Rest, Relaxation & Recuperation...

Liebster Award!

Blogging is hard...

Seeing our all time favourite band...

A New Year....

The Cat in the Window Cafe, Aberdeen

Steven and I went to The Cat in the Window Cafe for his birthday in October.

I 100% booked a trip to the cafe as a surprise for Steven's birthday... because I really really wanted to go myself, and I knew he'd enjoy it too. Turns out he bloody loved it. So it was a win win.

So you pay £5.50 per person for your booking, and you get an hour slot of kitty cuddles.
They have all your usual cafe related drinks, as well as milkshakes and other daily specials and goodies.
We went around Halloween time, so Steven was able to get a halloween special hot chocolate complete with gooey sweets!
They had a vegan cake option too, which mean't I was able to chow down on some yummy goodness too, and didn't have to feel left out - I got a coconut and raspberry cake, which was delicious!

Now for the part you're all actually interested in... pictures of the adorable kitties.

What am I going to do now?

I have the most talented friends: Hazel MacLennan's Thoughtful Designs

I really do have the most talented friends... 

Mad Penguin, Aberdeen

A few weeks ago, a new ice cream shop opened in Aberdeen called Mad Penguin.

Despite it feeling like the middle of our Aberdeen winter, I had to go (twice in one day) because I had seen the variety of vegan options they had in their freezers on their Facebook page.

I haven't had chocolate ice cream in six months, and quite frankly I was dying on it. 

(ft. Megan Wiseman)

There is no other ice cream shop in Aberdeen which has such a variety of flavours on offer for those who don't have dairy in their diets. 

Soooo... I had all three soy base flavours in a big pot.

Soy Peanut butter (yum)

Soy Chocolate (love of my life)

Soy Banana (bloody yum)

 

(Left to Right, Soy Banana, Soy Peanut Butter, Soy Chocolate Gelato
Pineapple Sorbet, Watermelon Sorbet, Lemon Sorbet, Watermelon and Pineapple Sorbet & Pear and Star Anise Sorbet.)

I went back in the evening and had a pot of the watermelon sorbet (which according to their Facebook is a nightmare to make) but it tastes amazing. So please don't stop making it!
All of the ice cream is made fresh in the store too, which is something you don't get if you opt for a big chain store instead.

All of the soy ice creams and sorbets taste incredible and you can really taste the quality and freshness of the ingredients in every scoop.

To top it off, the prices are so fair for the quality you are getting. 3 scoops/flavours for £5.
The big chain ice cream shop in Aberdeen is much more expensive, full of artificial colours and sugars, and you know that it is no where near as fresh as what you are getting in Mad Penguin.

I was freezing afterwards though, so had to get a pot of tea (nom).

Why I Went Vegan...

Let's face it, I like talking about why I went vegan. 

So I have composed a not too preachy blog post about why I chose to make the transition to a vegan lifestyle.

Why? 

I went vegan for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, I was a vegetarian for a number of years as a teenager when I first exposed myself to the cruelty that goes on in the meat industry. If you'd want something to convince you, I'd have a look on the peta website and watch the videos that show you what truly happens. It's not something that I'd recommend, and I don't torture myself by watching things like that anymore. 

The transition from vegetarian to vegan wasn't actually very difficult at all.

Second, I really love animals. I didn't want to be one of those people who said they really loved animals but then didn't do anything about it. I love dogs, but my favourite animals have always been cows. (Bizarre I know, but that's a conversation for another day.)

Third, the environment. Global warming is a huge blooming issue, and the meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to the problem. The amount of water, grain, and land that is used/destroyed to produce animals just for meat is disgusting. The meat industry is pumping waste into our oceans and destroying the marine habitats, check it out.

Fourth, world hunger. We produce a ridiculous amount of feed for cows just so we can kill them, when we could be using that grain to feed starving nations. The amount of food we use to feed cows, is 100 times less than the meat we get from it.

Fifth, I'm so much healthier. The health benefits are paramount, if you make sure you're eating the right things you can seriously nourish your body. I've never been healthier! 

