Addicted to Clubs!

Dirty, stinking, overhyped clubs packed with students are the current trend amongst youngsters just having left home for the first time. However, what draws them to these small boxes where they are shepherded from bar to bar and squashed and beat against the backs of other equally miserable young adults? Could it be the overwhelming sweat? The deafening and monotonously similar beat to every song? The deal breaker of cheap alcohol on an incomprehensible scale? Together, this hellish mix are a catalyst to ephemeral transcendence. Clubs are a new breed of escapist addiction.

In the brief four hours spent partying, there is an intermittent life where the youth can forget the chronic illnesses of the world they are about to inherit.

Nowhere is this more evident than the front pages of newspapers: where the woes of X Factor contestants are splashed across the cover, whilst stories of worth and importance are to be found below page 6.

Sensationalisation of newspaper content is to the detriment of society. Once the reserve of learned persons, and later a symbol of the truths of the day, the papers are now harbingers of doom in their own right. 

Content invariably swings from Z list celebrities of Big Brother or pre-millennium dwindling fame, to the morbid and insipid reporting of global events.

Not that the focus on worldwide news is a symbol of the right direction for these papers: far too often, the stories are run without checking of fact, with rumour thrown in for good measure and with no proffer of future activity. Doom and gloom personified.

Unfortunately, the addiction to this type of throwaway news is a reflection of deeper issues with society and these trends themselves can be traced in the prioritising of paper print. Primarily, we are bombarded with the live problems of stars that may appear relevant to our miserable lives: yet since their lavish or outlandish behaviours are something only quantifiable in their own spectrums, we are left to wonder in bewilderment at how far these fame hungry few abuse their limelight and depict the moral bankruptcy of a generation.

Subsequent items will be of little value: a local event here, a trivial piece on a local person there.

Where moments of true journalism shine are in their ability to relate the stories to the modern day life of many: the daily grind, how such a feature impacts our lives, how these events could develop.

Yet, more often, reporters shy away from such a style of reporting in case any person should take offence at any inferences made in composition. Instead, it is substituted for rather more an impersonal approach, wherein events are recalled in stagnant fashion so as to appear factual, but in reality tell us little of the surrounding circumstances and reactions.

However, this epitomises a society who are more concerned about their technologies than their society; we want the details in as short a fashion as possible, without any care for the deeper underlying issues. When we continue to ignore the mounting tensions in various elements of the world, they always, inevitably, return to bite. Example in point, the recent London riots.

How does a heat wave merit front page news?

But this lifestyle is addictive: we can tune out from the main and plug into our own microcosm without having to suffer the incredulities and consequences of other people.

Nightclubs are a cry from youngsters to avoid this world. They come together to celebrate in music and alcohol, but never engage in meaningful conversation in such an establishment. In attempts to escape the very social dynamic and social wrongs that characterise their times, these teenagers only serve to emphasise how together we are in our individuality and ignorance.

Because surrounded by the flashing lights and the pumping music, it is easy to forget the details of deaths in Africa and corrupt leaders in the Middle east; the few moments in the club are your own moments of spotlight in the public eye, on the dancefloor.