Do You Think That We Have Found Aliens Already?

Think about it. The American government hides so many things from its people and from the world. The technology that we have available allows us to see and hear things that are insane distances away from our planet. There is an incredible amount of space in our galaxy, and there are countless other galaxies. If there is life on some other planet in some other galaxy, surely we have contacted them, or perhaps they have contacted us! The technology that the public is aware of allows us to do amazing things, and the government may be hiding even more advanced technology from us. There may not be any life on any planet besides Earth, but if there is, it is very possible for us to find it and communicate with it. With the current technology we may not be able to search every galaxy, but one day it could be possible, and one day we might discover that we are not the only living things in the universe.

Social media is terrifying.

         Social media can be a really good source to have. You can keep track of the people around you, get current events, and talk to people that you might not otherwise get to talk to. One day I was going through Facebook and decided I would try to catch up with an old friend. I got their number and we started texting but as we were texting I started noticing some red flags popping up. We used to work together at the same place back at home for a good time so he definitely knew I worked with him but I remember he asked me where we worked together. Which I thought was really strange since obviously he knew me. Before he had asked this question we held a conversation through text for about fifteen minutes or so and something just didn't feel right. So, I got suspicious and started questioning him. He wasn't who I thought I was talking to at all. It turns out that the person I thought I was talking to got a new phone number and didn't tell me. So, I asked the person who I was texting at the time what his name was and he told me, so I looked the name up on Facebook and nothing came back so I googled it. When I saw numerous results come back with his name I panicked because he was a registered sex offender. I just sat and stared at my screen for a minute and immediately blocked the number, deleted my Facebook and Twitter. I probably cried for a good hour.    I don't think I started engaging back in social media for a week or more. That was the most terrifying experience of my life. This creep had my phone number and he was one of the higher ranked sex offenders as well. He shouldn't have even had a phone to begin with.
       I'm not writing this as a sob story or expose myself and show a part of my naiveness at the time, but to show you guys that having a huge number of followers or friends on social media is not a good thing. You never know who could be hiding behind your five hundred friends. Once I got my Facebook back I only added my close friends, some college coaches, and followed a couple of big pages. This happened to me about two years ago and I still only have around 90-100 friends on Facebook and even that freaks me out sometimes but I no longer talk to friends on Facebook unless its like my boyfriend or someone from my main friends group. On twitter I only follow about fifty people and have fifty followers.  All of my settings are so strict you would probably think I'm partly crazy, however, I would rather be safe than sorry.

Of Loss and Weightlessness

Like most of us, I tend to use my phone to hold a lot of information that would take too much time and effort to remember. Well, my phone decided that yesterday would be a good time to just turn off and refuse to turn back on. This morning I tried to turn it on, but this attempt to get it to work was just as useless as the first five. I felt so lost this morning; not only are all my alarms on my cell phone, but so is my calendar, my schedule, half of my login information for social media, and, not to mention, all the contacts I never took the time to memorize. Losing all of these things made me realize that I don’t put in half the effort to remember what seems like day-to-day things like my schedule or the numbers that I text and call.

Although I recognize that phones are useful for storing information for us, as well as helping us keep up with schoolwork and life, I feel that this is something we all struggle with in this age of technology, because we think “Oh, it’s fine. I don’t have to remember this, because my phone will do it for me.” But the thing is, what if your phone gets lost, broken, or stolen, like what I experienced yesterday? The loss of a phone would make most of us feel stranded, not to mention vulnerable. I’ve gotten used to it after a few hours, but still, the almost overwhelming feeling of something being out of place is very unnerving. 

Is there an art to social media?

Something that I never really understood was how people our age manage to get thousands of followers on social media. Like in my high school, girls would have hundreds on hundreds of likes on their Instagram photos from people that they don’t even know. And their posts aren’t even that interesting. A lot of people would assume that they show a lot of cleavage or make sensual faces or something, but in actuality they are just posting typical teen-girl posts.

So is there an art to social media? Because people who put a lot of effort into their posts could get like thirty likes, where other people just upload a picture of their face with no effort and get feedback from hundreds of people. There is next to no balance in the social media world. There are unspoken techniques to get more likes and comments that must be shared amongst those that become “Instagram famous,” and they definitely aren’t telling us…

NARAL Rally in front of the Supreme Court of the United States

On Wednesday, I attended a rally in front of the Supreme Court of the United States while the Justices heard oral arguments in the case Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt. It was my first rally I had ever attended, so I was nervous to be in a crowd of hundreds of people chanting, screaming, and holding signs. To give a little bit of background on the case the Supreme Court Justices were hearing, Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt deals with Texas law HB2 that is intended to restrict abortion access for Texas women. This case is the most important case regarding abortion in over 24 years, and if the Supreme Court rules in favor of HB2 and Hellerstedt, similar laws would definitely sweep across the country in various states. In simpler words, this case is a really big deal.

Because so much is at stake in this Supreme Court Case, both pro-choice supporters and anti-abortion supporters rallied in front of the steps of the Supreme Court yesterday to show the Justices where Americans stand on the issue. Each side was very organized and had various guest speakers who gave speeches defending their stance on abortion. Most of the pro-choice supporters were wearing dark, eggplant purple and chanting, while many of the anti-abortion supporters stayed quiet, wearing duct tape over their mouths and linking arms. There weren’t very many anti-abortion protestors, however. I’m not sure of the numbers, but the crowd was overwhelmingly pro-choice, with a handful of anti-abortion supporters here and there.

I know there are many people, especially people of our generation, who think that we don’t have a voice when it comes to government issues, and I firmly disagree. Our small, individual actions may not have a large impact on what our government does, but when we bring these individual actions together and concentrate these individual efforts, it turns into a stepping stone towards the larger goal. Change rarely happens quickly, and it’s always going to upset some people. People came from all over the country to let the Supreme Court Justices know where they stood on the issue, and remind them that we cannot go back to the world before Roe vs. Wade. I know my individual presence didn’t make or break the rally, but it was still one more voice chanting in unison, and it was about being a part of something bigger.

Addiction is REAL

Are you addicted to social media? I know for a fact that I have gone through stages of addiction. I catch myself falling into the routine of checking social media more than five times a day. When I realize I'm addicted again, I slowly stop myself from checking my phone as often. I can honestly say that I think social media addiction is a problem. I can't walk from class to class without seeing at least three people with their faces in their phones. Almost every day I get stuck behind someone who is walking slowly because they're texting and not paying attention. I watch people get food from the ram's den and they are texting, or on social media when they are waiting in line. During lunch and dinner I look around and see that more than half of the population are on their phones, rather than interacting with their friends. I found a quiz online that can help someone determine if they're addicted to social media, here are some questions you can ask yourself:
1.What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
2. How often do you take a picture of your meal and share it on social media?
3. How often do you check social media?
4. How often do you check social media when watching a movie or tv?
5. Has your partner/best friend/ mom ever complained that you spend more time on your phone than you do talking to them?
6. When something funny or bad happens what's one of the first things you do?
7. How often do you take selfies or snapchat?
8. Do you know how many friends/followers you have on social media?
9. Do you do things purposely to get more likes/favorites on social media?
10. What do you do before you go to bed?
If your answers to these questions have anything to do with social media or cell phones then you may have an addiction problem.

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