Slope Magazine Spring 2018

THE GENERATIONAL ISSUE

SPRING 2018

CONTRIBUTORS Editor in Chief Colleen Sorge Creative Director Arleigh Parr Photography Director Chiara Fontaine President Joseph Hines Vice President of Content Shelby Gosset Designers Karen Li Rebecca North Alice Rhim Alex Rosenberg Isabella Zhou Writers Josephine Davis Katie Fehrenbaker* Alanna Fichtel* Nikita Forrester Karen Li* Amanda Madenberg Kimberly Murstein Veronica Nobrega Alexander Perel Via Romano* Lauren Roseman* Ana Schonander Aliza Schub *copy editors Photographers Sarah Karkoura Karen Li

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Our Mission As Cornell’s multimedia powerhouse, Slope Media Group is a leader in Cornell-related media and entertainment, delivering a creative, student perspective on everything that matters to the Big Red community. Slope is for students, by students.

Read and learn more at: slopemedia.org

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

2018 was a year of change for Slope Media. We saw the election of an almost entirely brand new Executive Board, and with the turnover, were left to wonder how we could possibly fill the snow boots-it is Ithaca, after all-of our beloved predecessors. What if we were like the last few seasons of The Office? Had we lost our Steve Carell?

With the release of this latest issue of Slope Magazine, I’m happy to report that we have managed to hold it together. As I leaf through these exceptionally designed pages, reading the writing and viewing the photographs of my supremely talented peers, I can say that we’ve done more than hold it together. Our first themed magazine, The Generational Issue, has managed to cover a wide range of topics, all of which speak directly to the beautifully diverse, gifted, motivated, and very slightly crazy people that walk this campus.

My first semester as Editor-In-Chief of Slope Magazine has been something of a whirlwind.

There have been the usual concerns that I’m sure plague all new leaders: Will the writers like me? Will we have strong content? How do I create a file folder on Google Drive? Is it in poor taste to say, “I’m the captain now?”

Somehow I’ve weathered all of these challenges, and none of it would be possible without the extraordinary people that surround me. Thanks to my family for putting up with my latenight phone calls when I’m too tired to remember how to use a comma. Thank you to 2018 EBoard for keeping us from becoming The Office without Steve Carell. A massive thank you to the Slope writers, whose dedication and talent are enough to make me tolerate Google Drive. Thank you to the GOAT Editor, Nicole, for trusting me to be your successor. Thanks to Slopers everywhere for all of your hard work; it’s so gratifying to see that there are people who care about this magazine just as much as I do.

Because of Slope Magazine I get to write articles about Primate Conservation (see Table of Contents), North Campus skunks, Ice-T, and everything in between. To be a part of something this special is an incredible honor. All I can say is if you enjoy reading this magazine even one tenth as much as we did making it, I’ll be satisfied.

“Thank you muchly.” -Andy Bernard, Cornell University ‘95

Colleen Sorge SPRING 2018

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TABLE OF CONTE

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TENTS

OUR GENERATION Our Generation’s Sense of Humor Via Romano

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But First, Let Me Take a Selfie Lauren Roseman

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A Look at Food Trends of Our Generation in 2018 Alanna Fichtel

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5 Reasons Why Millennials Have the Feels for Nostalgia Josephine Davis

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The WOKE Generation Nikita Forrester

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Story or it Didn’t Happen Kate Fehrenbaker

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HUMAN INTEREST An Interview with Dr. Colin Chapman: Conservation Pioneeer Colleen Sorge

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Lisa Vanderpump: Self-Branding and Reality TV Kimberly Murstein

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An Open Letter to My Food Restrictions Amanda Madenberg

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Coming Home Veronica Nobrega

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CAMPUS LIFE “Old” vs “New” Learning Methods: What’s Better?

Ana Schonander

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Teenage Dream Karen Li

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From Pen and Paper to “Let me Grab My Laptop”: A Reflection on The Societal Transformation That is Technology Aliza Schub

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Reconsidering Rationality Alexander Perel

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Our Generation’s Sense of Humor VIA ROMANO It’s time we talked about memes. They’ve become quite the cultural phenomenon. Memes are everywhere on social media now and they’ve started to make their way into the mainstream of society too. Political groups are increasingly realizing the value of memes and some corporations are starting to use them as a marketing strategy to reach younger audiences. Honestly, who can blame them? Memes are great. I love them.

I subscribe to dozens of meme pages on Facebook, am in nearly all the Ivy League meme groups, and have a private group chat with my friends where we only send memes to each other instead of talking. But memes have changed a lot since they were created. I remember when they were just pictures with large block text imposed over them back in 2012. While those kinds of memes will always hold a place in my heart, I’ll confess a preference for what they look like now.

Our collective sense of humor as a generation is really amazing. I love how when a new meme blows up, we all become collectively obsessed with it for a month before it dies out. The universality of memes is really cool because when a meme is popular, everyone knows exactly what you’re talking about when you reference it. The fact that there was a period of time where we as a generation all knew about one obscure Ugandan cartoon to

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the point that we could all reference it casually is something I find pretty awesome.

Another thing I love about our generation’s sense of humor is how completely dark and ridiculous it can be. Take Tide Pods as an example. We all unanimously agreed that Tide Laundry Pods looked delicious, then joked about it to the point that Tide had to put out a PSA because people started actually eating them and it became a national issue. That’s incredible in a kind of depressing way.

This kind of humor is totally unique to our generation.

When my mother heard about the Tide Pod fiasco, she called me in a panic and very seriously asked if I was planning to eat laundry detergent. If I showed my mother half of the memes I find funny, she’d probably be very concerned and ask if I was ok. When I show them to my friends, they just laugh and agree.

Our sense of humor as a generation is pretty unique and is something we should be proud of and embrace more.

Ok, so maybe the Tide Pods meme got a little out of hand, but I’m still coming back to Facebook for my daily fix of memes and so are many of you. Sure, our sense of humor can be a little dark and a little wacky at times, but there’s a lot to like. Plus, it brings us all together.

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But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

LAUREN ROSEMAN Adults love to talk about the good ole’ days without screens.

They complain about how the past was so much better because teens interacted face-to-face instead of spending time on their phones.

Teens seem to be the blame for everything because we’re thought to be self-obsessed, lazy, and far less intelligent than the older generation. The reason why we’re so keen on ruining society: technology and social media.

One of the biggest complaints about “the kids these days” is how they’re always taking selfies. A selfie is a photo that an individual takes of him or herself, and may or may not choose to share to social media. Politicians do it, celebrities do it -even grandparents do it. Selfies became such a key part of society that, in 2013, the Oxford Dictionary named “selfie” the word of the year. Even though other generations take selfies,

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millenials are defined by their technology and social media use, and are thus titled the “Selfie Generation.”

Teenagers are often mocked and called egotistical for seeking to capture or share photos of themselves. However, this claim misses the important difference between self-obsession and self-love. Selfies are merely a new form of communication that develop personal empowerment because they promote body acceptance and self-love. Being able to share an image of yourself tells the world that you accept yourself as you are.

Many are ashamed to outwardly express self-love because they don’t want to be perceived as narcissistic. Declaring all millennials as mindless attention-seekers is disrespectful.

Instead of being supported for being empowered humans, selfie sharers are considered cocky or conceited. However, there is nothing more important in life than loving and having respect for yourself, and a selfie is the perfect way to celebrate you.

