"The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?'  it's 'What do people want to tell about themselves?' "            -Mark Zuckerberg

If we can filter the things that our messy daily lives consist of and leave out for public viewing our cute pets, dedication to charity, BFFs, and happy smiley moments in which we always appear at our optimal, are we protecting the public or just not revealing all?  Are we only providing what we know others want to see?  Yes our clothes slip off sometimes, and there just so happens to be a smartphone nearby.  On the other hand, our embarrassing moments remain hidden (unless put up by an enemy).  We should ask ourselves, are we really what and who we say we are?  Do we let social media shape us?  How often is it that we find ourselves keeping our details just neat and brief enough to fill out "About Me" sections and avoid addressing the more serious topics?  Our defining moment shouldn't be getting over 500 likes or having over 1,000 friends.  If we stumble when trying to answer these simple questions, perhaps it's time to turn off the PC, get up, and have some real communication.

                                                                                                 -Shaniah Stewart

"Immigrant: an unenlightened person who thinks one country better than the other." Ambrose Bierce. 

Why do people migrate in the first place? To come to a country to get a better life for themselves and children. However, is it really better? Some people work to struggle to make ends meet just so that their children would have a better future. People leave their countries to come; for example, the United States believing everything will be better. Yet little that they know, they are treated worse and called names. People who live in this country do not see these on the same level as them. Then it makes me wonder WHY, what makes US better then THEM? The Untied States puts rules to keep immigrants away, like the Arizona laws. People now have to prove they are or not from this country. It disguises me in what this world has come to. Just because one has a social security card doesn't make one better then who does not or is pending for one. What everyone wants in common is a better life. 

-Emily Jeanine Doig 
English 101 - Fall Semester 2012 - John Jay College of Criminal Justice. 

“Your heart is my piñata.” - Chuck Palahniuk

9 year old birthday party.  Kids screaming everywhere.  Mom brings out the fringed, cardboard creation.  The children scream. The fixture gets hung from a tree branch in the backyard.  The birthday celebrant gets a blindfold, and a baseball bat.  Ready, set, go.

In saying “your heart is my piñata,” you automatically look like a douche.  You’re saying you want to hurt a person, use them.  Just as a piñata’s sole purpose is to be torn open, that is the purpose you make of the people you hurt.  Intentionally.  A married man sleeps with his secretary on a business trip.  Whack.  He comes home and continues to tell his wife he loves her.  Whack.  One might continue the external arrangement as an ongoing affair.  Whack, whack, whack.  The wife finally finds out her husband is cheating on her.  Whack.  The contents spill all over the floor.

But there is one thing to consider about a piñata.  Yes, it is made only to be destroyed.  Yes, it is a central part of celebrations and happy times, and it only gets beat up in the end.  But take note of this: the only reason why it is torn apart and swung at is because you want what is inside.

-Erica Gonzales

“In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” – George Orwell

More than often doing something from the “norm” can be considered a revolutionary act. If everyone is lying and you suddenly break the chain and tell the truth it would appear as a revolution. Just like with the adaption of modern English. Everyone seems to be implementing it because of its convenience but if one person took it further than Orwell and rather than just pointing it out, started changing their writing this would be seen as a revolution. It's interesting, everything on this planet has to undergo some type of change. From the moment we were conceived and even after death we experience change, yet in life when humans have the choice to make a change they often do more talking than acting. Change seems to be such a natural process yet it seems like the act of pulling teeth when we have the choice of making a change. I guess it makes the revolution significant, some may say we make this change a living nightmare because we naturally fear change but perhaps we do it to make our change and ourselves worth remembering. If this holds true it sure says a lot about the human psyche, don’t you think?

– Lindsey Burton

“The question isn’t, ‘What do we want to know about people?’ its, ‘What do people want to tell about themselves?’” – Mark Zuckerberg

It’s funny that this quote is coming from the founder of Facebook who has been making Facebook’s privacy setting increasingly public. From reading the “Face of Facebook,” this statement seems a little controversial. Facebook has been said to be one of the largest platforms in which people have come out but have they made this choice to come out by force or by choice? From my reading, Facebook can be classified as a bad friend pressuring you to do things you don’t necessarily want to do. If that guy initially did want to admit that he was gay he wouldn’t have went back and change this option on his Facebook page. This is a case where Facebook’s privacy setting has been little but private and where Facebook offers only limited choices. Another scenario is where Facebook was again public in its privacy setting but in this case its boundaries were limitless. Troy Smith was the perpetrator’s Facebook name and this instigator would upload statuses of the utmost absurdity that it turned people’s lives upside down. Smith’s true identity still remains unknown to this day but the danger of his openness was so severe that Facebook had to take matters in its own hands, removing Smith’s page. In these two instances, things were told that people did not want to be told despite the truth behind them. Facebook’s goal is to be open but are the people on Facebook ready for this openness?

– Lindsey Burton  

ehhh, you sure?

It seems to me that I live in a very different time period.  I love that my generation is the one that was born into the world of the Internet. We live in a time where information from all of around the world is shared and free. We live in a world where, for the most part, if you have something to say, someone will hear it. This is whether that person is the one person that follows your blog on the other side of the world, or that kid in English class you don’t really know but likes all of your Facebook status’. But it is also a little disheartening to know that I cant trust everything that I see out there. I realize that many people cheat steal and especially lie, so trust, especially growing up in New York, something that wasn’t innate to me. Trust was that distant cousin you wouldn’t see to often. The same cousin who if you weren’t really comfortable with you could leave alone and stay away from, because you only saw him when you had to. But having this discontent for the trust issues of the world today I feel as though I really appreciate the truth. The truth is not something to be expected anymore, it is something to look out for and be very cautious of. I realize it is easier to gain and lose respect now, just as it is easier to gain and lose credibility. The world is much more fast pace, you really have to pay attention to what’s going on around you, so when you do come across someone who is telling the truth in this giant pool of lies, they are game changers. Most people don’t know how to deal with them or even know how to react.