Mar 26 2013
I get it. The cute little red equal signs all over Facebook today are an easy target. It’s not Real Activism. It doesn’t actually help anyone. Get off your ass and Actually Do Something for the cause. Right? Yes, nobody should fool themselves that changing their profile picture will convince the Supreme Court to disregard …
Dec 03 2012
[Content note: suicide] Yup, I’m using my blog to promote something. But it’s a very important something. In my blog post earlier today I mentioned this atrocious Facebook page, which cruelly mocks suicidal teenagers by calling them “selfish” and “ignorant” and inciting them to kill themselves. I had reported it to Facebook, and I just …
Nov 17 2012
After the election last week, I saw exactly three reactions to Obama’s victory in my Facebook newsfeed. The majority were shouts of glee and sighs of relief, whether because Obama was elected or because Romney was not. Count me among those. A tiny minority were pictures of crying Statues of Liberty, Bible verses, and promises …
Aug 26 2012
I stumbled upon (don’t ask me how) this Facebook page today. It’s called “Most Beautiful Teenager.” Teens post photos of themselves on the page and see how many likes and comments they can rack up. Sometimes there’s a “scale” for the number of likes, usually going from “ugly” (100 likes) to “OUT OF THIS WORLD” …
Mar 09 2012
I’ll be honest with you: whenever I see a social media campaign going viral, I get suspicious. It’s not because I think people are evil or stupid, or because I dislike popular things (although that is often the case). It’s because for anything to become popular, it must be simple, easy-to-understand, without nuance. The violence …
Feb 23 2012
Okay, so, I realize I’m showing up rather late to the laptop-shooting party, but I didn’t want to let this bit of news pass by without writing about my reaction to it–not only to the incident itself, but to the various responses I’ve seen to it from the public. If you don’t know what I’m …
Feb 02 2012
[Snark Warning] A modified version of this piece also appeared as my column in the Daily Northwestern. Technology gets a bad rap. You wouldn’t think so–obviously, we all love it–but in a way it does. You can’t really go a day anymore without encountering a book, article, or person spewing some variation of the following: …
Jan 15 2012
I read an article on GOOD that provided statistics about how much college admissions officers stalk check applicants’ Facebooks. Apparently 24% of officers do it, and that number is on the rise. Now, this is really nothing new. However, what did strike me about the article was this: Twelve percent of admissions counselors told Kaplan that …
Jan 06 2012
If you have ever seen a bunch of women posting Facebook statuses with a random color, or a location where they “like it,” and felt a mix of confusion and frustration, you are not alone. These memes are part of an effort for breast cancer “awareness,” a word that I use cynically here and only …
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