Older generations are unjustified in mocking teens for taking selfies because selfies are not only a source of empowerment, they’re a part of the continual global progress from paper to online. A selfie is essentially a self-portrait in which the medium is a camera, rather than the traditional oil painting. If you really think having pictures of oneself is a sign of being self-absorbed, tell that to each president, royal, or person of high socioeconomic class who paid thousands of dollars to commission an artist to create an image of themselves while sitting still for hours.

The main difference between self-portraits of the past and the self-portraits of today is the fact that selfies are through social media and technology, concepts relatively new to the world but mundane to the millenials that grew up with it. Also, the cliche surrounding selfies is that when someone announces “I’m taking a selfie,” the effect is instantaneous: everyone synchronically moves together to create an image that says “we’re fun and better than you,” causing some to argue that selfies perpetuate the “fakeness” of social media. While this is a real and valid issue with social media, older generations are wrong in ridiculing teens for controlling the way we portray ourselves. Selfies are more accessible to everyone, and altering self-portraits isn’t a new concept; planned-out selfies are just as “real” as the very meticulously planned-out oil paintings.

Selfies are proven to have a positive impact on one’s self esteem.

According to a separate 2016 study conducted by the University of California, Irvine, college students who take selfies become “more confident and comfortable with their smiling photos over time,” and taking them can help reduce academic stress. A 2014 TODAY/AOL Body Image survey discovered that seeing selfies on social media boosts confidence for 65% of teenage girls.

Being deemed the “Selfie Generation” is part of the older generations’ collective mindset that teenagers are obsessed with technology and social media and are lazier and less intelligent because of all the time they spend on their phones.

It’s no secret that smart technology and social media are far from perfect. But it’s wrong to blame all of its downsides on our generation. Our entire generation isn’t narcissistic for sharing selfies; it’s empowered. Also, technology hasn’t made us less intelligent.

A classic example is how older generations especially love

pointing out that this generation does not know the rules of grammar since we simplify words into “text-talk.” We write in all lowercase letters or mix cases throughout the message, leave sentences unfinished, or place grammatical devices in seemingly unusual places.

Critics simply do not understand that standard grammar is evolving to better convey the message and writer’s tone and voice, and that this evolution is occurring alongside social media development as users experiment with different writing techniques. As technology progresses and evolves, so does the way we convey messages. It’s not reflective of an uneducated generation, just an adaptive one.

The benefits of technology are powerful and meaningful. You can connect with people all over the world, communicate easily and instantly, learn and spread news more quickly, and explore all sorts of opportunities. But what does this really mean for our generation?

Growing up with technology means that as it progresses, our generation has determined the way it should be used. We utilize the power of instant worldwide communication and news to empower our generation and create empathy. People in all generations have taken photos of themselves, but our “Selfie Generation” proudly presents these photos because we aren’t afraid to admit that it’s okay to love ourselves.

Complaining about the millenials who understand the powerful implications of technological evolution and social media is just useless resistance against modernity and the switch to the online.

The world is becoming digital, and it’s a good thing.

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A Look at Food Trends of Our Generation in 2018 ALANNA FICHTEL

If you compare today’s food scene to that of our parents or grandparents, you’ll find some very different eating habits. Millennials and “Generation Z,” the cohort just now coming into college-age, have been driving food trends in recent years. Some trends, such as mobile ordering and fast casual eateries, are a result of this generation’s desire for speed and interest in social media.

Other food trends have come out of efforts to eat clean, healthy and sustainable foods. Here is a look at some of these recent trends that will likely continue through 2018.

Fast Casual Takeover It’s becoming more and more rare for people of our generation to dine out at fast food eateries or chains like McDonald’s, Applebee’s or Chili’s as new fast casual restaurant concepts are cropping up everywhere. Some such as Dig Inn and Beefsteak have a farm-to-table, market driven focus, while others like Cava (basically a healthy, Mediterranean Chipotle), and &pizza focus on specific cuisines. The running thread between these eateries is that people our age desire good food that is easily accessible and good for our bodies.

Gut-Friendly Food Along the lines of millennials’ desire to eat healthy is the recent rise of food products made with probiotics, anti-inflammatory and digestion-aiding ingredients. Turmeric, matcha, ginger and cayenne are some flavors you’ll likely see a lot of. Fermented foods like kimchi, kombucha and sauerkraut are marketed as natural, good-for-your-gut probiotics that you can consume easily through grab-and-go products like “Kraut Krisps.” Our parents may roll their eyes at these trendy food products and may be skeptical of their purported effects, but we are willing and eager to try recipes and dishes marketed as having unique health benefits.

Diets of the Day As with any generation, ours has seen many fad diets come and go, progressing along with changes in food culture. One relatively new diet getting some hype on various food blogs is the Ketogenic or “keto” diet. This fat-burning diet, which involves eating lots of fats and very few carbs in order to burn fat, has gotten some mixed reviews in the health world. Other trends like the Raw Food Diet and Whole30 emphasize eating unprocessed and natural foods. While our generation has shied away from many eating habits of generations past, fad diets do not seem to be one of them.

Connecting Through Food Technology and social media now more than ever play an integral role in our generation’s eating habits. Especially for members of Generation Z, who have been dubbed the “iGeneration” due to their exposure to the Internet from such a young age, our relationship with food is tied closely to technology and our online activity. Our generation is ready to do everything on our phones, from looking at a menu, to ordering our food, to posting a picture of our meal on Snapchat or Instagram. Restaurants and eateries are catering to these behaviors by offering online ordering and delivery services, and by experimenting with more social, experience-driven restaurant concepts.

Food culture is just one of the many aspects of our society that our generation is helping to shape. If you haven’t experienced many of these food trends so far, you have plenty of time to hop on the bandwagon and be a part of the revolution in 2018.

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5 reasons why millennials have the feels for nostalgia

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JOSEPHINE DAVIS Many people long to live in the past. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it? We can all agree that at some point in our lives, we’ve missed the innocence and ignorance of our childhood. But why are millennials in particular so obsessed with nostalgia?

booming technological world. Even though these advances make many parts of life easier, many members of our generation yearn for a less sophisticated time. Things will just never be that simple again; the effects of technology are irreversible. This only makes us long for the past more since we always want what we can’t get back.

4. We miss the Style of the Past 1. Technology Gives us a Window to the Past Our generation will forever be shamed for our obsession with our phones and social media.

I mean, come on, technology is pretty much second nature to us. As kids, instead of holding rattles, we were holding our flip phones. But all of this new technology allows us to easily view the past; whether that means looking through your friends’ old Facebook photos, or searching the lyrics to your favorite 90’s show theme song--the possibilities are endless.

2. Our Childhood Cannot be Beat Ring Pops, Polly Pockets, Tamagotchis, and Lisa Frank stickers are just a few things that remind me of my childhood. In fact, I will sometimes still pick up a Ring Pop from my local CVS–coating my tongue in blue food coloring has never been more satisfying. No matter what your childhood makes you think of, I bet there are parts of it that you miss. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a kid again? Just for a day...or you know, forever.

3. Technology Makes us long for a Simpler Time

With the comebacks of Adidas, cuffed mom jeans, and skate tees sporting the logos of Thrasher, Palace, and Supreme, millennials cannot get enough of 90’s fashion. And where better to get these looks than the thrift store?

Combining new trends with old ones puts our own unique spin on the trends of another generation.

