Fame Junkies

Recently I was sat at my local train station and I saw a billboard advert for a book by Ben Elton titled ‘Chart Throb’. The book I believe is a comical / satirical look at reality TV shows like Pop Idol and X-Factor with a fictionalised story based on the people who enter, are involved in or watch these programmes. I am yet to read a copy but after doing some research I have found out that this book has been out for some time but has recently been released in to paperback.

I may one day pick up a copy as it sounds like an interesting book but it wasn’t the story that got me interested in this billboard it was the tag line at the bottom of the billboard which caught my eye which read ‘Fame Junkies’. This got me thinking and the more I thought about it the more I agreed with it. We are now living in a society where it seems that everyone is a fame junkie and wants their five minutes of fame.

People now no longer care about being talented or being good at something they just care about being famous. Programmes like X-Factor, Pop Idol etc give these people the chance to be on TV as it seems that the worse you are at singing the more chance you have of actually getting on TV and in to millions of home across the country.

This attitude and culture over the last few years has now crossed over to the Internet as the internet continues to grow. People can now make videos & MySpace profiles and have millions of people viewing their pages. Unfortunately it’s not always the talented people showing their talents that get millions of views normally the ones that get viewed are the ones that depict people doing things which require no talent.

I’m all for people using websites like Youtube and MySpace to showcase their talents and actively promote it as it is a great way of getting your work to the masses but I just hate it when people who are ‘Fame Junkies’ get more exposure than people with real talents.

This world needs an attitude and a culture change we need to stop being a world of ‘Fame Junkies’ and be a world of ‘Talent Junkies’ who are always striving to be more talented and wanting to show off their talents. As it is only real talent that can guarantee you long-term fame if this is something you chase.

I think this very apt and needs to be said in the wake of the Big Brother final as now these ‘Fame Junkies’ who starred in inverted commas on this show now try and cash in on their fame but I can tell you now that they will be lucky if we remember their names in six months let alone a year.

The only way we are going to change the world and become a better, stronger youth generation is by all taking an active role in becoming ‘Talent Junkies’ as if you control your talent you control your life and the opportunities available to you. If you are a ‘Fame Junkie’ you can’t guarantee that you will find fame as you are relying on other people to give you an opportunity and your fame is in the hands of the public but if you are a ‘Talent Junkie’ you can control your future. We need to start getting addicted to talent and not fame, we need to have the desire to be more talented not more famous.

Let us know your thoughts on this matter by getting involved in our topic of the week on the forum:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=165

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com/

New Technology

This week’s blog is dedicated to new technology and how it is helping talented young people around the world achieve their dreams.

Now when I talk about new technology helping young people I bet you expect me to start talking about things like the internet, video cameras, phones, TV, MySpace etc. But the greatest impact I feel is still to come in regards to technology helping young people and that is the design of the $100 Laptop as part of the One Laptop per Child Project.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6679431.stm

This project and laptop could see millions of children from the developing world have access to equipment which the western world takes for granted and help give these children a chance to build a better future for themselves.

Now I am sure many of you this week in the UK have been signing up to Orange Broadband to claim your free laptop but most of you claiming this offer will already have a computer in the house so although the spec may be far superior on it to the $100 laptop it wont have the long lasting effect that the $100 dollar laptop will.

Not only will these laptops provide young people in the developing world with new skills and a better education they will give these young children hope and encourage them to go on and achieve greater things than they ever felt possible. Technology is changing our world every day and with the changes and improvements come more chances for young people to achieve their dreams.

At Talented Young People we are always on the look out for new technologies that we can use to help young people and to help spread the word. Recently as you may have noticed we have started using social bookmarking websites like Contentpop, Blinklist, Digg and del.icio.us to help promote our news feed which seems to be going well, I’m sure social bookmarking websites are going to play a big part in the future of the internet and web promotion. On top of this you will have hopefully noticed that our second podcast is now available to download by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/podcasts

But getting back to the point at hand MySpace may be able to help you get a million people to listen to your song or a video camera may help you put a video on Youtube and have it viewed by a million people but if you can give a child a piece of equipment that helps them find a dream or gives them the opportunity to achieve things they never thought possible then you can truly change the world.

You can talk about new technology and how it affects your life in this week’s forum topic by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=129#129


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com/

MTV Think!

Welcome one and all to the latest Talented Young People Blog from yours truly.

It’s been a good but busy week down at the website. The first ever Talented Young People Podcast is going down a storm with lots of people listening to our first offering which can be listened to by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/podcasts

But this week I wanted to use the blog to talk about the new MTV Think project.

MTV in conjunction with the Think! Road safety campaign have started a competition which encourages young people to get involved in coming up with an idea for and create a Road safety TV advert. There are different themes for different age groups to work on. You can find out more information by going to:

http://www.mtv.co.uk/think

The reason I bring this up is that in the summer of last year I created my own road safety TV advert and passed all the details on to the Think! Road Safety campaign. I am very much behind the Think! Campaign as I have had many experiences of friends and close ones being involved I major accidents on the road which could have been avoided which is the same situation for many young people around the country.

Now at the time I had an idea that I thought was a brainwave. I thought to myself as many of my friends like many other young people were creating videos and posting them on youtube which involved them creating some very comical pieces why can’t we get young people making videos that help young people. With the young audience youtube attracts I also thought as a good will gesture the company behind the website could feature daily videos on it’s main page about good causes, charities and safety campaign so it could become a public service broadcaster as well as all the other things that it is.

So I borrowed a camera and made the video. I then posted it on Youtube and emailed the Think campaign about my idea and a link to my video. Whilst it was on youtube it got 63 views but no response from Think! But now many months on an idea along similar lines is out and with the backing of MTV which is so important to get the youth culture on board I’m sure this project is going to be a big hit and make a huge difference.

I’m not saying my idea or my emails to Think! Had anything to do with this project being set up but the strange thing about life is that if you go in to life wanting to make a difference and try every day to do so you never know when your actions or ideas may see results. I’m just so glad this is happening and that this project will hopefully go some way to educating and saving young lives.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com/