the guide FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014
The Social Media Takeover An examination of increasingly online lives ALLISON HILLSBERY Hoya Staff Writer
‘I
’m heading straight to the library, but I can totally Facebook you later if you want,” Neha Shah (COL ’17) said. This was the response to an interview request for an article on social media and their effect on campus social life — one that made clear how second-nature all forms of social media are to our daily interactions. According to a study by Study Breaks College Media, approximately 95 percent of college students in the United States use Facebook, while 40 percent of these students check the site at least six times a day. Of course, Facebook is just one of the many social networks that are widely used by students. This generation takes social media for granted. By the time many college students got their first smartphones and computers, the first social-networking sites were already off the ground and on their way to becoming social phenomena. Since the launch of Myspace, which arguably pioneered the social media movement in 2003, modern outlets for digital socialization have rapidly and powerfully expanded to include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and relative newcomers YikYak and Tinder. Social media are already fundamentally ingrained in everyday life both on and off campus, despite their relative youth. But the question remains — is social media’s popularity at Georgetown for better or for worse? ————— Social media usage has expanded and evolved: Many Georgetown students see social media sites as tools for keeping up with people from their hometowns and high schools. “I have friends at colleges all over the country, and it’s hard to be able to find time to talk to them. So, looking at their online accounts is a good way to stay in touch and to
KRISTEN SKILLMAN/THE HOYA
be able to see what’s going on in their lives,” Paige Hannah (MSB ’17) said. Alexa DeAngelis (COL ’16) said that using social media has allowed her to maintain important relationships without distracting her from her life here on campus. “I feel like [social media] enhance my social life just because of the way I use it. Most of the time, if I’m on Facebook it’s because I’m talking to a friend from home that I don’t get to see very often, or I’m organizing ways to get together with my friends here: not online, but in person,” DeAngelis said. Mina Araz (COL ’17), an international student who is originally from Istanbul, Turkey, added that this benefit especially holds true on a global level. “Some of my friends from high school in Turkey decided to go abroad for college, and the rest stayed in Turkey. Seeing their pictures and seeing what they are up to on
Facebook is so convenient. It’s a great way to communicate,” Araz said. Social networks add an unprecedented level of convenience to friendship. However, for new students who might be struggling with the common issue of homesickness and yearning for familiarity, retreating to an online community can be a seemingly harmless escape with potentially damaging consequences. The option of connecting to a virtual reality may offer a tempting alternatie to having to deal with the work of building a new life on campus. “[Social media] can start off as a positive thing. I think it can start off as a way to bridge connections and get to know people. But, if people focus too much on social media, it can pull them out of the reality,” Conor Ross (COL ’16) said. For Sebastian Hart (MSB ’17), however, social media were integral in helping him
fully integrate into campus life. Hart, who transferred from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., thinks that social media can be useful tools in both maintaining old relationships and forging new ones. “I think it’s really a way that people can connect to the community here while staying connected back home, but that’s not really as big a part of their life as it was when they were with those people on a regular basis,” Hart said. Vicki Lam (NHS ’18) is also unworried about social media preventing her and her freshman peers from adjusting to on-campus life. “In my experience, social media makes it more convenient to keep up with your old friends’ lives, but it’s also very helpful in making new connections here. Especially See SOCIAL, B2
THIS WEEK THEATER FEATURE
LIFESTYLE
Drama in the Courtroom Mask & Bauble tackles gritty legal play ‘Inherit the Wind’
EMILY WELCH
Special to The Hoya
Confronting Racial Stereotypes
In an interview, the director of new satirical drama “Dear White People” explains the story behind the college film. B3
Shared Life Struggles Explored In her new book “Not That Kind of Girl,” actress Lena Dunham shares memories and experiences of “figuring it out.” B4
FOOD & DRINK
Putting on the Ritz
Degree Bistro at The Ritz-Carlton delivers an exceptionally high quality of dishes, combining flavors successfully. B5
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Album Broods Softly The debut album by duo Broods impresses with dreamy vocals. B6
THEHOYA.COM/ GUIDE @thehoyaguide
C
an a cast of college students breathe new life into an old play? Definitely. The Mask & Bauble Dramatic Society proves this point with Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s play “Inherit the Wind,” opening this week on Thursday. Written in the 1950s, the play is a fictional recreation of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, where legal giants Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan faced off in a small Tennessee courtroom to determine the legality of teaching human evolution in a state-funded classroom. The play is an allegory for McCarthyism, acting as a rebuttal to the era’s anti-communist persecutions. The performance imitates some of the trial’s actual events and discusses the inherent conflict between science and religion, placing special emphasis on the role of freedom of speech and thought. In “Inherit the Wind,” the right to think is on the chopping block in sweltering Hillsboro, Tenn., with the town’s courtroom bustling with local citizens and national reporters for one of the most controversial and high-profile trials of its time. School teacher Bertram Cates, played by Matt Beshke (COL ’18), has been arrested and is on trial for violating a state law by teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution to his students. Conservative locals are anxious to convict Cates, while intellectuals in other parts of the country want the law overturned. At the center of the trial are old friends turned adversaries, prosecutor Matthew Harrison Brady, a Bible Belt fundamentalist and three-time presidential candidate played by Peter Fanone (COL ’15), and defense attorney Henry Drummond, a religious agonstic and civil libertarian played by Matt Grisier (COL ’16). The stage is set for the heated showdown between evolutionary theory and divine creation, church and
ARIANA TAFTI FOR THE HOYA
Kathleen Hill (SFS ’15), Peter Fanone (COL ’15), Josh Street (COL ’15) and Tim Lyons (COL ’15) in a heated courtroom scene in Mask & Bauble’s “Inherit the Wind.” state, and the right to free speech and the role of education. Student Director Will Redmond (COL ’15) takes on this formidable battle in his debut main stage production. His honest vision and delivery of the gritty trial scene hammers home the fundamental conflict in the play. “It’s about being willing to engage in con-
versation, which I think is really important in a college setting, particularly at a Jesuit university,” Redmond said. “This play is about being able to share ideas. It’s about the importance of a community coming together to talk about ideas and people being willing to listen to other ideas and being See WIND, B3