Your next question is probably going to be "So what do you eat then?"

 The definitive answer is anything but dairy, eggs & meat. 

But no, I eat pretty much the same meals I always have done but I have tweaked them to fit my new diet. Things like curries, pasta, pies, vegan sausages with mash and beans (my fav), stir fry, soup and the list could go on forever.

Also, there are so many treats out there that you probably didn't even realise were vegan like:

- Oreos, skittles, most crips, hummus, salsa, bourbon cream biscuits (only some brands), peanut butter & jam, bread (most people thing it has dairy in), sorbet, loads of gelatine free sweets too, vegetable samosas and spring rolls from your takeaway too!

I make a lot more food from scratch, and I use much more fresh ingredients now! 

I've only just got into baking again, so add cake to that too.

It's not that difficult to eat out either, most restaurants nowadays have either got vegan menus, or they can provide you with an allergy list which clearly points out things that have dairy & eggs in. It's easy as vegan pie. 

If you're thinking about adopting a vegan lifestyle, do your research. 

I'd recommend watching earthlings, cowspiracy and food inc. too, they are all hard hitting documentaries that can give you a lot more information of the damaging nature of the meat industry than I ever could! 

 p.s. I get enough protein (just saying).

Charity work: Voices in the Middle

Emily, Myself & Mia at the WHYFestival in October.

About three years ago, I stumbled upon a charity called Kids in the Middle. I was so impassioned by their cause, but at the time I did not really have the means or time to get involved. 

Three years later, upon graduation, I looked them up again. 

Renamed to Voices in the Middle, and armed with an amazing youth council & youth team, I jumped on board. I am now the Membership & Fundraising Coordinator, and part of my job is to eventually develop and help to set up a Scottish counterpart to the charity.

The whole aim of the charity is to give a voice to children in the middle of divorce or separation. A luxury very few of us have had in the middle of our family splits. The harsh reality is that in the crux of relationship breakdowns children are ignored, and extremely hurt. 

It must be extremely difficult as a parent facing a separation to have your family falling apart around you, but parents need to take time to listen to the little ones in between all of the mess. The innocent ones, who love you both unconditionally. They are the ones you need to be listening to. 

Voices in the Middle is a charity run by young people, overseen by a board of trustee's who keep us right & our project manager Duncan. We run the charity from across the entire country - I'm in Aberdeen, Duncan lives in wales, Emily is in York (just to name a few).

Our campaigns: 

- Uphold the right of the child of separating parents to be listened to when decisions are being made that concern them & to promote different ways of making this possible in family law and mediation.

- To obtain Legal Aid Agency funding to cover the additional costs of child inclusive mediation, where either one or both parents qualify for legally aided mediation.

- To make a widely available and accessible website & social media presence to meet the information needs of children of all ages in separating families.

(Splitting Up: A Child's Guide to a Grown Up Problem. Courtesy of Mischon De Reya & Place2Be)

Since getting involved with VITM this summer I have:

-  Met some incredible people.

- Met with a cabinet minister at Westminster.

- Helped organise and carry out workshops at the WHY festival.

- Visited law firms across the country for meetings.

- Worked with a poet to create content for the website.

- Worked on content for the website.

- Visited London for meetings & events.

- Operated the social media.
- Gained experience working in recruitment of members.
- Worked on the the marketing of the charity to all of our target audiences: family lawyers, mediators, children, and parents.

 WHYFestival @ the Southbank Centre, October 2016.

Meeting with Caroline Dinenage, June 2016.

...and each day i'm getting to do new and exciting things, and work with amazing people. 

All of which I didn't realise volunteering and working in charity could offer.

Each month we are looking for young people to tell us their experiences of divorce and separation.
The best ones each month will win £10!

www.voicesinthemiddle.org.uk

You can contact us by clicking on the buttons below:

http://voicesinthemiddle.org.uk/charity-work-ygs/ 

A weekend with Hamish #BorrowMyDoggy

I joined Borrow My Doggy about a month ago, and was lucky enough to meet this little guy (pictures below).