5. It’s Easier Living in the Past than Worrying about the Future Ever since coming to college, all I’ve wanted to do is borrow Adam Sandler’s universal remote from the movie, Click, to turn back the clocks. School work, job applications, and exhausting romantic relationships are just a few of the reasons why I’m frantically trying to hit the pause button on life. Now, with college ending soon and our adult lives rapidly approaching, it can be difficult for millennials to come to terms with growing up. Of course, many of us are excited about what the future has to offer, but it is no easy task to reach our goals. Sometimes it’s nice to reminisce about the past to avoid thinking about the future. A small break from reality can help you clear your mind for what lies ahead.

iPhones can now be unlocked with facial recognition, while cars can be started before you even step outside. Whatever your personal goto gadget is, we all feel the effects of the rapidly SPRING 2018

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The NIKITA FORRESTER

WOKE

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out–Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.”

- Martin Niemöller The world can be a dark, unjust, and downright messed up place. Cornell is not excluded from this narrative. From assaults, to racially driven attacks and prejudice on campus, the time for change is now. With more access to resources and our voices’ ability to reach bounds once unimaginable, we as students must come together to make a difference. We are the generation that claims to be WOKE, meaning we are the most aware and the most politically and socially active about injustice that is surrounding us. If we define ourselves in this way, it is important that we work towards making the world a better place. The first step is to be properly WOKE, the second is to raise awareness, and the last is to be active and get involved.

Many of us have heard the term WOKE either from TV or some form of social media. People proclaim that we know more about what’s going on in the world than any other generation. With the world at our fingertips we can look up almost anything and get an answer within seconds. The question is, how well are we using the resources available to us?

If you just see a post on Facebook or Instagram and take the story as factual, you are not being thorough enough. That story could be false, omit important details, or be biased. It is important to read multiple stories from multiple sources, so you can validate the story and come to your own conclusions about the situation. It’s been said many a time, but you really cannot believe everything you read.

It is also important to actively seek out information, and not just wait for it to pop up on our news feeds. For example, a lot of people might not know that Cornell currently has the most open Title IX cases of any university. We need to make more of an effort to actively seek out information, but not just about our immediate surroundings. Another aspect of knowledge is understanding what the root causes of these issues are and how policy and social norms help perpetuate them. Being inquisitive and doing more in-depth research can help you avoid victim blaming and view the world from a different perspective.There is a whole world outside of Cornell and we should know about it. If you’re going to be WOKE, fact check your sources, get different versions of the story, and actively seek out information about what is going on.

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KE

GENERATION The second step is to make other people more aware. The most obvious way is to just share, reblog, and repost on your social media accounts. Widespread awareness can lead to increased donations, social uproar, and political change. Another way to spread information is to simply talk to people about current events. Speaking to friends, family, or professors about controversial issues or news stories you’ve read about can help make people more aware about what’s going on in the world. So next Thanksgiving, don’t shy away from a topic or opinion you think your family doesn’t agree on. A problem cannot be addressed if nobody is even aware that there is a problem.

The last step is to get involved and be active. Examples of small steps could involve being more open-minded about your personal beliefs, watching your language, and checking your friends when they’re being insensitive. Or if you have enough money, donating to charities that align with your views can be a first step in helping others. There are also opportunities for direct involvement on campus to advocate for social justice and raise awareness.

From feminist clubs like the F Word, to environmental clubs like Climate Justice Club, to cultural clubs like Black Students United, there are hundreds of ways to be more culturally aware and socially active. A lot of these clubs help you understand the root causes of specific problems, why they exist and are systemic, and how to make effective change. You can also get out and volunteer in the community and the world with clubs like Rotaract, APO and Alternative Breaks.

The road to change is long, but progress must continually be made. We must be ongoing soldiers in the fight for equality and justice for all people. By making ourselves more aware, informing others, and getting involved we can help evoke change on campus and in the world. As the WOKE generation, we are responsible for trying to make the world something we can be proud of. That means a more fair place for all, with a focus on inclusion of those from all walks of life. It’s about standing up to acts we’ve witnessed on campus such as racial slurs and the attacks of people of color, creating safe spaces for survivors, and preventing threats of gun violence on campus. In order to make the world a better place we need to learn about root causes, spread the word, and be involved. Change starts with us. And change is now.

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Story or It Didn’t Happen KATE FEHRENBAKER

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Trying to explain Snapchat to our parents is like trying to teach them a foreign language. No matter how hard we try, they’ll never really understand. I think by now my mom somewhat understands the urgency and necessity of keeping a “snap streak” alive, but I don’t think she’ll ever wrap her head around the craft and care that goes into making the perfect “snap story.”

Snap story culture defines today’s teenagers. If only your 300 viewers knew the amount of effort that went into capturing that perfect moment, right? Story culture has drastically evolved since Snapchat added the function a few years ago. What began as the casual, occasional selfie post has now transformed into an artistic creation. Snapchat now offers around 20 different facial filters, countless geotags, and emoji stickers.

You can even glitz up your story’s text with tons of fun fonts. Stories are no longer just a way to convince our friends that our lives are fun and exciting, but are now a tool for artistic expression.

The infatuation with storying doesn’t just lie in the creativity of it. Only a handful of my friends strive to create an aesthetically pleasing story. Our generation’s obsession with snap stories is a result of our need for attention. Think about it. How many times do you check the views on your story before the 24 hour time stamp is up? Personally, I’ve started to notice that I subconsciously check the number of views on my stories every time I open the app. While I don’t consider myself to be a social-media crazed teen, I can’t help but

get sucked into the attention vortex as well.

While many of us will admit that snap stories are hardly an accurate depiction of our real lives, our obsession hasn’t seemed to waver since the advent of the function back in 2013. Snapchat allows even its most introverted users to feel relatively famous. Storying fuels our generation’s incessant desire to feel as though we’re being watched. Hey! Even Instagram has hopped on the story bandwagon—Facebook, too, but has anyone actually ever seen or made a story on there?

Nowadays, you can post to your regular story, to a story where you select who can view it, and to a large event’s story. You can even create a private one with your friends, allowing multiple people to post. The rules to storying are pretty flexible, too. Some users treat their story like a “finsta,” adding their most unfiltered, raw moments. Others opt to solely add when they’re out doing something fun, using filters to cover up any blemishes.

An unhealthy addiction? An embarrassment to our generation? Who’s to say? While snap haters may argue that today’s teens don’t live in the moment, there seems to be no stopping the story culture. So for as long as this fad stays around, story on. But one small favor, please, keep it short and sweet. Nobody likes clicking twenty times to get to the next story.

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“I feel like our generation get s a bad rap because our rela tionship with technology is so unique compared to older generations. We grew up wit h the world at our fingertips and we get criticism for bei ng ‘tech-dependent’” -Caroline Creaser

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“Our generation is consumed by technology to the point of it causing mental health deterioration; we constantly compare ourselves to others on social media and it enables us to live behind a facade.�

-Emily Levin

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To paraphrase the great Billy Joel, “Oh my other world is just seven thousand miles away.” In January, while most of my classmates were enjoying their last sleep-in opportunities and ordering their books, I was taking my first trip outside the U.S. This past winter break I traveled to Uganda to take part in a primatology course with Hunter College’s Dr. Jessica Rothman.

