the cyberverse.
With 33.9 million new blogs being created every month and over 60,328,496 blogs on sites like WordPress.com, the following blogging stars have truly emerged from the masses and have risen to the top of the blogosphere for a great many reasons. One thing they all have in common, though; none of these bloggers would have attained this level of influence and wealth if they didn’t have drive, passion and expertise in their respective niches.

10. Ewdison Then, ‘Slash Gear': $60,000 – $80,000 per month

edwison
Ewdison Then is the co-founder and executive editor of this consumer electronic and tech news site. He also works as a media publisher for his blog within the site and as CEO of R3 Media LLC.
SlashGear is “geared” towards consumers in need of tech gadgets. If you’re in need of an iPhone 5S, tablet, iPad, or looking to get your hands on the newest, coolest touch screen than you will love Then, because that’s what he does. He puts tech lovers in touch with the latest news regarding all kinds of technology and gadgets. His blog is consistent with its updates and aids readers in becoming the first to get a hold of a new fantastic gadget or app.
Most of Then’s income comes from pay-per-click advertising. His overhead has to be incredibly small as he only staffs about 13 people for this small enterprise. SlashGear is also notable for being the most successful blog to utilize the WordPress platform.

9. Matt Marshall: $50,000 – $100,000 per month

DEMO Enterprise Disruption :: January 5th, 2011
Matt Marshall was somewhat of a presumptuous journalist prior to breaking out as a top blogger. He started blogging in 2006, covering world wide technology. He is founder of VentureBeat, a informative blog that covers a range of topics, not just technology, and has developed a network of technology specialized websites. VentureBeat’s scope encompasses tech as well as money, finance and investment topics. Marshall provides a plethora of valuable information to his readers, including different business techniques to earn money from your investments and aspects of the startup process.
8. Gina Trapani: circa $110,000 per month
gina
Gina Trapani takes her spot as the only woman on this list of highest earning bloggers. Trapani is not only CEO and founder of the popular blog Lifehacker, but she is highly active in the social media community. Most recently she has become a part of both Gawker Blog Empire and Gizmodo. Trapani’s focus on Lifehacker is to find ways to do things better, and improve the way in which one lives their life. Lifehacker encourages followers to share tips and new ideas to make everyday life easier. No wonder it’s so popular.

7. Collis Ta’eed: $55,000 – $120,000 per month

collis
Collis Ta’eed, owner of the number seven blog on this list — TutsPlus —  contributes to various famous blogs. This man just loves him some blog! TutsPlus is an informative site for building skills that compiles tutorials, lectures and many other teaching methods to inform readers about application software and numerous designing tools. Ta’eed’s tutorials can help you with anything from downloading a photo to mastering a software application. Not only is Ta’eed making money from this site but members of the site can make money too by writing articles themselves. So whether you need help with music production or have some knowledge you’d like to share and make a buck doing it, Ta’eed’s site is definitely worth a visit.

6. Jake Dobki:$80,000 – $110,000 per month

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The famous blog Gothamist.com makes Jake Dobkins a pretty handsome income. Gothamist is a newsy site. Its articles cover the genres of food, events, and art. The information spans the globe. If you are planning a trip overseas and want to know about the cuisines in a certain location, Gothamist is a good place to look. Gothamist started covering city life in New York but has expanded its reach to 13 cities worldwide: including Toronto, London and Shanghai. Prior to becoming the publisher of Gothamist, Dobkin worked as an amateur urban photographer. Quite a turn of events for the urban artist.

5.Timothy Sykes: Monthly Income: $150,000 – $180,000 per month

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If you want to learn how to make lots of money Timothy Sykes’ blog is what you should be reading. It includes inspiring articles about investment, finance, stocks, and the like. Sykes is incredibly smart when it comes to stocks. He is an expert, and makes around two million dollars a month from stock operations. This is on top of what he makes from his wildly successful blog — which is, apparently, like a side job. While some people waitress at night, Sykes writes one of the most popular, highest earning blogs in the world. Sykes’ story is inspirational in and of itself, as he started as a penny stock trader — a penny stock scam geek — and now he trains people and writes articles that help people around the world, and he makes millions doing it.

4.Vitaly Friedman: $150,000 – $190,000 per month

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Vitaly Friedman is founder of SmashingMagazine, a blog for website designers. He also started the Smashing Network in 2009 to curate the best of other design blogs. The majority of Friedman’s reported income is from advertising banners and doesn’t include affiliate revenues. SmashingMagazine is the most popular and famous blog in web design and development. If you want to master this field than SmashingMagazine can help you in achieving your goal by making sure you get the newest, latest tips, and provides guides and high quality tutorials to help you on your way.

