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

Social media sites are intriguing.  One gets to peer into the window of peoples’ most private thoughts, and sometimes, actions.  How many times have you logged onto Facebook or Twitter to see that someone is engaged, married, divorced, pregnant, widowed?  It’s really about the status or announcement of the event.  It’s a safe haven where people can put information out there they really choose not to share on a more intimate level.

Something seems lost when someone needs to announce to 500 or 1,000 close friends, at the same time, they are getting married!  What happened to calling your sister or best friend with uncontrolled excitement jumping through the phone to share the news?  Or, maybe it’s the safe place to announce you agreed to marry the person all your friends and family hate.  They’ve told you over and over again the person’s wrong for you!  You ultimately go through with the wedding, find out they’re all right and then you can post the details of your divorce decree!

Then, sometimes, it’s all about the shock value!  It’s about posting a statement so controversial that it can only be done once, loud, and with vibrato!  That seems to be the only way they’ll listen.

 - Nancy Valentino

Matthew Persaud

Words like chastisement remind me of this game my girlfriend and I used to play 3 years ago when we first started dating. The words we used had to be words that people don't normally hear in day to day conversation and we would have to try and think of another word that had the same meaning. of the word. I cant say i always played fair though I made up plenty of words and twisted definitions to make myself closer to being right. When I see quotes I don't understand I try to read them backwards and replacing words so this quote would sound like talented people merit fame and I would leave out the words chastisement and punishment yet still keep the negative diction in mind in case my English teacher asks the class to try and explain the meaning of the quote. I know I'm not talented academic wise but at least if I try I know the teacher can never say he did not see any effort. I don't believe trying can get you anywhere you want in life I think that's a load of crap but I enjoy trying and i can always hope that my attempts in school don't go unnoticed by any of my graders. At least my lack of talent will not lead to me having any fame, fame is definitely not something I want in life. I like to have things simple and average I don't see myself going far in life but I'm okay with that as long as i get to enjoy the simple things in life.

Rain, why do people hate you?

Rain, why do people hate you? Yes, you get people soaked and force us to stay in all day. But the rain can be really calming. The sound of rain pouring soothes me. It reminds me that even the world has bad days. Also, it teaches me not to sweat the small stuff and to not take stress so hard. The rain can be a pain, but it sure beats the summer heat.
Leonard (Leo) Gocaj

"Try Try Again"

Joshua Currence

   When someone fails at something they're disappointed and well let's face it disappointment is a part of life. We learn more than how to deal with failure, we also learn to expect it. If you succeed on your first try at doing anything you're usually surprised by it, well at least i know i am. Once you get to the top of the mountain and look around all you'll see are nothing but mountain tops. As kids we weren't really taught how to deal with success, probably because it wasn't expected. Like if we were expected to succeed we'd be taught how to deal with more than success but also the aftermath of it. It sounds screwed up. If we want to ever reach a certain level we have to try and achieve it and be ready for whatever comes after. Take for instance when we hear the phrase "power corrupts", the reason is because the person who came into power most likely didn't expect to make it into power. Or like is someone wins the lotto and then squanders all the money it's most likely because they had to plan on winning it so they didn't really plan or budget on what to do with the money.

Generation Facebook

Karissa Royster

            In today’s society – what is referred to as Generation Facebook – we gladly and freely give up private information through the internet. No one ever really asks for this information or urges us to make it available. We simply just give ourselves up to this gigantic database that can be accessed by people from all over the globe. Facebook has given us a means for presenting our entire lives on one little wall: our likes and dislikes, what we look like, our phone numbers (if you really have no problem with posting that), and further more links to the lives, likes and dislikes, and photos of those closest to us. Facebook even has an app for “checking in” to your current location, which if you haven’t noticed conveniently provides a map of how to get to where you’re located just in case some sociopathic murderer would like to find you. Twitter even goes further to provoke you to simply update your life whenever you feel necessary. “Just finished making ramen! #YouAintAboutDatCollegeLyfeDoe” and “Yo man, someone please tell me what happened last night!” are pieces of information that used to have no value or were meant for private conversation that we freely give up to whomever follows us online. But do we ever stop and think about where this information gets stored?

            Google, for example, stores every single search done by every single person’s IP address. This information isn’t necessarily stored with the intention of using it to your detriment but the fact of the matter is that it can be. The fact of the matter is that your searches and posts are available somewhere and free to use to someone else’s discretion. As narcissistic as this may appear, Google yourself.

