Why I Chose the University of Georgia

Recently I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I stumbled upon this trending article:

“I go to Athens because it reminds me of why we are alive.”

The article had been shared by over 12 of my friends on Facebook, friends that are in the same boat as me, about to graduate UGA and face the real world in just a few short weeks. I usually don't read many articles people post or share on Facebook because I don't like the process of having to download specific apps and readers just to view an article, and then the spam that posts on your Facebook afterwards. However, I couldn't help myself with this one.

While I read this article, I had chills and teared up as I read this older man's account of what UGA means to him, even thirty years later. This last semester has been a whirlwind of emotions for me as I have prepared to take on the real world with a new job, and leaving the safety net that is UGA and college, behind forever. I have embraced every second of this last semester, especially these last few weeks, visiting places I've never gone before and enjoying the company of all my college friends, some of who I will not see for quite some time after graduation. 

After reading this article on Facebook, I reminisced on all of the times I've had here at UGA, the good and the bad, all from freshman year up until now. There is definitely no place in the world I would have rather spent my past four years. This school has left an indelible mark upon me, and I will forever cherish these precious memories. It's funny how sometimes all it takes is a Facebook article to bring you right back to the core of reality. Congratulations to all of my friends about to graduate in a few weeks, and GO DAWGS!!

Sanford Stadiums first concert ever brings in over 60,000 fans

UGA students and country fans everywhere have been preparing for this landmark concert for weeks now. Georgia natives Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean brought out a huge crowd of over 60,000 fans at Sanford Stadium Saturday night, the first concert ever to take place at Sanford, and most likely the last.  The concert had social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram buzzing the entire week leading up to the concert, and then of course all throughout.   

Probably the biggest surprises of the night were from the "guest appearances," by Kelly Clarkson and Ludacris. However, Kelly Clarkson's appearance was in the form of a very believable hologram which appeared on stage during Jason Aldean's song "Don't you want to stay." People were tweeting about the appearance non-stop, and it seemed that nobody realized Kelly's appearance was a mere hologram until the next day. Of course this kind of thing poses some sort of public embarrassment for those who were unaware of the effects and posting to social media. However, more than anything I think fans, especially UGA students were just thrilled to be apart of such an amazing experience at a venue with so much sentimental value.

 

Does social media know more about you than your own parents?

Anyone who has a Facebook profile is probably aware of how increasingly more difficult the privacy settings are to maneuver. Facebook's settings used to seem so simple and you would know exactly where to go if you wanted to block certain people, or make posts private. However, more recently social media users have not found the new settings to be as user friendly. Brooke Nepo goes more in depth about the problems some users are having with Facebook in her blog post on Soshable, "Big Brother Facebook Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself – and They’ll Tell Your Dad."

In her post, Nepo tells a story of student at UT Austin, and how his life was turned upside down when his dad found out about his sexuality over Facebook. The student was looking for a LGBT page on Facebook to somehow get connected on campus with a group of similar students, and because he disregarded his privacy settings, all of Facebook was notified when he accepted an invitation into the group on Facebook. This is just one case of this happening on social media. 

Unfortunately one of the costs of being active on social media is realizing that you are putting easy accessible information on the web for anyone to see. It is important that users are aware of the settings for each post or picture privacy if they are friends with people on Facebook who they do not want to share certain things with. Facebook is making public information more public and private info public as well. The real question is where should the line be drawn? Until then, Facebook and social media users need to be alert and wary of the information they choose to share.