erverta

The school times

At the year of 6, I went to the school for the very first time. Everything was unfamiliar to me, I met plenty of kids, who were confused by the new environment, strict adults and rules as I did. That was the day when I got to a “jail”, but I didn’t understand that.

Many of my friends from university miss their school times, they say everything was much easier, smoother and friendlier. I don’t agree with them at all. My school times, especially the middle school period, were tough and emotionally hard for me. The first school, where I went, was private and my parents supposed that education’s and teachers’ level would be higher rather than in public school. At one point they were right, but surrounding kids existed and they didn’t fit in my parents’ expectations.

I remember two of my classmates, two girls, who were sisters. They were very mean and evil, as a six-year-old child could think. Amina and Karina (names are changed) used to mock at other girls, who were shy and quiet. When one girl celebrated her birthday, they played a serious trick, so that girl had to change school. Sometimes I was their victim, but I didn’t pay that much attention, because their jokes didn’t go beyond the limits of what is permitted. In the second grade, the PSP game console gained popularity. My parents bought it for me as a present. I and my friends used to bring PSPs and play games together. One day boy named Arman (the name is changed) came to me and started teasing and threatening me. He aggressively told me to give him my gadget and money. It continued for two months. Only then I could tell my parents about bullying. Later we found out that this boy was an elder brother of Amina and Karina. I was scared that they will turn all the class against me for a complaint at their sibling.

Fortunately or not, next year I transferred to the public school near our house. In the beginning, everybody seemed to be friendly and kind. The first impression is false, though. Without getting into details, I can say that at this vulnerable period, when a little person is formed, I faced criticism, rumours behind my back, betrayal. I started hesitating about me and my self-esteem gradually fell down. People, whom I considered being my friends, didn’t like me at all. Maybe this is the reason why I never had close friends in school times.

A school is a place where different children are forced to study and communicate with each other for 11 years. It is hard to adapt to someone’s boundaries and vision of the world. I am endlessly glad that the school is over and today I study with people who are on the same wave with me.

Digital Identity

Who is this mysterious mademoiselle?

Our first personal project topic – Digital Identity. My victim is Aidana, she is my groupmate and really close friend. I know some of Aidana’s social media, so it makes my work much easier. Luckily, Aidana has got a lot of social media accounts and she is quite active there.

Social media list:

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instagram

Aidana’s hw for the Turkish language. Thanks to Universe I can understand her 😀

Aidana was born on 23rd of June and her name was given her by her mother and sister. From the Kazakh language, it means wise moon, and that is the reason why most of Aidana’s media profiles consist of these words. In VK her surname is Baigaraeva and in LinkedIn, it is Mamyrbekova, so random person can’t know exactly what is her surname. She was born and still lives in Almaty, according to her geolocation on Instagram posts, and studies at Suleyman Demirel University in Journalism School. From LinkedIn, I discovered that she will graduate in 2022. The reason why she chose SDU was that she considers herself as a very creative person (I agree with that haha) and this university was one of the best options. Aidana finished Arts School, she is deeply involved in graphic design, sculpture, photography, pistional art and wants to improve photo reporting skills.

When it comes to family, Aidana says that she was raised in a matriarchy, around gorgeous women. Her family consists of Aidana, her mom, grandma, aunt, sister and small nephew. Her mom’s name is Saule and she is a businesswoman and Aidana’s role model. Aunt is a physicist and natural philosopher, sister is an economist, who studies and raises a two-year-old baby boy. Her grandma is a wonderful and inspiring woman, she went through the majority of hardships and still continues to be strong.

Aidana is a graduate of Arts School, so right now she works as a graphic designer at aqparat.kz, news portal which is going to begin work soon. Aidana is a socially active person, she volunteered at Universiade 2017 in Almaty, she said it was a huge experience accompanied by new acquaintances. After some time spent on her VK dashboard, I found out that Aidana is a feminist and she actively supports women and encourages them to be strong and proud of themselves!