For those of you who have no idea what Borrow My Doggy is, it's almost like a dating website for potential doggy friends. I feel like that's the best way to describe it. You pay £9.99 for the membership for the year, and you can message as many dog owners or dog borrowers (if you're an owner) as you want to. 

If you're an owner, you can create profile listing the needs of your dog for example, if you need someone to watch your pup for a weekend away, or you need regular help walking your dog because your circumstances have changed, or if your dog just needs a bit more socialised!

If you're a borrower, like me, you get the chance to help make an owners life a little easier whilst getting to look after the cutest friends, and see what it's like to look after a dog.

I messaged Hamish's owners as soon as I saw his little face pop up onto my screen. We went for a walk by the beach, and then the following week he came to stay over at ours for a night to see how he'd get on. I think the best part of the whole thing is that you get the opportunity to meet loads of new doggy friends, and truly get an understanding of the needs of a dog. Even though my family has always had a dog, actually looking after one for a period of time is the best way to figure out if you could handle the routine, and if you could fit the needs of a little pup into your life.

We had the best time having Hamish over, we both really miss having a dog around, and can't wait to eventually have one ourself. I love getting to have Hamish for all the pup cuddles, walks and play time.. can't wait for our next doggy date!

I know you're just teasing me with treats so that I look adorable in photos, Ysabelle.

Gimme dem treatz plz 

Are we even going for a walk or are you just going to take photos of me, human?

Lets go, lets go, lets go!

www.borrowmydoggy.com

We got hitched & other life updates

Apparently the last time that this blog was used was just after we got engaged back in 2015. 

Things have changed a little since then...

- I graduated 
- I went vegan

- I started working for Voices in the Middle

- We got married 

- I started teacher training...

- I left teacher training...

- Steve is in fourth year! (woo)

- We moved house 

- I still haven't decided what I'm doing with my life 

- I decided to start blogging again... so here's to getting back into this, and more interesting content! 

love, ysabelle

xxxxxx

we're getting married!

Lots of you will know that on January 16th 2015, the love of my life asked me to marry him... 

and I obviously said YES! 

(cue sparkly diamonds....eeeeeek) 

This is incredibly exciting for us, and it means that i can finally step into the world of wedding blogging - if you follow me on pinterest, you will know that i constantly bombard my board with wedding ideas. it's fun to look at even if you're not getting married, because who doesn't want to plan their dream wedding a few years in advance... 

but anyway, we have started to plan everything and finally put down a deposit on our venue, and set a date about three weeks ago! 

We set a date pretty much as soon as we got engaged, so that we could plan everything effectively, and also so that we knew what kind of time frame we had to save, save, save! 

We're getting married on Sunday September 4th 2016, which so happens to be my Grandparent's fifty-first wedding anniversary <3 

So i thought i would do a little bit on budget weddings ideas, kinda step by step as we go through the process ourselves - because we don't plan to have a huge extravagant wedding for numerous reasons..

a) we're students

b) we'd rather spend the extra £10,000 on a deposit for a house or a car or something useful

c) the day is about us, and not how fancy everything else is, so we know our guests will enjoy the day because they love us, not what we can afford! 

d) we're being realistic to our budget, and our lifestyle

*not that we don't love big weddings, they are fabby, it's just not what us students can afford to do!*

VENUE

As I said, we just put down a deposit on our venue, and after looking at about 25 different hotels, and trying to figure out what would best suit us and our guests, we found an amazing deal at a local hotel! 

Here are some of the reasons we decided upon this one, and things to look for when you're booking your venue on a budget...

1) Will you be having your marriage ceremony in a church or in the hotel? 

We chose to have the ceremony in the hotel,purely for ease. we're getting married in Aberdeen (roughly 500 miles away for my family, and about 200 miles away for Steve's), so rather than having everyone shipping around and travelling about in unchartered territory... we thought it would be easier to do everything in one place! (Not only that, but we save money on fancy cars too!) 

