They are self-obsessed, have an attention span of a toddler and feel the need to act like mini-celebrities. If a top scientist from the UK is to be believed, social networking is turning users narcissistic. in a recent report published by the Daily Mail, social networks were blamed with causing a personality disorder among active users. Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, compared the habit of constantly tweeting or updating one’s status to a child demanding his or her mother’s attention. she also went on the blame Facebook and Twitter for poor non-verbal skills among users and shorter attention span. This week, Gulf News readers came together in an online debate to share views on the issue. Post your thoughts on our Facebook page ‘Gulf News Al Nisr Publishing UAE’ or tell us at readers@gulfnews.com.
posted on July 20, 2011, at 4:09 PM
PITTSBURGH — Say you’re a young, superstar football player. You’ve got two Super Bowl rings and you’re not even 30. after several years of a turbulent personal life, now you’re getting married to a nice young woman you’ve known a long time, in what promises to be the closest thing to a celebrity wedding Pittsburgh can muster.So what do you do first? make sure the ice sculpture man — and the tent guy, the cake lady, the flower people and the valet parkers — sign confidentiality agreements. On July 23, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, 29, who grew up in Findlay, Ohio, will marry Ashley Harlan, 26, of New Castle, in a wedding whose details are being guarded more tightly than the playbook at a pre-Super Bowl practice. To be sure, guests have already received a “save the date” invitation — celebrity gossip site TMZ.com posted one on its website in February — but were told that the location somewhere near Pittsburgh wouldn’t be revealed until just before the wedding.Earlier this year, Roethlisberger told the Post-Gazette that 500 people would be invited, and in lieu of gifts, he asked for donations to his favorite charitable foundation, which would channel the money to Ronald McDonald House and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. otherwise, no new information has been forthcoming. “I really can’t say anything,” said Sheila Weiner, a well-regarded Pittsburgh bridal planner who has been hired to coordinate the whole affair. Neither, apparently, could the good people at Ms. Weiner’s preferred florist, Hepatica in Regent Square, and her favorite wedding cake maker, Vanilla Pastry Studio in East Liberty.”I know nothing about that. I wish you good luck with your search,” said April Gruver, owner of Vanilla Pastry, adding, “And just why are you so interested anyway?”As is usually the case, those who know aren’t talking, and those who don’t know are — like the wedding vendors who didn’t get hired.There was the man who swore that Big Ben’s wedding reception would be at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center for 650 people.then there was the woman whose sister saw Ben Roethlisberger’s name penciled into the event schedule on July 23 at Nevillewood in Collier. then there was the event planner who swore to another bridal planner — both of them left out in the cold — that the rehearsal dinner would be the night before the wedding at Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County.over in Beaver County, a real estate agent who also asked not to be named noted that the reception could be taking place at the 150-acre property Roethlisberger bought for his parents in 2009 in Independence Township, complete with an old hunting lodge and a second house.The search for Roethlisberger’s wedding has meandered from Pittsburgh to Beaver County to New Castle — about 45 miles northwest of the city — back to The Club at Nevillewood and then over to Nemacolin Woodlands, plus a side trip into Ellwood City.”Actually, Ben plays golf here frequently,” said a woman behind the host stand at The Olde Stonewall just outside of Ellwood City, a somewhat forbidding looking ersatz castle on a golf course whose grand, dark interiors include the requisite suits of armor from Toledo, Spain. but no, Ben’s wedding reception would not be here, “although we have a room upstairs that seats 250 and another that holds 125.”Just because New Castle isn’t a big, sophisticated city doesn’t mean it doesn’t have big, sophisticated weddings. There’s plenty of money tucked down country roads, said one well-known flower designer, who asked not to be identified. He’d just done a wedding for 500 people and 18 bridesmaids — to the tune of about $35,000 worth of flowers.”I wish I was doing Ashley’s. They’re nice people, good people,” he said of the family whose daughter, a physician’s assistant, first met Roethlisberger in 2005.after much random driving in and out of the parking lots of attorneys’ offices, nail salons and pick-your-own-gladioli farms, the dumb luck struck at mr. B’s beer distributorship (“Lamb Sandwiches Wings Smelts”) on Route 18.A young man behind the counter went to get the assistant manager, a young woman wearing a Pink Floyd T-shirt who bounded out of the back room.”I’m Ashley Harlan’s cousin,” Christina Montgomery exclaimed.but then, this: “I don’t know her. but she and I have the same great grandmother.” We’ll send the latest Pittsburgh sports headlines to your phone or email every day — 
Another celebrity defendant has gotten away with murder. While 25-year-old tramp Casey Anthony is not a football star like O.J. Simpson, America followed her case closely over the past three years. she became a household name because networks like CNN Headline News followed the case 24 hours a day. They covered just this trial and nothing else, no matter what was happening at home or abroad. 
If you’re like us, googling a celebrity’s look in attempts to ID an anonymous garment is a possibly unfortunate, all-too-common pastime. our search entry usually goes something like “Kate Bosworth pink shorts Los Angeles.” And although this strategy sometimes works (the shorts in question were by Isabel Marant), there are also those obscure street-style snaps that result in a more aimless, often fruitless identification process. Thanks to a