#igivehope... What's it all about?

If you're a keen Twitter follower or tweeter, you may have noticed the hashtag 'igivehope' flying about a fair bit yesterday. What's it all about? Well yesterday was the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, organised by the United Nations in order to try and combat trafficking in persons across the world. This is the first ever of these days, and people across the world have been encouraged to show their support to victims of trafficking by 'giving back hope.' By tweeting using the hashtag, particularly sharing pictures of hands making the shape of hearts, the United Nations hope to be able to raise awareness of trafficking in persons around the world.

Human trafficking is something which can too often be thought of as extinct, thinking of slavery in old terms which in most places appears to be off the radar. This is sadly not the case however, UNICEF estimate that over 1.2 million children are trafficked each year, being taken against their will, brought sold and exploited. This doesn't just happen in places like Africa and India as we are sometimes led to believe, human trafficking takes place all over the world and can be found in our own cities.

While tweeting a picture or saying 'igivehope' may not seem to be making much of a difference, it's a step in the right direction in terms of raising awareness about the problem. Show your support with a picture of your hands making a heart and #igivehope, and show solidarity to those who are and have been victims of human trafficking. On a more practical level, the United Nations ask people to be aware and involved in their local communities to both raise awareness and repot anything which may be related to trafficking.

timehop

If you're a bit of a techno-wizz on your smart phone you'll more than likely be aware of a new app sweeping across the screens. Taking a new twist on the social media revolution which we appear to be living in, this app takes us back in time, showing what we posted on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Foursquare on that day a year, 2 years, 3 years and so on, ago.

There's a few ways you can choose to look at this phenomenon, either...

1. We're living in the past too much... It feels a bit like the app has been created because someone out there knows that we all like browsing back through our photos and tweets and messages, and they want to arrange it better to date for us (cheers!)
2. It gives you a positive look back at how far you've come (hopefully!) over the years
3. Acts as a virtual time-capsule, especially good if you've got a bit of a bad memory
4. A way to daily enjoy memories of some of the important events which have taken place in your life (best if you don't over tweet, otherwise you may have to read your random ramblings about your washing machine or new running trainers, come on, we've all seen it!) 
5. and if you are one likely to over share on social media, then it can be a painful (and maybe helpful) reminder of how we spend too much time on social media...although saying that, timehop is a social media app in itself, so maybe there really is no escape!

What do you think? Is timehop a good or bad idea? I've just got it on my phone and I'm ashamed to say a little addicted... oh look I tweeted about being on a train 2 years ago... how exciting! (see what I mean?!)

'Flappy Birds' game gone flappy!

Today's top news? 'Flappy Birds'. You might be wondering what on earth it is, especially if iPhones and apps are somewhat unchartered territory to you, but this phenomenon has taken phone gaming to a new level. The game consist of tapping the phone screen to get a bird to fly between tubes…and that is it. The simplicity of the game may have led to it's addictiveness, and it quickly became 'the game to play'. Among kids and adults alike, high scores were being compared, with people sharing their excitement over high scores on other social networking sites.

But yesterday, the creator of 'Flappy Birds', Doug Nguyen, removed the game from the app stores, saying that the game had ruined his life and that he'd been receiving death threats via Twitter as a result of the app.