We all wish, at some moment in our lives, to be rich and famous. When we are teenagers, we want that even more and with reason. A lot of people seem to think that life is made out of looking great, being popular and having trendy clothes. That is why we seem to look at celebrities as people who have accomplished their dreams and are perfectly happy. We want to be like them: on stage, singing like crazy for a crowd that loves us and cheers on as the lights shine on our glimmering show dresses. We want to have those incredible muscles that all the good-looking actors and models have…

But, what if their life isn’t that great? What if, even for them, things aren’t all rainbows and butterflies? What if, actually, what they seem to have isn’t really worth all the trouble they’re going through? Well, I can assure you that those “what ifs” aren’t out of place. And right here, there is a list of all the things that explain why it’s NOT that good to be a star.

1- Celebrities tend to lose their real friends when they become famous and they can’t have any friends without wondering if they’re there for them or for their money and popularity. In their world, they are a way of making money for all those greedy producers and they often take advantage of their weaknesses to do whatever they please with them.

2- Stars are never really the way you see them. In pictures, experts photoshopped the heck out of them and arranged their hair and put their make up in a special way to make them look the way they seem to be. The ones you see in the pictures and on TV aren’t really them. It’s an illusion that talented people are able to create. So stop dreaming of looking like them; you’re probably better looking than them!

3- Famous people have an obsession on their physical appearance. They’re practically prisoners of that obsession, feeling forced to literally refrain from eating at all to be so skinny that you can see their bones. And seriously, who the heck would want to give a hug to a walking skeleton? Aren’t there enough people suffering from hunger in the world? In other words, it’s not good to be so obsessed with the way you look as they are.

4- Another thing: PRIVACY. Understand well that word, because it doesn’t exist for them. EVER. Don’t try to think about a way to have some when you’re famous, you’re NOT going to have any. Let make this clear: celebrities can’t do anything without the whole world knowing about it. It’s like “Hello pressure!”

5- Have you ever noticed that people spend a LOT of time saying how stars are so completely lame or do mean comparisons and stuff… Ok, I do it too, we all do it, but it’s actually kind of funny if you think about it. We spend time gossiping about the fact that some stranger from Hollywood or whatever slipped on the street. It’s like… “um, well normal people fall too…”

6- Famous people, geniuses and talented stars… they aren’t always happy. Why do you think they end up drug addicts? These people… they don’t live long. Just look at Michael Jackson. He’s one of the world’s greatest artists. Yet, he died at 50 years old. That’s young! Why did he die? The pressure, the lack of privacy, the judgements, the hard work. That’s what happens to most stars. They’re not really balanced in their life and often, quite depressed.

So, in conclusion… Stop wanting to be one of them! Believe me, it’s way better to be a normal person who can have their own life. By the way, to understand this better, listen to the song “Imperfect Is The New Perfect” by Caitlin Crosby. It can help to stop wanting to be someone so completely different from who you are, because whomever you are is always going to be a thousand times than some image that doesn’t really exist.

Valentine’s Day is almost here and people are starting to get ready for the big day! Well, at least the shops are… Didn’t you ever notice that shops always start displaying Valentine, Halloween or Christmas stuff like two months earlier? (Though for Christmas, it’s rather three months…) Anyway. I just want to wish everyone a great Valentine’s Day, have fun people, because technically, it’s a holiday and you can party.

 

 Now, Valentine’s is a great day for all those couples out there that can spend time being happy about not being single. Well, cheers to you! Don’t forget to give gifts to your valentine (flowers, chocolate, teddy bears, cute T-Shirts, sweet cards, something real romantic, etc.)!

 

But if you actually are single? I mean, a lot of people are single and stuff, but the thing is: don’t be depressed about it! Being single isn’t the end of the world. Well, if you’re a teenager, it might seem it is, but it really isn’t. After all people, you’ve all got friends! Friends are many times more important than a boyfriend or a girlfriend, so why not tell them that you care? Your Valentine doesn’t necessarily have to be a boyfriend or a girlfriend, it can be a normal friend. Anyway, whatever you do, don’t start depressing about Valentine’s Day. Besides, no matter what you do, you’re still allowed to go berserk on the chocolate… 

Do you remember the days when we used to say that people watch too much TV? Well those days are practically gone! Now, kids and adults don’t spend they’re time watching television, they spend it on the Internet! Why look at movies on TV, when there are millions of them on YouTube? Why watch the news on that brand new flat screen TV or that super radio system, when you can Google it? For God’s sake, people don’t even read the newspaper anymore, because practically all of them (Gazette, Journal de Montréal, New York Times, Metro, etc.) have a website. Actually, all companies have a website.

There are over 1.7 billion Internet users in the world, 0.7 billion coming from Asia. 156 million websites have been created since 1995. Internet has been invented in the 1950s in USA for military reasons and was developed by many specialists. Actually, contrarily to what some believe, Internet was not created by someone in particular or a company. It has been imagined, conceived, developed and improved by many people between 1950 and 1990. But the real Internet, the one we know now, was officially made public in the 1990s. And that was the beginning of a whole new world.

Indeed, since Internet was created, the world, the culture, the lifestyles have changed, as well as the technology and our way of communicating. Ah yes: communication. Actually, that was the whole point of Internet, which was to be able to communicate easier. Just think about it. Where would we be without email, MSN and Facebook? Now, when we want to say something, we use the Web a lot. We have to work on a project? We’ll talk about it on MSN. We have to get in touch with old friends? We use Facebook. Now, we can even see the other person on Webcam! Let’s face it: we barely even need the phone anymore!

Another thing about the Internet: it created jobs. Whole companies have been created on the Web and most of them are dependent of it. If you want a concrete example: eBay. PayPal. We buy things on the Internet and we get them through mail. Or think about all those Internet providers. Videotron, Bell, TELUS, Rogers. A big part of these businesses live of Internet. They get money because you need it.

People spend about 13 hours per week on the Internet, though teenagers spend 30. 30: that means that teens spend more than a day online every week, thus 17% of the week. Anyhow, we’re starting to be more interested in the Web than we are in watching TV. We actually have to start being careful not to become too dependent.

The Internet has changed the world we know, it even created its own world, the one we all call the World Wide Web. We do everything on it. We can communicate, work, learn, have fun and create. We can work on our passions: we can write, publish photos, make videos and edit videos. The Internet has changed our lives and is still changing it.