I am going to Paris right now Hi! I am going from Frankfurt to Paris right now. I don’t know what I should write about. I just want to notice this period of my life here. Then when I will see my account on italki I’ll find this message and remember my thoughts at this time. I am using comfortable train, straight rails are bringing to the capital of France. Nice mood, wonderful company, summer time - what can be better?

Travelling to Paris.

Living without a smartphone. What do you think about it? I guess I’m not lying if I say that almost everyone has a smartphone today. In fact, people spend almost all their free time (or sometimes work time too) watching content in their smartphones. But there are people who don’t use smartphones. This fact may depend on the age of people (for example, our grandparents), but there are people who can’t afford smartphones or who refused smartphones on their own. Last situation has advantages and disadvantages. Let’s talk about that. The first advantage is that people spend more time talking to each other – without instant messengers, only personal communication. Secondly, they spend more time for self-development like reading books, watching films, getting special skills (for example, languages, painting, playing the guitar). Thirdly, without screens of smartphones people begin to see beautiful and exciting world around them. After all, our world is very amazing. But on the other hand, there are also disadvantages. For example, people who don't have a smartphone may feel difference from their friends because people without smartphones don’t know the latest news, trends, etc. Also, it is not true that all scripts of using smartphones are bad – there are good educational apps (for example, app for learning language, app for training of memory, etc.). Eventually, not only bad and cruel things happen to people, many interesting things and events happen in our world every day that would be nice to know about. In conclusion, although living without smartphones has some advantages, I think today it’s unreal and we should just turn the smartphone off when it’s really necessary – for example, in communication with relatives and friends.

Downloading music or films without paying Nowadays almost everyone uses the Internet. We communicate with people, read world or local news, and, of course, spend our free time there, watching films and listening to music. There is a huge problem in digital reality - downloading music or films without paying. Can this process be called a crime? Firstly, we need to understand that everything on the Internet is done by someone – everything has its own author and every product (film or music) is his or her intellectual property. Secondly, we must remember if we like the art of this author, we must support him or her. For instance, we like a certain writer. We pay him and he writes more books. We are interested in his thoughts and read great books, and he is happy and has money for art and own life. In conclusion, downloading music or films without paying should be the same crime as stealing from a shop. But how can society detect a thief on the Internet – that is the question.

What do you think about Internet meme? This summer I protected Master's diploma work. I wrote about Internet-meme and considered this new multicultural phenomenon like new type of signs. My research was in the field of semiotics - this sience studies different types of signs, for example, an icon, an index, a symbol. It was very interesting and complex topic, i don't want to describe here all deatils of the research. What do you think about meme? Is a meme the new phenomenon in Internet communication that helps people to expess their reactions, thoughts in the Internet? Or is a meme just funny pictures and nothing more?