Feeling Nostalgic

Is it just me or do people not take as many pictures anymore? Sure there's Instagram, where users post photos of their food or the selfie of the day. The most common types of photos that I see on social networking sites are of groups of people who get together and smile. Don't get me wrong, I've taken many of those pictures and they always look nice! But what's the point of having a photo album where each photograph includes one person posing with everyone else at the event? Doesn't that get boring to look at? I don't think it even captures what was even happening at the event! It's just a bunch of people smiling. 

My family used to be huge on picture taking. We had an entire dresser drawer in our house that was dedicated to photos of our childhood, and our parent's childhood. There would be so many days where we would sit around and take out a pile of photos to look at and reminisce in the memories. But what's special about those old photos is that most of them are funny or candid shots! They're not all stiff poses. We don't always care about taking pictures of true moments that we want to remember, we're more concerned about looking good in the picture because it will be posted online for everyone to see. 

Care less about everyone doing the same pose, whether or not you're on your good side, or whether or not remembered to put your arm on your waist so it looks thinner (you know who you are). Take candid shots of everything that is happening so you remember more than what you wore that day, and you actually remember how you felt. 

Whether or not you want an example, here's a candid  throwback of my sister and I around 14 or so years ago. 

Wisconsin's Real Life Horror Story

Whether or not you are an avid news reader or watcher, it's hard not to hear about things such as the Wisconsin stabbing. Just in case you haven't used the internet in the past week, there were two 12-year old girls that stabbed their friend in the woods 19 times. Their reasoning? They were reading a website called "Creepypasta" and were convinced they would become part of the Slender Man clan if they performed this act. I'm sorry...what?

I've never heard a story like this one, about two girls so young doing something so awful and not even being sorry for it. They claim to have no sympathy! Of course their mental health is in question at this point, but what could have been so convincing on this website that they would go to such lengths? The Creepypasta website is full of strange photos, stories, and urban legends according to the BuzzFeed article, and it has a lot of information about the Slender Man. He is a modern monster that has been placed in old photos with children, and supposedly afterwords the children would disappear. Supposedly when someone encounters the Slender Man, they go crazy. As appealing as he sounds already, he also is extremely tall and thin, and he has no face. Does it sound like it was worth it yet?



There are a lot of fingers to point at the cause of this incident, the obvious one being the website where the girls found their stories. The story and website creators have commented, but their statements will mean nothing to parents who are trying to protect their children from those type of sites. Besides the website for posting such cruel information and stories that are so easily available to kids, where were these girl's parents? If there was some question of mental illness, why would they not be monitoring their access to knives? Let alone their internet use or whereabouts? Even if they didn't know the seriousness of the girls minds, they should still be paying attention to what their children are doing as a safety precaution for everyone.

It's impossible to completely stop websites like Creepypasta from existing. But it's not impossible to regulate who uses it and how much, and it's also possible to stop incidents like this one occurring. What do you think is to blame? The girls are being tried as adults, so it seems like they will be getting the punishment they deserve. But also..is it entirely their fault? All I know is I won't be seeking out Creepypasta or the Slender Man anytime soon.

Lost in Space

I was reading through news headlines today, and I thought I'd talk about a different kind of technology; space technology. I have always been fascinated with space discoveries and searches, and I'm a huge believer that there is a lot more than we know outside of our atmosphere. I became really interested my freshman year when I took an average Astronomy class, and on the first day I was hooked by the information! Even if my teacher thought other life forms were absurd. Why do some people teach?

USA Today released information about a "mega-Earth" discovery via telescope, which is basically a planet that is double our size. Normally planets that large are gas planets, but planet Kepler is definitely solid. The planet also has much more water than Earth does, but it orbits too close to its sun in order to sustain life.



Even though they won't find life forms on this new planet, I 100% believe that our technology one day will be able to locate something. Space is absolutely enormous and it will take years and years to start reaching far enough, but I bet they are constantly working to develop new technology to do so. Even if you don't believe in "aliens", it's hard to deny all of the new planets and organisms that are being located. We owe so much to technology, and this is one of those cases where we wouldn't have come so far without it.

High School Pride

It figures that a few years AFTER I graduate from Naperville North, they start making music videos every year featuring the graduating class. They just came out with their latest video, featuring the song "Happy." I'm pretty jealous that I can't make an appearance in one of these, but I'm pretty proud that my alma mater is so creative! Take a look at where I spent some monumental years.

Think Twice Before Pressing "Send"

My friends and I usually talk about a wide variety of things, and somehow today we landed on the topic of sending inappropriate pictures and the ramifications of doing so. To piggyback off of my last post about SnapChat, which discussed some of the worries behind trusting an app where pictures supposedly disappear. Apparently, there is a new law that is being enforced about sending nude or sexual photographs or posting them on social media sites. If the person in the photo is under the age of 18, they can be charged with distribution of child pornography. Do you think that'll make teens think twice about posting certain pictures?

It's important to realize that teens can not only get charged with this if they post them on public or private social media sites where they have friends or followers. If the "model" in the photo sends his or her photo to a significant other and the wrong person gets a hold of it, there will be more repercussions than school-wide embarrassment. They might have to go to jail or pay a hefty fine for sending child pornography.

Whether or not this new law will help stop the sending of nude or inappropriate pictures, it's a strong step towards regulating what is being distributed over media. What do you think of these new steps? Are they in the right direction and will they make a positive difference? Or will people continue to try and send or post pictures for their various intentions? Regardless of the law, be smart about what you're sending because it could get both the sender and receiver in big trouble. 

How Trustworthy is SnapChat?

Out of all the apps on my phone, SnapChat is probably one of the few that I use the most daily. It's a fun new way of communicating with picture messaging that doesn't take five minutes to send, AND you can send weird or funny pictures and they simply "disappear." But do they really always go away forever? Do the right people always receive them?

SnapChat is intended for friends to communicate with each other, but I have gotten countless requests of users that I have no idea of their identity or how they found me. On occasion I would accept the request to see the snap they sent me, and if I didn't know them I would delete the request. But during that brief time of acceptance, it's possible that the user could access some of my personal information.

There is an entire website devoted to leaked photos from SnapChat, and they are screen shots of pictures that they were sent. It's possible to keep those pictures that we are supposed to see for three or so seconds, and once a screen shot is taken the photo is fair game. Some users don't send any incriminating photos, but many users find the app a perfect way to send nude, sexual, or illegal activity photos without worrying of them circulating. These people hold a lot of trust in who they are sending them to.

Not to mention a few months prior, there were multiple articles on how a hacker leaked millions of SnapChat accounts and phone numbers to the general public. Ultimately the creators of the app did not have much to say in response, only they would add various security measures and told the users to be more careful with what information they handed out.

I really do believe that SnapChat is a fun and clever app that helps me keep in touch with my friends in a different type of personal way. But it's also very easy to let the privacy wall down and potentially send a picture out there that will be documented somewhere. We never know where our pictures will end up or if it'll really disappear, so everyone should be careful with what they send.

Did You Know?

I can almost assure that everyone has felt that anxiety when their phone is almost out of power. As I sit at my work desk with only 25% battery left, I have resorted to rationing my texts and apps. I decided to search if there's any other ways to save battery, and it turns out that there are multiple ways to extend your phone's life span.

A good way to start is turning of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the GPS options if they aren't necessary. When your phone is constantly searching for a network or connection, battery is wasted. A good trick to turn off everything is to switch it on airplane mode! That will also disable messaging and calls, which is something that I would personally find really beneficial. If I see a text, then I'm going to read it and respond. But if I don't know that I have any messages...no temptation to look! 

I already knew that I could dim my screen brightness, but I didn't know that manually closing apps actually takes more battery power. It takes less power to leave the apps open instead of having to restart them every time we open them. There are also apps such as "Battery Saver" that clarifies what aspects of your phone use the most battery power, and how you can limit it. 

I found this article on USAToday.com really beneficial, and I think I just might make it through my work shift with my phone still on. Even though this is probably classified as a #FirstWorldProblem, I know some of you will appreciate it.