"It all comes down to this: I feel like shit but I look great"

Today's world is one where it is important to make a statement. It's not so much who we are as a group as oppose to who we are as individuals. We are judged by the clothes we wear, food we eat and even sometimes, unfortunately, judged by the color of our skin. We live our whole lives trying to figure out how those around us perceive us. We want to stay up to date and 'in' fashion with everything we do. Looking great is a craze that has been defined and redefined by companies looking to sell their products. We constantly criticize and objectify ourselves because we have been caught up in a whirlwind with monster money-making, profit driven companies. We turn to material products to define ourselves losing our human self completely.

- Urvi Bagaria

 

Isaac Santos                                                                                                                                       “Every generation needs a new revolution”   –Thomas Jefferson                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Progress is usually expected to follow the passing of time. History gives society the benefit of learning from its mistakes as well as how to build upon successes. Every once in a while one will find that one’s current generation is somehow void or logically wrong/outdated. Then, of course, you’ll also encounter the occasional corrupt government and a new sense of morality. Society’s standard is built upon opinions and point of views. This means that the standard is never a constant throughout history because it is consistently changing. This standard influences everything from one’s personal life to the changing of core aspects of society that define who we are as a people. Every generation can always find room to evolve because the nature of humanity’s standard allows it to. Not only is this true, but it is also a necessity for each generation to have its own revolution because society is defined by its own actions. If these actions are recycled, then there is no room for improvement. One can never be satisfied with the status quo. We must be pioneers, pushing ourselves to the limit.

                                                                                                                                

"Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent." - Emily Dickinson

As it states, it seems that the wheel of fortune has turned its course. The individuals we view as living in splendor actually live in a world with the most undesirable situation—isolation. Take Rihanna for instance, we look at her and idolize her lovely voice, red hair and ability to buy her mother a mansion yet in her interview with Oprah she breaks down crying because the life of a celebrity isn’t all we’ve it out to be. Its actually a life of reality, times of hurt with times of laughter. Now how about giving merit where merit is deserved? That’s always a tough one because we assume nobody knows better than us and we will never deprive ourselves of anything less. That being the case, we leave it up for grabs and we leave our achievements hanging by a loose thread over the heads’ of those that watch on. Some may like it, some may love it and all too many share an opinion completely oblivious to the achievement in and of itself. This is celebrity. The actions of these individuals, yet our response is their impact. This is celebrity. 

- Lindsey Burton

" I Make the Road "- Denis Johnson

 The road is long;  I'm focusing on me; All I see is Trees and wide stretches of green; The sky is blue; Not a single cloud in the sky; What is going on; What am I thinking about; Why am I walking so far;Where are the people; All I see is long stretches of parallel streets; Now I see people; One by one as  I walk; The clothes on my back are sweaty; Now I see more people; What is happening; Where did the Trees go; I'm on a journey to nowhere; nothing is happening; I'm walking toward emptiness; there are no more Trees; It's getting dark; the sky is no longer blue; The road is getting shorter and shorter; There are more people now; I can't see the road no longer.
 

Forgetting the Past_Drew Washington

Our most present and urgent problem in today’s society is not forgetting the past. The past is what creates present, the present is what creates future. Therefore, essentially, the past is what creates our tomorrow. In school we are forced to take a series of history courses in which we learn the history of ancient roman culture, ancient greek culture, our own American culture, and even sometimes the history of our own family lineage. But is simply learning and reading out of the textbook enough? Is furiously memorizing names we can’t pronounce and dates that all blend into one truly the essence of remembering the past. In turning the past into a series of dates, names, and ideas, we separate ourselves from  “that world.” The past becomes a place, an idea in which we do not really identify with nor care about. We become detached and begin to believe that what is written in our history books has no affect to our lives, or in essence our existence as productive humans.  Think about it. Essentially our mom and dad’s generation is simply an era of huge hair and unnecessarily high platform shoes. Our grandparent’s era is simply the era of no color, the era where everything is portrayed in black and white, seeming uninteresting and useless in comparison to our busy and colorful lives today. In the same way as we feel distant from those generations, our kids will too feel distant from ours. What will be to them? Will we be an era that was silly enough to believe that the Iphone 5 is the best that technology can get. Or will we be known as the era who is insanely obsessed with being “hip” and thinking that dressing grungy or like a bum if you will is trendy. What will we be remembered as? Preserve our history, preserve what we are, or we too will be lost in the pages of the uninteresting, dusty textbook simply filled with names we do not understand and seemingly irrelevant numbers.

Are we atavistic? -Megan Mitchell

Technology can make a person into anything they want to be.  Of course everything else becomes atavistic in the bright-screened glare that is its face.  Technology; Macbooks, Dells (well, maybe not Dells), iPhones, Blackberry, they all allow you to take away the aspects of your character that you don't like.  The schizophrenic becomes friendly, the nerd becomes a jock, and the jock becomes a 25-year old "free spirit" named Shelly.  Anyone can be anything thanks to the Internet and sites like Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, and Match.com.  Life as we know it has changed.  Men and women are not couples until they are "Facebook official".  The crazed child predator down the block has now been caught being a creeper on live television and Internet feeds worldwide, thanks to the rise of shows like "To Catch a Predator".  A famously nerdy Dungeons and Dragons top wizard number 2, 143.25 can instantly become an athlete, a husband, a woman; all at the touch of a few keys.  The truth is, technology has made all of us atavistic.

