Communicator: Volume 46 Edition 2 by The Communicator

THE COMMUNICATOR MAGAZINE VOL. 46 EDITION 2, NOVEMBER 2019

Life360: Tracking Teens The Revolution Digitized Staff Editorial: Privilege and Privacy

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About the Cover COVER BY ISAAC MCKENNA

Featured on the cover is a photo illustration representing the impact technology has on our daily lives. It makes its way into day-to-day activities in more ways than we often notice, and as a result has made us dependent upon an onthe-grid lifestyle. As technology becomes more and more vital to our daily lives, this ever-present nature becomes obvious to everyone involved. Whether we love or hate it, whether in our hands or in our heart, technology is all around us, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s here to stay.

THE COMMUNICATOR MAGAZINE Volume 46, Edition 2 | November 2019

News 04

NAACP Awards Dinner

Local students received academic acheivement awards from the NAACP at a community dinner. By SOPHIA SCARNECCHIA

Before the Clock Runs Out

Skyline Women’s Field Hockey ends their successful season by winning the Division II State Championship. By EBBA GURNEY AND CHAVA MAKMAN-LEVINSON

Features 22

Fighting Against Climate Change

Local teen activist, Zaynab Elkolay, uses her voice to fight climate change within our community. By EVAN ASH

Life360: Tracking Teens

Parents use the popular app, Life360, to track their children’s location. Parents and teens weigh in on the idea of privacy.

By SOPHIE FETTER AND ANJA JACOBSON

Opinion 38

Talking? More Like Texting

Social media and smartphones have changed communication between teens, altering modern relationships.

By CATE WEISER

Gauging the Gaps

Gaps within Washtenaw County exist among black and white residents in terms of income and health. By TAI TWOREK

Constants Reviews - 48 | Humans of Community - 54 | Artist Profile - 57 In My Room - 58 | Crave - 59 | Our Turn -60 November 2019

Letter from the Editors Dear Readers,

We know technology is spoken about over and over again, but the topic never seems to become easier to understand. We feel as if the conversation is often directed towards our generation — Generation Z — but our voices are never heard during the discussions. Our goal for this edition was to create a platform for our generation’s voices to be heard in the hope of bringing a more diverse conversation. Past generations, however, can only see the flaws technology possesses. Last year in a school-wide mandated reading, we were assigned an excerpt from, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” written by Jean Twenge. The article detailed how people born after 1996 fell into a new generational category: the iGen. This is us. She explained how smartphones have ruined our generation. A generation she is not part of. By claiming the complete list of generational flaws was the result of using technology is not only naive but inaccurate. The common argument that social media is ruining our ability to connect with others and diminishing the mental health of our peers is simply telling half the story. While youth may be spending more time on their phones, that doesn’t mean that they are not connecting with people. Unlike generations before, technology allows us to connect with people thousands of miles away, with the click of a button. This accessibility to connect with others across the globe is a unique opportunity that generations before have never possessed. We can access the world through our fingertips, connecting each of us by a web of recognizable media. The culture of our generation is being displayed through various social media platforms, and the creativity of Generation Z is constantly evolving and growing. This edition dives into our relationships with technology: covering topics ranging from social media algorithms to teenagers within our own community that have become famous on these apps. Although technology is most often associated with social media and smartphones, technological advances are around us everywhere. Not only has technology enhanced the connections between members of our generation, but it has also progressed political party’s campaigning and canvassing. As emphasized in our article, The Revolution Digitized, we cover how technology has propelled the platforms of current candidates, disregarding the inaccessibility campaigning historically brought about. Additionally, we highlight the popular app Life360, a tracking app that monitors not only their locations but battery percentage, top driving speeds, and phone usage while driving. Although this has revolutionized safety between parent and teen, it often puts privacy on the line. Like technology, Generation Z is ever-changing. We are not the same people we were yesterday, the previous week or month. Technology is leading us, not destroying us.

PRINT EDITORS-IN-CHIEF ATTICUS DEWEY ISAAC MCKENNA CAMMI TIRICO TAI TWOREK

POLITICAL EDITOR ROXIE RICHNER

WEB EDITORS-IN-CHIEF PAIGE DUFF DAN GUTENBERG LOEY JONES-PERPICH GENEVE THOMAS-PALMER

STAFF JACK BAZZANI NOAH BERNSTEIN JAIDA BEYER JOSH BOLAND JOSH CALDWELL BENJAMIN COOPER LACEY COOPER SAM DANNUG SYLVA DAS LEAH DEWEY ARLO DURGY SOPHIE FETTER ETHAN GIBB-RANDALL MIA GOLDSTEIN LINNEA VERHEY HENKE AMBER HING ANJA JACOBSON JENNA JARJOURA CARMEN JOHNSON OWEN KELLEY AVA KOSINSKI DJIMO KOUYATE LEO KUPPERMAN SCARLETT LONDON BEN MARTINS-CAULFIELD LILY MCCREADY ELEANOR NIMAN SOPHIA NUNEZ SHEA O’BRIEN NANO PEROFF ELLA ROSEWARNE SOPHIA SCARNECCHIA ZACK SCHUELER MIRA SCHWARZ LILY SICKMAN-GARNER JOSEPH SIMON JULIA SONEN NADIA TUZINSKY CY VEILLEUX CATE WEISER NJI ZAMA

MANAGING EDITORS LEAH DAME JORDAN DE PADOVA MAZEY PERRY RUBY TAYLOR DESIGN EDITOR EBBA GURNEY COPY EDITORS LACEY COOPER MORI ONO LILY SICKMAN-GARNER SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS LUCY TOBIER MORRAINA TUZINSKY FEATURE EDITORS MORI ONO CHARLES SOLOMON OPINION EDITOR ZOE BUHALIS ELIZABETH SHAIEB NEWS EDITORS CHAVA MAKMAN-LEVINSON LUCY TOBIER ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR BRENAN DIONNE SPORTS EDITORS EVAN ASH HANNAH BERNSTEIN BEN COOPER MULTIMEDIA EDITOR ETHAN GIBB-RANDALL

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR AMBER HING

ADVISER TRACY ANDERSON

Your Editors Mission Statement: The Communicator is a student-run publication

Atticus Dewey

Isaac McKenna

Camryn Tirico

Taisiya Tworek

The Communicator Magazine

and an open forum established in 1974 and created by students at Community High School. The staff of The Communicator seeks to recognize individuals, events, and ideas that are relevant to the community. The Communicator journalists are committed to working in a manner that is professional, unbiased, and thorough in order to effectively serve our readers. We strive to report accurately and will correct any significant error. If you believe such an error has been made, please contact us. Letters of any length should be submitted via e-mail or mail. They become the sole property of The Communicator and can be edited for length, clarity, or accuracy. Letters cannot be returned and will be published at The Communicator’s discretion. The Communicator also reserves the right to reject advertising due to space limitations or decision of the Editorial Board that content of the advertisement conflicts with the mission of the publication. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the journalism staff and not of Community High School or the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Photography by Ebba Gurney

Our Month In News

Community High School students holding certificates at the Freedom Fund Scholars Dinner.

NAACP Recognizes Local Students for Academic Achievements BY SOPHIA SCARNECCHIA

On Nov. 3 2019, the Ann Arbor NAACP held its annual Freedom Fund Scholars Dinner: An evening hosted to honor students of color in the Ann Arbor Public Schools District with a grade point average of 3.2 or higher. Each year the students receive a diploma, share poetry, give speeches and sing, all in honor of their achievements. The dinner’s theme was: “When We Fight, We Win,” a reference to how in society, if you believe in or want to achieve something, you should persistently resist to make it happen. As student speakers from each school said their speeches, they incorporated the theme by referencing how the occurrence of aggression pursues in students’ lives. From voting, to academic success, to creating a more diverse and safe community for our students. “Sometimes it feels like a struggle trying to go above and beyond in everything we do because our parents, guardians, and mentors want the world for us,” said Community High’s student speaker, senior Octavia Anderson. “It’s 6

The Communicator Magazine

| News

a fight to stay sane when your school, work, post-graduation planning and extracurricular activities are all expecting you to be top priority, and not let everyone down. But more [importantly] than that, you can’t let yourself down.” With the intent of the night’s theme, you could say many more students had definitely proved they persist to reach their goals. More specifically, academic achievements. This year’s Freedom Fund dinner had the most Scholars of any recorded Ann Arbor Freedom Fund Dinner in history, with a total of 244 scholars. “We have all put so much of ourselves into our passions, and that’s what makes us amazing,” Anderson said. “Because we are the future, and we are all going to become the strong, motivated leaders that the generation before us knew we could be.” Guest speakers Mayor Chris Taylor, Superintendent Dr. Jeanice Swift, and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell also referenced the theme in occurrence to racial equality. Mostly referencing how here in Ann Arbor and everywhere

else, white supremacy should be abolished and we must stride for the proper recognition for people of color and make it a safe community where no one fears hate from our political figures. They also stated that the young scholars nearing adulthood should resist our politics’ morals about racial inequality by using our voices and voting in the 2020 election. Near the end of the ceremony, Dr. Swift announced and recognized the scholars as she gave them their certificates, to then have a photograph with her and the NAACP president William V. Hampton. This year’s scholars from Community High School were: Gabriela Adams, Octavia Anderson, Nora Berry, John Bodenham, Chelsea Clemetson, Leah Dewey, Jada Hikary, Tesfanesh Hurd, Jayla Johnson, Simone Mahler, Toya Pace, Katelyn Payne, Nicolas Provenzola, and Sophia Scarnecchia. C

National Merit Scholars Semifinalists BY SYLVA DAS AND LINNEA VERHEY-HENKE

“Winning this award feels really cool, it’s definitely a big honor,” said Isaac McKenna, a senior at CHS who is a semifinalist for the National Merit Scholar award. He is one of eight semifinalists this year from CHS, which is more than previous years. This is a difficult achievement because it requires you to score in the top 1 percent of PSAT scores in your state. Receiving the scholarship of $2,500 takes a lot of effort. “To get to the finals, you have to submit an application with your grades, SAT scores, a personal essay and letter of recommendation so it’s sort of like applying to college,” McKenna said. “I don’t know until March or April whether or not I move on to the final stage where I would win the prize.” Currently, these seniors are working hard to finish and submit their applications. It is difficult to be chosen for the scholarship because only about 50 percent of the finalists win. But even if they do not get the scholarship, it is still a huge honor and will look great on college applications. “To prepare for the PSAT I probably just did some Khan Academy, but I didn’t really do too much,” said Nina van der Velde, another semifinalist from CHS. Both her and McKenna said they did not do a lot of studying for this test; they came to school and worked hard. However, lots of stu-

dents study hard to try to achieve the award. There are many practice tests, work books and Khan Academy quizzes that students can use to practice. To have a chance at getting to the semifinalist stage you simply just have to take the PSAT as a junior in October. To achieve the semifinalist honor, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) looks at your PSAT scores and grades them on a scale of 234 basing each section on a scale of eight to 38 then multiplying them by two. The cut off for getting to the semifinalist is around 218 on the 234 scale, which is around a 36 or 37 on each section. Out of the 1.6 million people who take the PSAT nationwide, only one percent reach the semifinalist stage and half of that actually get the scholarship. CHS has eight people who have gotten to the semifinalist stage and the AAPS as a whole has 78, which is the highest amount of students for one district in the state. “Even as a National Merit Semifinalist, if you get it or not, these tests don’t define you as a person,” said Brian Williams, counselor at CHS. “They are important and they can do some cool things but by no means can these tests define you as a person.” C

Ben Lerner, Novelist Extraordinaire, Visits Literati Bookstore BY LUCY TOBIER

“The truth of Trump is that the language is dead, the language of the political class is dead,” said Ben Lerner, a novelist and poet who spoke at Literati Bookstore. “And he proclaims its death every time he opens his mouth. Lerner visited Literati Bookstore on Oct. 23 for a reading and discussion of his latest novel, “The Topeka School.” Lerner is a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the National Book Award, a Guggenheim Fellow and a current MacArthur Fellow, among other things. He is also a professor of English at Brooklyn College. “The Topeka School” is Lerner’s third novel and a prequel to the first two. Like his other works, it centers around the fictional character Adam Gordon. The book also centers around ideas of toxic masculinity, white male rage and "boys will be boys" mentality. Themes that Lerner said were partially brought up by watching the Brett Kavanaugh discourse. In the first scene of the book, which Lerner read aloud, Adam is so engrossed in a rambling monologue that he does not notice his girlfriend slip away. This scene introduces ideas of “men talking at or over people,” as Lerner put it. A big part of “The Topeka School” is breaking and editing generational patterns, especially ones of abusive male figures. Lerner uses repetition and pattern to show how generations can be stuck in a cycle, something he says was influenced by growing up with two psychologists as parents who believed in family systems theory. “A lot of the book is Adam’s worry that to a certain degree, in ways he might not even know, the voices of those bad masculine figures are inside of him,” Lerner said. “I am very influenced by their [parents] nondogmatic attentiveness to pattern.” Not only is the book critical of "boys will be boys" mentality, but it also allows the reader to understand things that can lead to male aggression by being narrated by Adam. The

Photography by Lucy Tobier | Ben Lerner seated at Literati Bookstore. His latest novel “The Topeka School” focuses on themes of toxic masculinity and generational patterns.

reader can see Adam’s struggles to fit in with a certain "top dog" crowd of boys in high school and to be seen as tough and masculine. In the book, the term “lost boys” is brought up. This refers to an increasing phenomenon of kids who, according to liberal norms, should be doing well, but instead experience an identity vacuum filled with selfharm, hate and violence. Lerner speaks of

the fiction of whiteness connected to this and identity being tied to privilege and race. “The book definitely wants to think about some of the ways that whiteness and white masculinity are a really damaging fiction,” Lerner said. “The structure of boys will be boys is a structure of condemning masculinity to one mode of repetition. It excuses but it also imprisons in that one image of masculinity.” C News |

November 2019

The Brief

During the week of Oct. 28 – Nov. 1 CHS celebrated its spirit week 3. Sports Day BY ANJA JACOBSON

Wednesday of spirit week 2019 was titled “Go Sports Go / Jersey day.” Various jerseys could be spotted through the halls, as students came dressed in their favorite team or player’s attire. Other students came in their high school team uniforms. Some students borrowed jerseys from a family member, including Carmen Johnson, who sported a retro Georgetown Hoyas Allen Iverson jersey circa 1996 from her uncle. “Before I left he told me, ‘I don’t want you to wear it — someone might jump you for it,’” Johnson said.

4. Halloween BY CAMMI TIRICO

Photography by Cammi Tirico Physics teacher Johnathan Thomas-Palmer poses with his students (from left to right) Neva Siers, Lucy Scott, Julia Sonen, Nina van der Velde, Karenna Collins-Thompson and Sam Major on Friday Nov. 1 for dress like a teacher day.

Thursday brought rain and costumes to CHS. On Halloween, students and teachers alike dressed up in scary, serious and silly costumes. The costumes showcased the students' creativity. Junior Milo Chalin arrived to school in a rainbow onesie, and sophomores Jada Hickory and Oliver Lete-Straka dressed as counselors from Ann Arbor Y's Camp Al-Gon-Quian. Students and teachers shared their excitement for the holiday while competing in the costume contest and annual loudest scream contest.