For me, traveling to Africa was the realization of a lifelong dream, and not just because I finally got a stamp in my woefully blank passport. As an Animal Science major, I often Google pictures of wildlife in Africa and just stare. Don’t get me wrong, Ithaca. I really appreciate seeing the occasional deer venture across the street and the skunks are to die for, but there’s something to be said for more exotic options.

I split my time in Uganda between Kibale National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park, learning how to identify primates and studying their behavior. I had the opportunity to meet a plethora of guest speakers, all of whom are involved in some facet of the conservation mission in Uganda.

During this adventure, I first heard about Dr. Colin Chapman. On paper Dr. Chapman is extraordinarily impressive. A professor in the Anthropology Department at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in Primate Ecology and Conservation, his research has been published in hundreds of articles and other formats and has been cited tens of thousands of times. During his career he’s worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society and National Geographic and received numerous accolades, all while heading up the Kibale Monkey Project in Uganda. Dr. Chapman’s research has focused on applying acquired data to the conservation of species, working to understand and protect species like the red colobus while limiting human-wildlife conflict. While his work may have originated with animals, he has also received widespread recognition for his humanitarian efforts, making healthcare more accessible in Kibale by establishing health clinics and advocating for education.

An Interview with Dr. Colin Chapman: Conservation PIONEER COLLEEN SORGE

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While I had passed his field site on occasion, Dr. Chapman’s work really came into focus for me when my classmates and I attended a lecture about the mobile clinic Dr. Chapman established. This clinic brings healthcare to the people of Kibale National Park via a refurbished ambulance. My interest sufficiently piqued, I contacted Dr. Chapman and obtained an interview.

I’m always looking for content for Slope that will be interesting to Cornellians. One of the many reasons I’m proud to go to Cornell is because our student body is intensely passionate. We’re driven (to a fault), eager to get involved, and committed to making positive change.

Especially after speaking to Dr. Chapman one on one, I can say confidently that he clearly possesses these traits as well: “People want to know the theoretical reason why I study this or that. I just usually find something that I’m really interested in, and that I think would be fun. People ask, why are you studying that, and I literally say that it’s fun. I enjoy doing it. I think that it’s a neat question. I want to understand it.” It’s this kind of passion and excitement in our work that I think we’re all hoping to find someday.

Because it was the mobile clinic that had first caught my attention, I was eager to hear more about its inception. Dr. Chapman recounted his desire to give something back to Ugandans after spending so much time working in Kibale. Speaking to one of his field assistants after a long day of chimp-watching, he recalled asking the man what he might be able to give that the people needed. Third on the list, after money and jobs, was healthcare. Dr. Chapman explained that if his field assistant had returned home that evening to find his baby son sick, he would have to simply wait and see if he got any better. If the child didn’t improve in the coming days, he would have to run around to his neighbors borrowing money, take the day off from work to drive with his wife and child two hours to the nearest doctor, pay the doctor two days’ wages (in Uganda, he was still considered upper class), and drive his child home. Understandably, his assistant wanted to be able to do something immediately for his child. Thus, the idea to build a clinic at Kibale National Park was hatched. After building the first clinic, Dr. Chapman then had a refurbished ambulance shipped from Canada to serve as the first mobile clinic. It now travels around Kibale Park, delivering vital health services to the park’s residents and helping to treat widespread health issues like malaria and HIV. While helping people in need, the clinic also has markedly improved the relationship between Kibale National Park and the people who live nearby, thereby contributing to Dr. Chapman’s conservation efforts. The clinic gives patients an opportunity to voice their grievances with the park and its animals (who are often eating their crops), hear the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s perspective on these issues, and learn what to do moving forward.

For Dr. Chapman, the mobile clinic and his efforts to expand it are only one of many ongoing projects. Among the others? An Odorblaster! “Elephant damage is the biggest complaint about the park. That’s something I care to do more immediately. So, you know elephants have a great sense of smell. We have about 200 genes for smell, dogs have 400, and elephants have about 2,000. They have this great sense of smell so we’ve had engineers here design what we basically call the Odorblaster. We basically have chemicals that they probably will not like the smell of.

They’re not damaging at all but they stink. We have a way now, if an elephant comes into your crops, we’ll take this gun over and basically try to shoot it into the air. It will just make this plume of small particles and hopefully that will scare them off or deter them. We’ll see if it works.”

Dr. Chapman has worked all over the world, spending time in the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Uganda, and China, to name a few locations. In the coming years he hopes to apply the work he’s done in Uganda to China by establishing a field site there. He also wants to take his experiences abroad and use them to educate those in North America who may be less familiar with ecosystems overseas. Hopefully, this missionary work will help conservationists to finance their projects. “People in Canada and the U.S. have to be interested. They have to be passionate about the tropics. I want to try to figure out how to communicate the importance of tropical conservation to people in North America when they’ve never been to the tropics. They kind of vaguely know them because they maybe saw something on National Geographic, but how do we make them be involved? It’s easy to say to someone, well you should recycle, and they can do an action. When you say we should conserve the tropics, it’s vague. Why? Can’t someone else do it?”

His time traveling has given him a unique perspective on the state of conservation around the world. “Almost everywhere the local people want to conserve. There’s a real pride in their forests and their animals. When they don’t conserve, it’s mostly because they feel they don’t have a choice. If you have to cut down a tree to send your children to school, what’s your choice? I think that’s the thing that I’ve found around the world and I find it really positive. If we can provide things that make life a little bit easier, it’s basically going to mean that there’s a big will to conserve.” Statistics indicate clearly that right now we’re not doing enough to

conserve, but thankfully the workforce devoted to conservation is growing rapidly. “I find it really optimistic. A lot of people are getting involved, and that’s how we’re going to do change. So, I think things are moving quickly. We’ve got to move faster, but people are doing a lot of really great things and things are getting better in a lot of places.”

For future primatologists and conservationists, there are certainly educational and experiential pre-requisites to be successful, but Dr. Chapman is quick to emphasize that the most basic ingredient is passion, and he stresses that this work should be fun.

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what you can do to help advance these goals. After all, our generation will largely be tasked with advancing conservation and protecting our planet.

Unfortunately, it’s not an easy answer. Donations are necessary to advance conservation efforts, but given that many college students are already living off Ricearoni, financing such efforts is not feasible for our age group. Students in medical school or veterinary school are welcome to volunteer their time in Uganda working at the clinic and in similar venues, but it’s more difficult for undergraduates to find a way to utilize their talents in a meaningful way because of their lack of training.However, Dr. Chapman is eager to involve others in his projects and has already devoted significant time to training the next generation of conservationists. If you have an idea about how to get our generation involved, I ask that you reach out to Dr. Chapman directly at colin.chapman@mcgill.ca Another recurring point in my conversation with Dr. Chapman was that it’s okay to start small. “I think things like this article and education in general, this is how people like Jane Goodall started.

You know, she basically never would have moved in that direction and she just got a couple of breaks.”

So which one of you passionate Cornellians wants to be the next Jane Goodall?

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Lisa Vanderpump: Self - B KIMBERLY MURSTEIN

“Life isn’t all diamonds and rosé, but it should be.”

– Lisa Vanderpump, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Season 3)

research had to be done because I was a fan, and I knew

It was mid-January when I met Real Housewife of Bever-

stacks of rare English candies at the counter alongside

ly Hills Lisa Vanderpump in an English tea-shop in the West Village. I was merely a production assistant for NBCUniversal. My primary job, which albeit included making copies, was to help write interview questions for

knew all of her dogs’ names, her portfolio of restaurants, the successes of her Vanderpump Rosé endeavor, and which of her friendships were on the rocks.