"In the face of technology, everything becomes a little atavistic." -Don Delillo

LOL. OMG. TTYL. Three or four-lettered words used to be three or four-word phrases. 

We have become dependent on technology to do things for us.  We have grown accustomed to its presence, or capabilities, rather, because technology doesn’t just “exist,” it does.  Some may say that the current generation – mostly the youth – have become lazy in terms of communicating or taking action towards certain things.  If we need directions to a new restaurant, we look up the address and plug it in to our phones, and Siri tells us where to go.  If we are writing a research paper, we Google (or Wikipedia) the answers and use the “control f” button to find key words on a page; we barely even read the whole thing.  And then, we haphazardly write our research papers without checking for mistakes, because Microsoft Word will point our mistakes with squiggly red lines.

Does this mean our intelligence as a society is downgrading? No.  We still have to consider the masterminds who have imagined of and created these technological advances to begin with.  But have we lost some of the human interaction and analytical skills needed to develop intellectually and socially?  

IDK.

- Erica Gonzales

Revenge of the Nerds!

I have never perceived the word "nerd" as a bad thing. Growing up, both of my parents always encouraged academics over anything else. Early on, I was taught the cliche that tells you to "be nice to the smart kids, they'll be your boss someday", and it is still applicable today. The clip from Revenge of the Nerds shows the ultimate stereotype of a nerd-jock face off. Perhaps it is the disdain for something or someone vastly different from yourself that drives it. The conventional "jock" is supposed to not feel threatened by the stereotypically weaker physical being that is the "nerd", yet they continue to use them as a means for fluffing their own ego and constantly reasserting their physical dominance. Perhaps it really is the priorities you are taught when you are young that further these stereotypes. Whether your family valued athleticism, wit, or intellect, to only value one is an almost 50s-era perception of social structure. For the most part, it is entirely different today. There are self-professed geeks, nerds, and dorks everywhere. In fact, being a geek today has practically become a badge of pride to some. Being a nerd is actually trendy. Whether it is simply a cycle or if the advances in technology have created this social shift, it is no longer a bad thing to possess intellect. It is cool.

-Olivia Boyce

Revenge of the Nerds Prompt (Anzhe Zhang)

I think a common problem prevalent in our society is this promotion of masculinity, anti-intellectuallism, and, in a way, violence. In the clip from the Revenge of the Nerds, the coach is angry because his kids were not holding up to the stereotyped trappings of the clique they were in. They were made ashamed for being feminine, and most of all, losing to a bunch of guys who were physically inferior.

To compare this to last night's reading ("The Alpha Geeks"), this strain of intellectualism as a very uncool thing has been promoted through movies, music, politicians, and as shown in this movie, our mentors. We are taught from a very young age that the socialization of boys, as physical and loud is normal, and that if you would rather read a book than go play football, you're suddenly a nerd. We romanticize the male as powerful and affirmative due to centuries of reinforcement, but have we ever thought why boys are looked down upon just because they rather read a book than play football? It would be silly to suggest that books are inherently "un-boy-like", but a large part of society view it that way.

I think we are getting better with this however, and with the modern geek "movement", we've become more accepting, and we're now seeing intellectualism as a sign of coolness, not a symbol of shame.

Revenge of the Nerds In-Class Prompt - Megan Mitchell

"Only the strong shall survive."  Only the strong?  But what is strength?  What does it mean to be strong?  Is it physical?  Perhaps strength comes from the gym or the football field...  But maybe it doesn't.  Maybe that is only a small part of what it means to be strong.  Strength is courage, strength is brave.  It is in all of us, but only some of us choose to harness it and use it.  Strength is what gets you out of bed in the morning the day after your father has died.  Strength is what allows the single mother to feed her children.  Strength is honesty, even when you know that it might get you hurt.  Strength is having the power to hurt someone and choosing not to.  What is strength?  Is it a compulsion...a game...a sport?  Strength is the ability to survive, certainly.  But strength is also the ability to heal and be healed.  So perhaps it is not only the strong that will survive in this world.  Because strength is kindness, and the kind will lift others up on their path to greatness.  The kind and the strong have the ability to be a guiding light.  They are our leaders; our hope.  Their strength radiates: it reflects off of them and onto the rest of us.  With the right kind of strength leading us and helping us along, maybe we can all survive.