1. Pajama Day 5. Dress Like a Teacher Day

BY SOPHIE NUNEZ

On Oct. 28, CHS celebrated their first day of spirit week: Pajama Day. On this day, students, along with teachers, came wearing pajamas. From just sweatpants to robes and slippers, the halls were filled with excitement and comfy clothes. Teacher Chloe Root celebrated by wearing galaxy pajama pants and Pokemon slippers. Ella Roberts, a junior, came in with snoopy pajama pants. Roberts had hoped for more participation, but overall really enjoyed the day. “I was really happy to be able to wear my pajamas to school,” Roberts said. “I was a little disappointed that more people did not wear pajamas but I still had fun doing it.”

2. Forum Spirit Day BY LOEY JONES-PERPICH AND CY VEILLEUX

The craziest part of every Forum the week before Halloween: deciding what to wear for Forum Spirit Day. Some came up with Hawaiian, formal, vintage and black out, but the Kiley Forum took the cake with Pajama Day part two. Forum leader Courtney Kiley saw everyone in the morning, dressed from head to toe in baggy sweatpants and sweatshirts, and said that they didn’t look like they were doing Pajama Day part two; they just looked 8

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lazy. So what did Kiley decide to do? She took a washable black marker, and on the cheeks of every forum member, except for junior Sam Berkooz, wrote her initials: CK. The Kiley forumettes wore her initials on their cheeks all day Tuesday, and one freshman wore it on Wednesday, since the initials were written on his face with a black Sharpie. The Kiley forum thought that their spirit wear was hilarious and wore CK on their faces with pride.

BY TAI TWOREK

To cap off this year’s spirit week, Friday Nov. 1 was Dress Like a Teacher Day at CHS. Among the plethora of students that dressed up as their favorite teachers, some teachers in turn dressed as their students. Some teachers' trademark looks, like English teacher Robert Morgan’s beard and Physics teacher Johnathan Thomas-Palmer’s tie-dye shirts, were comically displayed by their students. Junior Erin Simmons decided to dress as Community Ensemble Theater (CET) director and theater teacher, Quinn Strassel, by wearing a newsboy hat and keys dangling from her belt. “Originally I wanted to take part in [Dress Like a Teacher Day], but I couldn’t think of anything because I didn’t know of any teachers that have a consistent look that would be recognizable,” Simmons said. “Then I was getting ready for school this morning and I saw this hat. I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I can be Quinn!’ I got really excited, and since I do CET I know Quinn, so I got really excited and into it. I just think it’s really fun.”

DWOW Dance Doesn’t Disappoint

This year’s DeWoskin Forum Halloween Dance showcased cool costumes and lively music. BY SOPHIE FETTER

Photography by Sophie Fetter Students dance to their favorite songs in the Craft Theater at the Halloween Dance on Friday Oct. 25.

The annual DeWoskin Forum Halloween Dance took place at CHS on Oct. 25 from 8-11 p.m. The event has been run by the DeWoskin (DWOW) Forum for over 25 years. Forum members spent time before the dance decorating the halls with spiderwebs, pumpkins, skeleton posters and various other Halloween decorations. Community Ensemble Theatre students also helped prepare the speakers and lights. CHS student Even Ash served as the main DJ for the event, along with assistants from the DWOW Forum. Anxiously waiting students were let into the

CHS Student Nadia Naines (left) came to the dance as Coraline, the fictional character from Tim Burton’s animation. She poses with Brooke Rafko who dressed as a mermaid for the night.

building at 8 o’clock sharp. The black box of The Craft Theater was illuminated by flashing, multicolored lights hanging from above. Many students dressed up in costumes. CHS junior Meri Orosz dressed as Squirrel Girl from the Marvel universe. For her costume, Orosz spent nearly two days of work on just the tail alone. “I just like to make things,” Orosz said. “I’m an artistic person, and I’m passionate about the character I’m dressing up as.” Of all the costumes she saw, Orosz’s favorites were a glittery She-Ra costume, a Tony Stark costume, and her friend Siennah Duchateau’s Scarecrow costume. “I think that the reason so many people dress up is that it lets us get into our creative side,” Orosz said. Evan Ash, the DJ for the dance, thought it went really well. “I like making people happy, so having that opportunity to get on stage and try to get people excited was just fun,” Ash said. “I love Judith. I think what she does is really cool.” Ash thought the job of DJ was also a very stressful one. “Everyone only wanted me to play rap songs, which is fine because I love rap songs, but I did feel bad for people who didn’t like that kind of music. But we’re teenagers, we don’t like all the same forms of music. I think that was the one thing I learned... it’s hard to please everyone.” Overall though, Ash enjoyed his time as a DJ.

“I know one kid even hurt his ankle dancing. So I made the dance hype enough that bones were breaking,” Ash said. “I would give an A+,” said DWOW Forum leader Judith DeWoskin. “And I would give it an A+ because of the participation of all my Forum students, the wonderful DJ, the people who worked on the lights, the deans and Kevin who were very supportive and 300 plus students who just danced and had a great time.” C

CHS Student Vanessa Farkas arrives in costume to the dance. Decorating herself in flowers and acessorizing with a black mask and gloves, her look stunned the crowd.

News |

November 2019

HIGHLIGHTS

Skyline High School Varsity Volleyball BY ZACK SCHUELER

Photography by Cammi Tirico

Pioneer Women’s Golf Team Places 8th at State Finals BY CAMMI TIRICO

Oct. 19, 2019 — Pioneer women’s golf team placed top 10 at Division 1 State Finals at Forest Acres Golf Course. With a two-day tournament culminating of two 18-hole rounds, Pioneer placed eighth with a total team score of 710. Their strong performance at States complemented their equally strong season. After finishing undefeated in the SEC Red Division, they went on to win the conference championship tournament. They also had a third-place finish at Regionals, qualifying them for States. During each day of the two-day tournament, five girls play. On the first day, Pioneer played their top five golfers throughout the season: Amaya Melendez, Mackenzie Rooney, Katie Liu, Jillian Giordano and Olivia Lyle. On the cold first day, most scores were higher than average, but Pioneer was unfazed, shooting a 4-score team total of 352, five strokes better than their Regional performance. At the end of Friday, Pioneer was tied for fifth out of the 18 teams there. “The first day I was just trying to get through it,” said Lyle, CHS senior and Pioneer golf captain. “I didn’t think I was nervous but deep down I was, and I think the way I played reflected that. But the second day was really emotional because it was my last tournament. I didn’t care if I shot 80 or 100, I just wanted to enjoy it.” The second day, with the ability to substitute 10

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players, Pioneer played senior Sooah Jung in place of junior Jillian Giordano. The decision was made to allow the three seniors to finish their high school careers together. “We played all three seniors on the last day so they could play their last rounds together and on the last day of States,” Lyle said. “That was really special. It was pretty emotional for my whole team.” The three seniors along with their teammates had another strong showing on Saturday as well putting up a team score of 358 — making their two day total to 710. Junior, Amaya Melendez, lead the Pioneers. Shooting 77 on Friday and 81 on Saturday, Melendez finished tied for ninth. For the three seniors, ending their high school golf qualifying for States back-to-back years was special, but the memories they hold closest are the times spent with their teammates. “As a team, we had a really good season and we were really close as a team,” Lyle said. “I feel like that helped. I really loved this season because we were all friends too.” The Pioneer’s future is looking brights with current junior Melendez and current freshmen Rooney expected to lead them next year. “I hope that they have that same dynamic next year,” Lyle said. “Since we are loosing three seniors, [the underclassmen] are going to need to fill those gaps. I am excited for them.” C

The 2019 MHSSA volleyball season is coming to an end for the Women’s Skyline team as they defeat Ypsilanti winning the title City champs three years in a row. Skyline will either play Pioneer or Huron in the District semis and are expected to play Saline in the finals at Dexter. “I think Kendall Murray and Stacie Warner have the biggest impacts on our team and during games because Kendall is one of the best all around players on the team and helps Stacie run our offense every time we’re on the court,” said Harper Murray, current freshmen on the team. In the game against Ypsilanti, the Eagles won in three sets: 25-4 the first set, 25-8 the second set and then 25-8, making Skyline’s record this season is 44-7 in sets. “I like pressure because personally, I think I play better and perform at my best under pressure intense games,” Murray said. Though Murray’s confidence under pressure was not a deciding factor in the Ypsilanti game, come Districts in the near future, it will of the utmost importance. C

Huron High School

Crew

BY LEAH DAME

Head of The Charles, the biggest regatta in the world, took place from Oct. 19 to 20 in Cambridge, Mass. The 55th annual competition had 2,270 entries including a team of five girls — two of which, Sarah Tice and Katelyn Miller, are CHS seniors — representing Huron High School. After a long fall season of hard training, the Huron boat ended up placing 36th out of 80 boats and re-qualifying, meaning Huron has the opportunity to compete at next year’s Head of the Charles. “I won’t be able to go next year, but [requalifying] opens up more opportunity for Huron to get into some high-level racing,” Tice said. “Now the people who didn’t go this year get to go and race in Head of The Charles, which is a really amazing experience because it just puts crew on to a whole other level.” Partway through the season, one girl tore her meniscus, leaving the rest of the team to find someone to replace her spot. In the end, Miller, who was struggling with an injury at the time, came through and rowed in the competing boat. “I think that everyone working really hard, just made winning feel [even] more special,” Tice said. “Sometimes I struggle with keeping a good mental state when I’m rowing. If you’re not hearing what you want to hear, you can easily get in your head. My coach has always told me she understands that people have off days but that doesn’t define who I am, It’s the good days that define who I am.” C

Athletes of Community BY JENNA JARJOURA

Hope Hesseltine

“I started rowing because of my sister. I went to one of her Big 10 regattas and I was like ‘Wow that’s really cool!’ and I became intrigued by the sport. I think the fact that everybody is in a boat together and you’re not doing your own thing makes the sport that much better. It’s not all on you if you do bad. It’s with everybody and you’re all in it together. Team work is really important in this sport and it helps that we have spent so much time together and have found personal strategies to work better as a team.”

Ian Novar

“It was the last game of this season. We played against Skyline and we lost. I felt that I was the reason for that loss because I took a bad touch and then they scored off of it. I felt like crap and I was really bummed out. I feel like I should take all the blame for that loss. I watched the varsity game after and I was thinking to myself ‘what could I have done to let that not happen?’ It took a weird bounce on me, and I didn’t expect it, they got a breakaway and they scored and I was just thinking to myself, ‘What could I have done better to not let that happen?’"

Maggie Wolf

“I have been playing volleyball since fourth grade. I started playing Rec&Ed because of my sister and then I started club between middle school and high school. I love how competitive it is and I really like the relationships that I have formed with other people on my teams. Especially with my club team because I travel with them and get to spend a lot of time with them.”

Nina Beardsley

“I’ve always done running as a side thing for cross training or to stay in shape during the off season and my dad was always a big runner, so one day when my parents were like ‘Why don’t you start cross country’ I was like ‘Okay!’ and then I absolutely fell in love with the sport. It’s senior year and I’ve cried twice in one week because I am literally so sad to stop running. It’s so beautiful to just be able to run outside and you’re literally getting high off of adrenaline everyday from running and it’s amazing.”

Jake Bernstein

“I’m most proud of our first game against Pioneer. We went into that game as the underdog because we’re a really inexperienced team — we only have five returning players on varsity. But we went out, we tied one to one in the first half. That was probably the best I’ve ever seen that team play. I play center back and we dominated their forwards. We won every ball in the air and we got a lot going forward. We ended up losing at the end of the day, but it was good because I know everyone played their hearts out.”

Sports |

November 2019

SEASON RECAP

Isabel Stille prepares to smack the ball in the second half.

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Jessica Courtright gets ready to hit the ball to a teammate. Courtright is the youngest of the three captains. “The whole team is sad [that we’re losing the seniors] but we have a lot of good eighth graders coming in,” Courtright said.

Before the Clock Runs Out The Skyline Women’s Field Hockey team reflects on their state championship win and what the end of the season means for them. BY EBBA GURNEY AND CHAVA MAKMAN LEVINSON

The team comes together after receiving their trophy. The captains, Katie Kowal, Jessica Courtright and Isabel Stille were handed the trophy to carry to the rest of their team. “It was our last game but we finished with a win,” Stille said.

On Oct. 26, the Skyline Women’s Field Hockey team had one final play as the clock expired with the score of 1-1. Butterflies circled around sophomore Jessica Courtright’s stomach. Surrounded by a blur of Chelsea and Skyline jerseys, with teammates’ screams echoing through the air, she shot the ball right past Chelsea’s goalie and into the goal. Katie Kowal leaped into the air, and the team instinctively ran to embrace one another: they had done it. Skyline had claimed their spot as Division II women’s field hockey State Champions. Despite this being their goal since day one, the team had gone through a messy start in August, and did not imagine they would get to this point, especially after losing nearly every game the previous year. The team began with only 11 varsity players, and the captains had some trouble placing the eight other players that had been coming up for every game. “With all the new players coming in, we had to figure out their part on the team, and we had a lot of position changes,” senior co-captain Katie Kowal said. Once the Eagles had finalized their team, they began putting in the work that led them to states.

“[The biggest challenge we faced over the course of the season was] playing Division 1 teams, because we are Division 2 and in the SEC, which means we play all the teams around us,” sophomore co-captain Jessica Courtright said. “Playing them was difficult because we weren’t all on the same level.” The team’s graduating seniors are reflecting on the community Skyline field hockey has given them throughout high school. “Most of the seniors aren’t playing in college, so we are never playing field hockey again,” Kowal said. “I went to St. Francis for middle school and didn’t know a lot of people coming into high school, and playing this sport was super helpful when it came to meeting new people. We are all going to miss Coach Barrett so much –– over the last four years, she was always more concerned with the life lessons we were learning from the sport rather than how many games we won. ” With two out of three captains being seniors, the team will be undergoing major changes before next season. “I’m going to miss this team,” Kowal said. “Jess has some big shoes to fill next year!” C

Photography by Ebba Gurney

Katie Kowal leaps into the air seconds after she watches the winning ball enter Chelsea’s goal. The team immediately gathered in excitement. “It was just so exciting to win,” Kowal said.

November 2019

SEASON RECAP

Pioneer Soccer

Photography by Jenna Jarjoura The Pioneer team poses at midfield at Dexter High School after winning the District Championship.

