Post and poke: why the social media experience and college culture are joined at the hip

right on point: ‘Wolf’ and the one percent: America’s overwhelming obsession with the rich

A trend in this year’s Oscar race has finally caught up to what many of us have long taken for granted: greed and the pursuit of excessive wealth are now as American as chow mein and apple pie. “American Hustle” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” glorify the role of those in pursuit of this new American Dream, and even when the story takes a turn to punish the hero, as in “The Great Gatsby,” it’s too little, too late. You can’t spend two hours watching a story that basks in the excesses of money and power and rolls in the cocaine crumbs and not secretly wish it were you living that life.
All these films conclude in a similar fashion: the “morality police” show up in the final moments to make sure the audience sees these stories as a cautionary tale. “This is what happens, kids, if you fly too high.” Who are they kidding? We all want what Leonardo’s got. And yet, at the same time, we have political movements such as Occupy Wall Street demanding drastic reform, a chronic unemployment situation with no end in sight, a lopsided economy that greatly favors the wealthy, and the liberal battle cry to tax the rich so that the “have-nots” have more. Yet, if so many of us condemn the principles that these films portray, why are we drawn in record numbers to celebrate this culture?
We’ve come out of the closet to worship the gods of Money and Privilege. We, college kids trying to find our ways, may not have any at the moment, but the fantasy that we might get there one day is very much alive. It’s why the millennial generation, including myself, was drawn to the hit HBO show “Entourage,” which follows the lives of a young movie star and his posse who come from humble roots and make it to America’s grandest stage.

right on point: Prioritizing character in American sports

I took the announcement of Derek Jeter’s impending retirement at the end of the upcoming season as bittersweet news, even if he’s played professionally for over two decades. Baseball fans take for granted his clutch hitting and acrobatic plays in the field and his leadership as captain of the Yankees. But what really stands out is his consistently flawless character off the field and in the public eye. Whether it was his establishment of the Turn 2 Foundation to help troubled teenagers or calling (unprompted) the family of a Sandy Hook victim who was a fan of the Yankees, Jeter is the ultimate class act. General Manager Brian Cashman summed it up best when he said that Jeter is the type of guy you’d want your daughter to marry.
But unfortunately, “whole-packages” like Jeter are a rare sight in professional sports. We’re at a point now when athletes are expected to crash and burn or erupt in scandal. There’s been half a dozen breaking scandals of one kind or another since I came up with the idea to write this column at the beginning of the academic year. So it’s worth asking: Do character values in the American sports industry matter in this cynical age?
While professional team sports unify many commendable aspects of the human spirit, they also represent a dark microcosm of American spirit. Athletes are encouraged and rewarded for aggression and violent behavior, starting in the Pee Wee leagues. This “bad boy” culture is condoned or even encouraged by many parents and celebrated by coaches and school administrators who want results (i.e. a winning team). Habits form and their personal lives are reshaped, which often leads to trouble later in life. Domestic abuse, gun violence, DUIs, cheating with performance enhancing drugs and brawls are the usual ramifications.
Sports journalist Frank Deford recently said that the “NFL is home to bullies, wife beaters, racists and, yes, some homophobes,” but he wouldn’t be far off the mark by widening his field. The condition is made worse by the handlers and executives who look the other way when athletes go rogue. Like any corporation, professional teams strive to keep harmful information out of the public eye, but inevitably the truth rises up and breaks out. To cite one prominent example, the New England Patriots knew they had a rotten apple in star tight-end Aaron Hernandez, but it took an accusation of murder to cut him.
Yes, there are many athletes who simply are in it for the love of the game, but they are tainted by the same toxic brush that paints over their sport. Many cyclists may be totally drug free, but anyone in that sport who does well is now looked at with a degree of skepticism that was unimaginable a decade ago. The NBA may demand that all its athletes wear a jacket and tie when seen in public, but it’s not the clothes that make the man. Metta World Peace (formerly known as Ron Artest), Gilbert Arenas, and Raymond Felton set back the entire league when they have run-ins with the law. So, if we accept as a given that a stunning, widespread lack of character and civility exists in a wide range of sports, we can also equally assume that it is only going to get worse. If we don’t start turning this around, sports at every level and age group will have all of the character depth of most pro-wrestlers.
Fortunately, there are several actions and reforms that the sports industry can take, on every level, to stress the importance of creating athletic men and women of whom we can all be proud. Youth coaches and parents must advocate that good character behavior is as important as winning. Excessive violence on and off the field has no place and must not be tolerated under any circumstances. High school is often when bad behavior comes to light and teachers, coaches and parents must be vigilant in maintaining these standards. Some have suggested that maintaining a dress code in the classroom might instill discipline, but I don’t buy it. We have to go a lot deeper than changing what you pull out of your closet each morning. College jocks who violate the rules must no longer be tolerated. This, of course, is easy to say and hard to enforce, because the financial blood of so many schools are dependent on those jocks scoring touchdowns. The alleged sexual misconduct charges facing Jameis Winston, the 2014 Heisman winner, were swept under the rug on his way to becoming an NCAA superstar. Whether or not there was a shred of truth to those accusations, we will never know. Associate Professor Billy Hawkins in the Deptartment of Kinesiology at the University of Georgia recently stated that executives from America’s big four sports league offices must make programs to address the culture of violence that embroils athletes and reverse “character underdevelopment” that many pro athletes develop.
The emphasis on good character in the pro sports world should extend to improved tolerance of openly gay athletes playing. Earlier this week, Jason Collins broke barriers by becoming the first openly gay NBA player, signing a short-term contract with the Brooklyn Nets. And just last year, on a smaller scale in the U.S. sports arena, Robbie Rogers became the first openly gay player to sign with a Major League Soccer team.
Comments by sports executives and pundits, behind a wall of anonymity, suggesting that Michael Sam (the star college football player who came out as openly gay to the public earlier this month) won’t be welcomed appropriately in the NFL because the game isn’t ready for a gay player in the locker room, are beyond preposterous. Those who defend this idea argue that the NFL is a “man’s game” and that these players don’t have a manly enough reputation to succeed.
The color barrier, another civil right obstacle in pro sports, didn’t stop the great Jackie Robinson from becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball. Athletes and representatives from pro sports teams should take a stand and visit LGBTQIA youth groups in their communities to get the message across that a kid can be openly gay and still achieve their dream of becoming a professional athlete.
All professional sports leagues should mirror and extend the goals of the NFL’s Character Development Program. This organization prioritizes anger management and reconciliation skills. This will not solve all the problems, but it certainly could limit the number of domestic abuse cases and DUIs that some high-profile athletes get entangled with. These can lead to an improvement in public perception of character value in American pro sports, a possible domino effect for changes at all levels of the game.