3. Mario Lavanderia, ‘Perez Hilton': $200,000 – $400,000 per month

Perez Hilton
Mario Lavandeira, a.k.a. Perez Hilton, has been a powerhouse blogger since launching his site in 2005. Say what you will about his particular style of journalism, it’s making him a lot of dough. PerezHilton is a blog about celebrity news, scandals and and the like. Most likely you’ll see stuff about Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber on here. It doesn’t take a blog making it on a top ten list of highest earning bloggers to tell us that people love reading and talking about the latest celebrity news. So, if you have any burning questions about your favorite celebrity you may want to give PerezHilton a glance.

2.Pete Cashmore:$560,000 – $600,000 per month

PeteCashmore
Pete Cashmore is CEO and founder of the world famous blog Mashable, which covers anything from technology and business to social media, entertainment and lifestyle. Mashable is the largest (award winning) independent site. It is the most influential, the most read and the most popular destination for digital, social media, and technology resources and news. This generation connecting site was established in Cashmore’s bedroom in Scotland when he was only 19-years-old. Cashmore is now the youngest and almost the richest blogger in the world.

1. Michael Arrington: $500,000 – $800,000 per month

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Are you a technology news and article lover? TechCrunch is a great place to be if you are. Founder Michael Arrington has created a one stop destination for tech news. Arrington has famously become know as the “prophet of Silicon Valley.” He has become the most influential personality in technology. His site updates its news so often you can get minute-to-minute tech news. So, yea, if you like technology chances are, you’ll love Arrington. That is of course, if you don’t already.

Process of collecting phones in Ghana

Since the beginning of 2014, Recell Ghana has helped Closing the Loop mobilize local collectors in Ghana with the aim to collect 75,000 phones. We now have one field manager (who has a great network and experience in local phone collection), who is in charge of overseeing twelve regional collectors. These collectors also have two to five people working for them, so the network is becoming bigger.
Ghana_Blog01
We have a simple and clear message for phone collection that actually works better in African countries than in Europe: We want to buy your completely broken phones so we can recycle them.
Our progress has been a learning one, sometimes by trial and error. For example, we found out that if you pay for old phones by kilo, people will add bricks or even put clay inside the phone (and take the circuit board out). So it makes sense to train people on safety aspects and on the exact collection needs. About five people are directly working for my partner and me, but those people have up to five people collecting for them as well. So the explanation on how to collect has to be complete and smart, but also simple, to avoid any confusion.
Along the way, these collectors spread the message of recycling old phones everywhere they could! It was told in churches, on marketplaces, in schools and via other social networks. And although it has to come with quite some explanation, it is clearly being picked up. In the last eight months, around 75,000 phones were collected across Ghana. With little to no marketing! (Indeed the T-shirts that Fairphone gave our collectors definitely caught a lot of eyes.) Our collectors wear them and it’s really good to see their enthusiasm about the project.
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After our partners managed to collect all these phones, they have to be gathered and packaged in the correct manner. Easier said than done. Traditional methods of dealing with products in Ghana at the “end of life” meant dumping waste in landfills, which would lead to greater environmental degradation or cause unhealthy living conditions for those getting metals out of scrap phones in an unregulated process.
Our solution is to find a responsible way to fight e-waste complying with all legal requirements. Currently, we’re on the right track but the administrative hurdles have been challenging.
It is quite a lot of work to comply with all the legal and safety requirements, to understand what exactly has environmentally harmful impact, and to find how and where it can be recycled properly. To reach this goal I also met with a number of organizations while I was in Ghana. For instance, the aforementioned field manager with an existing network of phone collectors, the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency, a television station, a used electronics market, and an African focused mobile operator, just to name a few of the various stakeholders I had the pleasure with spreading our mission.
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For one specific case: In order to get the permit from the EPA, Closing the Loop and Fairphone have provided them with lots of paperwork containing clear descriptions of the collection projects and the safety and risk measures that are attached to it. In addition, as is custom