BY JORDAN DE PADOVA

On the back of a four win 2018 season, Pioneer Men’s Soccer wasn’t even ranked top 50 in the state. While the 2018 season was a story of high expectations and few results, after losing seniors, the 2019 season was just the opposite. “We knew we had potential, but we didn’t know if we would perform,” said senior Austin Jacubs. The regular season was littered with big wins. First tying, then, later, beating last year’s state champion, Skyline High School, was a testament to how far Pioneer soccer had come. “We hadn’t beat Skyline in the four years our seniors had been at school, so that was fun,” said Caleb Shoup, Pioneer senior. Saline High School was another team no one on the current Pioneer team could remember beating. While they lost to them during their first regular season game, when they met for a second time, on senior night, the Pioneers got redemption. With an all-12th-grade starting 11 and Pioneer’s goalie Caleb Shoup positioned at forward, within the first ten minutes of the game, an out of his element, Shoup, scored Pioneer’s first goal of the game. “I think that was completely demoralizing,” said David Schnell, Pioneer senior. “They played terribly the rest of the game.” Heading into the district tournament with a

15-3-1 record, Pioneer had reason to be optimistic, but it was before the season started that the Pioneers knew they were in contention to be city champs and maybe even more. “The first practice of the season our coach said, ‘We have a chance to make the final four,’” Shoup said. “I was like, ‘What?’” Pioneer beat Ypsilanti, then Skyline, then Saline to become city champions once again, for the first time in years. After dominating such a competitive district, the Pioneer’s were understandably confident going into their first regional games. “I thought it was going to be a breeze,” Schnell said. While they won their first regional game by four, against Dearborn, Pioneer came up one goal short in their second regional game against Salem, as it rained and hailed. After playing two overtimes, the Pioneer’s lost in Penalty Kicks and were knocked out of the tournament. “We should have won, but when it goes to penalties, you know, it’s whatever happens,” Shoup said. State champ was of course the goal all season, but city champion and regional semi-finalist were not a bad alternative. “I feel really good about the season,” Jacubs said. “Everybody always just clowns Pioneer.”

Many factors played into Pioneer’s landmark season, and everyone has a different theory about what made this year special. “Everybody put in the work this year,” Jacubs said. “We also had a nice student section that’s come out for every game.” Ben Matton, Pioneer senior and center midfielder, chalked their success up to chemistry. “Last year, we really struggled with getting along with each other, and there were times when there was a lot of conflict,” Matton said. “So people kind of like lost interest in the team and kind of gave up on the season but it’s not like that this year.” For the first time in any of their high school careers, the Pioneers have district-wide bragging rights. What's more is that they're not done yet. "We have a lot of potential for next year and the best class of 2021 in Ann Arbor," said Nano Peroff, Community junior and Pioneer right midfielder. "Next year states is the goal obviously and I think it's definitely in reach." C Photography by Garrett Hall LEFT: After scoring his first of two goals against Skyline High school, Oliver Snelly, #28, heads towards the Pioneer bench to celebrate. MIDDLE: The Pioneers hoists the district trophy. RIGHT: Dan Gutenberg, Jack Yerkes, James Simon, Garrett Stroud, and Andrew Lee storm the field after

SEASON RECAP

Huron Tennis BY OWEN KELLEY

On Saturday, Oct. 19, it was a neck and neck race for the Division I tennis State Title between cross town rivals Huron and Pioneer. Huron was up by two points — given to a team every time they win a match — as the final matches started. With Huron entering the state tournament as the favorite, and Pioneer being predicted to place third, tensions were already high even before the weekend started. The day before, when the first matches began, Midland Tennis Center was filled with an estimated attendance of over 2,000 players and spectators. Teams from all over the state were present at the tournament with hopes of winning the state title. “I’m really excited about how well we can do this year,” said Brodkey, a member of Huron High School’s first doubles team. “Last year we came in second, and most of our team stayed on so we’ve got a really strong group of guys competing this year.” Not only did Brodkey have high hopes for his team, but he and his doubles partner came into the tournament ranked as the number two doubles team in the state, with only one loss during their regular season. As matches progressed through Friday, teams began to be eliminated from championship contention. Two favorites in the tournament, Troy and Clarkston High School, suffered early losses, snatching away any chance at a state title. Going into the final matches on Saturday, there was a clear two way race between Huron and Pioneer. With half of Huron's remaining teams being eliminated before the finals, Huron was left with only two flights as the final matches began to be played. Pioneer, on the other hand, still had three teams remaining. Niki Zakarian, Pioneer's number one singles player, was beginning to worry as it came down to their last three matches. “I was really nervous watching the final matches,” Zakarian said. “It was do or die at that point, and if we didn’t win two of the last three matches, our season would’ve been over.” With Pioneer's four singles losing, and their three singles winning in a close three setter, it all came down to a Huron vs. Pioneer finals match at three doubles. The match came down to the wire, with Pioneer taking a lead late in the third set. Although Huron started to make a late comeback, Pioneer was able to seal it at 6-3 in the last set. The final point totals came out as a tie, with both Huron and Pioneer totaling 28 team points. Stefan Welch, Huron’s head coach, was extremely proud of his team, although it wasn’t the outcome he was hoping for. “Everyone on our roster fought hard this weekend,” Welch said. “I’m really proud of all of my guys and I am very happy with our final results.” The trophy ceremony proceeded around 2 p.m. on Oct. 20, with a coin toss between Huron and Pioneer for claim to the state trophy. Although Huron won the coin toss, both teams came together and shared the trophy as a great show of respect and sportsmanship to end their season. C

Photos Courtesy of Owen Kelley ABOVE: Huron High School celebrates winning the trophy and rushes onto the court. Stefan Welch, Huron head coach, shakes hands with the Pioneer coach and brings the place trophy towards his team. BELOW: The Huron men’s tennis team with the first place trophy after their co-championship performance.

Sports |

November 2019

The Invisible Injury

BY JACK BAZZANI

How concussions have affected athletes around the world and how research and awareness has advanced recently. BY JACK BAZZANI

Noah Bernstein was skiing through Utah trees when the snow began to fall heavier. Bernstein couldn’t even see his skis underneath him when he ran into a tree, head first, at full speed. It was unknown at the time, but he had suffered a concussion. A concussion is known as the invisible injury. A mild traumatic brain injury or concussion is difficult to diagnose and can cause significant irreversible brain damage if its not diagnosed and treated properly. About 2 million people suffer concussions every year, and 50 percent of them go undetected and untreated. Concussions have prematurely ended many athletes careers. Former New York Jets wide receiver Al Toon retired at the young age of 29 following his ninth diagnosed concussion. Toon, now 48, still suffers from lingering concussion symptoms. Tim Fleiszer played football at Harvard University and graduated in 1998. Later that year Fleiszer was picked first overall by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 1998 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft. Over his career, Fleizer won 4 Grey Cups and is the only player in CFL history to win four Grey Cups with four different teams. The Concussion Legacy Foundation of Canada (CLF) was officially founded in December of 2012 by Fleiszer. “After I retired from a ten year career in the CFL, I started formally working for the Concussion Legacy Foundation on the U.S. side in 2007 until 2012 when I founded the Legacy Foundation in Canada,” Fleiszer said. “I love football, hockey, soccer, and rugby–– sports where head injuries are very common, Fleiszer said. “These sports teach people things that can’t be learned in a classroom and I want to work to make them safer, so people can keep playing them. I want athletes to have the same fun I did, and receiving the same player devel16

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| Feature

Graphic by Jack Bazzani

2 million concussions happen every year, half of them go undetected. opment as well.” Fleiszer believes that sports should raise the age of head contact to at least 14. “If kids aren’t allowed to drive until they’re 16, smoke cigarettes until they’re 18, drink until they’re 21, why should they be hit in the head especially now after all of the research?” Fleiszer said. Fleiszer continues talking about studies showing that athletes who aren’t exposed to head contact until their teen years are significantly more successful in their sport and more unlikely to develop Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) than those who are exposed to it at a young age. “A couple of years ago Hockey Canada raised the body checking age to 14 and unsurprisingly the concussion rate went down,” Fleiszer said. CTE is an advanced brain trauma disease often found in athletes who have suffered multiple concussions. CTE causes those who have suffered many concussions to be constantly moody

and have trouble thinking. NHL legend Stan Mikita was found with CTE after his death in 2018. CTE can only be diagnosed after death. Although hockey players in Mikitas era did not typically wear helmets, there could be more modern athletes with CTE. Another goal of the CLF is to achieve a world without the disease. After Noah Bernstein’s skiing crash, he began feeling concussion symptoms.. “At first, I was a little bit shaken up, but I thought I was fine,” Bernstein said. “It wasn’t until we got back to the house that I really felt out of it. Later that day my dad noticed that I wasn’t really acting like myself.” His symptoms worsened over the next few days. “I had the usual concussion symptoms, my phone brightness seemed way brighter and I had a horrible headache,” Bernstein said Concussions are a growing problem in sports and do not seem to be leaving anytime soon. Foundations like the CLF are spreading awareness and educations for brain trauma. C

Actors of CET As Community Ensemble Theatre prepares for its fall show, "School Of Rock," we checked in with the actors to see what they are working on for the show. BY SOPHIA SCARNECCHIA Photography by Ebba Gurney

Noah Pike

“I started [CET] halfway through my sophomore year. I had just quit rowing for Pioneer and I needed an extracurricular activity to do. [My first show was] Inherit The Wind, and I played Mr. Sillers, the store owner [and] a witness. I’ve also done two Just Desserts and I was in Love And Information. For [School Of Rock] I’m playing the character Snake. He’s in a trashy band and wins in a battle of the bands. [So far] we’ve done singing rehearsals, building sets, getting our costumes together, and learning our dancing choreography. My costume has a wig and a fake tattoo and we’ve had a lot of fun with that. [My favorite part about my character is that] he’s really funny and bad.”

Erin Simmons

“[I started CET] halfway through my freshman year. I always knew I wanted to join because my older sister was also on CET. I was really excited to join, but I wasn’t able to do the first show, so I started in second semester. [My first show was] Inherit The Wind. I remember it was really interesting too because Quinn wasn’t the director for that show and he’s usually always the director. It was different, but also kinda fun. [Ever since then] I’ve done three CET shows, and this will be my fourth. For [School Of Rock] I’m the teacher Mrs. Sheinkopf. She mostly complains a lot and yells at the students, which can be pretty funny. So far I’m remembering lines, going over choreography, rehearsing music and putting together my costume.”

Nadya Matish

“[For School Of Rock] I’m on ensemble. I sing a few songs as a backup singer. I also dance along with the other students. [I started CET] this year because I’ve been in theatre for a long time, and I’ve always thought it was really fun so I wanted to do theatre in high school. [I started theatre] when I was four-years-old, and my mom would put me in this Shakespeare camp. It then took off and now I really like doing shows and acting. [Right now] we’re just going over choreography and lyrics. It’s really fun and I enjoy being a part of it. It’s really fun to just be a part of it [because] in the beginning you just have a script and there’s like nothing there, but then there’s this huge production and sets and it all starts to come together.”

Feature |

November 2019

Hidden Hearts

Instagram’s new experiments have led to questions about what likes really mean to people in our world today. BY SCARLETT LONDON

Her thumb hovers over the Instagram share button. She goes through the photos one last time, zooming into every spot, making sure everything is perfect. She looks at the caption, retypes it, then deletes it and puts in another one. She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, clicks “share,” and waits anxiously for likes to stream in. In the past few months, Instagram has been testing out new experiments, such as hiding the number of likes on the posts of their users. This experiment was tested in six countries in July: Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Why hide likes? When Instagram began these experiments, they stated that they wanted others to focus on the actual post, instead of how many likes the post has. This is meant to reduce anxiety that users may have when they post something and immediately worry about how many likes it will get. The idea is that the number of likes on a post is not used as a measure of success, and instead lets the user get a sense of what’s working without worrying about making every post look like a hit. “I think it would be a good thing,” said Sophie Lewis, a freshman at Greenhills High School. “Honestly, a lot of people just care too much about likes and followers and it kind of consumes you.” She feels that if Instagram hid likes, it would take pressure off of posting on Instagram. Many people care so much about likes that they delete posts when they don’t get “enough.” When she doesn’t reach her like-goal, she worries that nobody really appreciated the post. “[I think] ‘Oh, this one didn’t get to 500 likes so I’m going to delete it, because it must be ugly or something,’” Lewis said. But Lewis is unsure of how this might change if Instagram were to hide the likes on her posts. When asked if she would still delete her posts if the public couldn’t see the number of likes on the post, she responded. “That’s a hard question. Probably not, because if someone else sees it, they won’t know that it’s not doing well.” For Lewis, this would take some of the stress out of posting. However, when asked if she notices when other people’s posts don’t do well, her answer seemed unexpected. “No, not really. I kind of just like everything my friends post and I just scroll through my feed.” Despite being so nervous about posting, and worrying about what others think about the number of likes she gets, she admits that she doesn’t care how many likes everyone else’s posts have. When posting on Instagram, it is easy to worry about what others might think if a post does well, but in reality, most people don’t pay attention to stats that are not their own. All of this seems very stressful, but Lewis says that it is a “form of therapy” for her. “Whenever I’m feeling kind of bad about myself, I feel like I need reassurance, so I’ll post on Instagram,” Lewis said. “Getting likes and reading all the comments makes me feel better about myself.” Overall, Lewis thinks it is a good idea for Instagram to hide likes on posts. She thinks it will take a lot of stress out of posting, and still be a 18

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way to make you feel good about yourself. However, CHS teacher Robbie Stapleton is skeptical of this new idea. “I think it’s just a business model designed to make money for the corporation,” Stapleton said. “If they’re saying ‘We’re going to try this because we think it will be better for our user’s mental health,’ then great. I’m not necessarily buying it.” She thinks that these experiments will give the site publicity. “This was already a good decision on their part,” Stapleton said. “You and I are talking about it. It’s in the news. Parents are going to hear about it, they’re going to say it sounds great.” Stapleton admits that she has always been skeptical of businesses whose end goal is to get users addicted to their product. When she heard about what Lewis had to say about how Instagram affects her mental health, she drove this point home. “That is the inherent conundrum of Instagram or whatever platform you’re interested in,” Stapleton said. “It can make you feel good, but can also make you feel crappy. Either way, it makes you keep using it.” There are two different perspectives: that of those who see likes as achievements and enjoy the competition, and that of those who see likes as something to stress about. “There’s an argument to be made that it would increase users’ comfort level because they won’t have to worry about the popularity of their posts,” Stapleton said. “From another perspective, it would decrease users who had Instagram because they liked that aspect of it. I think it’s probably going to be a draw.” In the end, Stapleton thinks that anything that makes people use their phones more is not necessarily good for their mental health. She thinks that everyone who uses it should be conscious of the fact that they are buying into Instagram’s business model and letting themselves become part of their system. “Instagram is not going away, and we’ll keep using it until the next big platform comes along,” Stapleton said. “If a few people feel less anxious using it now then great. I think that’s awesome.” When Stapleton heard how Lewis worries what others think when her posts don’t get a certain number of likes, but doesn’t even look at how many likes other people’s posts have, she laughed. “That’s so classic, the way we think about ourselves,” Stapleton said. “In so many ways, like ‘Oh everybody’s going to think this shirt looks stupid,’ but nobody really cares, and if they do notice, they will say it looks cute.” Stapleton believes that this idea might be a comfort to some users, but she doesn’t think that this company truly has their users best interest at heart. She is suspicious of these companies and thinks that they are experimenting with this truly for the purpose of gaining publicity and new users. In the end, although there are a variety of opinions, Lewis and Stapleton seem to agree that this experiment might have some positive impacts on the Instagram community as a whole. C

Phone Cases of Community Through art and inside jokes, CHS students prove phone cases aren’t just for iPhone protection. BY LEAH DAME

Sadie Agranoff Sophomore “I found stickers while I was cleaning my closet and it was when the “rise and shine” Kylie Jenner video came out, so it was the first thing that came to my mind. I think personalizing cases makes them unique and fun.”

Puck Gatto Senior I got [the popsocket] originally because my phone got stolen,” Gatto said. “When I got a new phone, I needed to get a new pop socket. So I went on their website to see what kind of pop socket I could get, and then I found out you could make custom ones: that was a game-changer. I just happened to have this picture of me from freshman and decided to put it off-center just to annoy myself. I’m trying to get other people to get one because I find it really funny.”

November 2019

Choosing Immunity She’s never been vaccinated against tetanus, rubella, HPV or the flu: in fact, she’s never been vaccinated against anything. Now, she’s decided to change that. BY LOEY JONES-PERPICH

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Dana* grew up happy, healthy, and except for a bout of chickenpox in elementary school, virus-free. She noticed her friends and classmates with glitter band-aids on their arms every fall, but when she asked her parents why she never got her flu shot, they simply told her that she was healthy, so she didn’t need one. She didn’t challenge their answer; she never got the flu, so she figured her parents were right. Years passed and she remained safe from both the scary needles in the doctor’s office and the virus. But it wasn’t just the flu shot that Dana wasn’t getting: she had never been vaccinated for anything, not even as a baby. “When I was in middle school, I didn’t think about it as that big of an issue,” Dana said. “It never really affected me; I would just listen to what my parents said. My mom believes that if you are healthy enough and are able to fight off the flu or something, then you don’t actually need to get a flu shot. I was like, ‘okay, if that’s what you want, I’m fine with not getting shots.’” When Dana entered high school and surrounded herself with politically passionate people, she gradually became aware that she was one of the few unvaccinated people in her school. Annual numbers of measles cases in the U.S. began to rise — going from 120 cases in 2017 to 372 in 2018 — and she started to educate herself on vaccinations. The modern anti-vaccination movement started growing in 1998, when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a since-withdrawn study linking the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (M.M.R.) vaccine to autism. In 2007, actress Jenny McCarthy publicized the movement when she blamed the vaccine for her son’s autism, saying that he was diagnosed soon after receiving the M.M.R. vaccine. Theories linking vaccination to autism have continuously been proven incorrect. Since the rise of the modern anti-vaccination movement, diseases like measles — which was declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000 — have reemerged. With political turmoil erupting in the U.S. and debate over vaccinations rising to the front pages of newspapers, Dana worried about exposure to diseases and stopped sharing her medical background with anyone except for a few close friends. “I started to realize that people really would look down on people like me who don’t get their shots,” Dana said. “I was scared to come out as someone who was [unvaccinated]. I definitely do feel targeted, and if I were to tell people who are really against it, I’d be really scared of what they might say to me.” She felt safe enough to confide in a few friends, and to her surprise, was accepted with open arms. “They like to joke around about it,” Dana said. “I’m fine with that most of the time. Other times it’s hard because I don’t think they realize that they’re the ones who don’t have to worry about what people think about them. There are

people who really disagree with what my family’s doing — what I’m doing. That’s just hard sometimes that they might not realize that.” At some of Dana’s more recent check-ups, her pediatrician encouraged her family to strongly consider vaccination and whether or not they wanted to risk symptoms of viruses like tetanus, which include painful muscle spasms and even death. When her father heard the pediatrician’s argument, he changed his mind; when Dana was younger and there wasn’t potential for her to get seriously sick, he believed that she didn’t need vaccinations, but the doctor had swayed him.

"I was scared to come out as someone who was [unvaccinated]. I definitely do feel targeted, and if I were to tell people who are really against it, I’d be really scared of what they might say to me." With her dad on board, she told her mom that she wanted to get vaccinated. Her response was positive, but every time Dana reminded her to get an appointment, it seemed like it fell off of her mom’s radar. Confused, she contemplated whether or not she actually wanted to be vaccinated, or if it was just pressure from her peers and pediatrician. “It seems almost as if the people who get vaccinated are really putting pressure on me to have to get them done,” Dana said. “That does kind of upset me, because I shouldn’t have to care what people think about me and the decisions I make on that certain subject, but on the other hand, these are really risky diseases.” Nevertheless, she continued to pressure her mom to make an appointment. Though she was excited at the idea of finally being immune to the diseases that she had been scared of for years, she worried about her relationship with her mom. “[I worry about] what my mom will think of me after I get them done,” Dana said. “I know she’ll support me in any way, but I think maybe in the back of her head she’ll be thinking, ‘Why did she have to do it — did she not believe what I said?’” When her mom makes the appointment for her, Dana will be vaccinated for meningitis, hepatitis and hopefully tetanus. She wishes that she had been vaccinated as a child, but for her, the end outcome is the same; immunity against harmful diseases will go a long way towards making her feel safer in the world. C *Name has been changed to protect anonymity. Feature |

November 2019

The Conservative Dilemma A large number of Republicans do not approve of Trump. But with some ties still to the GOP, what are their options in 2020? BY CHARLES SOLOMON

Donald Trump was never supposed to be president. Most pollsters expected him to lose, albeit narrowly, to Hillary Clinton. In fact, Trump was never even supposed to make it to the general election. Republican party leadership planned for his candidacy to die in their primary. The Republican establishment all hated him, for a myriad of reasons. The overarching problem these so-called ‘party elites’ had with Trump, however, was his defiance of the establishment and traditional Republican platforms. “He rejected a lot of the key issues the Republicans had stopped talking about because everyone's on the same page — aggressive foreign policy, leadership in NATO and other military alliances, free trade,” Robert Mickey, University of Michigan Political Science Professor, said. With the leadership against him, Trump’s campaign should have disappeared before it built up steam. But something went awry. “[Trump’s] nomination pointed to how weak American parties are,” Mickey said. “Here's a guy who the backers of all the other candidates hated, but they failed to coordinate behind any of the other not Trump candidates. All they had to do is get behind one of them, and that one person would have gotten the nomination… [But they waited] too long so that it was too late.” Even after his nomination, many within the party still opposed him. The Harvard Republicans club, the oldest College Republicans chapter in the nation, refused to endorse him. Primary opponent Jeb Bush refused to pledge support. Party elites had worried meetings and phone calls. The night of the Access Hollywood tape release, there was quiet panic within the party. “That night Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House, is on the phone with people and they're deciding whether to take Trump's name off of the ballot,” Mickey said. “Legally, it was too hard for them to go state by state because that's who decides who's on the ballot. But they had real talks about abandoning their own presidential candidate. Another sign that the party elites thought he was gonna lose, but also just despise the guy.”

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Phototgraphy Courtesy of Creative Commons

Despite the low expectations, we all know what happened. Although he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, Trump won the Electoral College and therefore the presidency. “We were shocked,” Mickey said. “Everyone was shocked; he was shocked. I remember at eight o'clock of election night, his staff were on different cable channels, blaming each other for why he lost. So for everyone, it was a surprise.” Since then, most congressional Republicans have fallen in line. Most do not support Trump now because their views of him have changed, however. They do it out of fear. “They're scared of their own primary voters,” Mickey said. “They're scared of the red hat and MAGA [Make America Great Again] people. Even if they're in a safe congressional district that's always going to elect a Republican, they're scared that they won't survive a primary against Trump. So they keep their mouth shut.” But even as some vocal critics were quelled and efforts to block Trump’s election faded away after 2016, a sizable percentage of the Republican Party still refused to fall in line. This is not the 42-58 percent of the GOP is found to be less en-

thusiastic about Trump's presidency, as found by Greenberg Research, and it is not the conservatives who dislike Trump as a person but vote for him anyways. These are GOP voters who dislike Trump to such an extent that they have defected from the Republican party and do not plan to vote for him in the upcoming election. “So different kinds of people [are] outraged about different things about Trump,” Mickey said. “[There is] the DC set who was outraged by Trump's kind of isolationism, rejection of NATO, wanting to pull out of world diplomacy. There are other people who reject Trump's white nationalism and racism.” Amy Chan is one such voter. A registered Republican for most of her life, she nonetheless voted for Clinton in the last election, abhorring the idea of a Trump presidency. “Frankly, I felt like [Trump] was an illiterate thug who was playing to these racist tendencies that are the worst impulses in our populace,” said Chan, a former Arizona State Elections supervisor. “I also did not like the Clintons, I

respected them but I didn't care for them. But I decided a vote for the libertarian or the green candidate would be a vote for Trump, and I decided to swallow my dislike of Hillary and get behind her and vote for her.” Voters like Chan may be a minority, but they are not an insignificant one. According to Gallup, there was a 5-point drop in the number of people who call themselves Republicans after the 2016 election. A Greenberg Research study shows that 10 percent of traditionally GOP voters plan to vote third party in the 2020 election if the Republican nominee is Donald Trump. This is in addition to a further 4 percent who dislike him enough they would actually vote Democratic. If you add in people not ready to vote against him and would rather just sit out, only about 79 percent of the normal GOP base is prepared to vote for Trump in 2020. This means there are now millions of usually Republican voters faced with an important choice: If they are not prepared to vote for Trump, what are their options come November 2020? There are really only three: Voting for a third

party, voting for the Democratic candidate or just not voting at all. According to Mickey, which possibility most defecters pick may depend on the Democratic nominee. “So if Biden were the nomination, I think the majority [of anti-Trump Republicans] would vote for him,” Mickey said. “He's a dude and sexism is an important force in elections, and he's seen as much more conservative than Elizabeth Warren. If Warren is the nominee, I think some of them would swear they're not going to do it but on election day give up and vote for Trump again. Some of them will just be disgusted and say politics disgusts me.” Chan, however, doesn’t particularly care who the Democratic nomination is. It’s already enough that they’re not Trump. “I will vote for the Democratic candidate in a heartbeat if Trump is on the ballot again,” Chan said. “I mean, there's just no choice there.” What these dissatisfied Republicans choose on election day will certainly matter. In 2016, three close states won Trump the presidency: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Trump won by a total of only 70,000 votes across the three

states. Even a small push would be enough to flip those states, and there are certainly enough anti-Trump, formerly GOP voters to provide that push. Beyond 2020 and Trump, the fate of this Republican subcategory is unknown. Mickey believes most will eventually return to the GOP. “I would imagine that most of those [dissatisfied Republicans] aren’t permanently not Republican,” Mickey said. “I would guess that as soon as the Republican Party nominates even someone like Mike Pence, they'll kind of go back home.” Personally, though, Chan is considering moving on. “You know, I wonder if too much damage has been done,” Chan said. “In our state, for a long time there's been a lot of people leaving both the Democratic and the Republican Parties and just becoming Independent. So even before Trump I wondered whether we would be seeing some sort of a change with the parties coming. But I really do think that this might be some damage that is kind of undoable.” C

How Republicans Plan on Voting in 2020

Infographic by Sophie Fetter Data Courtesy of Greenberg Research

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November 2019

Fighting Against Climate Change Zaynab Elkolaly’s early love for debate turned her into an activist powerhouse. BY EVAN ASH

Zaynab Elkolaly is an 18-year-old activist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She played a significant role in the Washtenaw County climate strike on Sept. 20, 2019, and is planning for even more significant events. “I am very proud of my Arab and Muslim identity. I got introduced to activism when I was ten and realized that my existence was provocative,” Elkolaly said. Elkolaly co-founded the Washtenaw County Climate Strike, believing her love for arguing could be a force for productive change. The media covers white activists like Swedish teen Greta Thunberg but rarely covers activists fighting for minorities and their relationship with climate change. For hundreds of years, indigenous groups and black communities have been fighting for the same thing. “I find it ridiculous. Indigenous and black people have been fighting this for decades, literally decades. Getting killed, being forcefully moved, but now this white girl protest in front of the Swedish parliament, and everybody is hailing her as a savior,” said Elkolaly. Elkolaly does not hate activists like Greta Thunberg; she believes the white faces of youth-led movements are too familiar. “It is always the white girl. Alternatively, just white people instead are put in the faces of youth-led movements to make them seem more marketable in a way that makes them more familiarized. That’s unacceptable. What people do not talk about is the imperialism and colonialism that sort of instigated climate change,” said Elkolaly. “It’s European powers entering middle eastern countries and stealing the resources, mainly their petroleum, and starting the industrial revolution which we now know is the start of all this crap.” To combat this, Elkolaly believes the easiest way to make sure that we have a diverse and intersectional movement is to put diverse people in leadership positions. “I guess you have to be within like the organization, but you’ll find that the white organizers are given all of the media and PR opportunities, or they will take them for themselves. They do not know how to take space and give space,” Elkolaly said. “We will have these POC doing the brunt of the work, whereas the leaders of the organizations are getting all the attention.” However, to shine a light on these activists is something we can all work towards to achieve. Elkolaly’s organization is working with both POC and white people to create an excellent and diverse scene. “What my group is doing is 24

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incredible. We have Logan. She’s a white girl, and she’s very involved in the group, but she never takes PR opportunity. She always passes it along to us. Thus, this form of allyship from white members of an organization is incredibly important,” Elkolaly said. Environmental racism is affecting students close to home in Flint, Michigan. Flint still does not have clean water, causing many to believe that if Flint were rich and mostly white, then

“What were you doing when you were 17? Getting high?” the issue would have been solved. Indigenous populations are struggling with changing environments. Glacier melting in higher regions, lack of resources in the arctic regions, and loss of vegetation, to name a few. The work of many black, brown, and indigenous climate activists is overlooked. “We really just need media to be cooperating with these organizations making sure that POC is the face of the movement rather than white girls,” said Elkolaly. “I try to get the media to pay attention to these voices that aren’t being heard. We have put in these spaces where we want to do it, but we don’t want to offend anybody. So what needs to be done is that these opportunities need to be specifically designated for POC and in terms of journalism, cover POC,” said Elkolaly. Activism is an excellent way for students to get involved with their communities while also supporting great causes. However, what many do not realize, is just how long people of color and other groups have been fighting for set issues. “Young people of color have always been involved because they’ve had to. When we are Describing this narrative about getting young people involved, we are talking about getting young; privileged people involved because when you look at the Gun Violence Movement, people of color, young people of color, have been fighting for their lives,” said Elkolaly According to thetrace.org, “African-American children and teens are more than eight times more likely to die from firearm homicide than their white counterparts.” White people’s involvement with these movements is covered far more than the groups who are severely affected.

“The climate movement young people have been fighting for their lives. It is a matter of getting affluence sort of blind people involved what’s there to gain. And you’re seeing this trend right now. People using it for, College applications, using activism to make themselves look good in an appalling way,” says Elkolaly. “Why are they doing it? You know. It theoretically doesn’t matter why they are doing it so long as they’re doing it. All these different questions. But for people that do genuinely have good intentions, they need to understand that they do have the power they have more power than they believe that they do because this is going to be our planet.” The Climate Strike group is planning an even bigger strike for Earth Day, one that will be a lot less comfortable. “It’s not going to be I am going

to skip school for a couple of hours. We’re disrupting the status quo, so we cannot go around doing business as usual. We have to literally like dismount systems in place. So it’s not going to be comfortable. Earth day Is going to be the big one,” says Elkolaly. Many kids took the time to skip school altogether, defeating the purpose. The University of Michigan has billion-dollar investments in the fossil fuel industry. “The university divest billions of dollars into carbon and energy, and it is so bad, and we have been hounding the president of U of M for so long, and she is still to meet with us,” said Elkolaly. It is not surprising that the president will not take Elkolaly and her fellow young leaders seriously. “You have a lot of high rolls. A lot of “oh, you just have youthful optimism,” It’s quite annoy-

ing to be treated that way from middle-aged adults. Nevertheless, what can you do? You can just rise above it,” says Elkolaly. “So I show them results. The best revenge is a success. If it gets a little aggressive, I like to combat them with, “What were you doing when you were 17? Getting high?” You are criticizing me for doing outstanding work at a young age,” said Elkolaly. As long as an activist is like Elkolaly work, the POC activists will have a more significant role in the movement. The media needs to cover groups who are fighting for change, not just white-European girls. It is essential to realize the threat climate change has on all of us, and working together is the only way change can occur. C

Photography By Atticus Dewey Elkolaly addresses a crowd of protesters in the Diag at the University of Michigan. Elkolaly has refused to attend the University because of their involvement in the fossil fuel industries.

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November 2019

Tuning in and Checking Out Now in the digital age, there is constant access to music. BY LILY SICKMAN-GARNER

Graphic by Lily Sickman-Garner

Nadya Matish walks home from school most days with earbuds in and music blasting from her iPhone 6. The crisp autumn air cuts at her face, and she feels brightly colored leaves crunching under her feet. During the ten minute walk home from the bus stop, Matish passes the time listening to “Panic! at the Disco” and the “Wicked” soundtrack. When she pictured making that trip without music to distract her, Matish acknowledged how disconcerting it would be. “I would feel weird, because I would just be alone with my thoughts,” Matish said. “In a way it could be therapeutic, but it’s also nice to have music, because you have something to do and it’s fun.” Over the past few decades, access to music has become less and less restricted. The experience of true boredom, of having nothing to do and time to waste, has become a thing of the past. Possession of a smartphone provides constant distraction, a barrage of information that never ceases. We have the entire world of music at our fingertips, and playing a new song is as simple as the click of a button. Our listening is limited only by our imaginations, and it is easier than ever to find and refine our own unique tastes. We can jump between playlists with little effort, a never ending stream of creativity and artistry playing in our ears. However, some feel this unprecedented freedom comes with drawbacks. “I think people take songs for granted,” Matish said. “They don’t appreciate them as much because it’s way easier to get them.” In the past, listening to a new song required a level of intention that is no longer necessary. To bother going to a record store and buying an album, one had to really want to listen to it. Now, it is easy to shuffle between songs while doing homework or 26

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driving to school. “I listen to [music] in between classes, at lunch, when I take the bus home,” said Simon Cassell-Kelley, a junior at Community High School (CHS). “I listen to music while I’m doing homework, it’s just background noise.” In a fast-paced and high pressure world, multitasking has begun to feel increasingly necessary. We no longer focus our attention on just one thing, instead dividing it between two or three. With this habit comes a false sense of heightened productivity, a feeling that as long as we are always busy, we are doing something valuable with our time. “There have been many studies that show that when we multitask, we do not do well in either of the two things that we are doing,” said Ryan Silvester, a social studies teacher at CHS. “Not only are you not really even listening to your music, you’re not taking in whatever material you should be taking in.” Silvester has become accustomed to adding “also headphones” to his typical request to put away phones during class. Although he remembers students listening to music in class when he was in high school, he has seen the habit become more prevalent and easier to hide from teachers. Listening to music on headphones is most often solitary, and some see this as potentially isolating. “I think [teenagers today] are missing the interactive piece of sharing music with friends,” said Bev Davidson, an Ann Arbor resident and CHS parent. “There’s something to be said for being in a group of people listening to an artist play and being able to share the feeling with other people that you care about.” As technology has improved, music has become more private, something many people are reluctant to share with friends and classmates.

However, it has not lost its capacity to cultivate communities. Streaming services allow people to develop ever-changing musical tastes, but there are still songs that every teenager recognizes, whether from the radio or from childhood. In addition, social media makes it possible to go online and find people who listen to the same artists and albums. “[Adults] think teenagers are being more antisocial, but if I want to be friends with someone, I’ll stop listening to music and prioritize them,” said Maisha Tabassum, a CHS student. “I feel that music is about choice. If you want you can listen to music. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.” Tabassum explained that she doesn’t see streaming services or social media as being inherently isolating. Instead, she believes that always having the option of playing music gives her greater freedom. “There’s nothing wrong with listening to music,” Tabassum said. “Maybe [teens] are not talking to people [as much], but I don’t see a downside of that.” With the invention of streaming services, records and CDs have been replaced with smartphones, speakers and headphones. New technology will always cause old traditions to be lost — it is an imperfect give and take. Some will accept the change wholeheartedly, while others might shy away from it. Finding a perfect balance, a theoretical best of both worlds, is unrealistic at best. One thing is clear: progress will continue and new technologies will always be created. We will continue to face this dilemma, the never-ending choice between embracing and rejecting change. C

Social Media’s Effects on Students The importance of recognizing social media’s effects and why it is used. BY ELLA ROSEWARNE

“Honestly I found myself scrolling through [social media] way too others. much and worrying way too much about what other people are doing McLoughlin felt herself spending too much time on Facebook, comparrather than focusing on what I’m doing,” said James Azim, a freshman at ing her life to others and doubting things she was sure about such as who CHS. He sees social media’s down side and its effects. her friends were. She asked herself, “Why am I even thinking about this?” “[Social media] encourages people to think they have to hold themselves Then she deleted Facebook. to a certain standard, to the same standard that other people do,” Azim “When you start to look at it as a snapshot in somebody’s life and thinksaid, “And social media is just really fake, a lot of the posts there, they ing that their life is better than yours, I think that’s scary,” McLoughlin aren’t real. Good things do come out of social media. But compared to bad said. things, there’s more bad things.” He sees people portray their lives on social She sees students at CHS comparing themselves to others on social media different than their actual lives. Social media media. has built pressure to be what is their “perfect." “I don’t know how you’re not affected by seeing Leah White, a freshman at CHS, sees who you what’s on social media,” McLoughlin said. Since surround yourself with on social media very imsocial media is so popular it is hard to avoid it and portant in determining the effects of social media. “The values of Communi- deleting it can be hard when everybody else has it. “[Social media is] a positive thing [for me] be“I don’t think the answer is saying goodbye to cause on Instagram, for instance, I have a private ty are that we value each social media," McLoughlin said. "But I think that account and I only let people who I really know other, we value differenc- most students [should] just be very conscious of and trust and value as friends follow me," White how [they] use it." She sees students at Commusaid"So I’d say it’s a positive thing for me." es, and we value kindness,” nity setting limits on their phones and social meAmy McLoughlin is a counselor at CHS and dia. has worked at Skyline High School, Pioneer High Amy McLoughlin. “I think Community kids want to have conSchool, and Bowsher High School in Toledo as a versations, and I think they want to be engaged,” counselor. McLoughlin has seen students struggle McLoughlin said. She sees social media affecting with anxiety and depression in the past 20 years. students with anxiety and depression frequently Over those 20 years, she has seen the number of because it is an easy thing to fall back on when students increase. bored. At Community, she sees students with trusted staff members and a Social media rates from Our World in Data show dramatic increases in place they are comfortable and feel equal to the staff. the past 10 years how many people are using social media platforms and McLoughlin talks about CHS values and how they are clear to see. She how many platforms there are. Social media has been linked to anxiety and says all schools want their students to succeed, but at CHS it is easier to depression. see this because of the smaller setting. “What you have at Community is “Not that cell phones are bad, but [they] cause underlying anxiety that to have a smaller school and a smaller setting really helps a lot of people,” we’re not always willing to look at with social media,” McLoughlin said. “I McLoughlin said. She sees the smaller setting as important because it is think sometimes you have to detox. Like you have to detox just like with easier for students to find their place and knowing the staff as equal and anything else.” Part of using social media to its best ability is recognizing trustworthy so they can have conversations. C the bad aspects that often come with it, commonly comparing yourself to Feature |

November 2019

The TikTok Takeover TikTok has become a global phenomenon of popular trends, dances and comedy: here’s how it hit Ann Arbor. BY MIA GOLDSTEIN

Whether or not you have downloaded it, you probable know that TikTok has been a hot topic of conversation. The social media app, formerly known to many as “Musical.ly,” was acquired by Chinese tech company ByteDance and merged with its own lip-syncing app, Douyin. The result: TikTok, which debuted last August. ByteDance is no meager tech company; they are valued at $75 billion. After recently amassing over 500 million active users, TikTok is practically in the hands of the entire United States. In fact, is' generating so much attention that ByteDance was recently crowned the world’s most valuable startup. It trumps YouTube, Instagram, Fortnite and WhatsApp in being the most downloaded app in 2019 on the Apple App Store, with 33 million downloads in a single quarter. The majority of TikTok users are young social media enthusiasts. One in eight adults ages 18–24 in the U.S. have downloaded the app, and 41 percent of TikTok users are ages 16 – 24. TikTok is a new wave for creating and sharing original content in the form of videos. On its website, TikTok describes itself as “a destination for short-form mobile videos.” Similar to the now-defunct Vine, the videos have a time limit and serve as a prime breeding ground for memes. Video creators have all sorts of filters and effects at their fingertips. The extensive prompts and sounds make an extremely appealing, easy to use and thrilling task curating new content. Users can select from a broad range of songs, YouTube videos or sounds other users release publically. They can also generate their sounds. The app is navigated by scrolling up and down and swiping to the left to access a user’s profile. Users are encouraged to engage in the app by means of “duets” — users can replicate a video and paste it alongside the original. The “For You” page is a feed filled with videos that play automatically and in full-screen resolution. Hashtags play a notably large role on TikTok— on the app, hashtags exist as a functional organizing principle to follow popular challenges, jokes, dances or any recognizable trend. TikTok has changed the playing field for existing social media. It has broken the barrier between a self-directed feed and an experience based primarily on algorithmic observation and inference. When you first download the app, you are greeted with a copious amount of unfamiliar faces in videos presented to you on the “For You” page. The “For You” page is an algorithmic feed based on videos you have interacted with 28

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Graphic by Cy Veilleux and Mia Goldstein

or simply just watched; it never runs out of content. The app is constantly learning from what you choose to watch, ignore, share and like. In a short amount of time, the app is tailored around your preferences and what you tend to watch. TikTok is structured exclusively around the “For You” page, offering a drastically different experience than other apps. You are given what you want to see, without even asking. TikTok encourages its users to take a blind leap into the app by experimenting with different trends, audiences, and sounds. The bar is low for TikTok users, you are simply left alone to test the waters. The endless stream of videos would make it hard for anyone to put their phone down. TikTok users are on the app an average of 52

minutes per day, according to Business of Apps 2019. However, many members of Gen Z openly admit to abusively using TikTok five hours or more a day. Not only do 90 percent of TikTok users access the app on a daily basis, but they also are extremely active. A study observing the behavior of TikTok users in the period of one month shows that 68 percent of users watch others’ videos and 55 percent upload their own. The key to this high usage is engagement. Users are constantly learning dances, scrolling through the “For You” page, following trends and so much more. TikTok merely shows you arbitrary videos that range from cringeworthy to admirable, and lets artificial intelligence take the wheel. C

Are You That TikTok Girl? Ann Arbor students find online fame through the “For You” page. BY HANNAH BERNSTEIN

Throughout the “For You” page, users can find some Ann Arbor students in their feed. Both Lauren Jules, a junior at Skyline High School, and Supriya Macha, a junior at Greenhills School, accidentally stumbled upon fame through TikTok. Macha originally downloaded TikTok to make sure all of her embarrassing old Musical.ly videos were private and did not transfer over to the new app. Jules and Macha both started off by making fun, entertaining videos with their friends as a joke, but kept most of their content private. Macha and Jules each had different paths to fame. Jules was scrolling through Twitter when she was inspired by a tweet about wanting a boyfriend. In her most famous TikTok she screams, “They always say you attract what you fear…. AHHH! A boyfriend! I’m so scared, I jumped!” Jules has 2.4 million views on this video and it is close to reaching 478,000 likes. She currently has 100,000 followers, which has also caused her accounts to grow on other social media platforms. At school, Jules is frequently asked, “Are you the girl on TikTok?” She wishes that the video wasn’t the only thing she was known for, but still feels compelled to keep it on her profile. Macha, on the other had, started recording videos on TikTok with her friends and described them as “wacky.” Macha’s first video was impromptu; her friend began recording, telling her that she would go viral. They used a popular TikTok sound: a cut from “Martha Dumptruck,” a song from the musical “Heathers.” “The video that [mine] was based on were these white people doing [the sound] and I was like, ‘Indian people can do it too,’” Macha said. Adding her own twist on the current trend made her first video go viral. Macha has 28.9 million views with 3.9 million likes on this video alone. “When I got on the ‘For You’ page, a bunch of people that I knew from years ago texted me,” Macha said. “Someone I went to camp with four years ago and people from different countries texted me.” Macha’s video went viral in a week. “It’s really embarrassing, but I kind of embrace it,” Macha said. “It’s just funny. I’m glad I didn’t get viral off of some [embarrassing] video.” The “For You” page is full of different trending content and many Ann Arbor TikTok users have seen these two videos on their own “For You” pages. The videos range from the popular and liked videos to unliked, cringey videos from random

public accounts. Most users are a part of Generation Z, but there is also an older user base. Macha notices many adults on her For You page and finds it funny, but a little bit strange. “I feel like TikToks are almost like memes, but video memes,” Macha said. “Musical.ly had more talented [users] and TikTok has more funny people.” TikTok is also used for graphic art as well. It allows people to show their artistic ability in various ways. Macha finds the perfect loops — videos that seem to go on forever, but really only last ten seconds — very cool. Musical.ly was expressive in a different way, focusing mainly on lip-syncing and camera movements. Although there are a few people that use TikTok for artistic expression, many of the users who are famous have a good sense of humor. However, Macha says there are some users that become famous because of their good looks. Many attractive people make videos just sitting in front of the camera. The most recognized videos contain humor along with a catchy sound. Often, famous videos evolve into popular catchphrases. Users will quote current trends, sayings and songs in daily conversation. Users use these jokes to relate with their peers, who are also active on the app. Some even occasionally break into a dance when they hear recognizable songs. The catchy TikTok songs have fueled an addiction to the app. The accessibility makes it easy for people to use the app when they are bored. “I would definitely consider it a distraction to a lot of people,” Macha said. “You just keep scrolling and scrolling.” The app creators have introduced an addiction reduction feature. Every 90 minutes, the app suggests for you to take a break. The addictive nature of the short videos enthralls users to keep scrolling; it glues users to the app, removing them from their daily life. Macha commonly finds herself on TikTok when she could be doing work for school. TikTok’s popularity has caused the app to grow outside of their digital walls; the culture sparking from the app has now been adopted into other platforms and even into our society as a whole. Whether it’s simply recognizing a catchy song or memorizing a trendy dance, TikTok has, without a doubt, transformed Generation Z. C