I took a taxi to the west village to an English tea shop smaller than my freshman year dorm room on North.

Posters of Prince Harry lined the walls and there were a row of English pastries and embellished teapots. The New York Live host, Ben Aaron, sat at a round table in the corner across from Vanderpump. I was thrilled to see her daughter Pandora, her husband Ken, and in

the live talk-show, New York Live.

his lap, Giggy, their Pomeranian with alopecia. It was a

I overheard that the producers of my show were

out to Ken and said, “Hi, I’m Kim, I’m with NBC. Giggy

going to interview Lisa Vanderpump on location one afternoon, and I asked if I could come along to observe.

Vanderpump is a cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Vanderpump Rules, which both air on Bravo, a network owned by NBCUniversal. Vanderpump Rules catalogues the lives of the employees of the restaurant S.U.R., which stands for Sexy Unique Restaurant, owned by Vanderpump, who is a boss in every sense of the word. What would I ask her? Little

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family I knew well from television. I reached my hand looks adorable.” I pet the dog, who was wearing a purple sweater with pom-poms.

I watched Lisa’s interview as I held a bag of equipment, waiting for a camera light battery to die so I could pass over a new one. I was enamored by the way she carried herself, her wisecracks, the way she knew how to act in front of a camera and the way she capitalized on her different shows. She talked about the drama with her

- Branding and Reality TV friends on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the

surrounds female entrepreneurialism. Vanderpump

young, beautiful cast of Vanderpump Rules. She wore a

must balance the gendered idea of “housewife” whose

Chanel bag and diamond earrings. I wasn’t nervous; my

primary responsibility is to run the household with her

heart didn’t beat out of my chest like I thought it would

identity of “businesswoman.” In our culture, women are

and my hands weren’t clammy. Lisa’s voice was one I

constantly redefining what it means to be a feminist

heard every day in my home; it wasn’t foreign, I knew

and I believe an interesting place to further monitor

her well.

this trend is the realm of reality television.

From this experience, I realized the prevalence of

Reality TV makes average people celebrities, and so

self-branding in The Real Housewives series, Bravo, and

cast members are often viewed as shallow airheads, but

reality television as a whole. Vanderpump’s self-rep-

there is a certain craft and intelligence to self-brand-

resentation of class and luxury matched Bravo’s

ing that disproves this stereotype. While some view

brand identity, and she came to represent the brand

the Reality-TV genre as “trash”, the intimacy the

by cross-promoting various lifestyle products across

guilty-pleasure provides is one that gets us attached to

multiple platforms. Vanderpump capitalized on the

its characters. Watching shows like The Real Housewives

opportunity to reap success from The Real Housewives

and looking to Vanderpump as a model for entrepre-

of Beverly Hills and its many spin-offs, using them as

neurship can be a learning experience for viewers. The

a platform to market her own business endeavors, like

stigma that Reality TV is “mindless” entertainment and

her various restaurants, The Vanderpump Dog Founda-

the negative perceptions associated with watching the

tion, Vanderpump Pets and Vanderpump Rosé.

genre hide the fact that audiences can learn from these programs. The increasing popularity of the program-

This female-driven entrepreneurship has grown popular

ming as well as its extension into social media and other

in contemporary brand culture, for instance with the

forms of entertainment prove that its cultural influence

Kardashians. However, in the complex self-brand-

is more complex than “trash.” We can all learn from LV.

ing work for celebrities exists an ambivalence that

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Dear Celiac Disease, I’m not going to argue that I’m not a picky eater.

I have plenty of weird preferences and self-imposed restrictions. I have a ketchup phobia, and I won’t even touch the bottle or pass it to another person in addition to not eating it. I despise milk—even with cereal—foods with wet consistencies, goat cheese, and any sauces that are red or involve tomato flavors. On top of all those weird requests, I am a pescetarian by choice, so I only eat fish and not other meats.

But there’s one choice I don’t have, and that is to eat a gluten-free diet. I’m not on the diet to lose weight or because I think it’s a healthier option—which, by the way, it’s really not if you eat the substitute carbs that are readily available—but because I will physically get sick if I don’t. I have Celiac Disease, which is an autoimmune disorder that causes a person’s body to attack itself if gluten is consumed. Going gluten-free is a medical matter for me, not a social one. And for all the people who think they are eating “healthier” by eliminating gluten, this is usually very far from the truth. Gluten-free substitutes have plenty of saturated fats in them, and whole grains with gluten are often packed with more nutrients than those without it. If your gluten-free diet consists of gluten free cake and gluten-free pasta only, it won’t be a very effective diet.

For me, eating a gluten-free diet is more work than simply avoiding foods that contain gluten.

Having Celiac means being aware of possible cross contamination issues. If a restaurant lists gluten-free pasta on its menu, I have to ask if the water used to boil it is separate from the water used for regular pasta. If I’m in CTB ordering a gluten-free bagel, I have to make sure the employee knows to use the separate peanut butter that hasn’t touched bread, or a new container of veggie cream cheese on my bagel. If I’m getting my favorite salad at Macs, I have to ask the worker to change his or her gloves from the flatbread residue. Eating completely gluten-free is harder than it seems on the surface; it’s more than selecting particular items on a menu and staying away from others.

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A F

Since eating gluten-free is one of several new fad diets, I now feel the need to clarify wherever I eat that I am not eating gluten-free for fun. People fad dieting gluten-free won’t care about trace amounts of gluten, but I do. I will get sick from just one crumb or one careless waiter.

It’s difficult to know if people take me seriously or if they just hear “gluten-free” and reach for the appropriate bread in the kitchen. Nevertheless, there are some positives to gluten free becoming a well-known lifestyle. When I was first diagnosed 13 years ago, there was only one gluten-free brand of every food, and it all tasted like cardboard. More popular brands now make gluten-free versions of typical favorites: Snyder’s pretzels, Tate’s cookies, etc. The Wegmans gluten-free aisles are stocked with several variations of cookies, crackers, baked goods, and microwavable dinners, and this is largely because of the prevalence of eating gluten-free. Thirteen years ago, no one even knew what gluten-free was, and now there are big signs and labels on countless products, screaming for customers with Celiac and those eating gluten-free for fun.

It will always be important for me to advocate for my own health and for fellow Celiacs wherever I go, so people know my gluten-free diet is serious and that even a small amount of gluten is not safe for me.

An Open Letter to My Food Restrictions AMANDA MADENBERG SPRING 2018

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COMING HOME

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VERONICA NOBREGA As someone who’s moved around throughout her life (the perks of being a Navy Brat), by the time I got to college, I had already developed a pretty fool-proof method of adapting to new surroundings. The process always carried out as follows: old Veronica was dead, everyone she knew before was gone, relationships were temporary. I realized that this was ruthless and cold, but it made moving on that much easier every time.

It was my plan to treat college no differently than I had my other circumstances. At the time, I didn’t understand how going to college was so different from moving to Florida or Tennessee or Virginia because when you go away for college, you come back. Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I began distancing myself from life as I knew it, severing my emotional connection to anything that would be painful to leave behind. My relationships became surfacelevel. Summer passed quickly, and I left Rochester for Cornell.

Within a week, everything that had brought me comfort in my past life felt far removed. I had become a new person. I forgot all of the people that had supported me in the past through a forced erasure of my memories, good or bad. My interests changed quickly, and hobbies that had consumed me in my old life (singing, for instance) seemed pointless.

Experiencing discomfort in my new surroundings was unacceptable, so I rapidly forced myself to adapt to campus life. I pressured myself to do what I thought college students were supposed to, while learning to live independently of my parents and my previous inhibitions; I was pushing my boundaries, in both destructive and productive ways. That girl I used to know who called herself Veronica was just an echo in the dark, and me, the “new” Veronica? I was thriving: parties, ivy-covered buildings, prelims, clock-tower chimes, coffee cup in my hand, wild nights; I was living life like it was a movie.

I started innately calling Cornell “home.”

Before I knew it, finals rolled around and flew by. I found myself in my room, one hour before my mom was to pick me up and whisk me away for the month. At the moment, “break” solely meant taking a hiatus from an exhausting (albeit exciting) lifestyle and just existing for a few seconds. I didn’t understand that the implications of break were much greater; how was I supposed to return to a place, a home, that I had neglected for so long?

My mom arrived, and I was charged, immediately pouncing on this woman, my day-one, my best friend. The sight of her was surreal, and I couldn’t believe that this woman from my “past life” had crossed dimensions and found herself at my school. We chattered on about the lives we had separately paved over the past four months while coasting down the road, leaving behind Cayuga’s waters for Rochester. In an instant, we were at my old house, and I bolted inside and enveloped my brother and my dad in a hug. Although I had repressed my feelings for an entire semester, convincing myself that the past wasn’t important, nothing could suppress the love I possessed for my family.

That night, I was to meet two friends who had invited me to our high school’s fall musical. I hesitantly entered the school, disoriented because I had convinced myself this place didn’t exist. I spotted my friends, and as our eyes met, they lurched forward and broke into a sprint across the hallway. My legs propelled me forward in a similar fashion, and in a fraction of a moment, we found ourselves in each other’s embrace.

Taking our seats, we talked about our lives as we waited for the show to start. It was strange to reflect on my new world with people from

my old world; I was starting to get the sense that the two weren’t so distinctly separate. Suddenly the lights dimmed and the overture hummed in anticipation. Showtime.

I’m not sure how to describe what happened next, but I can tell you that one moment I was fine, and the next, on the verge of a breakdown. The tears cascaded down my face in silent waves, and I tried to rationalize that they were the product of my pride in my friends. It was when I saw all of my old friends up on stage, doing what I had once loved to do and killing it, that it hit me. It was a realization that sent a shockwave of uneasiness down my spine, leaving the feeling to permeate throughout my body.

What had I done?

I was crying because I was me. For four months, I had lived in a dream-state where relationships weren’t real. I was a new person and the past was behind me because I was indestructible. The fact of the matter was that this Veronica was irremovable from the Veronica that once performed on this stage. This life was the same life as before.

The Veronica that attended that high school and hung out with those friends and lived with that family is the same Veronica who pushed herself out of her comfort zone in college, doing things the other Veronica never would have dreamt of. She had forced herself to grow up so much over the course of four months and hadn’t even realized it because she had convinced herself that she wasn’t that Veronica. Now, she was vulnerable.

Reconciling these Veronicas was going to be a task for the books, but I supposed that I had a whole month to do it...and that I did through a series of uncomfortable moments. For instance, tackling all of my buddies after their performance, tears still streaming down my cheeks, and telling them how proud I was of them (they were terrified). Also, the time I had a major disagreement with my parents at the dinner table over campus life which resulted in a screaming match. How about the time all my high school friends came over for a tacky sweater party and we talked about college while reminiscing about high school? That was especially weird because they had also changed markedly, adopting questionable behaviors of their own.

What these, and innumerable other awkward experiences that forced me to revisit my past over Winter Break, proved to me was that there weren’t two Veronicas living on two separate planes of existence; my life was a timeline, and I couldn’t separate one era from another. There was one Veronica, and although she had changed (a lot), we were still one in the same.

My case may feel very specific to my personal experiences, but I assert that many young people experience similar difficulties at this stage in their lives. There’s a lot of pressure on people to “reinvent” themselves upon starting college; I know this was certainly a factor in my own transition. For some reason, we assume that we are unsuited for college in our current state, as though college requires us to be supreme beings without flaws; we need to get on the same “level” as our peers (as though they’re not all harboring the same concerns).

College is certainly not that glamorous.

Experimenting in life and trying to figure out who you are and what you will set out to do is one of the most exciting parts of college, but this shouldn’t be done at the expense of your connection to the past.

Remembering where you came from and who was there for you is crucial to fully exploring this future; a support system composed of your family, friends, and even yourself is a solid foundation upon which to begin constructing the rest of your life. These constants serve as roots, grounding you and allowing you to flourish from thereon.

SPRING 2018

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The “Minorities, including myself, are often told what they should do. Cornell’s do.”

Want Project reveals the statements of what those same people aspire to -Sarah Karkoura

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to limit , we do not have So e. tiv ac y all gic lo ole new “We are so techno we’re forming a wh e; ag g un yo r ou of ourselves because preneurs.” tre en of n tio genera -Julia Romanelli

SPRING 2018

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“Old” vs “New” Learning Methods: What’s Better?

ANA SCHONANDER I remember the first time one of my teachers told my class that

Smartboards, for example, are the more advanced version of a

we could not use our computers. It was in middle school, and as

whiteboard. They are controlled by touch, so you essentially write

you can imagine, we were all shocked. We had just gotten laptops

on them with fake markers. Smartboards conveniently save all

for the first time and were excited to use them, and here was our

the work done on them. This is especially useful for students who

teacher telling us we had to take our notes by hand.

are absent so they can see exactly what was written on the board in class, whereas with a whiteboard, everything would have been

Fast forward to second semester sophomore year of college,

erased. Of course, the potential for technological glitches with the

when three out of my four professors made the point that taking

Smartboard can take time away from learning.

notes by hand helps you learn more than does taking notes on a computer. Throughout my education, we have gone from dry erase

Not too long ago the projector stopped working during one of

boards and blackboards to smartboards, from printed homework

my lectures. At first, the professor tried to fiddle around with

packets to online problem sets, and from taking notes by hand to

some wires in a futile attempt to get the PowerPoint back up

typing them on a computer.

and running. It got to a point where we had wasted a good ten minutes of class joking about the technology. While most of the

So doesn’t asking students to stop using technology in the

time it works well, when technology does not work it is frustrating

classroom seem like a step back? As is the case with most things,

for both the professor and the students. In this case, I would say

there are pros and cons to having technology in the classroom.

that while technology can provide more visual resources during a

Still, I have come to prefer “old” learning methods to the newer

lecture, it can also become a distraction.

ones.

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Switching from physical textbook use to online technology is becoming

after moving on to the next unit.

more common in college courses. Interactive learning may help turn B

The use of technology was allowing me

students into A students and C students into B students as purported

to BS my way through homework and tests without

by McGraw Hill, but a Dartmouth study written about in The Huffington

retaining information. Isn’t the point of taking a class or attending

Post suggests that “while screen learning helped solidify the details of

college in general to further my knowledge? If not, what am I doing here?

the learning, paper reading helps readers better understand abstract concepts.” The article suggests that it may be best to take in information

What has affected my life more recently is the notebook vs. laptop

through different mediums to learn something. “For example, if you want

debate. While writing by hand for three hours straight makes me feel like

to recall the dates of certain events, a computer screen may help you

I am going to get carpal tunnel, there are benefits to doing things the old

better remember them when studying. However, if you want to recall

fashioned way. Not being able to get every word down does stress me out

why such an event occurred or where, paper may be your best bet.”

sometimes, especially if not everything the professor says is on the slides.