2) What does your wedding package include for the price? 

Look around all the possibilities of venue - some might look prettier or have more space than others, but charge you an absolute fortune for pretty much nothing! 

Check out the menu's, centre pieces, chair covers (surprisingly cost a fortune), how many guests does your package include?, does it include evening food too?, what other deals is there?

We were extremely luck with ours, we found an incredible deal with lots of added little extra's which would have cost thousands to add on to some of the other venues we looked at. 

Find the best deal for you and your wedding! 

3) Accommodation 

If you're getting married in a hotel, like us, quite far away from home... what deals does the hotel offer on accommodation, and does it have enough rooms for your guests?

We aren't having a huge wedding, so ours has plenty of room for our guests, and the more stay there.. the better the deal they get on their room! (perfecto) 

Not only that, our venue is very central - not out in the sticks - and if there was 'no room at the inn' there are plenty of other hotels about ten to twenty minutes away from our hotel which would be of no hassle to our guests to stay in! 

4) Your date

Does your venue have your date available?

Book it in a preliminary booking, and they will usually hold it for you for a few weeks while you make a decision about it. Don't risk not booking it in and losing your dream wedding date (we all have one...)

There are obviously a hundred other things to think about, and these are just a few, but there are hundreds of really helpful websites like www.hitched.co.uk and others that can give you incredible tips on stuff like this! 

I hope you liked this blog post! 

muchos love

ysabelle 

xxxxxx

Abercrombie & Bitch

Image Source: http://www.empowernetwork.com/justindavis/files/2013/05/Abercrombie_Fitch_Logo.jpg

I have been struggling to find an appropriate way to start this post, as I don't know how to begin without sounding like a have a bias towards one side of the argument. It's with this that I have decided to start this post simply with an official quote that came from Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Michael Jefferies in a 2006 Salon interview in order to let you decide your own opinion of this character before I start.

So here it is:

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,"....

"Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in A&F's clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either."..
"Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that"

Its safe to say that this statement when I saw it did strongly turn me against the clothing brand that is Abercrombie & Fitch, which was saddening for me, as it, along with its co-brand (Hollister) are two of my favourite clothing shops to buy from. I like the way they fit, I like their relaxed beach style and I feel that the quality of their clothing for the money that you pay is well worth it when comparing to other clothing shops in roughly the same price bracket, such as the likes of Topman or All Saints.

However, since seeing this statement all over Facebook roughly about 2 months ago now I have yet to return to my local Hollister shop or to even go onto the A&F website, and I have a few strong reasons why.

Personally I was never considered myself one of the 'cool kids' at school. I never had that keen of an interest in sport or being popular, in honesty I generally preferred music and spending countless hours in my room playing online on Xbox Live with my 'Online friends' as that was where I felt most comfortable. It is with this that when I saw what Mr Jefferies had said that it really put me off of these brands. I have always been very conscious of what I wear and generally pride myself on my appearance. However now I just don't feel as though I am welcome in these shops, and in all honesty I don't want to give money to a company that openly doesn't want people who don't 'belong' to shop in their stores.

I have never been a person for bullying, in fact, for most of my childhood and right up until secondary school (where I grew up and realised that violence wasn't always the answer) I spent most of my time fighting the bullies and standing up for quieter kids in my year that they would pick on merely because they wouldn't retaliate - It was always helpful for me that I was always generally quite tall for my age and so I didn't feel intimidated by the bullies.

With this I am brought on to my next reason of why I just can't look at this company the same way anymore, and don't think that I ever will. Yes, Jefferies has now released an official apology stating: "We look forward to continuing this dialogue and taking concrete steps to demonstrate our commitment to anti-bullying in addition to our on-going support of diversity and inclusion", but i'm just not buying it. To anyone who has been bullied in the past or witnessed bullying in the past, does this not just seem exactly like those kids in school, who when caught bullying will say anything they can and act as innocent as possible to the teacher in order to get away with their actions; when in reality they haven't changed at all and will just learn from the incident on how to be more discrete about their actions? Cause that's exactly what it looks like to me, especially when you consider the fact that it took Jefferies almost 7 years to actually make this apology as it only came to light earlier this year when it went viral on social networking sites (showing clearly to me that he doesn't feel any differently and that he is merely apologising to cover his own back and because it is the sensible thing to do from a profitable businesses point of view).