What are Aidana’s hobbies? As was said earlier, Aidana is really into photography. I saw photos where she was tagged as a photographer, and no doubt she is doing great shots. I analyzed Aidana’s Tumblr page, VK subscriptions and came to the conclusion that she enjoys aesthetic photos, fashion, celebrities and astrology. She also follows groups dedicated to literature, books, art and study. According to her Instagram account, Aidana visited Germany, France and Italy. She loves travelling and discovering new cultures. In actual stories, there are short videos from Aidana’s everyday life. Aidana seems to be BeyHive, which means Beyonce fan. She was a Directioner (One Direction fan) back in 2014 and her bias is Harry Styles. She has lots of videos, posts, and follows communities about Beyonce and 1D in VK. As I understood, she does not have a particular taste in music, I suppose that she is a meloman, who can listen to different music genres and find something for her. I also mentioned that she creates her own playlists, each one is aimed for a special mood or season (she even made one especially for me!). On her dashboard in VK, Aidana posts moments from a lot of films and tv-dramas. Her favourite tv-series are the Game of Thrones.

Aidana follows accounts of her groupmates, colleagues from Kazakh group, old classmates, some celebrities, like Shawn Mendes, James Charles, Will Smith, and friends. People with whom Aidana communicates the most through Instagram are Elina Assanova, groupmate, and Meruyert Khudaibergen, Aidana’s close friend.

After the survey of Aidana’s social media, I can say that she is a very versatile and creative person, who is an active user of the Internet. From her Instagram page, I made a conclusion that she is not afraid to be funny or natural.

By making this project we can understand how much the Internet affects our appearance in the eyes of others. We can create an image of ourselves to look better and more successful. New algorithms and bots allow journalists to collect information about their target audience. This is a powerful tool, which should be used carefully and thoughtfully.

Why BTS are more than artists

If 2 years ago somebody told me that I would be a k-pop fan, I would have laughed. The only thing that came to my mind after hearing k-pop was just “plenty of boys with make-up”. I used to form my opinion depending on some people’s judgments. Luckily, people grow up and their vision of the world changes accordingly. Today, I can confidently say that I am an ARMY, a proud fan of the BTS.

BTS is a South Korean boyband, consisting of 7 members. They debuted in 2013 and since that time create and produce music that is encouraging young people to follow their dreams and give up on society’s borders. Every song is full of meaning, BTS translate social messages to their listeners. They went through the majority of hardships that formed their personalities and gave them an opportunity to make their music more personal. That is the thing that caught me in them. I can’t help but mention that their performances are spectacular and breath-taking, as well as their choreography. All these factors make BTS special artists, who endlessly love their fandom. Nevertheless, they also actively participate in social campaigns. I want to tell you more about this.

UNICEF’s campaign #ENDviolence, November 2017

BTS said many times that their purpose is to show the young generation that they are able to achieve anything they want and that self-love is the most important kind of love. Each of the members had hard times, they suffered from depression, parental pressure, a censure of society, destructive thoughts and many more. In Fall 2017, BTS released the first album of a series with the concept of Love Yourself and talked about the meaning of love. After release, BTS and their label Big Hit Entertainment became partners with Korean Committee for UNICEF in a purpose of sponsoring #ENDviolence campaign. #ENDviolence is a global campaign funded by UNICEF whose aim is to provide children and teens worldwide with a safe place to grow up and fulfil dreams without violence. At the same time, BTS created their own campaign LOVE MYSELF, which pursues mercy and love for everyone.

United Nations General Assembly, September 2018

In September 2018, BTS were speakers at the United Nations Office. RM, leader of the boyband, spoke about his own childhood struggles and shared that music was his medicine. He motivated young people to speak themselves and not to be afraid of who they are. With the help of the ARMY, many people who weren’t familiar with k-pop culture learned a lot from RM’s speech and even got enthusiasm to be confident.

BTS taught me to appreciate every day and find happiness in the simplest things. Their music calms me and gives me strength and energy. The reason why I love BTS is that their aspiration is to make the world better without any self-serving goals. After the rise of popularity, they are still guys from a small company with big dreams, who are humble and diligent. For sure, there are many more hardships in the future but I believe that whenever they are together, they can come through anything.

