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Show A8 OPINIONS DEEMBER 3, 2012 The evils of Black Friday Black Friday has become an American tradition, but is it a good one? By Faith Heaton Jolley Assitant Opinions Editor faithmjm5@gmail.com I must begin with a disclaimer. I have never been shopping on Black Friday. Now, with that said, let me list a few of the reasons that have stopped me from engaging in this chaotic, commercialized "tradition" that seems to be sucking the morals out of every American. 1. Violence. Obviously, I realize that not everyone who enters the mall to find that huge bargain deal will end up getting stabbed or trampled. But, it has happened far too many times over the years for me to feel comfortable venturing out into the wee hours of the morning to join the masses in the shopping stampede. This year alone , I read in the news about a man pulling a gun on a fellow shopper in a San Antonio mall, two people were shot and wounded at a Wal-Mart in Tallahassee, two more people were ran over in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Washington and a teenage boy was robbed of his pur- Numerous deaths and injuries have been reported over the years as the "holiday" has become increasingly more violent. chases in Maryland. Numerous deaths and injuries have been reported over the years as this holiday tradition has increasingly become more violent. Am I willing to risk my safety to save a couple hundred bucks on a jumbo TV? No, I'm not. 2. Selfishness. I recently saw a meme that summed up my feelings depicting the irony of Black Friday. It stated, "Black Friday: Because only in America do people trample others for cheap goods mere hours after being thankful for what they already have." People are becoming increasingly more selfish from all the consumerism and commercialization that is promoted in America, and Black Friday only fuels that billowing fire. Black Friday brings out the worst in people and makes it socially acceptable to completely disrespect one another in order to save a few dollars. The civility and good-naturedness of individuals are stripped away in an instant, leaving them to behave as mere animals My husband has a friend who got cited for disorderly conduct for snatching a DVD out of a woman's hand. This person could potentially end up spending $100 on a citation for trying to save $10 on that DVD. That, my friends, is not sound logic. Would he have ever acted like that on a normal day? And would society have tolerated that any other day of the year? I think not. But, for whatever reason, it is acceptable for people to allow their selfishness and immaturity run rampant on Black Friday. Our society is becoming consumed with greed and "keeping up with the Joneses" and it is making us lose our civility. In conclusion, I can't help but feel that Black Friday is only contributing to the many mounting problems that our society is facing. The morals and values are slowly, but surely, decaying and I feel that Black Friday is doing nothing but quickening that process. PHOTO COURTESY OF STOCKXCHNG Shop til you drop seems to have become shop til someone drops you. Fervor has been replaced by fury. Black Friday may leave you black and blue. Read it, share it, Reddit. Social nework evolution Reddit, the front page of the internet, is an important website you may not be aware even exists By Cameron Simek Opinions Editor @Skabomb The internet is a fantastic place. It gives users the power to connect with people around the world, and contains what is essentially the entirety of the world's knowledge. Good or bad, the internet is something that most people couldn't live without. Though powerful, most people seem to not utilize the wonder of the internet in their everyday lives. Yes, Twitter and Facebook are fun to use, and you can get a lot of information, most of it useless, but some of it is actually high quality information. Sometimes you get the hoaxes like the death of Bill Nye, and most of the time you get to hear about someone's dinner or pictures of their cat. Everything is thrown at you with little regard for what you find interesting or not. That's where Reddit comes in. At first glance Reddit seems like a confusing mess of a website. The page consists of nothing but links. The real magic happens after you create your own account and begin to tailor your experience to what you like. The magic of Reddit is in how it's built. All the content is submitted and curated by the users. By upvoting and downvoting content only the best in a certain subreddit rises to the top. As you browse, and start subscribing and unsubscribing from the various subreddits your experience is tailored to what you want to read about and learn. There is a subreddit for almost everyone and every hobby. If you can't seem to find one you like, then make it, and start sharing your content. It'll be mostly with yourself at first, but if you can manage to get the word out with friends, and if people like what you do you'll get more subscribers and may even see your little hobby grow into the thriving environment for people who share your tastes. Reddit isn't just a little thing that you may have missed out on. So many different people Reddit is something special. A place where people come from all over the internet to share what they love with others. frequent this website that is has made waves in the world. Reddit lead the SOPA protests last year and many on the site planned further action against the legislation that many thought would damage the freedom of the internet. By bringing together so many people on one site, sharing content and weeding out the best of the best and sharing it with the world, Reddit has a powerful voice on the internet. With all this talk about how wonderful Reddit is, it's important to take a look at what can happen when you give anonymous people free reign over information and what gets seen and what doesn't. Some of the subreddits are devoted to less than savory topics. Recently one popular Redditor's information was released on the internet by the website Gawker. This man was a moderator for subreddits that weren't well received by people outside Reddit's influence. It's hard to say if what he was doing was truly wrong or not, but he has since suffered for what he shared with the community. Reddit is something special. A place where people come from all over the internet to share what they love with others. People can talk to each other, and the best conversations always rise above the rest thanks to community moderation. It's been said that with great power comes great responsibility. The users of Reddit realize this simple saying, taken from the pages of comics, and use it to share the most important information with the world. Important infomation, and sometimes pictures of cute cats. Reddit Definitions Karma - The "currency" of Reddit. If your posts are good you get it, if they're not, you lose it Upvotes - How people approve of content on Reddit Downvotes - How people disapprove of content 1 41 SubReddits - Where the content comes from, sections devoted to certain material. Can range from politics, to gaming, to science and technology. Lurker - Someone who browses Reddit without posting any content. Meme - A picture with words on it. That's about all it contributes to the world. |