In conclusion, you can see I have a very one-sided opinion on this matter. I feel that Abercrombie & Fitch and their CEO Jefferies have a lot to think about a re-evaluate in their opinions on people and the way they lead their lives - singling out and relegating people solely on appearance and the way they choose to live their lives is just wrong on every level and until I truly see a change in this company and the way that it is run, I can guarantee that I will not be returning to their stores.


I hope you have enjoyed this post and I would love to hear your opinions on this matter, whether they are the same as mine or different. And as always if you give the blog a follow and share it around that would help up greatly. :)

#LovefromSteve

The Actual Origin of Spider-Man

Image Source: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=amazing+fantasy+15

The origin of Spider-man is not one that most people don’t know off hand – Peter Parker the nerdy un-cool kid at school gets bitten by altered spider and this spider somehow manages to pass on some of its genes to him, in essence turning him into a ‘Spider-Man’. With this, Peter then takes advantage of these new powers using them for selfish benefits, ultimately leading to the tragic murder of his beloved Uncle Ben, and it is the event that leads Peter to truly understand and live by the code that ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’.

However, having recently purchased and read the comic ‘Amazing Fantasy 15’, the original and true origin of Peter Parker, I found that many of my beliefs that had been portrayed in the films with Tobey Maguire and the most recent film with Andrew Garfield to be scewed from the truth. So today, I will be discussing the true origin of Spider-man and which of the two Spider-man films origins stories hold strongest to the original, published right back in 1962. Now, before I start I just want to clarify, this is not going to be done in great depth, I am merely going to be covering the aspects of the very first comic and how they are dealt with in the films, not other ideas and issues such as the first villains he fights and later stories that the films cover etc.. That will come at a later date if the response to this post is positive.

Let’s start with how the two films actually have Peter Parker being bitten by the Spider. In the 2002 Tobey Maguire film, Peter is on a school trip to a genetics Laboratory at Columbia University, where he is later bitten on the hand by one of the genetically altered ‘super spiders’ that has managed to escape from its display case – this all happening while he is taking of photo of his high school crush Mary-Jane Watson. This is greatly different to the 2012 Andrew Garfield film, where in Peter Parker sneaks into a science internship at Oscorp tower (with sole intensions of finding out more information about his Father). During this visit he bumps into an employee of Norman Osborn, causing him to drop his folder showing papers to Peter with symbols on them that he recognised from some of his recently discovered papers of his Fathers. This causes him to follow this gentleman into a restricted area of the building, and he eventually finds himself in a room of genetically altered Spiders (spiders which we later discover were created by his own father). Peter then plucks on one of the Spiders webs and it causes the mechanism in which they are on to stop and hundreds (slight exaggeration but hey) of spiders fall onto Peter. Peter then hurriedly leaves this area and goes back to the intern group he was with, at which point Gwen Stacy, knowing he isn’t officially an intern tells him to leave so he doesn’t get her into any more trouble. In this film, it is at this point that the spider bites Peter in the back of the neck. Neither of these storylines are in fact that accurate to the original comic. In fact in the original comic, Peter is attending a science exhibit on radioactivity and a Spider just so happens to hang down behind one of the experiments and get hit by the radioactivity. It then it its last moments of life jumps to the first person it can find (being Peter) and bites him, on the hand. So all in all, you can see clearly that about the only point one of these two films stuck too other than the part of Parker getting bitten by a Spider was the 2002 film, as it had the Spider biting Peter in the hand. So, if it was to go to either, round one would have to go to the Tobey Maguire film.