World Cup 2014: Six year old becomes India connect at World Cup pre-quarters 1

General view of atmosphere at the 2014 FIFA World Cup McDonald
General view of atmosphere at the 2014 FIFA World Cup McDonald's launch party (Getty Images)
Sao Paulo: Barely six years old, India's Abhiraj Singh will be getting the opportunity of his lifetime when he escorts hand-in-hand one of the star players onto the iconic Maracana Stadium in the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinal between Colombia and Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
The Delhi-based Abhiraj realised his dream courtesy McDonald's popular 'FIFA World Cup Players Escort Program'.
This comes after six other Indian children had won tickets to the ongoing sporting extravaganza through an initiative undertaken by Adidas.
"I love football and I am so excited to be going to see the FIFA World Cup in Brazil"
"Getting a chance to walk onto the pitch with the world's best teams and players is just amazing. I still can't quite believe it is really happening. I am very lucky. Thank you McDonald's for this incredible opportunity" Abhiraj said.
The program is a part of McDonald's commitment to children's well-being, to encourage amongst them love for playing sports, connect them with the world's most watched and played sport.
Abhiraj realised his dream from nearly 30,000 children who participated in the program's first edition in India.
He is the first Indian child amongst nearly 1400 plus children from across the world to have won participation at the World Cup.
Abhiraj has been accompanied by his parents to Brazil.
Under this program, McDonald's facilitated access for nearly 1,400+ children between the age group of 6-10 from across the world to have once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live their dreams of walking onto the field hand-in-hand with their football heroes at the start of each official FIFA World Cup 2014 match.
McDonald's Player Escort Program was open to all children in India between the age group of 6-10 years. Its mechanics were rather simple -- eager participants were to purchase a HAPPY MEAL (between April 1 to 30, 2014); and give a missed call to a dedicated number, punch in the 'Code' received along with the purchase.
Participants were asked a FIFA related question, and the respondents with all correct answers qualified for lucky draw.
One lucky winner from the draw won an-all expense paid trip along with a parent/guardian to the World Cup.

Bigg Boss 8: Upen Patel, Karishma Tanna kiss onscreen

Upen Patel, Karishma Tanna
Upen Patel, Karishma Tanna

Upen Patel, Karishma Tanna

Lovebirds Upen Patel and Karishma Tanna are painting the Bigg Boss house red with their newfound romance.
After the lights are switched off at night, Karishma and Upen are seen sharing intimate moments in the bed and kissing. With Karishma claiming that she has a boyfriend and she is happy with him, the kiss is sure to bring the much-needed TRPs for the show.

With Champions and Challengers swapping places, friends and foes have been trading places as well. Dimpy Ganguli is unhappy as she feels betrayed by Karishma Tanna. Dimpy is trying to turn the housemates against Karishma with the help of her estranged husband Rahul Mahajan.

Meanwhile, after a competition among the housemates, Ali Quli Mirza becomes the new captain of the house. 

Catch all the drama at 9pm on COLORS TV.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

PK | CK | FULL MOVIE | AAMIR KHAN | ANUSHKA SHARMA | SANJAY DUTT | BOBAN


 



#downloadfolloapp #aamirkhan #bollywood #dangal #cute #love #pekay #pk_aamir #bestactor #fan #likes #mrperfectionist #funny #follows #l #anushkasharma #pk #lovely #aamirkhanacebollywood #nice #dabbooratnani #aliabhatt #shahidkapoor #siddharthmalhotra #tigershroff #ranbirkapoor #shraddhakapoor #parineetichopra #behindthescenes #katrinakaif

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

DO YOU OWN AN IPHONE OR ANY OTHER SMARTPHONE? NEXT TIME WHEN YOU TAKE PHOTOS USE THESE AWESOME TRICKS! THANK ME LATER!

SMARTPHONE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS & TRICKS

Do you own an iPhone or any other smartphone? Next time when you take photos use these awesome tricks!  Thank me later!  Watch below!

Which was your favorite? Let us know in the comments on facebook!

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Alia Bhatt’s Legs Are Having A Major Moment On The Star Guild Red Carpet

Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt
Remember how we told you that Alia Bhatt always manages to look pretty, like a princess, even when she’s trying to be sexy? Last night at the Star Guild Awards, we finally saw a bit of that ‘sexy’ in Alia. She showed up in a bright blue Prabal Gurung number with sheer panels. At first glance, she’s still being pretty. But then she walked, and those legs had a major moment.
Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt
With her hair parted down the middle and dark winged liner, Alia Bhatt went straight from girl-next-door to va-va-voom in the matter of minutes! Take another look…
Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt
In a pair of Christian Louboutins (which might have been a tad bit large) and rings from Isharya, Alia Bhatt’s blue number was everything a red carpet outfit should be – Pretty and sexy all at once.
Alia Bhatt
Alia Bhatt
You go girl!

Get This Look: Jacqueline Fernandez Is A Badass In This Normcore Outfit!

Jacqueline Fernandez
Jacqueline Fernandez
Do you remember that time we spotted Jacqueline Fernandez at the airport? Her outfit made my day on Saturday. Not only was I obsessed with her face sans makeup, I couldn’t get over how on-trend she was for 2015! Well, with a little help from flipkart.com, we can mimic her normcore style and refine our casual look to perfection.
Get This Look With Flipkart.com
Get This Look With Flipkart.com
No, your eyes aren’t fooling you, I deliberately picked a men’s camo jacket! ‘Why,’ you ask? Because not only is it super comfortable, it also adds to that badass vibe. Take a look at Jacqueline’s, it’s completely oversized. Just make sure everything else you’re wearing is fitted, like your shirt and jeggings. Otherwise, you might end up looking a tad bit frumpy.
Get It Here: JacketJeggingsShirtSunniesShoes
I don’t know about you, but I’m having a lazy day and I would definitely love to step out for coffee looking like this!