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Show TUESDAY, JULY 12,2011 THE SIGNPOST The Signpost Viewpoint Social media: Friend or foe in the classroom Now that we have reached the halfway mark for the summer, many of us start dreading what is looming on the horizon: the new school year. New classes to stress over, new teachers to load up the new work, and new books and supplies. It seems that with every new year, students find new things to hate about school. When it comes right down to the point, why are we even here? Do we really have that strong of a desire to throw money into an institution with thousands of people paying thousands of dollars every year to have massive amounts of information crammed down their throats daily, or do we have another driving force in society? Higher education is a necessary step in today's society if you want to be gainfully employed. A bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma of 20 years ago. If we want to get anywhere in life, the minimum of a bachelor's degree is almost always required. So why do we come to dread the time we spend in a classroom? It comes down to the pace of society. If the Internet still didn't exist, we would not have distraction during class, nor the desire to check an e-mail and say, "I need to be in contact with so- and-so to make sure they know I'll be late to their party." Without texting and its immediate response system, we would have to actually plan our time so that we could still talk to a friend and be somewhat productive while doing homework. What about Facebook, or the new Google Plus? We survived for so long with only instant messengers or less in school, and yet nearly every laptop in every classroom is bound to have social networking sites on it at some point during class time. Is society really that distracted with the outside world? Do we really need to have a foot out the door at all times, or do we just want to always be in theflowof things, despite the classroom requirements we signed up for? Hopefully that isn't the case for most students. Hopefully we have the attention span to sit through an hour-long class and focus on what is being said, rather than what our friends are typing about this weekend's party. . We still would find some kind of distraction* though, wouldn't we? Music, a good book, or something else we would rather be doing? And yet, many times, our stressors become our best friends during finals week, when we decide to shut off our lives because we think we'll fail our classes if we don't. So why do we allow the stress to take over for two weeks out of the year, when we could avoid it altogether? The challenge is this: Try not to let stress rule your life during finals week. A little bit of mild stress daily over your classes to avoid the end-of-finals week crash could really save your outlook on school. Who knows? Maybe it will even give you the extra energy to stay in school longer. Comment on this column at wsusignpost. com. Ambiguity and Abstraction CaUmkim of Natur* by Tbny Pfro DO YOU THINK VIE CAM S t C TME FUTURE -me STARS T Flags and First Amendment rights IF CAYLEE ANTHONY COULD SPEAK... KIND OF REMINDS YDUOFQO: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editot^l Sports Editor, Photo E d i t o r ^ Business Editor &4 . positions SpencerGarn^ yielissa McComas IhayLynne Clark fBfJathan Davis ""^Bgjan Butterfield vEmiiyHulse is a s^piht pubngajtoi/ writtln>lec|ited^an.dudrafted its. Student^Effipnirhd the prinfing are not necessarily endoi^ppy'the university I'm not an Eagle Nathan Mikami Scout. There, I The Signpost said it, and columnist now you all know and can fold your arms and shake your heads shamefully In my defense, I was a measly three merit badges away from Boy Scout glory, but I can't put Eagle Scout Minus Three Merit Badges on a resume, now, can I? Now, for any of you Wildcats who were Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, I'm sure you're well aware of flag etiquette. How to fold, raise, retire and anything else you can do to an Old Glory was mercilessly pounded into my head as a scout, and a great deal of respect for the Star-Spangled Banner has been a by-product of that pounding. I don't think it would hafll crossed my naive mind that any good American would ever consider disrespectfully burning, writing on or desecrating something so patriotically sacred as the American flag, but gratefully I no longer live with the misconception that everyone treats the American flag like a loyal Boy Scout, nor do I live under the misconception that desecrating a flag makes one a bad American or unpatriotic. Now, to be clear, I personally dislike the practice of desecrating our national symbol, and I 626-7121 626-7614 626*7655 5-7621 ibtr State find the practice to be just theopposite of a scholarly means of persuasion. However, if there is someone out there who feels that what they have to say could be best expressed by burning or taking a Sharpie marker to Old Glory, then that is their protected right under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Last week, this First Amendment right was put to the test during a parade in none other than Cache Valley, Utah. Some college students deemed it prudent to write a message on a flag with black ink, and then, while holding said flag upside down, walked around a Fourth of luly parade sharing their message of discontent with current American policies. Apparently some parade-goers were offended by the message; the students were asked to leave by local law enforcement and were even threatened with a citation under a Utah law that makes any desecration to the flag a Class A misdemeanor. It's ironic enough that Utah still has an unconstitutional law on the books that is in direct violation of a Supreme Court ruling {see Texas v. lohnson), but even more ironic to me was what transpired at that Cache Valley parade. Thousands of people gathered together to celebrate our independence and the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America, but Features Editor iitor Copy Adviser Ads Mariager then when someone tried to exercise their right to speak freely, they were asked to leave the area and were threatened with a citation - the message being that, yes, we have the freedom to speak our minds, as long as those who Jiear our message are happy with what we have to say. I think my favorite fictitious president Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas in one of my favorite flicks, The American President, said it best: "America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's going to put up a fight. It's going to say, 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.' You want to claim this land as the land of the free?" Then the symbol of your country cannot just be aflag.The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now, show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free." Why presidents don't hire more screenwriters to write their speeches I will never know. Jerrica Archibald 3 Stephafi^nons Shane Faiivei^ Shelley H Georgia j^j @weT?e7edu and read Letter tornetdltor in the subj Comment on this column at; wsusignpost.com. |