Festival Season

Summer is fast approaching and music festival season is almost in full swing. What makes them so appealing? Well, obviously the music, but the atmosphere of the festival and mood of the people is so intoxicating. Usually, everyone’s vibes are chilled and relaxed. Plus its summer so everyone is feeling great and happy. Back to the music. Having loads of your favorite artists playing in one place is extremely exciting. Everyone around you is having a good time and there seems to not be a care in the world. A couple of music festivals I have gone to include Pitchfork, Mamby, and Lollapalooza. Some that I would really like to go to are Electric Forest, Ultra, Bonnaroo, and Spring Awakening. 

Give me a break: Donald Trump

So it appears that Donald Trump actually has a chance of being our next president. *cries* The long lasting joke that is becoming a terrifying reality has lost its humor. I’m actually quite frightened. As a Mexican-American I find it unquestionably wrong that someone who has such strong negative views of Mexican-Americans becomes our next president. There have been loads of comparisons between Trump and Hitler and honestly you cannot tell me they are not accurate. Fingers crossed he loses, but only time and America’s votes will tell. 

My phone is my soulmate

From the moment I wake up to the last thing I see, I find myself checking my phone for notifications, updates, or just browsing on social media. The relationship I have with my phone is the one I devote most of my time to. Walking to class, eating meals, even as discussing as it is, yes I take my phone to look at while I’m in the bathroom. Some people don’t even feel comfortable letting other people hear them take a piss yet here I am looking at someone’s snap chat story on full volume. Yes I may be in my own private bathroom at home, but still. I did have the crazy idea of not using my phone for a whole day one time and I was doing well until I needed it. Not just to check social media, but I needed it to check my email and schedule. With all the features on our phones it is nearly impossible for us to manage our daily routines without them. 

No time

Ever since high school I have been an extremely involved person. Loads of extra-curricular filled my schedule all day every day. My typical school day in high school would consist of waking up at 6 a.m., being in classes til 3p.m, having dance practice until 6p.m, and finishing off with choral rehearsals until 10p.m. In addition, I would have a ton of homework left to do which would keep me up til 1a.m just to do it all again the next day. Not to mention when it was competition or performance season. In college, nothing has changed. Sure the first two years were a lot less stressful because the rigor of my classes weren’t that difficult, but I was still involved in campus organizations and work outside of school.  As I look back on my years at North Central and my time back in high school I ask myself where the time has gone, but I can actually pin point where that time has gone into.

What is healthy?

100% organic, GMO free, farm-raised, etc. These are words you see on every food packaging and I’m extremely overwhelmed by them. Not because I don’t understand them, but because I find myself not touching a product that doesn’t have the most labels on the packaging. The media and other forms of information have taught me that “healthy” foods are ones with these types of labels. However, there are hundreds of companies that falsely place these labels in order to trick consumers, like me, into buying them. Another thing to keep in mind is the actual term “healthy” how much people value it. To me healthy includes diet, lifestyle, and activity level. If I’m not doing all three routinely then I’m not being “healthy”. 

Life after School

As graduation is fast approaching I have been constantly thinking about my future. What will I do? Where will I work? Who will I meet? Questions like these repeatedly run through my head causing me to lose focus and build anxiety. At the same time, I find pleasure in knowing that I have the ability to form my future in whatever I want it to be. The part of not having a structure or time line of how and when I should achieve things in my life is both completely terrifying yet exciting. In these last few weeks of school I have done much self-reflection on what I have already achieved, and how I have achieved it. Sure there are things I wish I would have done differently, but ultimately the decisions I did take have lead me to where I am today and today I find myself grateful and happy of who I am. This constant talk of “the real world” and how I need to prepare for it no longer worries me, but then I come into a full cycle of worrying because I’m not worries.   

Cyberbullying

I remember being introduced to this topic in high school after we had watched a news story of an unfortunate series of events that lead to a teen ending their life. Cyber bullying has been a hot topic of discussion in several courses. Business law, psychology, and my media classes. It is fascinating to see how people feel comfortable and confident to bully online as oppose to in person. Hiding behind and a computer screen, and even by an anonymous name gives people a sense of protection from confrontation, and not being afraid to say anything they want. Just as Dana Boyd said that teen's online presence is a "hangout" just as going to the mall would be, it's pretty clear to see that cyber bullying is obviously people bullying each other online as well. Still, cyber bullying is an extremely sticky subject as far as using what people say online against them in legal situations. The lines of  privacy and freedom of speech are extremely blurry.

Sacrificing Privacy

It is common sense, or at least I hope it is, that you should not post anything to social media that you do not wish for others to see. Still, some people don't have common sense. I do believe that there should be some form of privacy given to us on social outlets and there are. We have the ability to make our accounts private, or choose who gets to see our posts. Consent is given to others when we allow them to "friend" or "follow" us, but that doesn't mean institutions should be able to use that content against us. It all depends on the situation that is at hand.
In a cyber bullying case, since there are direct and specific threats between individuals the schools intervention on the situation created on social media is necessary in order to take appropriate actions. Therefore, these types of cases do require the invasion on a private social media account due to the nature of the case.
In employment cases, I agree with Andrews that we need to adopt some form of Social Network Constitution because employers should focus on a candidate's skills and experience rather than what their interests are.
For the majority of my social media accounts, except Twitter, I keep private. This is simply because of the nature of the platform and that I don't really use any other platform as much as Twitter; however Twitter is a bit more savage than the other platforms. Facebook me is more observant of other peoples lives which is why I don't really use it. Twitter me is not afraid to re-tweet anything. ANYTHING.

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