Is your social media use private?

Social media extends the reality of our physical lives to the virtual world. With the ability to provide personal information through uploaded pictures, updated statuses and wall-to-wall conversations, the extent to which we open up our lives has expanded as our boundaries of privacy have shifted.

“We want to share with people what we did, who we saw, what our ideas of fun are,” said Erica Finkelstein, a public communications student at American University. “We’re so used to sharing online … because that’s the way our generation works.”

An August 2012 Pew study reported 69% of online adults are plugged into social networking sites — 66% use Facebook. Fifteen percent of Facebook users update their statuses daily, 22% comment on another’s post and 26% “like” a friend’s activity, according to a June 2011 Pew study.

“Ten years ago, the modes of communication were more difficult. The boundaries were that we didn’t expect that people would have such a just-in-time view into our lives,” Jain said. “People have to be more conscious of where the line [of privacy] is for them … and an understanding of what they won’t post online at all versus what they feel comfortable sharing.”

What people choose to censor remains up to user discretion, but with the increased ease in the ability to share, social media plays a larger role as a virtual extension of the physical self. From Facebook profiles to Twitter pages and Instagram accounts, social networks offer a unique insight into users’ lives in a way that individuals might otherwise not have.

“It’s a different time and it’s an adjustment to what’s been acceptable and what’s acceptable now,” Lindsay Gordon, a senior at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “Expectations of privacy are complicated by social networks … but it also depends on what we consider private.”

Through her study on the legal and professional ramifications of social networking sites, Gordon analyzes college-aged students’ expectations surrounding online privacy. Gordon reports that students are aware of the professional repercussions of inappropriate online activity, citing students’ general consensus that when it comes to privacy, all you can do is self-censor.

“Our private lives have the ability to be more public,” she said. “But it’s up to the discretion of each user of how much they want to publicize.”

Source: Privacy in the age of social networking

Maine to Acknowledge Same Sex Marraiges

The law goes into effect following a required 30-day waiting period after Governor Paul LePage on November 29 certified the results from the November 6 election, a spokeswoman for the governor's office, Adrienne Bennett, said on Monday.

"The long wait for marriage for same-sex couples in Maine is almost over," Betsy Smith, executive director of EqualityMaine, said in a joint statement with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

"Before the end of this year, all loving and committed couples in Maine will be able to stand before their friends, family and community and make a lasting vow to be there for one another," Smith said.

In last month's historic vote approving same sex marriage, some 53 percent of those deciding the issue in Maine voted in favor of the new law, said the ACLU of Maine.

Marriage equality advocates are still trying to determine what level of activity there will be on December 29, because Maine's town halls won't necessarily be open, since it is a Saturday.

"It could be that for the vast majority of people, the first practical time they can get a license will on (Monday) December 31," David Farmer, spokesman for EqualityMaine, told Reuters.

"But we anticipate that some of the bigger municipalities will in fact open; we don't have confirmation of that yet," he said.

While the law allows same-sex couples to marry, there are a number of questions remaining about implementing the law as well as potential action by the U.S. Supreme Court on federal marriage law, the statement from EqualityMaine and GLAD said.

The Supreme Court on Monday remained silent about whether it will enter the legal fray over same-sex marriage and hear one of several pending appeals on the issue. The court's nine justices met in private on Friday to consider whether to review challenges to the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples, and to California's gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8.

Nine of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized gay marriage, while 31 states have passed constitutional amendments banning it.

Source: Save the Date

You think you know college students?

Nerdfighters. Hipsters. Speedy seniors. Dropouts. Superfans. Slackliners. Drunkorexics. Tanorexics. Adderall addicts. Longboarders. Sleep texters. Thrifters. Illegall downloaders. And one very bold halftime streaker.

Over the past 18 months, for my Campus Beat column, I have written about an array of students involved in a ton of different activities, organizations, scandals and states of mind.

My most popular piece: a glimpse at the rise of college Quidditch teams. The most poignant piece, in my opinion: a Q&A with a student journalist who reported on the surprisingly high number of undergraduates who lose a parent while still in school. The most infuriating piece: a rundown of a university testing center thattemporarily banned students who were wearing skinny jeans. And the silliest piece, among the most shared on social media: the student embrace of the “YOLO” craze.

In recognition of my 100th column — posted late last month — here is a quick top 10 list of things I have learned about college life and the world at-large through Campus Beat.

1. College students’ grades are going up — and it may have nothing to do with the quality of their work. As The Student Voice at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls reports, “For the past 30 years, grades and grade point averages in private and public universities have risen significantly. …[S]tudents should be aware that the ‘A’ they are striving for may not be as big a deal as they once thought it was.”

2. The Freshman 15 is actually the Freshman 3. According to a study featured in Social Science Quarterly, first-year students at colleges and universities only gain a bit more than three pounds during their first two semesters in school. As the study’s co-author tells The Daily Texan, “There are a lot of things to worry about when you go to college. However, gaining 15 pounds your freshman year is not one of them.”

3. Nerdfighting, a cult movement, is increasingly gaining traction on campuses nationwide. Nerdfighters are a loose collection of geeky do-gooders who attempt to enact positive change in the real world and online. As a Butler Collegian student staffer at Butler University explains, “[A] nerdfighter just tries to fight against world suck.” Nerdfighters’ favorite acronym — and call-to-arms — is DFTBA, or “Don’t Forget to Be Awesome.”

4. One in 10 individuals deals with the death of mom or dad before turning 25, including during their time in college. As The University Daily Kansan shares, “College students who lose a parent are affected emotionally, psychologically, physically, academically and financially. At the very time they are about to launch independent lives, they lose the people they rely on most for direction.”

5. Sleep texting has become a common activity on college campuses. As The Lantern at Ohio State University reports, “Sleep texting is as simple as it sounds: a person will respond or send out a text message in the middle of their sleep. Most people who do this usually do not remember doing it and it usually doesn’t make much sense.” A University of Georgia student admits once sending a sleep text that led to an accidental pizza delivery.

6. A hyphenated buzzword receiving evermore attention within higher education: gender-neutral. At a growing number of colleges and universities — in middle America and along the coasts — students are protesting, passing resolutions and publishing commentaries calling for more gender-neutral housing and restroom options. The push appears to be part of a larger student-led fight on some campuses for greater “transgender inclusiveness,” something The Oklahoma Daily hails as the heart of “this generation’s civil rights movement.”

7) Students are becoming increasingly vocal champions of thrifting and the culture it represents. Most broadly, the thrifting movement appears to embody a generational shift built atop five basic tenets: old is new, mixing trumps matching, swapping beats shopping, the best things in life are free (or incredibly cheap) and social responsibility is the new black.

8. It is possible to eat too healthy. It is at the heart of a disorder known as orthorexia nervosa. As The Signpost, the student newspaper at Weber State University, explains, “Orthorexia is the fixation on righteous eating and an unhealthy obsession with eating only healthy foods. Like anorexia and bulimia, it can wreak serious damage on the health of someone trapped in the obsession.”

9. For a brief time earlier this year, the acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once) reached a critical mass among college students. As a Chapman University student wrote in March in The Panther, “[I]t is quickly becoming the new motto of our generation. Found on T-shirts, people’s arms and all over Facebook, YOLO is a new craze that many here at Chapman follow with an almost religious fervor.” By comparison, the following month, a Penn State University student argued via Onward State, “Plain and simple, YOLO needs to die. …While the philosophy is nothing new, the saying has gone way beyond too far to the point that it is being abused.” 

10. Quidditch is cool. Among the many phenomena the Harry Potter book and film series has spawned — a theme park, post-Potter depression, the Pottermore website, HP fan fiction and Daniel Radcliffe’s film career — perhaps none is as quirky and currently en vogue as Quidditch. The sport, based in fiction, is catching on among real-world students at an astonishingly prodigious rate. Hundreds of teams have formed at schools in almost every state and more than a dozen countries. A Quidditch World Cup is held. And the NCAA officially recognizes it as a sport.

Dan Reimold, Ph.D., is a college journalism scholar who has written and presented about the student press throughout the U.S. and in Southeast Asia. He is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Tampa, where he also advises The Minaret student newspaper. He maintains the student journalism industry blog College Media Matters. A complete list of Campus Beat articles is here.

Source: 10 Things I've Learned About College Students

Get Your Dream Job

Despite the continuing struggle in the world of careers, there were 3.6 million job openings in September, more than the 2.4 million jobs available at the end of the recession in June 2009, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“People make the most money doing the things they do naturally well,” said True Calling master (career) coach Nathan Teegarden.

Teegarden said that with his list of nine key elements to landing a job, anyone, in any stage of his or her life, can find a way to success. His tips include research, preparation, focus, professional wear and a follow-up. The list also instructs others to ask questions and avoid negative topics.

“Every chance you have to get in contact … and bend the rules in your favor, the better off you’ll be,” he said. “For a lot of positions, you might be one of 100 applying and by taking initiative and expressing interest, it can’t hurt you.”

In a recent USA TODAY survey, 70% of those questioned agreed that it is never appropriate to talk negatively during an interview, while 25% said it was OK when asked directly. Three percent approved if it would make the interviewee stand out, and only 2% advocated the act if it were true.

“You don’t ever want to talk about past bosses or past positions, don’t even go there,” Teegarden said. “I can’t even imagine when [speaking negatively] would make you stand out, unless [the company in question] were unethical and you addressed it and got fired for it.”

Teegarden said an easy way to combat questions while remaining truthful about past jobs is by simply stating you left in hopes of finding a company with a better fit. He added that it’s important for students to ask questions.

“When someone knows exactly what they want and they know they are qualified, they ask more questions,” he said. “If you have a choice to be liked or respected, you want to be respected.”

Questions that make the cut: “Why did you come to work here?” “What do you like best?” “What is your management style?” “Do you have anything else you would like to ask me?”

Imants Jaunarajs, the assistant dean for students at the Career and Leadership Center at Ohio University said it’s a good idea to keep responses to about 90 seconds to two minutes. In addition, he said word choice is not too big of an issue though an effort should be made to avoid curse words.

“I’ve been in interviews where people have sworn — don’t do that,” he said. “Everyone is nervous so it is hard to not stumble your words though. So prepare as much as possible and that will help.”

As to be expected, Teegarden also advised students to be on their A-game the second they walk through the door and to maintain a clean social media presence, avoiding any inappropriate posts about employers.

“As soon as you show up in the lobby for an interview, the interview just started,” he said. ”In our digital age you can talk or write about anything. But people from companies can go on and see that and it becomes public information. So, I’d be careful about that. It can come back and bite you.”

A few other tips include taking professional assessments, creating clear and to-the-point resumes and cover letters and taking notes during the interview. At the end, make sure to thank the interviewer for the opportunity, make sure he or she doesn’t have any more questions and ask what the next step is before you follow up by snail mail or email.

“Once you walk out that door, it’s over,” Teegarden said. “You want to assume you have gotten the position and that you are moving forward.”

Source: Shaping your job-search skills

Writing 101

Write Drunk, Edit Sober - Ernest Hemingway

Move it at Work

As we've reported, there's a backlash brewing to sedentary office life as more people realize how sitting all day can do a body wrong.

I work at home and often sit in front of my computer doing research and writing. So I thought I'd give a treadmill desk a try.

I went about this in steps. First, I elevated my sitting desk to a standing desk. For about a month, I grew comfortable standing all day. Then I added a discreet treadmill (without handrails) under my standing desk, and voila — a treadmill desk.

I'm into my second week now and walking at a pretty slow, casual pace, about 1.4 miles an hour. When I first started, I thought I'd simply hop on the treadmill and be off walking all day while working. But it turns out it's really hard to walk, talk, think and concentrate.

James Levine, an obesity expert at the Mayo Clinic who came up with the idea of the treadmill desk, told me that my experience was pretty typical. "There's a tendency to want to jump on the treadmill and walk for hours and hours a day," he says. "Don't do that. Certainly, at the absolute maximum, do half-hour on, half an hour off, for two to three hours a day."

That's a relief. That's about what I'm doing. Levine says that since the 1960s, work spaces have been designed to minimize movement. It's a culturally ingrained mindset, he says, which dominates much of our lives today.

"You could literally spend your entire adult life from graduation to coffin entry without leaving your apartment, without getting up," he says.

Levine is on a mission to get any kind of movement into the workplace and the workday. He's consulted with a number of companies nationwide to help them do this. The most popular activity by far, he says, is the "walk and talk" meeting. "They're generally shorter, more productive, and people don't fall asleep during walk-and-talk meetings."

Take Salo, a financial consulting firm based in Minneapolis. The company has 12 treadmill desks, and encourages walking meetings and a mini-breakaway game — a mixture of pingpong, tennis and a bit of squash.

Throughout the day, employees rotate on and off the available treadmill desks. Craig Dexheimer, Salo's director of operations and administration, loves his. He's lost 25 pounds since he started using it. If employees get distracted while walking, he suggests they stop or slow down the treadmill.

A few years ago, Salo took part in a Mayo Clinic study headed by Levine to see what happened when employees used treadmill desks. The study was small — just 18 participants. For six months, they rotated on and off the desks, walking, on average, about three hours a day. Everyone lost weight. And overall, Dexheimer says, health improved. "Total cholesterol decreased, plasma triglycerides dropped on average 37 percent in total for all 18 participants.

"Remarkable," he says. "We didn't even go to a gym. We just went to work!"

And productivity didn't suffer. In fact, Dexheimer says, during the six months of the study, Salo's revenues were the highest ever. The environment, he says, was simply "more dynamic."

Now, this doesn't mean a treadmill desk or a game of pingpong is for everyone. But even a little bit of activity is better than nothing, says Catrine Tudor-Locke, a researcher at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

"Instead of sending e-mail to a colleague two doors down, try actually walking over to them," she says.

As for me, I'm still getting used to my treadmill desk. I can write e-mails, read, have phone conversations. But I haven't yet written a story while walking. Levine and others say certain complicated or creative tasks are often still done best while sitting.

Source: Can You Move It And Work It On A Treadmill Desk?

Powwow Social

Where: IMU NORTH ROOM

November is Native American Heritage Month and Campus Activities Board in collaboration with the American Indian Student Association (AISA) brings you yet another fun and interactive way to broaden your cultural horizons. 

In anticipation AISA's Powwow, local Native American dancers from around the Midwest will be on campus to talk about the importance and etiquette of powwow dancing! Come with your friends and learn about this iconic piece of Native American culture!

Light refreshments will be available.