 The second point I feel is necessary to discuss in the origin of Peter Parker is the death of Uncle Ben. In the 2002 film, Parker goes to a cage fight in order to win some money to buy a new car to impress MJ. However, after winning the cage fight the organiser of the show, does not pay Peter the amount that he read on the advertisement as Peter had in fact defeated the opponent in under 3 minutes - the advertised prize money was for surviving three minutes in the ring. Moments after Peter has left a burglar comes in and steals all the money from the event organiser, it is at this point that Peter see’s this happening, but out of spite after feeling like he had been cheated of his prize money, he lets the burglar go. We are then led to believe that this burglar went outside and shot down Uncle Ben for his car to use in his getaway. (We’ll not go on to discuss how they ridiculously in the third film then try and imply that it was in fact the Sandman who gunned down Uncle Ben). In the Andrew Garfield film however, Parker has a falling out with his Uncle after forgetting to pick up his Aunt May from work. He then proceeds to storm out of the house, after which he eventually goes into a grocery store to buy milk. It turns out that he is two cents short and the store clerk is extremely sarcastic and rude when he denies Peter the purchase. When Peter is exiting the store a burglar comes in and holds up the cashier, and throws Peter the milk he had just tried to buy. Out on the street the cashier is chasing the burglar and asks Parker for help, but again because of previous circumstances that have led Parker to be angry, he chooses not to do anything. The burglar then runs up the street where Uncle Ben (while out looking for Peter) gets into a tussle with him and eventually the burglars gun goes off and kills Uncle Ben. Again in this case neither of these story lines are in fact that close to the truth when compared to the original comic. Yes in the original comic Parker does go to a wrestling match like in the Maguire film, but nothing comes of this, he just gets asked to appear on a television show. In fact in the comic, it is upon leaving his first appearance on said show that a security guard calls for help when chasing a burglar, and out of no reason but pure selfishness, Peter chooses not to help. So as you can see, in the movies they have tried to justify Parkers reasoning for not helping with some sort of event leading Peter to feel reluctant to help out of spite and anger, something which did not occur in the comic book. In my opinion it is  the films way to try and justify the whole experience, however I feel that this takes away from the story, asit is the fact that Parker did not help through his own selfishness that truly forces him in the comics to live by his life code that ‘With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility’. So again in this case, both of the films have stuck to the general idea of the story again, but neither has done so that accurately. However, due to the fact that the Maguire film did in fact include the wrestling scene, I am again inclined to give this round to it again. Thus point only being if we discard the third film from the Maguire trilogy in which they make the Sandman the actual murderer of Uncle Ben (potentially being the most ridiculous story line ever).

 The final point I wish to discuss, is how Peter Parker actually becomes Spider-man (the making of his suit, and his webs etc.). First things first in the Maguire film I feel we need to discuss how they ridiculously gave Parker organic webbing produced from his own body. This has, and hopefully, never will be a part of the comic book story. However, in terms of Parker hand sewing and making his own spidey suit, the Maguire film was pretty much accurate to the comic. However, in the Garfield film, it is never actually made clear whether or not Peter in fact buys his suits online and then modifies them with dye in order to have his spidey emblems and such on them or whether or not he gets his ideas online and then himself makes the suit. However, in terms of his webs this film is far more accurate, to an extent. Again, this film does not make it all too clear whether or not Parkers web cartridges are made by him or whether or not he just buys lots of this new found alloy webbing used to make planes and other strong metal structures. However in this film Parker does clearly develop his own web shooters, a point which I feel is most important in him becoming Spider-man – as in the comics he is constantly updating and upgrading his web-shooters to help him against his vast array of new super-villains that he finds himself fighting. So on this point here, I would in all honesty struggle to state which film was most accurate as they both have aspects true and not true to the original comic. However, due to the fact that they had the ridiculous idea of giving Parker organic webbing in the Maguire films, I am going to give victory to the Garfield film.

