Interests and Obsessions

Hello again!

I've been planning this blog for the past few days now, so I hope it's rather more interesting than my first :')

Ok, so today I've decided my talking point is interests and obsessions. We all have interests, or hobbies (whatever you want to call them; I'm defining them in this as things that interest us, things that are hobbies etc) and we all probably have a few obsessions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMJI1FHhSe4
The video link is to a lyric video of Marina and the Diamonds 'Obsessions'. Study the lyrics a little, I thought the song was relevant to this, especially the part about the crackers!

Now, to me the line between interests and obsessions is an extremely thin one. And I can prove this, by allowing you all to scrutinise my interests...and obsessions.

I'm deeply interested in books. Reading is a hobby of mine and aside from reading set texts for university (which doing English and Journalism tends to be about 10-15 set texts a term) I read my own books, in my own spare time and I am proud to say I enjoy it! I've have two over-flowing bookcases and a cupboard that's now also over-flowing with books. So yes, reading and books is one of my interests.

But am I obsessed with reading? I think so. My obsessions with reading span from having to read a book I've started to the very end, even if I absolutely detest it. I simply have to finish it. This I suppose could arguably be an obsession to know the end. So why don't I just read the ending? Because I absolutely HAVE to know the entire thing; start, middle and end. Another obsession with reading I have (this is kind of a rare one, and apologies because it is extremely nerdy but I don't care!) I own EVERY SINGLE (yes every single one) hardback Doctor Who book there is since Christopher Eccleston. The ones that are released in sets of three, starting with the 9th Doctor and Rose and now the 12th Doctor and Clara. I have all them...at least I hope I do. If I don't then I need the ones I'm missing! Anyway, I have them all ordered in release date in my cupboard and if I fancy reading just one, I can't pick that one out the middle, I have to start from the very first one and read them all. That's around 50+ books in total. And I read them all. Within a month or two.

Recent favourite, possibly obsessiveness with books would be The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments series. I am literally in a state of desperation to read the last Mortal Instruments book...which comes out in May. I simply cannot wait that long!!

Ok TV. So that for me is Doctor Who, Spongebob Squarepants, The Simpsons, a bit of Top Gear, and (not so much anymore) Hollyoaks. I'll take Spongebob and The Simpsons for this one.
The Simpsons: I'm pretty sure (aside from the newest series as I don't have Sky :( ) I have seen every single Simpsons episode there is. Several times. That's not obsessive you're probably saying? After watching them only once, or twice, I remember the whole storyline and join in with some of the character's lines. Plus I also do hum the starting music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cOdYyx1oKI) at the beginning of every episode.
Spongebob Squarepants: Likewise with the Simpsons, I've seen all, if not most, of the episodes and many times over. A lot of kids have, right? But I love Spongebob. I have two sets of Spongebob pajamas, I bought the Spongebob movies...I even named the kitchen fish tank fishes after Spongebob characters and got unreasonably upset when they all died (aside from Pearl and Sandy who we still have) even though I never looked after them; that was my dad's job.

Next and oh boy, some of you are going to groan! I'll take the easiest two examples which are the Twilight Saga (I heard you groan!) and the Harry Potter series; both of which I adore the books and the films! There isn't much you couldn't ask me about the Twilight books/films or the Harry Potter books/films. I am a Twihard (hardcore Twilight fan; again I heard you groan) and a huge Harry Potter fan. And ok, I might as well admit a Whovian too (hardcore Doctor Who fan). The excessive, perhaps unnatural and unhealthy information I possess about these three subjects, I think you'll agree, means they are obsessions of mine not just simple interests.

Another obsession of mine...or perhaps its more of an OCD. I love rainbows. Maybe I'll explain in a later blog, but, yeah I love them. So much that if you were to tip each colour of the rainbow pencils out in front of me, I will, I repeat WILL, order them into a rainbow. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. People who add pink into a rainbow, or brown or black, like I cannot explain how much that infuriates me :') so rainbows are just pretty to me, they're kind of an obsession. Rainbow pencils = rainbow order. So yes, the pencils on my desk are in rainbow order. I used to have friends that would mess up my rainbow ordered pencils just to annoy me. It's one of the only things in the world that really annoys me; they MUST be in rainbow order.

So, I've probably made myself look like a complete lunatic but it's not just me that has 'interests' that are borderline-most likely obsessions. Society and the social media have them too. For example, image. Society and the the social media claim that image is in the "public interest of everybody". But I argue that they are obsessed with image, they way we should look and they way we should act.

Think about their 'perfect' people; the stereotypes.
Women: beautiful, wears make-up, heels, tight clothing, big breasts, big bum but a tiny waist, up-to-date fashion and hairstyle
Men: muscles, sculpted, the era of the new "meterosexual" man; a man that is still 'manly' but cares about his image
So basically Barbie and Ken...
And society and social media are obsessed with this! This kind of image is forever in the news, and it influences people highly, making them obsessed with conforming to society's 'perfect' image.

So, in conclusion, my obsession seem a lot less dangerous than society's...

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment :)