Social media has become an outlet for many people to raise awareness for instances of oppression and adversity that otherwise might’ve gone unnoticed. While some posts contain information and content that encourage consumers to feel empathetic and change their mindsets, other posts divulge too much information for the sake of the shocking effect it’ll have. This is known as trauma porn, or “the perverse fascination with other people’s misfortune,” according to Incite Journal.

Following the death of George Floyd, yet another innocent black man killed by a police officer, many Americans found themselves outraged that police brutality and racism are still prominent in 2020.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is experiencing stressful situations they’ve never encountered before. Our current lives are full of uncertainty about when social distancing will no longer be necessary and when businesses and organizations will reopen and be able to operate as usual. News outlets are flooded with panic-inducing updates and speculations, so it’s easy to feel like our lives may never go back to normal.

Bugs: just the word itself could make your skin crawl. The bothersome pests can be found in our homes, by our food and virtually anywhere outdoors. What better way to spend one’s summer than to make a game out of murdering bugs?

Although many people rag on singer Billie Eilish and claim she hasn’t earned her high levels of prestige and fame, Eilish has proven countless times that she’s deserving of her popularity and success. Eighteen-year-old Eilish warrants admiration not only for her award-winning music, but also for her unique fashion sense, young age and lack of scandals.

Upon first glance, one might find it progressive that a TV show features a homosexual couple. These programs, however, are often inaccurate and unhealthy representations of such couples. While shows that are centered around inclusivity such as “The Fosters” are more likely to do the LGBTQ+ community justice, other shows that attempt to include homosexual relationships as a secondary storyline might resort to stereotyping, which gives viewers the wrong idea of what an acceptable relationship might look like. 

As we enter a new decade and progress into adulthood, the pressure to find a life partner becomes more prominent. Society makes us believe we must be in a relationship to live a happy, fulfilled life. We struggle to accept, however, the fact that there are multiple lifestyle options and they don’t all require being codependent.  

Attending Geneseo after growing up on Long Island has taught me many differences between suburban and rural lifestyles. I found one of the more striking differences to be how common hunting is for people who live in rural areas. Many of my peers hunt for food as well as for sport, and they often begin doing so at a very young age. 

We all love to play around with Instagram and Snapchat’s augmented reality filters that embellish our faces with dog ears, star-shaped freckles or sunglasses, to name a few. But when these AR filters target the physical structure of our faces, they can negatively affect how we perceive ourselves without the filter. 

We’ve all heard the term “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Many of us try to live a life free from comparisons and judgments of each other’s appearances. However, it is difficult to keep this mentality when social media ranks people, especially women, based on how they look. Ranking celebrities on superficial scales has been around for a long time, taking place in magazine publications such as “Hot or Not” lists and People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive.” 

Mental health has become less of a taboo topic, allowing people to reach out and get the help they need. Among the many resources for mental health are emotional support animals, which have become more popular, but laws pertaining to their protection are unclear.

A Geneseo student created a petition to replace Books and Bytes with a Chick-fil-A on April 10. As of Tuesday April 16, the petition received 42 signatures.