Feature |

November 2019

Why Swipe Right? Tinder doesn’t allow minors to use the app, but that’s not stopping them. BY ZOE BUHALIS AND ELIZABETH SHAIEB

Tinder –– a popular dating app that allows people to “match” with others in their area –– is being used by people under 18. Most of those teens are not looking for true love or a one night stand; they are looking for entertainment, friends they know in real life and an opportunity to be someone they’re not. Some teens on Tinder barely use the app, they only have it for the social gain of having a dating app. Mackensie Fidler,* a 17-year-old senior at Community, downloaded Tinder the summer before her junior year. Her original intent was to use it like any other social media she had: for entertainment. She found the idea of downloading Tinder funny. Since then, she has had the app on and off and has created a fake backstory that is not accurate to who she really is: she 30

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tells people she is an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Michigan. Fidler never has nor intends to meet up with people in person but will Snapchat them from her house. To hide that she’s not at the U of M, she tells them she lives in an apartment with her friends in Ypsilanti to explain why her room doesn’t look like a dorm. Fidler’s not the only teen to lie about her age on Tinder. Shannon Bishop* is a high school junior who downloaded Tinder because she was bored and wanted a new source of entertainment. Her Tinder profile lists her age as 18 but once she matches with people she usually notifies them of her true age: 16. Once in a while, someone will “unmatch” with her after finding out how young she is. Recently her account was taken down for an unknown reason. Bishop assumes someone reported her account after finding out she was only 16. This violated Tinder’s policies because their minimum age limit is 18. Unlike many other underage teens on the app, Bishop has met up with people she found on Tinder. The only people she has met are people she already knew of, and happened to match with. They have all been U of M students and nobody older than 22. Bishop has her age preference set from 18-22 meaning only people in that age range show up on her screen and her profile only shows up on the screens of people in that age group. “I think it would be better if you were 16 and could only match with 16 through 18-year-olds. That’s how it used to be. Everyone knows that [teens under 18] are on Tinder,” Bishop said. She thinks safety would improve if teens who were not 18 could list their true age and match with people within a couple years of their age. She believes this may limit the number of minors lying about their ages. In 2016 Tinder changed its policies, 13 to 17-year-olds used to be permitted on the app. They would only be shown other minors and could not match with those 18 and over. However, Tinder changed its policy in 2016 because users under 18 lied about their ages when making a Facebook account, which translated to Tinder because someone could make a Tinder account using their Facebook. Tinder receives the profile information Facebook already has about someone. Tinder’s current policies prevent those under 18 from making accounts… with their real ages. Their policy states that they do not want teens on Tinder, but their prevention techniques mostly depend on automated services and reporting by other users. It’s not very hard to make a fake account: Tinder doesn’t verify that the age listed on someone’s profile is their actual age. The chances that the underage person’s account is taken down completely depends on the connections they make and if someone else reports them as a minor. Although Fidler has never met up with anyone, she does have advice for any teens who may be considering meeting up with someone from Tinder: don’t go at night, let a friend know where you will be and make sure you have a plan in case something goes wrong. Fidler talks about how teens using Tinder is not necessarily unsafe, as long as it is being done for the right reason, her advice to teens is to make sure you understand what the app is actually for, and why people are on it. Not everyone is on Tinder for entertainment and she thinks people need to keep that in mind before making a profile. C *Names have been changed to protect anonymity

I Agree...

to signing away my privacy. BY MAZEY PERRY

There is no denying that in this age, our lives are not our own. Making any social media account means giving up privacy, and therefore leaving people open to have their information invaded. When signing up for any social media platform, users are asked to sign a “terms and agreements” section simply by clicking an “I agree” button. The length of these agreements alone is enough to make anyone scroll through quickly and just click yes to save time. It is important to read these agreements, because you are signing away a lot more than you think. Companies often use language that is vague and hard for the everyday person to decipher. They are also extremely repetitive with their policies, often stating the same thing multiple times with slight alterations that actually make a huge difference in what is being agreed upon. While this information is unsettling, there are things users can do to make privacy more available. By going into Settings on iPhones' location, contacts, access to camera and face recognition can be turned off. By making social media accounts private, you are in control of what the public can see. Yes, the actual app may have all the information you enter, but everyday people on their devices aren’t able to see your profile. Unless you are doing illegal activity or there is a reason for your account to be looked at, there’s a good chance you aren’t being monitored. It is important that people read terms and agreements; sometimes you give away personal information and won’t be able to get it back. “What you post on the internet is there forever” is a saying thrown around often, and in a lot of ways it’s true. Be aware of what you post and who will be able to see it.

Would You Check the Boxes?

If you have any of these apps, you already have.

Snapchat Nobody under 13 may join snapchat No convicted sex offenders can make an account “Public content” is what you put on your public story or private story All sent snaps (public content or individual) are granting Snapchat, and their affiliates to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, and distribute content. Public Content has ALL of the above AND rights to promote, exhibit, broadcast, syndicate, publicly perform, and publicly display in ANY form and in ANY and ALL media or distribution methods (now or later developed) With Public Content, Snapchat can use your name voice likeness. Instagram and Facebook They collect information about the people, pages, accounts, hashtags and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across our products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of. They also look at things you look at on their apps to personalize ads and photos you see. Facebook has access to Instagram and they can use search history to filter what shows up on your timeline. If you have it turned on, they use face recognition technology to recognize you in photos, videos and camera experiences.

What Are Cookies?

Many terms and agreements mention that they use cookies as a way to keep tabs, but rarely explain what cookies actually are. This is TikTok’s explanation. “Cookies do many different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving the user experience. For example, cookies can tell us whether you have visited the platform before or whether you are a new visitor. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.” Basically, cookies are the reason that when you search something one time, you get popup ads about it for the next few weeks. They can remain on your device for varying periods of time. Some only last while the browser is open, but others can survive after you close browsers and reoccur once the browser is reopened.

TikTok If you are under age 18, you may only use the Services with the consent of your parent or legal guardian. Please be sure your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and discussed these Terms with you. They automatically collect certain information from you when you use the Platform, including your IP address, location-related data (as described below), unique device identifiers, browsing history (including content you have viewed in the Platform), Cookies (as defined below). They share your information with third-party vendors and service providers that help us perform our business operations. Feature |

November 2019

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0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 0101001101000

Technology in the

new age

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0100101 10010101001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 0100011 01100001000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 0110010 01001001000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 0101100 00101001011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 0101001 00010101010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 01000101 0010001001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 0100010 01011101000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 0110010 01000101100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 0101011 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 0101000 00100101011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 BY SOPHIE FETTER AND ANJA JACOBSON 0010001010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 01000100 100011010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 010010 01011001000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 0110001 In01001111 2008,01010000 a location-sharing application was 01010101 0101011 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 1000001100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001000 released. They 010001001 called it 010001010 Life360. 01001011 It allows01001100 users 01001111 0101000 0100001010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000110 0001001010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 to share their location with each01000101 other. The app 01000111 0100100 00001010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100001 is primarily used by parents to track the loca0101000100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 0110000 of their children. has features that can 01010011 0101010 01001011 01001100 01001111 It 01010000 01010001 01010010 00110001100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010tions 01000111 01001000 010001010 record01000110 and share the speed at 010001001 which your teen 01001011 0100110 00011101010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01100101 the 01000001 01000010 0100011of 0100100 0000101001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 is driving, battery percentage their 01000101 phone 01000110 0100011 01001101001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 0100000 and even the locations of nearby registered sex 00101101000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 0101001 offenders. 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 0100101 00011001010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01100100 can 01100101 01000010 0100011 get01000001 a notification when 0100100 their 01000101 0100011 10010101001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011Parents 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 0110010 01100001000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 child arrives home or when they are texting 01001001000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 0101100 while driving. By simply clicking on the app, 00101001011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 0101001 parents0100100 can see exactly01000110 where01000111 their child is lo01000101 01001000 010001001 01000101 00010101010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010many 0100011 0100100 0100010 cated. With such extensive information, 0010001001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01010110if01010111 01100010 01100011 0110010 01011101000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 wonder the app01011000 is too 01011010 excessive01100001 in its surveil01000101100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 0101011 lance. There are concerns that Life360 is, by 00100101011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 0101000 nature, unethical. 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 01000100 0010001010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 01100010 01100011 01100100one. 01100101 01000001to 01000010 The debate is a pressing According the 0100011 010010 100011010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01010101 01010110 01010111 01100001 01011001000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 Pew Research Center, in01011000 2015, 01011010 about 16 per- 01100010 0110001 1000001100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 0101011 cent of U.S. parents used monitoring tools like 0100001010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 0101000 track their teenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s location. The com- 01000111 0100100 01000001 to 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 0001001010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 Life360 01011010 01100001 01100100 01100101 reached 1801100010 million01100011 monthly active users 01000001 0100001 00001010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 pany 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 0110000 0101000100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 by01010011 the end01010100 of 2018. 00110001100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 0101010 Defenders of Life360 argue that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s used to 00011101010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 0100110 keep teens 01000001 safe. Opponents argue0100100 that the app 01000110 0100011 01100101 01000010 0100011 01000101 0000101001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01011000the 01011010 01100001 01100010 and 01100011 01100100 privacy of children strains the 01100101 0100000 01101001001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111violates 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01001101000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 relationship between parent and01010110 child. 01010111 Does 01011000 0101101 00101101100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 0101001 Life360 do more harm than good? Teens, par00011001010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 0100101 ents01100100 and experts weigh in. 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 0100011 01100101 01000001 10010101001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100001000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 0110010 | 01010100 November 2019 01010110 | 33 01010111 0101100 01010101 01001001000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 00101001011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 0101001 00010101010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 01000101 0010001001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 0100010 01001101000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 0110010

Life360:

Tracking Teens

001001 00110011 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 000110001 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 0011110001 00 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 000110001 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 0011110001 00 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 Kids’ View 000110001 ing app called Find My Friends, which allowed 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 them to see precisely where he was. 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 While kids leaving their phones at home pre0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 vents their parents from seeing where they are, it Laura 0011110001 00 Garamond* sat in a restaurant next door also puts them in more dangerous situations. If 001000010010 00010001eating 00011001 000110001 001001 00110011 to a museum, lunch with00010 her father. Her 0001 a kid leaves their phone at home and sneaks out, 00011000 1000011000 100001 000001 0001100 phone buzzed and00001 she 0001 looked and0000011100 saw a text they001001 don’t have access to a phone and no form of 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 from her mom. “How’s the museum?” it read. communication 000011000 0011000011 000110001 in a crisis. Garamond, confused, asked her mother what 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 “It's not great,” Williams said. “I might not 0000001000 01110001“You 000110001 000110001 00000111100 she meant. are 00011001001 at a museum, I checked have my phone when I might need it in an emer0001111111 00000110 your location,” her mom texted. gency.” 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 Her mom routinely checks in on her, and her 0011110001 00 dad makes sure00011001 her location is on whenever she 0001 001000010010 00010001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 Parents’ View 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 is staying at his house. The app has been installed 00100011 0000111000phone 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 on0001 Garamond’s since her freshman year.0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 000110001 Although lunch with her dad was an innocent 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 In 2017, Rebecca Smith* started to get conact, Garamond had been caught doing 00000111100 other 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 cerned. Her two teenage sons had stopped re0001111111 00000110 things with Life360. sponding to texts, answering phone calls or 0001000100010001001001001 000110011 0000110100 Garamond snuck110011001 out of her house000011001 one night 0011110001 00 consistently being home past curfew. She needed with a friend. They went to the house of a boy 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 to take action. Her neighbor, Allison Johnson*, in their grade100001 and Garamond turned off her lo00011000 1000011000 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 informed 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 000100100 001001 her about an app. cation settings. She went to00010100011 use Snapchat and a0100010 When Smith needs to see where her kids are 000011000 0011000011appeared 000110001on her phone: “Snapchat notification 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 would like to use your location,” the pop-up now — primarily when they do not answer her 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 read. Without thinking, Garamond clicked texts — she simply opens Life360 and checks to 0001111111 00000110 see their current location. 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000011001 0000110100 “Allow” and thus turned on000110011 the location of her “Especially when they started driving, and 0011110001 00 phone. 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 before when friends started driving, it became “My mom knew that we snuck out,” Gara00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 more of a safety issue for me,” Smith said. mond said. “She 0000110001 knew that00010100011 somebody000100100 drove us0100010 00100011 0001 0000111000 001001 Johnson utilizes the app in this way as well. If 000011000 and 0011000011 picked us000110001 up, [she knew] how fast they were she cannot remember where her daughter said 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 going and she knew there was speeding too.” 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 Garamond is not the only teen to turn off their she would be, she opens the app. “If I don't 0001111111 00000110 know where she is, instead of calling her, I'll just location when they110011001 go out.000110011 When going some0001000100010001001001001 000011001 0000110100 look to see where she is so I don't have to bother 0011110001 00 they aren’t supposed to, teens may turn where 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 off their phone, switch off cellular data or even her,” Johnson said. 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 Johnson and her husband check Life360 mulleave their phone at home. This prevents their 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 parents from seeing where they are if they check tiple times a week. Initially, they downloaded the 000011000 0011000011 000110001 app when their daughter was in middle school, 0001000100010 100010010app. 1000001001 the monitoring 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001chooses 000110001 Henry Williams* sometimes to00000111100 leave to make sure she was safe and where she was sup0001111111 00000110 his phone somewhere or turn off his cellular data posed to be. In high school, however, Johnson 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 if he00is skipping class or going somewhere he is and Smith used Life360 to keep track of their 0011110001 teens and make sure they were honest about 001000010010 00010001to 00011001 000110001 00010became 001001 00110011 not supposed be. This especially an 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 issue after his parents accused him of skipping where they were. 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010“As 001001 she got older, there were some trust issues,” class when they saw he was at the Climate Strike. 000011000 0011000011 000110001 Johnson said. “At that point, I wanted to make They knew this because they checked the track0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 sure that she was going where she told me she 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 0011110001 00 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 000110001 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100 0011110001 00 001000010010 00010001 00011001 000110001 00010 001001 00110011 0001 00011000 1000011000 100001 00001 0001 000001 0000011100 0001100 00100011 0001 0000111000 0000110001 00010100011 000100100 0100010 001001 000011000 0011000011 000110001 0001000100010 100010010 1000001001 0000001000 01110001 000110001 00011001001 000110001 00000111100 0001111111 00000110 0001000100010001001001001 110011001 000110011 000011001 0000110100

was going because there were some discrepancies. At times she wouldn't answer the phone, or she wasn't exactly being forthcoming about where she was.” Though Smith has never had the explicit issues Johnson had, she used to use the app for similar reasons. “I think when we first started using it, it was more about, ‘We need to be sure you are what you say are,’” Smith said. “Since the car, it's been more around curfew. You know, ‘What's the plan?’, ‘What's your plan after school?’, ‘Where are you now?.’” The two mothers routinely check on their high schoolers, despite the fact that Johnson’s daughter is now 18 years old. However, Johnson and her husband are working towards limiting their use of the app. Smith’s children have asked to have it removed when they reach adulthood, and if things go well she plans to do so. “I feel like they have that right, as an adult when they're not living in my home, to not have [Life360] used,” Smith said. “So, if they want it removed when they go to college, I feel like they have the right to shut it off at 18.” Experts’ View Many expert psychologists and family therapists have weighed in on the impact of apps like Life360 and Find My Friends. Pam Cowburn is a member of the Open Rights Group, a UKbased organization focused on securing rights and freedoms in the digital age. “These trackers could limit children’s privacy and personal freedom, while encouraging them to accept surveillance,” Cowburn says. “This will undoubtedly have an impact on children’s behavior or development if they feel that they are constantly monitored by their parents.” Life360’s website advertises the app as a way to create a safe and connected experience for both parent and child. However, some psychologists are worried that location tracking might harm the relationship between parent and child. John