In conclusion, I know that I may have rambled on a bit, but this post was done in a hurry as I am cram packed with stuff from Uni and Work to do at the moment. But I hope that I have helped to give you a broader understanding of the original origin story of Spider-man and the ways in which it has been altered to make these films. And, just in case you were wanting my final verdict, on the whole, although the Maguire film was technically more accurate on the number of points it won, I would choose the Amazing Spider-Man film of 2012 with Andrew Garfield every time as the best Spider-man. Due to the fact that as a whole, it just gives over the greatest, and in my opinion most accurate feel, to that of what you get when you are reading the comics first handed yourself.

 Ps. On a quick side-note, from now until June (when my term and exams end) I will not be posting regularly on Sundays, as I just don’t have the time at the moment. I will just be posting whenever I can find the time to get in the research and writing hours needed to make these posts. This is also going to be the same for Ysabelle. Hope you all understand, and as always,


#LovefromSteve

Should Spotted Facebook pages, be removed?

You probably have seen all over Facebook recently, the spotted pages which are based on things such as different places like the university halls or campus, a gym, a shopping centre, anything! So, what I would like to write about is whether these things are good or bad and whether they should be banned or taken down. Are these pages harmful or harmless?

The basic idea of these pages is that you click the like button on the page, and if you fancy it. You can write an anonymous message to someone, or about someone and you send them in via the Facebook message. The mediators of this page then post whatever you have written anonymously for whoever has liked the page – to see it.

So what I wanted to write about is why I, personally, hate these pages. 

I don’t know about anyone else who sometimes likes to walk to the shop in their pyjamas with their hair greasy and messy but I quite like to do it without people commenting on it on Facebook, anonymously.  It is more than uncomfortable and it makes me feel like I cannot go to the gym without people looking at me or maybe writing something on one of these pages about the way I looked or acted. Aberdeen University even has one about the library – which started off quite funny, and cute with people writing things that they were too shy to say to someone’s face, including light hearted flirtation but this escalated to things such as asking to meet in the toilets, which is definitely more than inappropriate to be posting on a public page on Facebook,and this is when I turned against the idea of this pages.

These pages started to get worse, and in the end, the ones based around my university (University of Aberdeen) were taken down by University officials. But these were of course back up and running in weeks, with 1,800 likes on one of them and the same inappropriate comments were being posted online within a matter of days. A student commented on the recent revival of the ‘‘Spotted: Aberdeen University Library’’ page: “Just when I felt safe from public ridicule. I guess I will have to start washing and dressing up to go to the fricking library again” - which is exactly how I felt when this happened! 

Now, it could be argued that these pages were good at getting people’s comments out there; the shy people who always wanted to speak to someone they never had the guts to speak to face to face. This is fantastic for them... but when people become rude, and obnoxious of pages such as these, it becomes a hassle for people, and these kinds of things should be taken down.

Our university newspaper published an article on this issue in which they stated that they should be shut down and have been encouraging students ‘to be more professional on the internet after web pages’ such as these spotted pages which ‘were used for bullying’ these pages are similar to the University confessions pages which were used in similar ways. ‘‘Aberdeen University Confessions’’ went viral in October 2012 and the stories shared were reported as offensive by many students.Allegations of sexual assault posted on the page led to police involvement and the administrators of the page eventually agreed to deactivate it. 

Some people from the University of Aberdeen have suggested that these pages should be removed, and should not be allowed to be used in the public domain they are considered harmless sometimes but more often than not there is something on these pages that does offend someone somewhere and it would be useful to remove these things for fear of something escalating into something more serious. It has been suggested that these websites could eventually have the same effect as some troll websites have had, resulting in the administrators serving prison sentences which I’m sure is not what people want for University Students. 

The University have even considered blocking social media websites on the University WIFI network, which would be more than annoying. The students should not have to suffer because of a few people that can't control themselves on social networking websites. Whilst this could put a stop to the horrible misuse of the sites, it would be taking it too far. It's not fair to punish everyone for a few people's mistakes, so yes. Taking down these spotted pages is what should be done, it  seems like the only way to solve issue. 

So thats what i think about these pages, what do you think?
comment below!
muchos love