Hopkins is a diverse university where an incredible mix of cultures, academic interests and personalities coexist and thrive. Here is the section where you can publish your unique thoughts, ideas and perspectives on life at Hopkins and beyond.
When I first moved back to America to attend college, I would call my family every week. Between Skype, Facebook and Snapchat, it often didn’t feel like I was missing that much, despite the thousands of miles between us.
Over the summer, I was talking to my mother about the strap that secures my dog, Neo, to his car seat. The strap in question is a piece of fabric about one foot long that clips onto both the car seat and my dog’s collar. And Neo had chewed through yet another strap.
I wanted to formally interview my peers for this piece, but people aren’t especially open to talking about their hookup experiences on this campus. I had to dig into what my friends thought by asking deep and nosy questions about their sex lives. I had to complicate things by asking about technology. It was eye-opening. Here’s what I learned:
Jake. Eighteen years old, six feet and one inch, 195 pounds. Average body type. White. Single. Twink. I’m looking for Chat, Friends or Right Now. HIV-negative, last tested December 2016.
You never expect you’ll be in a long-distance relationship until you’re in one. And then there you are, with all that it entails: laying in the dark with your face warmed by the light of a pixelated screen; or holding your phone up to the sky because a strong signal is your lifeline to that person halfway across the world.
The creation of AS.300.304, aka “Hopkins/Memes/Lost Hopes and Dreams,” seems to embody the influence that internet culture has had on our generation. As college students, we’re connected to the internet almost every second of every day, whether it be through social media sites like Snapchat and Facebook or through more academically-related pages like Blackboard. Accordingly, this has significantly shaped the ways in which we speak and act in everyday life.
My parents gave me my first cellphone when I entered the sixth grade.
Signing up for an article for this magazine on our idea spreadsheet, one title jumped out at me. “No Phone Day.” I told my roommates about it, and they just didn’t believe I would go through with doing it. Honestly, I almost didn’t.