right on point

Post and poke: why the social media experience and college culture are joined at the hip

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Gabriel Frankel

Columnist

February 7, 2014

Happy birthday, Facebook! Ten years since the social media giant launched from Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room at Harvard, the company could not be in better shape at the start of 2014. It now has a billion-plus users, enjoyed a very profitable fourth quarter in 2013, receceived great publicity from the media’s coverage of the anniversary, and on top of all that, its stock price has reached an all-time high.

To thank its loyal users, the company developed LookBack, a feature on its website that creates a 102-second personalized montage video of a user’s activity over the years. And to no one’s surprise, hundreds of millions of users have already taken advantage of this new service less than one week after its release.

Facebook has had its fair share of social media competitors including Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. But despite the competition, Facebook unquestionably remains the king of social media among the millennial generation—and for good reason. It is simply the most effective, thorough and accessible way to connect with other people whether platonically, romantically or anything in between.

Facebook quenches our thirst for constant social connection to the outside world, via wall posts, likes, pokes and shares. It is an addictive social networking service. The couple of people I know who have deactivated their accounts to prove they can lead a successful social life without it have all come crawling back a short while later.

When we have relied on Facebook to market our social lives since our early teenage years, it becomes a hard habit to break. It’s really all we have known since our parents relinquished control of making our social connections through playdates.

A recent University of Michigan study revealed that the passive experience of Facebook activity can lead to depression and alienation amongst teenagers. Although for some this may be true, there’s no doubt that for most of us, the benefits far exceed the alienation. Maintaining an active user profile connects us in a genuinely fulfilling and definitive manner.

Facebook’s functionality for the college community provides a great commodity: the ability to fully control the presentation of our image in the digital world and how others perceive us. It’s why we are inclined to change profile pictures on a regular basis to keep our image fresh, and to post updates that reflect an ever-changing variety of interests and perspectives.

This same logic explains why we share photos of vacations, parties, and who we are hanging out with. And when that becomes boring, we connect to Instagram (a Facebook-owned photo-sharing app) or Spotify (a proprietary music-streaming service app) directly from Facebook just to spice the experience up a bit.

If we meet someone new on campus that we like, we send a friend request his or her way as soon as we get back to our computers. Some of these friend requests prove to be more meaningful than others, but ultimately, it’s a stamp of approval in the social media platform that declares, “I know this person.” And we might not admit it publicly, but deep down we are grateful that it helps us interact with people to whom we are attracted. Liking the same pages as a Facebook friend lets us know that we have something in common and announces the opportunity for a future connection. As an added bonus, Facebook’s messages give us the option to keep in contact with a wide range of friends not in our college circle, allowing us to stay in control of the different facets of our social connections.

The influence of Facebook’s power to unite the college community has been very evident to me in my six months at Bowdoin. After returning to campus from my Pre-Orientation trip, and before I even unpacked the things from the trip or took a shower, my Facebook notification button turned red, letting me know I had received Facebook friend requests from buddies on my trip.

Although we all had barely settled in, we didn’t miss a beat in making our social media presence known to others. I suppose back in the old days a phone call or note under the door would have been a fine option, but the immediacy of Facebook is a perfect fit for our increasingly networked world.

College Houses, clubs and sports teams promote their events on Facebook with the hope of attracting students to attend. The page “Bowdoin Missed Encounters” allows us to anonymously post about our real life interactions in an online forum, sans responsibility for what comes out of our mouth.

And of course, Bowdoin and practically every other educational institution have Facebook pages that they encourage college students to like, as they know it’s the best way to get their message across online.

In addition to the material aspect of the website, Facebook promotes the work and interests of valuable enterprises that we are connected to. This is why the White House and just about every corporate and philanthropic organization uses Facebook and other social media tools—to get the word out in an effective manner for a target audience of varying ages.

Despite predictions by some that Facebook may soon fall from its vaunted position, I don’t see the networking king losing any traction anytime soon due to its large volume of loyal, college-aged users. Its applications have become a part of our hectic, interactive lives. Yes, lingering questions of privacy settings and the consequences of diminishing social skills are real concerns, but for the next several years, Facebook has nothing to worry about. Facebook’s commitment to continued growth and expansion tells me something without doubt: the seductive partnership between college culture and the Facebook is sure to continue for a long time.

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