Caffaro is an expert on family and sibling abuse. “In the hands of an abusive parent, a tracking app like Life360 may have serious implications for a child’s interpersonal adjustment,” Caffaro told the Washington Post. In the same article from the Washington Post, University of Florida law professor Stacey Steinberg voiced her opinion. “We don’t want our kids to screw up,” Steinberg said. “We don’t want them to get hurt. Technology offers us new ways to feel like we are protecting them — both from others and from themselves. But kids need autonomy from their parents, especially when they reach adulthood… If we want our kids to trust us, if we want our kids to believe they are capable of making wise decisions, then our actions need to show it. Valuing their privacy is one way to do so. Lisa Damour, a psychologist and journalist for the New York Times, has a more detailed view on the subject. “The ability to locate our children using GPS technology touches on some of the most loaded topics in all of parenting: questions of trust and safety, a young person’s right to privacy and autonomy and the gut-wrenching truth that to be a parent is ‘to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body,’” Damour said. She explains that the motivations of parents are completely understandable. Location tracking can be used to keep teenagers safe and re-establish trust. She tells the story of a teen she knew whose alcoholism got so severe that he was hospitalized. With his full consent, the boy’s parents installed Life360 on his phone and tracked him until, after several weekends, they knew they could trust him again. Stories and situations like these, Damour says, show how apps like Life360 can be used for good. However, she adds, “As a psychologist, I also worry that location tracking can confuse the question of who is mainly responsible for the safety of the roaming adolescent — the parent or the teenager?” Damour stresses the importance of using apps like Life360 to create freedom and self-sufficien-

cy in teens, not to take it away. “We want to keep our children safe, maintain a loving connection and, simultaneously, foster their independence,” Damour said. In Conclusion There is no correct answer as to whether or not tracking teenagers is the right thing to do. Many teens say they see why their parents track them, some say they would do the same if they had children. “I understand why they're using it and tracking me,” Williams said. “I understand their point of view.” Parents agree that they would have hated being tracked when they were teens. “I think there is a very complicated piece to having tracking devices — I didn't grow up with them,” Smith said. “There was a freedom that I was allowed, that I think kids don't necessarily have now. So, I'm not sure how that's gonna play out.” The most important thing is communication. There needs to be a discussion between the parent and child to discover what works best for that family. All family dynamics are different, and no one solution works for everyone. Another key factor in parents tracking their children’s phones is making sure they don’t abuse it. Parents have agreed it’s almost addicting to watch their child’s icon move around the map. With moderation, checking in on your kids can be helpful, but it can easily become too obsessive. When a healthy balance between safety and trust is created, apps like Life360 can be helpful. It is possible for a system to be made where the child feels that their privacy is respected, and parents can ensure their kid is safe. It is up to you how you choose to use it. C *Names have been changed to protect anonymity

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WHEN GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY MEET THE REVOLUTION DIGITIZED BY ROXIE RICHNER

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Traditional political strategy suggests rigid guidelines that campaigns need to follow to win: buy expensive TV advertisements, heavily rely on large donations from extremely wealthy supporters, solicit money from corporations and corporate political action committees — a plethora of investments that require a hefty budget and elite connections. But as progressive movements and campaigns have gained traction, campaign leaders have found a new fountain of wealth to tap into: people power. Harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of people seeking change requires great team building skills and techniques, but it also requires technology that supports and empowers everyday people. Through technology, grassroots campaigns have been able to engage populations who have historically been barred from entering the political arena and mobilize communities of activists across state lines. As technology reinvents the way we operate in every aspect of our lives, it also redefines what it means to be politically involved and reshapes what the typical political campaign looks like. A large part of campaigning is talking to voters, also known as canvassing or direct voter contact. Canvassing is an essential process used to persuade undecided voters and identify supporters. Traditionally, canvassing has been done through door-to-door interactions — volunteers are equipped with a list of addresses and knock doors to talk to voters about their candidate or issue. However, there are significant limitations with this method of canvassing. Most notably, very few people answer the door and even fewer have time or willingness to talk. Leo Sussan, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Director of Technology, has set out to change that through his app Reach. Sussan’s political career started with an email. He had always followed politics closely but, prior to 2016, 001001010001 n e v e r 1011010010101101010010110101 00110010010 thought 0101001001010101010010110101 010101101010 0100010001011010010111011010 there was 101 1010 0010 1001 1010 01011010100100101000 a place 00100010110100 001011010100110010010010 010100100101 for him 1011101101001010110101001011 101010011001 in the 000101010010010101010100101 011 0101 1010

arena. It wasn’t accessible, it wasn’t realistic. So, he built his career doing digital work in the private sector, working on projects for companies like GoPro and American Express. After 2016, Sussan realized it was no longer an option for him to remain on the sidelines. When Sussan heard Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, progressive Michigan gubernatorial candidate, speaking on a podcast, he was immediately inspired to take action. One email to El-Sayed’s campaign manager later, he was on board. Sussan worked remotely from New York on a small volunteer team that created graphics for the Michigan campaign. Sussan loved the work, as it gave him the purpose he craved, however it was hard to do it all remotely. A few months passed, and the El-Sayed campaign received an endorsement from the pro-

this man go from completely angry to a fervent, ardent supporter of hers. I was shocked. I had never seen anything like it.” From that moment, Sussan knew Ocasio-Cortez was special. He joined the volunteer-run campaign and lead the content, development and technology teams. There, he met Jake DeGroot, the Digital Organizing Director of the campaign. DeGroot was running a special project, working to reimagine the typical canvassing process. DeGroot had enjoyed the process of collecting signatures — standing on the street corner with a clipboard, talking to anyone who was willing to stop — as opposed to door-todoor canvassing. The process of talking to voters and getting signatures was liberating and allowed him to talk to people in a more efficient way; as he talked to people on the street, he was able to form more natural connections and relate on a deeper level. Channeling those experiences into action, DeGroot had developed a prototype of a voter identification (voter ID) system that allowed users to canvass in a new and improved way. Essentially, using this new system, users could canvass anyone they would like, anywhere they would like, and quickly match the person to their voter information from a larger database. Volunteers gressive organization, Justice Democrats. Fol- on the Ocasio-Cortez campaign tested it out lowing that endorsement, Sussan discovered and it proved to be extremely successful. that there was a Justice Democrat candidate After Ocasio-Cortez won the primary elecrunning for congress in his district, N-14 — tion, DeGroot and Sussan joined forces to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. spin the prototype into a full-blown app that When Sussan first volunteered for Oca- could be utilized by other campaigns: Reach sio-Cortez, the campaign was in the stage of It’s a common sentiment in the progressive gathering signatures. In New York, congressio- world that real change happens only by meetnal candidates must collect 1,250 signatures ing people where they’re at. With Reach, camin order to be on the ballot. The first time Sus- paign volunteers can do just that — they can san braved the cold to collect signatures for canvass anyone, anywhere, from Uber drivOcasio-Cortez, he happened to meet her. ers to strangers at the grocery store. The app “I was having a conversation with a very irate streamlines the process of identifying likely older fellow who had been politically involved voters and simultaneously makes it more enin Queens for a long time,” Sussan said. “Alex- joyable for everyone. The first time the Reach andria turns the corner, looks team deployed the app this man right in the face and in its current iteration 101101001010110101001011010100100101 proceeds to diagnose the exto a campaign, volun00010101001001010101010010110101001 act problem with the political teers were ecstatic. 10010010010001000101101001011101101 00101011010100101101010010010100010 process in Queens and how “One of the 0 10 0 10100100101010101001011010100110010 10 10 she was going to address and first 0 0 10 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 01001000100010110100101110110100101 0 1 1 fix it. In two and a half min0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 10 1 01101010010110101001001010001010100 10 10 0 10 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 10 10 10 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 utes I saw 0 10010101010100101101010011001001001 1 00 0 10 001 011

CAMPAIGN LEADERS HAVE FOUND A NEW FOUNTAIN OF WEALTH TO TAP INTO: PEOPLE POWER.

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010101 010101 010100 010100 010011 010010 01000 folks I gave it to ran across the street to a municating through text-like messages and organizers. Movement School works towards 01000 01000 playground and canvassed 100 people, mostly group chats. On these platforms, campaign translating activism into political power by 01000 moms who were playing with their kids,” Sus- staff can delegate tasks to teams of volunteers. giving community organizers and passion01000 san said. “He was a community leader, some- Technology tools have also allowed people ate citizens the tools they need. During the 011001 one who people knew. He got 100 IDs that we from all over the country to be involved in program, fellows from all around the country 011000 010110 wouldn’t have had otherwise in just an hour.” races that are not in their district. Michi- and from all walks of life, learn what it takes 010101 Perhaps the most revolutionary thing about gan native Bridget Huff has been out of the to work on a campaign: how to mobilize vol010101 Reach is the stipulations unteers, create effective 010100 enforced on the cammessaging, integrate 010100 010011 paigns that use the tool. technology tools and 010010 The mission of Reach is utilize digital strategy. 01000 to power a world where After completing the 01000 progressive grassroots program, fellows are 01000 01000 activism beats corpoconnected to job oppor01000 rate cash campaigns; in tunities on progressive 010101 order for a campaign to campaigns. 010101 use Reach, they must As progressive plat010100 010100 not accept money from forms grow in populari010011 corporate PACs, corpoty, why rely on tradition 010010 rate lobbyists, the real political tools? Techno01000 estate industry or Wall logical innovations like 01000 01000 Street firms. The Reach Movement School and 01000 team has seen these stipReach are giving power 01000 ulations make change in back to everyday peo011001 real time — they have ple in an unprecedent011000 010110 experienced campaigns ed way, consequently 010101 choosing to give up correshaping the political 010101 porate money in order arena as we know it and 010100 to have access to Reach. traditional job market for years due to kids, allowing for more diverse leadership. 010100 010011 “The ultimate reason campaigns take cor- elder care, a spouse who traveled and personal “We want a world of politics where people 010010 porate money is because money buys more medical issues, but the digital shift in orga- who don’t have money or connections can 01000 folks to work on their campaign, better tools, nizing has enabled her to take major roles in run for office and work as campaign staff,” 01000 expensive ads, a higher chance of winning,” campaigns across the country doing outreach Movement school co-founder Gabe Tobias 01000 01000 Sussan said. “If there are tools that corporate and planning. said. “We want that to be the norm.” C 01000 money can’t buy, strategies that corporate “I have had days that I’ve done texting and 011001 money shields you from investing in, the cal- calling for four or five different candidates 011000 culus begins to change pretty significantly.” and proposals from my couch while my kids 010110 010100 Reach has already made an incredible impact are next to me sick,” Huff said. “[I] never set 010011 and has been used on extremely prominent foot in an office yet I know all the volunteers, 010010 campaigns, including both Elizabeth Warren’s candidates and leaders. It’s a whole new world 01000 and Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaigns. for politics and it gives the power to people 01000 01000 Not only has technology reinvented the who are typically excluded. The networks are 01000 tools that can be used by volunteers, it has infinite. That makes our power infinite.” 01000 0 10 0 1 0 0 also revolutionized who’s able to volunteer in Huff is an alum of Movement School, a 011001 1 0 0 1 0 1 10 0 10 0 1 0 1 1 0 the first place. ten-week intensive remote, online training 011000 0 1 0 1 0 1 10 10 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 10 010110 0110 1010100 1110110 0010010 1 In the past few election cycles there program working to train the next 1 0 1 010101 0100 1001010 1010010 0010101 001000 1 1 0 has been a rise in distributed organizing generation of 1 1 0 10 1 1010 0 10 0 0 0 10 10 10 010101 0101 1000100 0100100 001001 100101 0110 — a strategy that creates opportunities campaign 101101001010 1 0 1 1 1 110101001011 0100 010110 010100 0101101 010100 1110 010100 01 01 01 01 0010010100 0 1 1 1 0010010101 0 for supporters to have a larger role in staffers 01 010100101101 0101 100101 110100 001010 101001 001 010100 0100010001 1 1 0 0 0100110010 10 0110 campaigning. Campaigns organize and 01 0101 001011 1010100 100010 0100101 100010011 010110101001 1001011101101001010110 0 1 0 0 010010 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 10 00 1 0 10 0 teams of supporters turned 0101 100100 010110 1010100 10101101000 001011010100 10100010101001001010 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 10 0 11 101 0 1 1 0 0 1 10 10 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 1 10 10 101110110100 00100100100010001011 volunteers on digi0 1 01000 0 1 1 1 1 0100 101011010100 0 10 10 0 10 1 0 0 10 101101010010 0001010100 10 0 1 tal workspace 1011010010101101010010110101 01000 1 10 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 1 10 10 100101010101 01 10 10 1 1 0 10 0 0 001011010100 01 0 10 1 10 10 0 10 00 0 0 10 1 01 1 00 00100101000101010010010101 0 01000 0 0100010110 1 11 0 1 0 platforms, com00 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 10 0 010111011010 010100101101 10 0 1 010100101101010011001001001 0 10 1 10 0 10 0 10 0 10 0 0 10 1 0 1 01000 0101011 0 01 1 00 10 0 1 01 1 0 010001 101010010110 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 000100010110100101110110100 011001 101001100100 0101001001010 1 0 010010111011 101 1001000100 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 10 10 10 0 0 1010110101001011010100100101 011000 011011 010010101101 0 01101001010110101001011 1 1 1001010110101001011010100100101000101010010010 0 01 0 1010 11011010 1010100 1011 00 10 0 1101010010 01001010001010100100 000101010010010101010100101 010110 1 0 001 0100 1001 010011001001001000100010110100101110110100 1010 0 1 10010 0010 0010100 1001001 0101 0 10 1101 1 010 010101 0110 1 101 0010 1 0101 101101010010010100010101001001010101010010 10010100 1010101010010110101010101001100100100100010001 0 0 10 1 10 0100 11010100 110100101010 01001 0 0 11 11 011010100 10 010101 10 0 1 0 0 0 0110100101110110100101011010 0100 01 0 10 10 1011 0 1011 0 1 0 0 10 1000 0010 0 1 0 000 1 1101 1 10 11 01001001 100 001011 01000101101 101001 010011001001001000100010110100101110 01001010 0101001100100100 10010100 0 11 0 0100 0 1 10 1 10 1 10 0100 0 1 1101 1010 10 0 0 1010 0101 0 101110110100 01011 10010 10 1 10 1011 0100100 1010011 0100101101010010010100010101001001010101010 1011010 1010101010 10110101001011010 1 1 11010100101 10001000 010010 011010100100101000101010 0 10 10 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 10 10 0 10 1 10 1010 010010 00100100 1000101101001011101101001010 10 000 11 11 0 1001 0 0 10 0100 0 10 11 10 0110 1 10 0 1010 0 10 1 01000 0 0 0110 1001 0 0 00 0 10 0 0100101010101001 1001011 0 10 0 0 10 1 001010101010010110101001 10 1010 1011010 1101010010 01000101101 10101 0110 10 10 1 0 1 10 1 101010010010100010101001 0 0 10 0 01000 0 00 0 10010 10 11 10 10010 01010 0010001 010110 1011010010101101010010110101 0001010 10110101001011 100100101001100100100 10100010101 100110 011 011 0011 010 010010001000101101001011 0 10 01000 01010010 0 10 10 10 0 01011 1010 01010010 0101001011010100110010010010 10010010 01001010101010 0101 010101 11010100 01000010 1010 11 1 10 10110 10 0 0 0 1 1 10 1 1 100101000101010010010101 10 0 0 10 001000011001 01 01011010 0100010 1011 100110 01101 00101101 10010101011100110 1011010010101101010010110101 10010010 011010100100101000101010 0 1001 0 10 0 0 0 1010 0 0 0101 10101 11 0 10 0 10 0 0 1001 1 0 11 0 1010 10 0 1 10 11 0 0101 10 10 0 0 010 0100 10 110 01 10010 101011001011 11 010 011000 00100101000101010010010101 001001000100010110100101 1010010 10100101101010 01011101101 001001 01110110 0110000110 101000100 1110100101101010010 0100010110 0010 0010101010100101101010011001 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 10 010110 10 10 11 1 1 0 1010 10 0 0 0 0 10 0100 10 0 0 1010 10 1 10 10 1 1 0 10 0010 0 0 1 010111 100010 0100 010100101101010011001001001 0101101010010110101001001010 0 10 10 0001 1010010 10 010 0100100 1010 1 10 10 1010 00 110101001100 110 01101001 10 1011100 10 100010 0100010 010101 000100010110100101110110100 01000101101001011101101001 11010010 10100110010 1101001 0100100 0100010011010 01101010 1011001001 0101101010010010 00101101 1010 1 0 10 1010010110101001100100100100 0 11 10 0 0 1 1 01 10 0 010101 1 10 10 0 0 0 1001 0 0 0 1010 11 11 11 10 0 1 0 1 1010 1 10 10 01010010 0100101 1010 010010 1000 011010 100 1010110101001011010100100101 001010100100 1001010 0110 0 0101000 0111100101001100100 1010010 0101101010010110101001001010 10 10 10010 1001010 100101101 101 110110 1010 010100010 010100 000101010010010101010100101 000100 10100101101010 0101101001011101101001010110 10 10 1 10 0010 100110 010 0 0 10 010010 01010010 1010 11010100 11 01011010 101010011001001001000100 1 0110010 100 10 10 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 00 0 11010 0 0 10 1 1 0010 010 0 10101001100100100100010001 1001011 10 0 0 10010010 0100 1011011101010010110 0 0 01010010 11101101001010 1001 11 0 010011 1 10 10 1 1 1 010101011010 0101000 0110100101110110100101011010 11010 10 0110 1010100 1010 010010 10 0 10 0 1 0 0 100101 38 | The Communicator Magazine | Feature 10 1 10 01000 01000 01000 01000 01000