RM’s touching speech at UN

The utopia that depends on humankind

Every living person dreamed about his own utopia at least once in a life. For sure, everything will be much better and easier, if dreams come true. I am a realist. I don’t believe in divine miracles and super abilities, or heroes that can save the world. But I believe that my own utopia would be a safe place and if we will try, we can create it together.

As a grown girl and a young woman (that sounds so weird), I see how some of my female relatives and girlfriends go through hardships related to their gender. I see men who are impudent enough to act themselves as savage human beings. They think they are allowed to touch or talk dirty to girls, whom they do and don’t know. The situation has different measures of an issue in countries where a woman is perceived as a second-rate creature, for example in Near East Asia, where radical religious movement dictate the rules. Iraqi woman Nadia Murad was a victim of sexual slavery and who was very lucky to survive through wild conditions. She was sold to the Isis as a sex slave and was raped and beaten many times until Nadia was able to escape after her captor left the house unlocked. After the escape, Nadia became First Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking of the United Nations.

Nadia Murad’s speech in UN office

In October 2017, hashtag #MeToo started wide spreading among social media. #MeToo is a movement against sexual harassment and assault, especially in the workplace. Some actresses made allegations against Harvey Weinstein, former film producer. Alyssa Milano inspired victims to speak out to “give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem”. This phenomenon showed us that we can’t stay quiet when it comes to our freedom, body and soul. Gender issues are still taking place in the 21st century. How can we live in calm when girls all around the world are abused?

My utopia can come to reality. Humanity should start appreciating every person’s rights and needs without encroaching other one’s life.

The hero that I want to be

Since we were kids, we always read fairy tales about fearless heroes, who never stopped in front of rising danger. They saved people’s lives, spread energy and fought with evil standing with a bright smile. We are used to considering that heroes necessarily accompanied by a mountain of steel muscles, masculine traits, idealized face and immortality. They were our role models until we realized the real hero features.

We grow up and our values change with us. It’s obvious that ones who inspired us a decade ago, today represented just as a pleasant memory. I can confidently say that I overthought this meaning of a real ‘hero’, not without the help of real-life examples. Life is an unpredictable thing with difficult life situations, you can never know how people will act in certain cases. Some people, who always smile and seem to be really strong, can break down because of minor troubles. Some people, who seem to be helpless and weak, can overcome tragedies without sorrow or blame. External appearance has nothing in common with spirit core, it is something that we are born with.

When it comes to me, I fail to answer the question “Who is the hero that I want to be?”. As for a dreamer, the first association is related to superpowers, like flying, teleportation or invisibility. If only it was a reality! I understood that for me a hero is not defined just as a one who comes to help. A hero is a person who has enough courage and aspiration in life to continue a fight, no matter how he or she is tired. The real hero is not waiting for honours or approval, inner harmony is more important for him or her. An example of such kind of a person is my mom. She is the strongest woman I ever knew and will know. She had a lot of failures but she never thought about stopping her way. My mom inspires me to explore more and more, to give love and care for the ones I love and admire. My mom is not just my hero, she is my role model and my support. I think I can answer the question now.

My own hero, that I wish to become in future

It’s not a film, it’s a reality

I am pretty sure that many of you watched American films about teenagers and school drama. I think that you noticed that many antagonists act way too violent or rude, they use their force and power to oppress ones, who are weak. People are seeking a punching bag to express their anger and hatred, that they often receive at home. This is called bullying and it is the issue of all generations. Bullying is a type of aggressive behaviour, that involves a use of force or psychological terror, commonly happening in educational institutions and workplaces. There are also types like cyberbullying, gay bullying, disability bullying and etc.

Unfortunately, there is no place in the world without bullying, in Kazakhstan, every third school student experienced bullying and more than 3000 offenders were prosecuted. I have three little brothers. Almost every day my mom tells me about conflicts happening in siblings’ classes. All situations are related to bullying, even though there are undergraduates. It means that since small age kids are passing through with violence and dealing with their bullies. A classmate of my youngest brother is offended by a group of kids, who are throwing his bag, ripping his notebooks and calling him with insulting names. The worst thing about this situation is that his parents found out it not long ago. Adults are too busy to nurture their kids properly. It leads to a deficiency of attention, teen depression, aggressive behaviour and suicide. A kid wants to boost self-esteem so he or she starts bullying. Bullies are usually represented as a narcissistic, non-confident people who need to feel the power over others. It is important to understand that violence mustn’t be justified.