Clearly, there is no definitive answer in this research, as both learning on

However, a study published by professors at Princeton University and

screens and on paper have their strengths and weaknesses.

the University of California, Los Angeles found that “students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective–

Last semester, I learned how much I missed old-school learning methods.

because you can’t write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing

I made the mistake of taking autotutorial physics. While I enjoyed physics

of the material that they were doing benefited them.” Not only does

class in high school and thought that it would be okay, I was wrong. The

pen and paper note taking help with the retention of information, but

professors and TAs who ran the course were helpful, but it was difficult

it is also less distracting. It is so easy to check iMessage, Facebook,

to keep up with all the assignments. The class utilized the LearnSmart

or scroll through posts on BuzzFeed during those hour and fifteen-

technology by McGraw Hill, which meant for every unit we had to

minute lectures. By having to actively listen to get down the important

read the chapter(s) while doing reinforcement learning questions and

information, taking notes by hand can be more useful than typing.

a problem set where there was little room for error. I can honestly say I remember more of what I learned in high school physics than what I

As much as we may love our technology, it might not always be the best

learned last semester. The pressure to simply memorize definitions and

way for us to learn. There are aspects that may benefit us, but in the long

formulas for the unit test made it so that I was not internalizing the

run, technology is not superior to the “older” methods of learning.

information I was supposed to be learning. I was “learning” long enough to be able to take the unit test, but then quickly forgot what I had just done

SPRING 2018

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Teenage Dream

KAREN LI Coming to Cornell was nothing short of a dream for me. For eighteen years, my home on Long Island was all I knew; I spent my days rushing to and from school and my nights stowed away in my room, imagining places far away from home.

The spring semester of my senior year in high school was a tumultuous time; as days grew warmer and longer, the lives of my friends magically changed one by one with the click of an email from MIT or the ring of a phone from Stanford. At long last, we had reached the end of a winding tunnel of college applications that ran through the deadest of sleepless winter nights. On the morning of our graduation ceremony in June, our minds were already dreaming of our new dorm rooms while the principal droned on into his microphone about our unbelievably promising futures.

I found my situation to be different. Due to special circum-

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stances, I continued to live at home (a ten-minute drive from my new campus) while my friends scattered across the country, each one bringing back wilder stories than the last. To me, my first year of college was just another year of high school; my mind was always somewhere else. I treated each new day as if it were already over and lived vicariously through my friends on social media as they shared precious seconds of their lives with me. Their experiences appeared so different from mine that I eventually questioned the legitimacy of my own experiences because they felt no different from my high school times.

For the duration of that year and throughout the summer that followed, I meticulously planned my first year of “real college� to perfection based on what I had seen and read online. I was to meet my best friends on our very first night together, and years later we would all walk side-by-side during Commencement with tears in our eyes. Then, second semester, I would meet my

REALITY EXPECTATION long-lost sisters after successfully joining a top sorority, and find my future husband at a fraternity mixer so that our children would gain legacy admission to Cornell. Most excitingly, the parties at school would live up to those glorified on party-centric Instagram accounts.

When I finally arrived on Cornell’s campus in August for Orientation, a lady mistook me for a freshman as she greeted me. I nodded at her without thinking, utterly removed from my own reality by the teenage dream I had painted for myself.

When the first several weeks of “real college” didn’t quite shape up to my wildly romanticized expectations, the dreams that I had worked so hard at creating came fluttering down like a house of cards. It seemed that my experiences would never properly match those that I had so frequently observed. Constantly juxtaposing my life with what I was forced to see through

other people’s modified images left me increasingly dissatisfied, until one day I declared that coming to Cornell was the worst thing to ever happen to me.

The media dangerously lures us into believing that it portrays normalcy, when in fact, by nature it is meant to highlight extraordinary moments in our universally mundane lives. Ordinary events are hardly ever recounted because they are precisely that. Though we often look to the media to predict and set a pattern for the future, my experiences have taught me that the best way to ascertain the unknown is to simply experience it for oneself. After finally letting go of expectations and instead embracing the reality of my present situation as nothing short of a unique blessing, I now realize that coming to Cornell is indeed the best thing to happen to me.

SPRING 2018

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From Pen and Paper to “Let me Grab My Laptop” A Reflection on The Societal Transformation That is Technology ALIZA SCHUB Technology. It’s a tricky thing, isn’t it? We love it, we want it; we hate it, we don’t want it. The world cannot make up its mind whether it has deemed technology amazing or terrible. Today, society relies on technology to the fullest extent. People expect email responses within minutes, Internet access within seconds, and constant communication at all times. The advancements of technology in our world are negatively affecting both academic environments and social settings. How can society limit the amount of technology present if the demands for its functions keep rising?

I greatly value the technology of the twenty first century. Without it, this article, for example, would have taken triple the time and would have wasted both precious trees and pens’ worth of ink.

However, I do think that our use of technology has become excessive and detrimental to society at large. Although it is hard to draw a line where the use becomes “excessive,” I would say that we crossed that line when we transitioned from corporate use to personal use. While I agree that the workplace really benefits from expedited communication, search browsers, printing capabilities, and more, I do not think that every single person needs an individual smartphone, tablet, and computer.

The influx of gadgets is undoubtedly detracting from social interactions. When adults in the workplace had phones for their jobs, it did not invade social functions. It was just a device that solely served work related functions. The infiltration of “work phones,” which we now just call phones, into every single person’s pocket is when the damage started to hit. Instead of interactive environments that stimulate laughter and camaraderie, when you walk into a room

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full of people supposedly hanging out, you are likely to find them sitting on their phones staring silently at their respective screens.

Eye contact and facial expressions are no longer present nor appreciated in larger groups of people spending time together.

It is easier to point to this evolving issue when comparing our generation to that of our parents. Growing up, one my parents’ golden rules was no phones at the dinner table. Whether I wanted to check the time, play a game, or try to answer texts, phones were not allowed at the table and there were no exceptions. Now that cell phones are more prevalent, society no longer places the same importance on the dinner table, and all that it represents: having in person conversations, enjoying quality time with others, and moreover, focusing on the now. With our technology and its capabilities, we all focus on what’s happening either somewhere else or some time later. This detracts from every social setting. With our cell phones buzzing in our pockets, it’s hard to focus on the person sitting next to us. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t practice putting the phone on silent and doing our best to focus on the now!

I believe that the root of this issue is accessibility. The more accessible technology and gadgets become, the harder it is to survive without them. When I was in elementary school, phones were a parent thing.

Or maybe an older sibling thing. The first person in my grade to get the Razr flip phone was a very big deal, and it was probably when we were eleven or twelve, which is admittedly young. Nowadays, the average age of a child to receive a cell phone is 10 years old, meaning that many kids are getting phones even earlier than that. On top of that, they are no longer receiving a

phone that simply allows them to call their parents when they’re late for carpool. Instead, 10-year-olds are given smartphones with full access to streaming, Internet, games, and more. The earlier we start with these gadgets, the more dependent we are on them.

One of the most affected environments is the classroom. The traditional method of teaching, in which the teacher lectures and students sit and write down what they said, has been lost. What used to be twenty attentive heads faced forward, looking up, listening intently to their professor is now those same twenty heads, but nonattentive, faced down, staring intently at their computer screens.

Studies show that students who hand-write their notes learn more and perform better on exams. Students who typed their notes did write more, however they typed verbatim what their teacher said and therefore possibly did not retain the information. On the contrary, someone who listens to a lecture and paraphrases into their notes on paper is forced to actively listen and then write what they comprehended. Therefore, students who use pen and paper usually gain a stronger conceptual understanding and are more successful applying and integrating the material than those who simply copied down what the teacher said. Additionally, many students choose to abuse laptop use in the classroom. Instead of taking notes, or maybe in addition to taking notes, you can find students online shopping, streaming TV episodes and movies, answering their emails, or playing games. For all of the month of March, I’ll see students watching March Madness on their computers and phones during class. This exemplifies the dangers of allowing technology in the classroom.

As time goes on, the concept of knowledge and what it means to be knowledgeable is changing. While history curriculums used to include

memorizing the 50 states (Did you learn the song?) and the U.S. presidents, along with other facts, it is now less relevant, as everyone has that information at their fingertips with the abundance of Internet access. The desire to solve a problem and figure out an answer has dropped; why would you work hard to find the answer when Google can give it to you right now?! This drastic transformation of how to learn takes away from education in a very harmful way. The value of “knowing something” no longer exists the way it once did.

I am not trying to make the claim that we should banish all technology and return to a decade in which we couldn’t reach each other; we did things less efficiently and we wasted lots of trees and ink for all academic purposes. However, I am challenging the extent to which we value our technology. I think that we would all benefit from a gadget free zone once in a while. Whether it be the classroom or the dinner table, we should all set times where we focus on the people and world around us instead of what’s going on on our screens. Not only will we reduce the damage to our eyes (Computer Vision Syndrome includes eye fatigue, burning and itchy eyes, blurred vision, and sensitivity to bright light), but it will also allow us to use our brains and thought processes instead of Google and Siri.

One of the best parts about being gadget free is getting the chance to talk to people around you uninterrupted and to give and receive their full attention in return. So what do you say we start connecting with the people around us instead of connecting to the Wi-fi?

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Reconsidering Rationality ALEXANDER PEREL This past semester, one of the columns I started writing for Slope Media was a series reviewing old movies in the context of modern society and pop culture. One of the articles I wrote was a revisiting of the film The Graduate in the context of modern college campuses, in which I discussed how many of the counterculture ideals that surrounded this movie still exist today. In the article, I pointed out the dichotomy between the world we experience in college and the one we experience once we graduate. For many, with graduation comes the reality that much of what we wished would come about after college graduation simply does not. Nothing works out exactly as we want it to. In light of this, the only hope we have is to think and care about everything we do. If we put thought into our decisions, rationalizing why we choose to do one thing or another, we will end up far happier than we would be walking aimlessly through life.

When I originally wrote my piece on The Graduate, I was tasked with bringing this movie into the context of the greater Cornell community.

I thought to myself, “How does this movie relate to my own search for meaning and direction in my life?� I struggled to find the connection between our liberal Ivy League experiences and those of Benjamin Braddock, an upper-middle class college student on the West Coast in the 1960s. Thus, I settled on my original trope: to give thought to everything we do.

The one thing I did not consider initially is the concept of time. The main character of The Graduate can spend so much time simply thinking about what he does because he comes from a wealthy background, has the security of his parents supporting him, and lives in an era when going to an elite college almost guaranteed its

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graduates a good job with a stable income. In reality, many students do not have these luxuries. Instead, we need to act quickly, and this forces us to make decisions that we will later be unsatisfied with. We are not afforded the opportunity to ponder the meaning of our lives and what we are destined to do. So really I landed on a fairy tale notion that cannot come true.

The more time I spend at Cornell, the more my pessimism is confirmed.

Cornell is very much a place of action. We are a school that has a lot going on. There are nine undergraduate colleges, from CALS to the School of Hotel Administration. Each school has subdivisions and subdivisions of its subdivisions. There is essentially a class or place to study every little interest anyone could possibly have, from Animal Science to Computer Science. When I came here as a freshman, I did not have a major. I figured I would enroll in Arts and see where that took me. However, I did not anticipate the feeling that everyone else knew exactly what they were doing. ILR, Hotel, AEM, and other schools give their students their major the minute they walk in the door their freshman fall. Meanwhile, I am currently a second semester sophomore, and I still do not know exactly what my major is. I have switched between Economics, English, and History a million times.

Sometimes I have thought about doing a combination of English and the Business Minor. My course load reflects my indecisiveness, as I have taken a variety of math, business, and social science classes.

The last thing I want is to feel forced into something. But it feels like Cornell does not offer its students the time to think about everything they are doing. You need to pick a path and stick with it.

This feeling has grown ever more apparent as I get older and have to look for potential job opportunities. With the rigid structure of Cornell and all of its undergraduate schools, it feels as though everyone already has a direct plan for what they are going to do. Cornell is incredibly pre-professional. ILR puts its students in career development and service programs starting the first semester of their freshman year. The Hotel School brings in a speaker series every Friday aimed at highlighting the successes of different alumni throughout the hospitality, real estate, and business fields to introduce its students to networking in different career paths. It feel hard to keep up, especially if one does not know exactly what they want to do. Part of this is a product of modern society.The Internet and social media platforms have created more competition in the job market and a need to get ahead of the curve early. Another part of this feeling is a product of the ultra competitive nature of Cornell itself. It is no secret that we harvest a busy and stressful atmosphere.

As I sit and complain about having to choose what my life hopes and dreams are, I realize just how pessimistic my outlook has been. In going to Cornell, these same opportunities that we have to choose between are the ones that make us so fortunate. There are many who do not have the option to choose as we do. While we feel driven towards one career path, many college students have to pick up the scraps from anything they can get. These students never got to choose between a Hotel School or ILR School or Business School. They were never given the resources we have been given. Many students never even make it to college. I feel ignorant for not getting this perspective earlier. When I sat down to write my critique of liberal, elite college campuses, I thought it was some big, philosophical discussion about what we are chosen to do and fulfilling our destinies. I now see it is a lot simpler than that. Life, as a whole, is too hard. Life throws many obstacles at us, whether personal, professional, or otherwise. School, and the education it provides us with, is a very small factor in a very big sequence of events. School, while highly impactful, is not the be all end all. The situations that drive us to make decisions will change, and we have to roll with what we are given. So rather than try to figure out how to make it through my college experiences in the most rational way, I now settle on acceptance. Let us all be thankful for the opportunity to be here and for the resources that we have been given. And even if we do not do exactly what we want at first, we will get there. We are very fortunate to have been given so much, so let’s not worry as much about what happens and see where it takes us. We will all be a lot better for it.

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e but mely passionat re xt e is n o ti nera y many.”

“I think our ge en seriously b k ta t o n d an d misunderstoo k -Nikki Juszcza

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“This may be controversial but I don’t think that there are many differences among generations. We all like to believe we are so different and unique. People will always strive to further their understanding of the world.”

-Fem Woodruff

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