VOLUME 4, ISSUE 7
MAY 2018
PIN TREE POS IT’S TIME FOR What does Coquitlam do for British Columbia Youth Week? YOUTH
A DAY FOR MOTHERS FRIENDS FOREVER
What Pinetree students would like to say to their moms
How friendships affect social interaction in high school
2 FIRST GLANCE P.4: LOCAL
P.8: FEATURED
The Pinetree Post
STAFF
FOUNDERS Russell Kim, Felix Guo (SOON TO BE FORMER) EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Emily Liang, Julia Park
Youth Week
P.12: LIFE
Mother’s Day, May Day, and Friendship
P. 15: HUMOUR
ARTICLE EDITOR Julia Park, Briana Ho CONTRIBUTORS Maryam Gamar, Briana Ho, Elisa Korner, Emily Liang, Sunny Liang, Marvin Shi GRAPHIC DESIGN Emily Liang, Katherine Liu ONLINE CONTENT Saina Adamy, Katherine Liu SPECIAL THANKS TO The Pinetree Administration, Mr. Lau, Coquitlam, Kenneth Boediman, Darian Shirzadi, Ysanne Yong, Mothers, various anonymous contributors
Staying Private in an Open World
A Lighter Look At May’s Topics
GET INVOLVED IN THE PT POST! Although we at the Pinetree Post try our best to represent the voice of the everyone at Pinetree, we are only a small group of students. To find the most pressing topics and interesting avenues to explore, we rely on input from readers to curate relevant content only. Anyone is welcome to suggest a topic or provide an opinion for Pinetree Post writers and
contributors to look into further. Do you have something to say that needs your voice? The Pinetree Post also welcomes guest content, any time, of any kind. Feel free to submit an article on a topic you are passionate for, a comic you think everyone deserves to see, maybe even a letter to the editor! You can submit your original content to us at thepinetreepost@gmail.com.
Have a question or a request? Contact us at: facebook.com/thepinetreepost
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First Glance EDITOR’S NOTE
Together
Source: Cathay Wang
The team is all awake and ready to go!
Community, friendship, and family. Emily Liang, Julia Park Editors-in-Chief As the school year starts to approach its long awaited end, we must prepare ourselves for various goodbyes. This May issue is one of the start of a new cycle, a goodbye and hello–we will be signing off and passing on the Pinetree Post onto Kathy Liu and Briana Ho. As bittersweet as any end may be, we are excited for what the new editors will bring on for the next school year. A special thank you and shoutout to our dedicated staff writers who never failed to produce quality content, the Pinetree student body for all the voices that provided input for the Pinetree Post, the office staff and administrators for allowing us to hog the printer for up to an hour each month, and the trusted Mr. Lau for being our sponsor and biggest supporter. This month, our theme is about being “together” because this is that last issue we’ll publish together. This issue is a shorter one, for we have begun our transition process. Read on to find a thorough
and personal recap of Youth Week (page 4) and in light of Mother’s Day, find on page 8 what Pinetree students love about their mothers. Learn more about the 2018 May Day on page 10. On page 11, you can a psychological take on cliques and stereotypes in high school. Read an editorial on the rather daunting truth about privacy in the digital age on 12, and finally, enjoy comics by your favourite editor (Emily) on page 15. We are less than a month away from completing our four (or in Julia’s case, five) years of high school– arguably the best four years of our lives. As we transition from adolescence into what may be the beginnings of adulthood, we hope to forever remember the memories made and lessons learned from our dear Pinetree Secondary and each other. It has been a joy and an honour to publish the voices, thoughts, and issues of Pinetree Secondary and our community. Stay gold, Pinetree. Sincerely yours, Emily Liang and Julia Park (Soon to be former) Editors-in-Chief
4 LOCAL COMMUNITY
Youth Week Coquitlam
Teens participate in battle archery at Poirier.
It’s Time For Youth Week! Emily Liang Writer In British Columbia, the first week of May (May 1st-May 7th) is an annual celebration of youth. It is intended to build a strong connection between youth and their respective communities, as well as appreciate the achievements, diversity, and issues of youth all across the province. BC Youth Week began in 1995, when a group of local municipal planners and youth recreation leaders in the Lower Mainland thought of a project that they thought would be interesting. At first, they discussed organizing a Youth Day, but that was too small for the ambitious group, so they settled on seven Youth Days instead, or a Youth Week. More than twenty years later, Youth Week is an opportunity for people to learn about and from the youth of their community. It includes youth award ceremonies, advocacy campaigns, service projects, entertainment events, competitions, and other events recognizing and empowering youth. What does this mean in Coquitlam? In the past, Coquitlam has eagerly embraced the tradition of Youth Week with the help of various youth recreation groups in conjunction with city employees. A past fixture of Coquitlam Youth Week that some readers may still
Source: City of Coquitlam Instagram
remember was the Amazing Race, held in Percy Perry Stadium in Town Centre Park, in which teams of youth would run around the park completing games and challenges at top speed to win prizes at the end. While that particular activity is no longer available in Coquitlam’s Youth Week, many other fun and exciting events were available. The events were mainly split into two areas: North-East Coquitlam (City Centre) and South-West Coquitlam (Poirier). Events included free barbecues, drop-in fitness programs, and games. In addition to the real life fun, Coquitlam also handed over its Instagram account (@cityofcoquitlam) to a local youth, Ysanne Yong, in celebration of Youth Week. She took pictures and videos of various Youth Week events occurring around the city, as well as posting Humans of New York style youth profiles throughout the week. She had a busy time trying to keep up with all the different happenings in the city. As for myself, I can only speak for the events that I attended.
The first event of Coquitlam Youth Week was a karaoke tournament at Glen Pine Pavilion. The first event of Coquitlam Youth Week was a karaoke tournament at Glen Pine Pavilion on May 3. This event got something of a slow start, despite many members of the Coquitlam Youth Council, a
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local advisory volunteer group, being in attendance. I can personally attest to that, having accompanied the lead organizer of the event, another member of the Coquitlam Youth Council, in seeking out teens willing to karaoke around the city centre. Relief came in the form of the Pinetree choir’s 5PM dismissal, and many members being ready for another singing session with free food at Glen Pine. The event ended up being quite successful, with gift cards given to the appropriate singers and vocal chords feeling a bit more sore than usual. Most of the time, Glen Pine Pavilion is a centre for Coquitlam residents over the age of 50, but that didn’t stop a karaoke tournament for high schoolers from taking off.
The event on May 4 was one that many Pinetree students probably remember. The next event on May 4 was one that many Pinetree students probably remember. After school, just outside of the Pinetree Community Centre, the city hosted a hot dog barbecue, complete with condiments, chips, and drinks. If any youth cared to stay, they could play giant Connect Four, various board games, ping pong, or attempt to beat the Eliminator: an inflatable course with swinging balls on either side to knock you off before you put the ball in the hoop at the end. I spent more time getting my dignity crushed in an intense game of outdoor Monopoly than chowing down on some free food, but with the traditional barbecue, I felt that Youth Week had really truly kicked off. Also on May 4, the first event of Youth Week on the Southwest Coquitlam side was skating at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. Unlike most events, this one cost two dollars for renting the skates and ice time. While it had been many years since I’d last skated and the lack of surrounding boards on the curling rink turned skating rink, I found that a Canadian does not easily lose the muscle memory of moving around on bladed shoes. There were between 10-15 people in attendance between 8:15-9:45 PM, as well as a table for free Youth Week items, which included cardholder smartphone attachments and branded sunglasses. On May 5th, I attended a slew of events, all in Southwest Coquitlam. From 12:00-1:30 PM there was a University Info Session at the Poirier Sport and
Kenneth Boediman was featured on the City of Coquitlam Page for Youth Week. Source: City of Coquitlam Instagram
Leisure Complex. At this session, a panel of youth speakers set for university answered questions and shared their experiences in school and applying for post secondary institutions. Interestingly, the event had more adults, presumably parents, in attendance, rather than youth, perhaps due to the more serious nature of this session. Directly afterwards, there was an Escape Room event across the street in Centennial Pavilion. About seven groups came through at different times between 3:00-5:00 PM to try out this game, which included one dark room named “Pitch”, themed around a map of Coquitlam, and another themed around memes. I volunteered with the meme themed room alongside the primary Coquitlam Youth Council organizers by resetting the room, with chatting with players before they entered the game, and hiding clues in my hair. I also got to try out the Coquitlam-themed room with some other volunteers. While most groups had been going through that room quickly, some in less than five minutes, it took us an embarrassingly long time and an inordinate amount of hints to solve the puzzle. After that, it was the Poirier Youth Leadership’s turn to organize some events. At 5:00 PM, there was
6 LOCAL another free barbecue just outside Poirier’s Getaway Youth Centre. Although the loud music and smell of freshly cooked hot dogs brought in visitors from the arena next door, the Poirier Barbecue did not have the same crowded turnout as the Pinetree Barbecue. This was likely because the Pinetree Community Centre was an optimal location, especially after school on a weekday, while the barbecue at Poirier’s Getaway
On dark room, named “Pitch”, was themed around a map of Coquitlam, and another was themed around memes. Youth Centre was intended to be smaller scale. After filling up on hot dogs, I paid $5 to play archery tag at the Poirier Forum. Having not done much exercise in the past few months, this event was a strenuous, albeit fun one for me. Although I tried my best to hit members of the other team with foam-tipped arrows, I and most other players soon found that it was much easier to hit a stationary foam target, which was the other method of winning a game. Ultimately, my team tied with the “Karl Marksmen”. I left feeling quite youthful indeed, and tired to boot. I would never have survived the Hundred Years’ War. On May 6th, I visited the City Centre Aquatic
Complex for underwater hockey. Disappointingly, although the event was supposed to be free, I had to pay five dollars to enter the pool in the first place. Once inside, I found that I was the only youth who showed up for underwater hockey, and one of the lifeguards had to disturb the underwater hockey instructor from his swimming of laps so he could teach me some basics. Even after these disappointments, I had a good time, and the instructor, Robert, was quite patient with my total lack of underwater hockey knowledge. I was nervous about the experience, because I hadn’t gone swimming in years, but it was really not so bad. In underwater hockey, the puck is weighted so it will sit on the pool floor, and players use a short-handled stick to move the puck around. Due to the limitations of human lung capacity, everyone needs to come up to breathe at some point, so underwater hockey relies largely on teamwork. I found the quick primer on underwater hockey to be fascinating enough that I am considering truly joining this watery sport when I set off to McGill University in September. Robert told me that they have the best underwater hockey teams over in Quebec, although they are supposedly more testosterone-addled than teams in British Columbia. The following day’s event that I attended was also at the City Centre Aquatic Complex. Again, it cost five dollars to enter the facility, although the event was advertised
A karaoke singer belts out the lyrics to Disney’s “Let It Go”.
Source: City of Coquitlam Instagram
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difficult movements, all timed to the beat of loudly blaring music, with green drumsticks in hand. I think I was lucky to arrive late, because I probably would not have lasted the entire class. Although not all of the events had the spectacular turnout that some events did, I can safely say that all the events that I attended were well-worth
All the events that I attended were wellworth the time.
Darian Shirzadi was featured on the City of Coquitlam Page for Youth Week.
the time. Not only was I able to interact with many different youth all over Coquitlam, I was also able to try out new activities and reconnect with some exercises like swimming or skating that I usually associated more with “childhood” than with “youth”. The purpose of Youth Week in Coquitlam is to get youth more active and knowledgeable about all the different facilities that the city offers. I hope that other youth who attended Youth Week events were able to visit a new place in Coquitlam or try out something different from what they would normally do. I certainly did. 8
Source: City of Coquitlam Instagram
as free. At that point, I seriously considered buying a OnePass, and embarking on a fitness adventure for the rest of my days in Coquitlam, just to mitigate the pain of the five dollar per entry payment. Luckily, Ysanne, who came with me, was willing to pay for both our fares. We entered the event, a POUND Fitness session later than the start time, so the activity was already in full swing. POUND Fitness is a unique exercise that combines music, lightly-weighted drumsticks, aerobic exercises, and a lack of self-shame for a rigorous, full body workout. Although there were a few other youth in the room, most of the class seemed to consist of middle-aged women in frighteningly good shape. I had
Most of the class seemed to consist of middle-aged women in frighteningly good shape.
little doubt that the regular attendees of this class could have beaten me in a marathon, a sparring match, or any other athletic competition. The instructor relentlessly led the class through various jumps, stretches, and
Ysanne Yong ran the @cityofcoquitlam Instagram account for Youth Week. Source: City of Coquitlam Instagram
8 FEATURED INTERVIEWS
Celebrating Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day!
What Pinetree students have to say about their mothers on Mother’s Day. Elisa Korner, Sunny Liang Writer, Interviewer
Mother’s Day is a celebration that honours the mother of the family, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and motherly influence in society. It is celebrated by over 40 different countries, usually in March or May. Modern Mother’s Day began in the United States, at the initiative of Ann Reeves Jarvis in the early twenthieth century. Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia in 1908. This was the first Mother’s Day. It is a relatively modern holiday, and not usually connected to traditional celebrations of motherhood that have existed throughout the world for thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration. However, in some countries, Mother’s Day is synonymous with these ancient traditions. By the time this issue is published, Mother’s Day has come and gone for another year. With it has come a day of cards and brunches, but what makes your mom special year-round? In honour of the holiday, Pinetree Post interviewed students and received some peculiar answers. Keep reading to see what they said.
Source: The Mill on the River
An Anonymous Grade 11 • I’ll tell her that I love her very much, I usually buy her coffee in the morning, I’ll cook breakfast
Rachel Pan, Grade 9 • Feed me more mom, I don’t like being locked in the basement (says Briana Ho Grade 9) • I love you [to mom], not what you said [to Briana Ho] • I just remembered this morning in the car [says Briana Ho] • We’re gonna eat in our house with our grandma, it’s a mother’s Mother’s Day
An Anonymous Grade 9 • Happy Mother’s Day • “It’s a black car, it gets dirty”
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Featured Vu Bui, grade 9 • I, as a male human being, appreciate all the interactions my mother has attempted to improve my relations through a verbal means • Do chores (I as an individual does not understand)
Jasper Greenwood, Grade 9 • It’s my mom’s birthday today (May 10th) • Thank you for being a great mom
Andy Kim, Grade 9 • Stay strong, live healthy
Jade Lai, Grade 9 • Thank you for being there for me for the past 14 years • Can I just say spend time with her? Nothing is lost until your mom can’t find it.
Arash Golkari, Grade 9 • Thanks for bringing me to Canada, I really appreciate it • Buy her some gifts 5 Source: Delta Bingo and Games
10 FEATURED COMMUNITY
Celebrate MAY DAY!
Celebrating May Day 2018 in Port Coquitlam, BC.
What May has to offer in the Tri Cities of British Columbia. Briana Ho Writer Since 1923, Port Coquitlam has been celebrating spring with its annual May Day Festival. This year is its 95th run, and from May 4 to May 13 Port Coquitlam has been filled with free family fun! Local children took part in may pole dancing, art shows and exhibitions displayed local talent, Choral Connections Choir performed a free outdoor concert, the 2018 May Day Royal Party was presented, the traditional $4.00 pancake breakfast raised funds for the 4th Poco Scouts, and a Mother’s Day picnic was held in Lion’s Park.
The main highlight of the celebration is the Rotary May Day Parade. One of the main highlights of the celebrations is the Rotary May Day Parade (on May 12 this year), which was followed by an afternoon of live entertainment, activities, and food. Many local organizations such as the Hyde Creek Watershed Society, the Tri-City
Source: Poco’s Annual Spring Festival
Chinese Community Society, the Golden Spike Can Can Dancers, Port Coquitlam Lions Club, the Vancouver Police Department Motorcycle Drill Team, and many more paraded through the streets of Port Coquitlam with impressive floats, marching bands, music, and live dancing. It is one of the largest of its kind in Metro Vancouver.
May Day is an ancient spring festival from the northern hemisphere, and is a classic holiday in many cultures.
May Day is an ancient spring festival from the northern hemisphere, and is a classic holiday in many cultures. The earliest celebrations appeared with the Roman goddess of flowers, Floralia, and were held on Apr. 27 during the Roman Republic era. Many European countries celebrate May Day, including Greece, Poland, Italy, England, Finland, Scotland, France, Germany, Spain and many more. In Canada, only some parts of New Brunswick, Ontario, and British Columbia take part. Unlike in most cultures where May Day is celebrated on the first of May, British Columbia generally holds the festival during the Victoria Day long weekend, as the weather is usually better. -4
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Featured EDITORIAL
On Wednesdays We Wear Pink
High school friendships are definitive of who we end up becoming. Maryam Gamar Writer
[NOTE: As an editorial, this article reflects only the views of the author, rather than the Pinetree Post as a whole] Perhaps more than any other time in our lives, high school is a place where identities are formed and compromised, a definitive journey in which young people strive to define themselves. Around every corner is a chance for internal confrontation because at times, to build one’s own identity, differentiation ourselves from others is necessary. Reading that, even I roll my eyes and think, that’s easier said than done. Something interesting happens when a new batch of 14-year-olds arrive at Pinetree. Immediately friend groups begin to form. Like inverse cell division, middle school groups fuse together to determine who will be friends for the next 4 years. This concept of existing friendships determining future ones is not unique to high school, but is undoubtedly more frequent. Part of the reason for this is the fear of entering a new environment. A common way to deal with the unfamiliar is to reject it by surrounding yourself with people you know.
Forming “us” and “them” factions is a part of human nature that social psychologist Henry Tajfel calls Social Identity Theory. Forming “us” and “them” factions is a part of human nature that social psychologist Henry Tajfel calls Social Identity Theory. This theory explains how defining one’s identity is necessary and beneficial in some ways–it builds confidence, self-esteem, and purpose–but it can also be potentially harmful. For example, one way to reinforce the us/them designations is to assess people based on their friends. This is often
done unconsciously by saying something like, “all of her friends are in Leadership, so it makes sense that she wastes all her time at school.” This is an effective way of stating that characteristics like spending time at school are different than yours, but it negates what others consider important and makes the statement that friends are required to have the same interests.
This aspect of social organization changes genuine friendships into a form of protection from what is “other” and a way to identify oneself.
This delineation of characteristics that make up one’s identity is common and is often harmless; however, the problem arises when a person begins tying his or her identity to a group of people and stops making personal decisions. This aspect of social organization changes genuine friendships into a form of protection from what is “other” and a way to identify oneself. And at Pinetree, the student body will continue to change and form friendships as all students strive to understand changing identities and where we fit in our community as a whole. -2 Friendship can be both a healing and a destructive force. Source: Writing with Hope
12 LIFE EDITORIAL
Not Pictured: Privacy in the Digital Age
Logging off doesn’t change anything. Emily Liang Writer
[NOTE: As an editorial, this article reflects only the views of the author, rather than the Pinetree Post as a whole] A couple months ago, my friend celebrated his eighteenth birthday. The usual traditions were observed: cake, balloons, an embarrassing cone hat, a slightly botched attempt at a surprise party, and arguing with food service workers for leniency because “aww, it’s his eighteenth birthday, come on…” Only the best that Coquitlam can offer for the birthday boy. Once the in-person revelries were over, all the partiers retired to our homes and took to the Internet for continued fun. The planning group for the birthday boy quickly became a pool of memes depicting our friend. I decided to take up the challenge of finding some fresh photos of my friend, just to liven up the night a little. This particular young man had decided to make himself scarce on the Internet and deleted his Facebook account some time prior. Finding fresh photos would be a challenge indeed, but I flexed my typing fingers and set to work. The first step was typing the name into Google. A simple name search was little help. Google Images was giving me results from half a world away, although there were a few valuable photographs here and there. One of these was a picture of my friend from Grade 7, five years ago. I sent the picture to the group chat, so that everyone could appreciate the ravages of time and puberty on the visage of this former middle-schooler. After the first rush of approval, I refined my search. I typed in “[First Name] [Last Name] Coquitlam” and “[First Name] [Last Name] Pinetree Secondary”. More results popped up. These ones were more recent and taken at some sort of public event. Some photos seemed to come from a school blog or SD43 affiliated website. We were still well within the socially acceptable range of photo access. Although my friend was rather bemused about where I’d gotten the
photos from, as they seemed to date back to at least two years before, he still remembered when they were taken. Obviously, I would not settle for half measures, so I opened up Facebook again and started digging.
Deactivating your Facebook account means that the Facebook servers still retain much of the information that you had previously input. Deactivating your Facebook account means that the Facebook servers still retain much of the information that you had previously input. Average users would not be able to access this data, but, of course, I am in no way average. I would have gone through the perfectly legal but more than a little creepy and frighteningly easy process of recovering my friend’s deleted photos through the browser cache, except that I didn’t need to. All former tags or instances of a person aren’t just magically scrubbed from Facebook search just because an account is deactivated. The same simple process of entering a full name into a search bar was sufficient. Now, I started finding photos that were more personal: my friend pulling a silly face in a dimly lit classroom, my friend at what looked like a summer camp of some sort, my friend leaning on the shoulders of his companions at his former school. These were photos that my friend barely remembered being taken, let alone being uploaded onto the Internet. At this point, someone in the group chat suggested that I should work for the National Security Agency, even though all I’d really done was search my friend’s name with some key words. Perhaps that’s all the NSA needs. The crown jewels of the night’s Internet trawling adventure were a series of low-resolution photographs of my friend sitting in a yellow school bus, completely unaware of the photographer. It looked like the type of photo that a paparazzo would take of a celebrity, or a serial killer would take of their next target. From a quick search, I was able to find out which schools my friend attended for the past seven years, the most recent movie theatre he’d visited, and who
Life all of his friends were. From that, I could extrapolate age, location, and occupation. For someone who didn’t use much social media, there was still a wealth of information about him online. Even for those who avoid social media, staying private is a difficult thing.
Pipl functions as a search engine for people, something like an international phone book, except… not. A Grade 9 student who is much more techsavvy than I am recently alerted me to a website called Pipl. The site functions as a search engine for people, something like an international phone book, except… not. Where Google or Yahoo fails in turning up searches for individuals, Pipl is designed to find any adult person through the “deep web”. Most personal profiles, public records, and people-related documents are not stored on static web pages, so they cannot be accessed by “surface web” search engines. However, the “deep web” of online databases and the vastly larger amount of information they contain is still available to anyone with the right tools. The disturbing implications of what a website like Pipl can do with a search of over
13 3.1 billion people (and the number constantly ticks up) are lost in the introduction, which describes Pipl as a tool to “find old friends, get in touch with long-lost family members and reconnect with loved ones”. First, I tried searching up my parents. No dice. Pipl didn’t seem to cover non-English sites, so it wasn’t going to help me get in touch with long-lost family members, if I had any. Next, I tried a teacher, whom I remembered being particularly enthusiastic in reminding her students to stay safe on the Internet. Although her well-secured Facebook profile used a pseudonym, I was still able to find her using her real name. Some of the details seemed oddly jumbled with another person of the same name, as I doubt she has become a Senior Innovation Consultant at Kaiser Permanente. Next I searched my sister, to see what information about a person of my generation could be found. This search was probably more along the lines of what Pipl intended to provide its users. It provided me her education, employment, and location, as well as links to her other online profiles. I’m sure that when I hit eighteen, Pipl will eagerly add me to its Rolodex. Since the Facebook privacy scandal and the slow realization of what social media is doing to all of
The bus photo in question. I’ve censored my friend’s face; he is not actually a white oval with crudely drawn features. That would be more terrifying than my private investigation skills.
14 LIFE our brains, I have seen a growing trend of criticism against the digital age. The radio, the telephone, the postal service, and e-mail have all revolutionized the way that communicate with each other, but none have demanded so much in return as social media. I don’t want advertisers to know about every bit of my life so that they can better sell me their products. I don’t want strangers to be able to find out where I live and work. I don’t want my personal interactions be part of a public record that could ruin my future career. Call me cheap, but I grow more and more unwilling to pay the price for social connectivity with bits of myself.
What is perhaps most disturbing about the phenomenon of the digital age, is that there is no way to avoid it. What is perhaps most disturbing about the phenomenon of the digital age, is that there is no way to avoid it. If your class takes a group photo and a classmate uploads it on Facebook, you cannot stop them, without your own Facebook account to report the picture, and even then, the administrators may not grant your request, and the image would remain on their servers anyway. If you want to become a professional, the lack of an online portfolio would arouse suspicion in a potential employer, and the information being on the “deep web” won’t protect you from search engines like Pipl. Anytime you attend an event, enter a public space, or even just hang out with friends, you run the risk of ending up on the Internet, one way or another. Simply existing in modern society will do. I could paint a dystopian picture of the future, except that it’s already come to fruition. Parents throw away their children’s privacy and anonymity for Internet sensationalism (eg. Lil Tay, a 9 year old rapper, and the “youngest flexer of the century”). Governments dig through citizens private activities, looking for terrorists (eg. The Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, also known as Bill C-51). Corporations track search history and co-opt social trends to make their products more attractive to more consumers (eg. definitely any social media site with ads, almost certainly any website that collects personal information). Dystopia doesn’t always look like soldiers marching past your window in black boots and peaked
caps. It doesn’t have to be book burnings and blatant propaganda. Sometimes it looks like toddlers glued to screens, racking up millions of views for bizarre, monetized Youtube accounts, because they’re too young to know that pixels are different from friends. It looks like government agents entrapping teens to express their hatred for America or activists who find their accounts suspended, again. It looks like data companies that provide business solutions for their clients by convincing Internet users that this political candidate or this consumer product will make them happy. Dystopia looks like my computer desktop, littered with photos of my friend that he didn’t even know existed; it looks like my sister’s personal information that anyone could find in under 30 seconds. I’d hate to sound like a fearmonger or a Luddite. I use technology and social media as much as the next teen, and the World Wide Web is an boundless source of fascination that I would have a hard time giving up. As a photography enthusiast and yearbook editor, I am endlessly guilty of publishing photos of people I probably don’t have permission from. None of this invalidates my criticism of social media.
The potential for social media to do good for the world is vast, yet I think its power has been egregiously abused. The potential for social media to do good for the world is vast, yet I think its power has been egregiously abused. When people are practically forced to make social media accounts to function in society without being totally isolated, it is not their fault that they “agreed” to throw away their privacy. Having a public profile of some sort is a necessary function for social and professional life in modern society, so the solution cannot be abstention. Instead, the solution must be in the reform of social media sites and the handling of information online. The surveillance powers of national governments are already extensive enough, without turning the entire online world into a mutual monitoring system. I don’t believe that staying in touch with friends or applying for a job has to go along with surrendering the right to privacy. If the total overhaul of how social media websites function is impossible, well… there’s always email. 2
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