Post 7: A Line has Been Crossed (12/16/13)

*Words bolded are links*
For some reason it seems like holidays alway bring even more drama into the One Direction fandom. Last year in December was when Harry Styles first started to date Taylor Swift. Now this year as the holidays are near, Harry has been linked with Kendall Jenner and Niall has recently been linked with Barbara Palvin.

One thing that's annoying about being in a big fandom, is that no one ever seems to be calm. Don't get me wrong, that has an upside because almost anytime I'm with a Directioner, it's a blast, but it also has its downsides. It'a like Directioners have a maternal instinct towards the boys. Whenever someone or something threatens to hurt their babies, they go wild. 

It's not clear if Harry is with Kendall or if Niall is with Barbara. The media, as always, has conflicting articles and I can't find a source I trust. For things like this, I usually wait for for the One Direction Twitter account or the boy himself to confirm or deny whatever rumors happen to go around.  Since neither relationship has been confirmed yet, I figure it's pretty safe for now.

Here's what's unsettling to me. Even though nothing has been confirmed, I have noticed that people are very quick to hate. I understand that no one wants the boys to be hurt, but is it really necessary to hate on the girls, especially with the strong possibility that they might only be friends with Niall and Harry?

This isn't even the first time this has happened and it certainly won't be the last. Sophia Smith, Liam's girlfriend, is no stranger to hate, and there have been times where Liam has had to post on Twitter saying that enough was enough. Sometimes these posts are mean and offensive to the fans, but people need to remember that Liam is only normal, and if you cross a line, sometimes it's hard to stay in control. Similar things have happened with Louis when his girlfriend Eleanor Calder gets hate. And of course, Perrie Edwards, Zayn's fiance has gotten her fair share of hate especially after they announced their engagement. It's basically a non stop chain of hate, and it's not only in this fandom.

Here's what really sparked the idea for the post. Over the weekend, while scrolling through Twitter, I came across a series of tweets from Liam's older sister, Ruth.

 

Read from bottom to top

Read from bottom to top

 

These Tweets really upset me. I don't exactly know what happened but from what Ruth said, I can basically assume that people said mean things to her and it finally got enough. This probably a really hard position to be in for Ruth as well as One Direction's other family members and friends. The family members and friends are really understanding when it comes to fans. They know how much we love the boys and they understand that without the fans the boys would be no where.

The line has to end somewhere though. If a fan oversteps a boundary, it upsets me, because yes, sometimes it's hard to see one of the family members, friends, and even members of One Direction, blow up after the hate got to be too much, but fans also have to respect the little privacy these people do get. Overall, this blog post isn't going to change anything because this hate is a form of bullying in its own right, and bullying is still an issue. However, it is important to realize that no matter how silly it may seem to write a post like this, one voice can turn into many, and if this silly post can inspire one person to hold down the backspace key the next time they're about to send hate to someone online, then I consider it a post well written.

 

Post 6: Introducing the Members (First one Direction related post) (12/12/13)

Since a lot of my journalism classmates are going to be viewing my blog, I only find it fair to introduce the members of one Direction. While many people know who One Direction are, I know a lot of people probably don't know their names or the difference between them.

Louis Tomlinson

• Hometown: Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England
• Age: 21
• Birthday: December 24th 
• Fun Fact: Louis's birth name is Louis Troy Austin. His mother officially changed it when he was very young after her divorce. She wanted him to have the same last as the rest of his later siblings when she got remarried. 

Zayn Malik

• Hometown: Bradford, West Yorkshire, England
• Age: 20
• Birthday: January 12th
• Fun Fact: Zayn's real name is spelled "Zain" but he legally changed it before he auditioned for the X-Factor because he thought it was more unique.

Liam Payne

• Hometown: Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England
• Age: 20
• Birthday: August 29th
• Fun Fact: Liam was born without a functioning kidney, but years later he found out it was functioning again. he shared this news with his fans via Twitter.

Niall Horan

• Hometown: Mullingar, County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland
• Age:20
• Birthday: September 13th
• Fun Fact: There are many things that make Niall unique compared to his bandmates. He's the only Irish member, he's the only left handed member, and he's the only member without any sisters.

Harry Styles

• Hometown: Holmes Chapel, Chesire, England
• Age: 19
• Birthday: February 1st
• Fun Fact: Harry dated Taylor Swift in December 2012. They broke up about two months later. When she was opening for the Grammys she mocked him during here song, "We Are Never Getting Back Together." (video here).

*Words bolded (besides the members' names) are links*

Post 5: Newsies Review (12/09/13)

So as I mentioned before, this is now turning into a daily blog for my journalism class. It's going to be a One Direction theme, but before my blog becomes full blown Directioner word vomit, I need to do something else.

In journalism we recently watched Newsies, a musical about newsies from New York around the year 1899. I was actually very excited about this, seeing that I'm a bit of a Broadway novice and love seeing Broadway shows. This is one I wanted to see for a while. 

Overall, I like musicals, but of course there are a few things that I have problems with musicals in general. Even though I'm a huge fan of fiction, I find it so hard to take musicals seriously when the characters spontaneously bust out into synchronized song and dance. It's especially hard with musicals like West Side Story where the characters are supposed to be tough gang members and they're sashaying and doing pirouettes across the stage.

As for Newsies, I loved it. I thought the plot was enough to keep the viewer engrossed in it the entire time, but my opinion might be swayed because we watched the movie in forty minute increments over a few days in journalism. However, I still feel like the newsies would be enough to keep me in my seat for the entire movie. Maybe it's just because young Christian Bale makes me swoon, David is adorable, and characters like Crutchy and Les make you want to go into the movie and give them hugs.

I think there's definitely a plus to watching a movie in class with a bunch of other crazy people who laugh at the wrong times and yell out things at the screen at the best times. And of course, there's the joke of "Doing if for Brooklyn" that we've dragged out for the past week in class and even on Twitter (a few of us sent Brooklyn related tweets to the official Newsies account. We have yet to get replies). So overall, I loved this musical. So let's hear it for... 

Post 4: Introducing Innovation (12/04/13)

This blog is actually going through the change. To the zero people who read this, you must have realized that I no longer post. I guess I kind of lost interest in it, but I'm taking it up again.

I kind of don't have a choice. I'm taking a journalism class in school and our teacher is making us create a blog. I suggested using Blogger, partly because it's a blogging site that we can actually use in school, but mainly because I'm too lazy to learn a whole new blogging site and make a whole new blog template. I'm still experiencing technical difficulties with this site, which is why my blog is in such a chaotic state.

So I'm wrapping this post up, partly because I have nothing more to say, but partly because I'm writing this in Spanish class and the bell is going to ring in four minutes. Blogging during class: the definition of a Senior, everyone.