I personally think that all problems with self-acceptance and self-esteem are rooting to the aura inside of the family. Children who grow up surrounded by love and attention rarely become abusers in future. The point is if you ever have kids, raise them with proper values and always talk to them.

I was inspired by a video of The Village Kazakhstan. You can watch it here

New media and its advantages

In the late 20th century new term “new media” started spreading. Before defining what is new media, let’s understand what is it in common sense. Media – is a channel, platform or outlet, which allows people to spread and share different kinds of information. So, we call media everything where we have receivers and senders of a message. In general understanding, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, briefly, anything that has a physical state, can be referred to traditional media. Nowadays, a major part of our communication is taken by new media. These are social networks, emails, personal blogs, video games, podcasts, platforms like YouTube, etc.

With the growing popularity of the Internet, many new ways of distributing information were invented. One century ago people could not even imagine having a television or a radio. If we compare traditional and new media, the second one will have much more advantages. I found four features, which I think are the most actual for me and my generation.

The main advantage of new media is that any person can be either a sender or a receiver. Furthermore, this communication model is traditional for old types of media, while in the 21st century we combine two roles in one. We have a possibility to give feedback right after consuming information. This allows people to build a more personal communication.

Everyone can remember how we were waiting for a tv programme, then setting a channel and only then starting to watch film or show. Today we don’t have that routine. We just turn on our smartphone or tablet and watch what we want anytime we want to. On-demand access is the benefit of new media.

The third advantage is the interactive representation of the information. Pictures, videos and audio files give us extra meaning, it makes reception easier and more interesting. I personally enjoy reading materials that are supplemented by media files.

What distinguishes old media from new, is that we don’t need a huge amount of money to start broadcasting or blogging, we just need an Internet connection. Decades ago people needed to employ a film crew, pay for broadcasting in order to start your own show. Today you can open YouTube and upload video. This is a great chance for teenagers and kids all around the world, who don’t earn money but have a desire to share something. Cheapness is important.

Besides these four features, there are many more, but I included only key advantages for me. It’s fascinating how within 2 decades our communication improved to a new level. I can’t even imagine what is waiting for us in future! (◕‿◕)

Why I chose this topic

Since our teacher told us about personal blogs, I was thinking about a topic, that can be interesting not just for me, but also for my groupmates and friends. For the first time, I considered a theme about self-love. But later I declined this thought because it would not be useful for my audience. Yesterday, while I seated in the kitchen choosing topic, my father gave me a great idea. He said that nowadays in Kazakh society young people are creative and ambitious, but factors like corruption, nepotism and full control from parents are slowing down their potential. I know examples of families, where kids are threatened as a lost dream compensation. My friend’s parents forced her to study medicine just because they did not have a chance to fulfil their dreams. It is just one example from thousands of cases.

As a 17-year-old girl, I face misunderstanding from the older generation in many questions. In particular, there is a huge generation gap, which aggravates our relationship with parents and grandparents. They were raised in times when every coin was valuable and they had no choice. Furthermore, scarcity was everywhere. Our parents are using methods of nurture which are irrelevant in conditions of the 21st century. Change of consciousness will take decades. Nevertheless, I think that everything depends on a particular person. Some open-minded adults are ready to adapt to the new times, some are categorically against innovations. We can’t blame them because it is their view of the world. Instead, we can explain to older people why they should let us make decisions by ourselves.

Teenagers are afraid to make mistakes, to challenge themselves because we’re given no chance to a try. I am happy to know personally so many talented and vigorous youngsters, who don’t stop because of circumstances and prohibitions. I also hope that in this blog I will widely light up the topic about the young generation. If you have any suggestions or questions, contact me. (◕‿◕)