Glee

With 10million views in America alone, the episode entitled Prom from the hit Fox series Glee finally grew up. The series has for over a year now promised so much with gifted script writers and directors from such tv shows as Nip/Tuck and CSI New York who have toyed and frolicked with serious issues in modern western society from teen pregnancy to obesity and peer pressure and materialism. This episode was plot driven and at last absolutely nailed the growing problem of marginalization of homosexuality in our school systems. The performances of Chris Colfer and Max Adler were on a par with serious mainstream American television and regardless of whether one berates the show for cheesiness or not with this episode it finally matured and dealt with these serious issues head on and did so with a grown up script and in a manner that was open and constructive.
On the note of social problems our very own Shift Page at Nuig has made national headlines including with the Irish Examiner regarding the social issues related to the growing trend of humiliation and playfulness regarding tagging someone caught in the act! The actual reverberations of being tagged when having a supposed private movement being performed in a public place can be catastrophic with employers and family members witnessing these particularly lewd acts. There is nothing seriously immoral with uploading a picture of two people kissing if you have the select permission to release it on a public forum yet doing so and then refusing to take it down without their permission should lead to repercussions. The Irish legal system still has penalties for grazing of sheep in public places and crimes involving suits of armor and flocks of ducks showing its backwardness in relation to modern society and especially Internet Law. The Facebook Shift album is merely a phenomenon that will fizzle out and die very much like my earlier controversial articles. We have become accustomed to sex in our society and openly expressing of it whether it be homosexual or non and moving forward a lesson can be learned from Glee and also from the Shift Pages. As a western society we must learn to use the internet to respect as well as interact with others and the uproar regarding these photos will die away but the tags may remain for years to come.