Hugs and stuff.

Remember when you were a kid? You'd fall down, someone would be mean to you, or you'd break your favourite toy. It was like THE END OF THE WORLD, at least to an over-emotional kid like me. But for the most part, our knee jerk reaction was to burst into tears and run to Mammy for a hug, right? Parents had this knack for making everything better - I know that if I was a mum, screaming kids would wreck my head, but that never really seemed to happen with my mum - rather, she always, always made it better by hugging, kissing and cuddling Tiny Me.

For some reason, my intrinsic thought was that Hugs Just Make Things Better, along with soothing words and (in my dad's case) threatening to "fix" the perpetrators.

Fast forward ten years. I'm eighteen and I spend a lot less time falling down. Being mean to me will generally result in being screamed at and most of my dearest possessions are in less than three pieces. My love for affection, however, has remained. Physical affection is something most of us adore, but I'm the first to put my hand up and claim addiction. It doesn't have to be parental or romantic, I just love showing affection to my friends and family. I visit my granny once a week and I've never once forgot to hug her goodbye. I kiss one of my best friends (on the cheek!) for something as small as holding a book for me. I get comments all the time concerning Dave and affection, from my mum to my sister to people we went to the Gaeltacht with.

Affection comes in lots of forms - for instance, I know people who do kind things for people they like, or even just tolerate them, but that's as far as they go. In a way, the toleration or the nice gestures (ceetainly the latter) is affection, just in a more abstract sense. After all, who hasn't got the warm fuzzies after someone bought them something or lent them their French copy? As I've talked about before, those who are aloof people I admire, not only because of their infinite coolness, but the fact that they don't need to constantly prove how they feel about someone. That's just it, isn't it? For some reason, a lot of affectionate people feel the need to express how they feel about others. All the freaking time. I'll freely admit to this. Telling people that they're awesome makes me feel awesome, and though lately I've been getting a twist in my stomach thinking about being annoying, I generally assume that it makes them feel good too.

Speaking of twisting stomachs, lately I've started to think that, at eighteen, my affectionate nature just isn't cute anymore. In fact, in terms of romantic relationships, it's probably a little bit...well, can you say desperate? Luckily, I have a boyfriend who's (to quote) "very used to it" and doesn't mind my near-constant hugs and compliments. Still, I'll admit, my nature has started to plague me. I've been able to scale back (somewhat) with my friends - sixth year and all that - but in a way it's repressing myself, and shouldn't I be able to be Born This Way? I guess not. I guess there's a line between cute and annoying, and my nature stands astride that fine line.

What do people think? Is affection overrated or integral to, well, being human?

iPhone.

There's something about Apple products that just...attract us. Maybe it's the price of them (whisper it, children of the Celtic Tiger), the cool white layout of the website, the shiny apple logo found on all their products, or the shape of a curvy, slender iPhone or a smooth, well rounded Mac. Yes, yes I did just semi-sexualise Apple products. My point, however, still stands. We love them. Worldwide, people can't get enough of the shiny poshness of Apple, particularly iPhones.

What is it about them? Why are "Apple snobs" so reluctant to switch from the iPhone to the Android, good, solid Nokia, or even the wonderful 14 euro phone that Dave has? Off the top of my head, I can think of three people in my close friend group with an iPhone. Of this, I know at least two are on bill pay - the rest of us soldier on with a phone that costs about 400 euro, plus the credit spent on 3G internet, texts and phone calls. My best friend Zoe, proud owner of a shiny iPhone 4, always has her 3G on. Always. I can't help but wonder how much her phone costs her!

Why are we so obsessed with ludicrously expensive iPhones, though? Is it the feeling of them, perhaps? Is it the status? Are we all just brand addicted fools?

I myself have an iPhone - I got it as a present earlier this year. It's an iPhone 3G (that's three models ago, folks) and while it cost me nothing, it's also wrapped in Sellotape to keep it together. It takes about thirty seconds to load an App and sometimes, it just doesn't want me to listen to music, alright?

So why is that, when mum suggested I get a new phone for Christmas, I point blank refused to think about other phones? Is it the feel of my wonderful phone in my hand? 3Gs are curved around, not square and blocky like the newer ones. It sits perfectly in my hand, and it's pretty heavy, but in a comforting way. I can shove it in my pocket and I'll know it's there. While I don't really care about the aesthetics of a phone, it's nice to have a screen that bright, a message system that snazzy and a phone that just looks cool.

Maybe it's just the fact that when one's phone rings, an iPhone can be casually whipped out. It's the most careless of status symbols. I often notice that it's commented on with people I'm with for the first time "You've got an iPhone?!" iPhones are rare enough these days, I suppose, but it feels like everyone's got one, it's no longer a big deal, really. Personally, I feel the need to belittle my poor phone at this stage "Yeah, but it's held together with sellotape. And it's third hand."

The poor phone never did anything to deserve me dragging it down to my I-can't-afford-a-4S level. It tries its best for me.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's the handiness of it all. I can keep all my pictures on my phone and edit the crap out them with Instagram. I can check my e-mail and my Twitter. I can stay on Facebook chat long after my parents have taken the laptop, though I'm not always sure this is a good thing. It's...simple. What else can be plugged into my computer and download all my music like that, even if it will only play it 8/10 times?

I love my iPhone, but I'll never pay full price for one, and come Christmas you can be sure that if my shiny new phone is under the tree, it'll have a shiny eBay tag attached to it.