Is technology destroying our relationships?

Family
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Sharon Ní Conchuir, a freelance journalist, contacted me with some interesting questions about the impact of technology on our relationships.  It was interesting for me to revisit this subject with a different interviewer and offer some more tips on how we can better manage our online lives.

Q: What exactly is the lure of the internet and the various ways of communicating online? What is it that proves so seductive to people?

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Kim and Kanye are in Ireland!! (And why we give a &^%*…)

Kim and Kanye
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We have a lovely little castle with proper history that has been nicely converted into a 5 star hotel and in fairness, many celebrities have indeed stayed there. Disappointingly I missed, by mere minutes, an afternoon with a very sociable Bruce Springsteen last summer. And so when it became clear that the newlyweds, “Kimye”, (we can nickname them now ‘cos they’re practically locals) flew into Cork airport, Castlemartyr was the obvious choice destination. So we all went mad looking to confirm that we were hosting new sparkly guests, albeit briefly. It was most entertaining!

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Are older siblings be more accomplished than their siblings?

World's most powerful women
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This conversation was sparked by the publication of a new study on sibling configurations and looking at whether aspiration and achievment of children is dependent on ‘order’ in the family. Interestingly, the researchers in this case also found a gender difference – specifically, that eldest girls aspire to, and achieve more academically than eldest boys. Naturally enough this sparked much media debate

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Why do we lie about our age?

Aging
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SO, Jay-Z lied about his age – why does he care and why do we love that he cares?

This was a piece for which Chrissie Russell, freelance journalist with the Irish Independent interviewed me. She was interested in the revelation that Jay-Z lied about his age and more importantly – why anyone cares! 

Read on the full text of our conversation

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Are you in love with your phone?

Social Media in Relationships
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This is a conversation with Chrissie Russell, freelance journalist, about some of the positive and negative impacts that technology can have on our relationships. You will notice that I caution strongly against vilifying technology – partially because I have deep love of my own iPhone!!

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“Selfies, more than just self portraits?”

Selfies
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What’s the deal with selfies? More often than not, selfies are taken and posted online by young girls and women, and worryingly, these young girls and women are in increasingly submissive and/or sexualised poses.

Thank you porn.

Here is a conversation I had with Chrissie Russell, a freelance journalist around this topic. The resulting published online newspaper article is here. Continue reading

Can logging in can make us feel left out?

Social Media
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 Here is the full text of a conversation with freelance journalist Chrissie Russell where she was exploring the notion that logging onto social network sites can actually result in us feeling worse about ourselves rather than feeling happier and more connected. 

Do you think people feel under pressure to have the ‘perfect’ life online? If so, why?

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A conversation about men who cheat and the women who stay.

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This was a Q&A with freelance journalist Chrissie Russell about men who cheat and the women who stay with them (and yes, I know that women cheat too, but that’s for another day!)

In terms of character traits, is there a certain ‘type’ of man more likely to cheat? Continue reading

Childless & happy? You better believe it. . .

Childless and happy
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 I was interviewed for this piece by Chrissie Russell, a journalist who is interested in the assumptions made around gender, in particular, the assumption that women will want to, and will go on to have children. It was an interesting one to do, and I’ll make the full text of my answers to her available in the future. For now – here’s the version that was printed in the Irish Independent: