Say Hello Say Hello

Moving into a new home in the twenty-first century is an exciting venture. You’ve got the enjoyment of designing the décor, scouting out the local cafes and making the place feel like home. One thing, however, which you likely won’t be adding to your to-do list, is the daunting task of meeting your neighbours. Student halls aside, most people I know in university would never dare introduce themselves to the ‘scary’ people across the hall. It’s a general consensus that neighbours are either alcoholics, drug dealers or serial killers. No exceptions. I felt the same. Four years spent living in flats and the height of my neighbourly interactions was the occasional awkward glancein the hallway.

Back in the day, you wouldn’t dare move into your new home without a friendly knock on the neighbour’s door. Even with the established ‘safe people’, socialising, dinner dates and coffee mornings were the daily norm. And now… most people are lucky to see their friends and family once a week.

Loneliness in the UK has become a serious epidemic with a scary 45% of people feeling lonely in England, and 54% of young adults feeling unable to speak about their emotions with others. Students and workers are spending more time in home offices, hobbies are gradually moving online, and the elderly are limited to the occasional family drop in. The impact of this on our health is huge, with loneliness being a key factor for longevity and risk of disease.

People have studied the wonders of Blue Zones – areas where the residents have the highest life expectancies in the world – for many years. Food has been analysed, activity levels monitored, access to nature reported on – and whilst all these factors vary between place, one key component in all of them is access to a strong community. Studies show that having five close friends, who you know that you can rely on, is one of the best things you can do for your mental and physical health.

Whilst the world becomes more and more disconnected, it is up to us to make the changes we want to see. Take this as your sign to call your parents more often, schedule in that regular fitness class with your sibling, and go on that coffee date with your friends. Why not take advantage of the universities 250+ societies, and find a group of likeminded people? The world might be going through a loneliness epidemic, but you don’t have to join in. So, when you move into your next apartment, knock on your neighbour’s door and say hello.

Punk is dead, long live Punk.

Just one of the many subcultures birthed in the wake of the social and political dissent seen in the 70s, punk has made a name for itself as a subculture of outrage and social critique. Most people are familiar with the punk “look”; vibrant colours, dyed hair, an anti-establishment motif scrawled across leather jackets and combat boots. Far from just an aesthetic, however, punk has a rich history of self-expression and political action, giving a voice to the predominantly working-class people from which it came and turning that voice against the upper class in an era of increasing inequality and political frustration.

The punk movement emerged in 1970s Britain as a counterculture and opposition to the political and social norms of Thatcherite Britain, especially in an era of constant strikes and societal decay. Punk took all of the pentup societal anger and gave people an outlet to express their rage at the way the world was. Many of the most common symbols of “Britishness”, such as the union flag and Queen’s tartan, were incorporated into punk fashion as a symbol of protest.

The irony is, one can see more evidence of punk’s commodification in the simplification of punk culture into an aesthetic rather than a movement. Brands such as Urban Outfitters and ASOS have taken the punk look and turned it into a trend. Walk into any one of these shops and you would be bombarded by predistressed jeans and kitschy political slogans draped across sweatshop made T shirts. The very essence of punk- the destruction, the individuality- has been gutted, giving way to a legion of fast-fashion knockoffs and massproduced schlock. The destruction of clothing by punks was representative of how the subculture broke down societal norms and the mainstream corporate narrativebleaching and ripping one’s clothes was a visual indicator of punk’s disdain for not just the upper class but the commodification that the upper class represented.

The commodification of punk is merely another acquisition that corporate capitalism has made, taking the very spirit of resistance, of rebellion, and turning it into a commercialized product to be marketed to the masses. While the punk of the past acted as an outlet for social change and the transformation of social norms, the gradual acclimation to the outrage and the disobedience turned punk from a vehicle of social dissent to an expected part of society.