“IT’S A WHOLE NEW WORLD FOR POLITICS AND IT GIVES THE POWER TO PEOPLE WHO ARE TYPICALLY EXCLUDED. THE NETWORKS ARE INFINITE. THAT MAKES OUR POWER INFINITE.”

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01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 0 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100001 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 In the age of social media, text messages and email, we seem According to the official NSA website, the government is able to 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 to have a wide social 01000010 matrix at0100011 our fingertips. Everyday, we circuuse data 010001001 such as website visits, phone calls, 01001111 FaceTime/Skype calls, 01010010 01010011 0101010 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001010 01001011 01001100 01010000 01010001 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 late countless pieces of personal data. 01000010 On a social media network, emails, text messages and010001001 credit card information in addition to 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100011 0100100 01000101 and 01000110 01000111 010001001 010001010 01001011 we can access a picture of someone’s everyday life —01000010 their name, health records DNA. The 01001000 NSA claims this data is used for 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 grade, age, school and their photos — with just a few taps of a four very broad categories: data warehouse, surveillance and mon01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 thumb. This 01010101 data, including our search history, contact informaitoring, 01100100 suspicious activity reporting (SAR)0100011 and terrorist 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100100 screening. 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 01 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 tion,01010010 emails and countless other things, can be01010111 stored and collected. Plastered01100010 over the website is their unofficial slogan: “If you have0100100 01000101 01000110 010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010001 01010010 01010011 and 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 to 01011010 01100001 This01010000 data is used to track movement target marketing, and is nothing hide, you have01100010 nothing01100011 to fear.”01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 0 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100001 often stored permanently with the threat of a data breach. Without For undocumented immigrants and other minorities, this phrase 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 our knowledge, this data could01001011 be on tap for misuse governis ominous: Government of their data could01011010 mean 01100001 01100010 01100011 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001100 01001111by 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 surveillance 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010011 01010100 01010101 ments and companies. discrimination and01010010 even deportation. According to 01010110 the New01010111 York 01011000 01011010 01100001 01000001 01000010 0100011 01000101is. 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01010000 01010001 01010100 (ICE) 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 In 0100100 fact, it already Times, the 01001111 U.S. Immigration and 01010010 Customs01010011 Enforcement 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 In the past decade, there have been numerous violations of data is allowed access to information on undocumented immigrants 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 0101010 privacy, perhaps the most famous being the uncovering of the01000101 Na- 01000110 under the pretense of monitoring criminal activity and terrorism. 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100101 01000001 0100100 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 01 tional01010100 Security Agency’s (NSA) use of mass surveillance programs Through01100100 this information, ICE 01000010 can track0100011 and potentially deport 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010Snowden. 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110was 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000010 0100011 by Edward However, the scandal far from an isolatnot only01100010 their original target, but also 01000001 their family, friends and0100100 01000101 01000110 010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 01000010 0100011 0100100 0 ed event. In 2014, Cambridge Analytica, a voter-profiling com- neighbors. Every day, millions of U.S. residents are put at risk sim010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000001 0100001 pany, used the data of over 50 million users —01010010 the vast01010011 ply 01010100 by opening their01010110 iPhones. 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001011 01001100 01001111 Facebook 01010000 01010001 01010101 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 01100100 01100101 01000101 01000110 01000111 01001000 010001001 01001011 01001100 01001111 01010000 01010001There 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010111 01011000permis01011010 01100001 01100010 01100011 majority of which had010001010 not agreed to allow their data to be used must be limits on the use of01010110 personal data without 0100011 0100100 01000101 01000111 01001000 010001001 010001010 01001100ad01001111 01010000 01010001 01010010 01010011 01010100 01010101 01010110 01010111 01011000 01011010 01100001 by 01000110 a third-party organization — to target them01001011 with political sion. 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Personal Data, Privacy and Privilege Staff Editorial

Photography by Ebba Gurney

Talking? More Like Typing. Have the social capabilities of an entire generation been destroyed because of social media? BY CATE WEISER

I hear constantly that Gen Z — also known as iGen — has no manners, no work ethic and no ability to hold conversations and create relationships. These statements come from relatives, teachers and even strangers. Every time I hear these blanket statements, I am immediately filled with anger. Anger at the labels forced on my generation, anger at the hypocrisy, anger at the bravado of these strangers — but also anger that they might be right. Instagram was released in Oct. 2010, and Snapchat was released in July 2011 — this was around the time that kids born in the early 2000s were starting to get smartphones. While these social media platforms have age restrictions (users are supposed to be 13 or older to use both Snapchat and Instagram), they are easily bypassed simply by typing in a different age. It should come as no surprise to hear that when eight to 13 year-olds received smartphones, many of them downloaded these platforms immediately. The concept of “dating” has been destroyed for my generation, and social media is the culprit. It is undeniable that this generational change aligns perfectly with the time when children of our generation were first using social media. It used to be that the purpose of dating was to get to know somebody. You met someone, you could be interested in them and go out 40

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with them to see if you could have real feelings for them. My mom once told me that when she was 15, it was a huge deal — and a rarity — if a boy called your house phone. The only way to get to know people you liked was to spend time together in person. Now, the most common way I get to know people is through Snapchat. It is casual, quick and easy: I get somebody’s Snapchat and start talking to them. “Talking” has a completely different connotation, because I’m not truly talking to the person. For a while I’m sending photos back and forth, and maybe there is some occasional small talk. To use it in a sentence: “Adam is talking to Elizabeth.” To some, “talking” can be the beginning of a relationship. I have a friend who "talked" to her current boyfriend for three weeks before they decided to hang out. I have another friend who has been "talking" to the same person for four months and they’ve never met. That’s a commonplace occurrence, which is even more saddening. I didn’t get Snapchat until this past summer, despite people’s encouragement to get the app. They always told me that Snapchat was the easiest way to meet new people. I never believed them, because it didn’t make sense to me that an app was the most casual and acceptable way to talk to new people. But within the first few

days of being on the app, I realized how right my friends were. I’d already started talking to so many new people. It took me a little over two months to realize how distressing that is. I was recently up until midnight having a deep “conversation” on Snapchat with the person I’m talking to. When I finally went to bed, it struck me that it felt so natural. We’d had a meaningful discussion without even speaking. Then, the next time I saw them in person, neither of us mentioned the conversation. This has become a new normal; almost every day I hear a new story about how a friend had a profound or emotional conversation with someone through typing, but then it’s never spoken of again. Almost like it didn’t even happen. These “conversations” have become such big parts of our lives, but can we really make connections through them? When I had that “conversation” over Snapchat, I lost part of the human connection that comes with in-person conversation. There was no eye contact, no body language and no vulnerability. Every time I typed something out I could read it over and change things. In person, the ability to edit words isn’t there. In person, conversation is raw. In person, the conversation is real. C

BY MAZEY PERRY

I have sat at my desk for hours. I have written and rewritten my common app over six times, and I am still working to make it perfect. The hardest part about the application process is that I don’t think I will ever know when my essays are perfect. But, until I walk into a room of people older than me, who have long gone through the process of choosing their future already, the imperfections of my essays don’t bother me. As a senior, I am under a considerable amount of pressure, pretty much all of the time. I have packed my schedule so full of extracurriculars I hardly have time to catch my breath. I have taken the most rigorous classes my school offers in hopes that colleges will see my transcript and ignore the fact that I struggle to take standardized tests. It all seems like a huge competition at this point. Nobody really wants to admit it, but if college is the end goal, we are all racing towards the finish line that is a college acceptance letter. A leg up with starting a club or stretching just the slightest bit further to set yourself apart from the kid whose application they read first is all that matters. Making conversation with people older than me has never been something I have struggled with. There has always been plenty to talk about. Whether that be my extracurriculars, my friends, my family, my job, there has always been something to start up a conversation. So why, when I become a senior in high school, does that suddenly change? Where I am applying to college is not the first thing I want to talk about it. If I am out of the house right now it means I have taken a break from the endless questions of the common app, so you bringing up what I just finished crying in the bathroom about is painfully sensitive. Yes, it is so kind that adults care about our futures and I am so glad that they do, but timing is everything. “I’m sure you get asked this all the time! But where are you thinking about applying next year?” Or “how is the college app process going?” Both are straight shots to the stomach that I avoid at all costs. If it is unavoidable, I smile and say whatever school pops into my head in the moment. The truth is, the majority of seniors do not know what they want to do with their lives. Also, not going to college is becoming a more popular choice, and adults don’t seem to understand that not all of us have it completely together yet. A friend of mine chose to travel abroad for a year after high school, and the amount of explaining that she had to do every time she encountered a new adult was overwhelming for me to listen to. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for her. “What are your plans for the future?” is also a question that sends me spiraling down a path that seems to never end. The future is a huge amount of time, and the feeling that I am supposed to have my whole life figured out right now is so unrealistic. I know that adults are just trying to make small talk, but my request is that you start with “how are you?” Please don’t assume that I know where I am going to college, or that I am going to college at all. Don’t assume I know what I want to study, and please do not assume that I have my whole life planned out. Just because I am a senior doesn’t mean I am not an interesting person anymore! I would love to talk to you about my plans for next year if you are genuinely interested, but please start that conversation with “how are you?” before jumping straight into the college talk. C |

November 2019

auging the Gaps Gaps existing between African Americans and the rest of the population are staggering: But does Washtenaw County parallel those margins? BY TAI TWOREK

Washtenaw County is full of gaps. They exist between vulnerable groups of the population and the majority –– exhibited in housing and health. But most importantly, these gaps are between black and white. Income is one of the largest factors perpetuating the gap between African Americans and whites in the county. But to understand why income inequality is so prevalent in our own county, it is important to recognize that it starts with the manufacturing industry. Prior to 1993, the General Motors automotive plant was located near Ypsilanti, yet the employees were commuting from Detroit everyday. The lengthy commute gave way for accidents and traffic, causing employees to sometimes be late. The solution to this situation was to create accessible housing near the Ypsilanti plant, thus

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establishing housing neighborhoods like West Willow. The east side of the county was starting to thrive: although its residents may have been of lower education status than the rest of the county, the manufacturing industry elevated their incomes. With a plethora of jobs available in the area, Ypsilanti’s tax income was high. But after a lawsuit brought about by Ypsilanti Township and Washtenaw County, the Willow Run General Motors plant closed down. This left a majority of West Willow residents unemployed. Compared to Ann Arbor and other parts of the county, Ypsilanti’s current tax income is much lower. As a whole, Washtenaw County’s housing market is one of the most expensive markets in the entire state; with real estate pric-

es soaring into multi-million dollars, housing complexes and neighborhoods like West Willow on the eastern side are less desirable to buyers than the ones on the western side. Ann Arbor is an attractive city in the county: institutions like the University of Michigan and excellent public schools cause affluent buyers to flock to the city, elevating Ann Arbor’s tax income above the other municipalities in the county. Because of the higher level of affluence in Ann Arbor, the tax income is higher. As Ann Arbor continues to grow, the income gap between Ypsilanti widens, and poverty manifests itself in the eastern side of the county. Comprised of Ypsilanti Township and Superior Township, the eastern side of the county is home to the majority of African American and Latinx

residents; according to the US Census Bureau, 27.2 percent of African American residents in Washtenaw County lived below the poverty line in 2017. In comparison, 11.6 percent of whites lived below the poverty line. Poverty is one of the factors of the social determinants of health that largely impacts the majority of African American residents in Washtenaw County. Social determinants largely dictate one’s health and well-being, and they are usually economic and social conditions. Education, residence and race are among these determinants in addition to poverty. Low income exacerbates the gap in health between black and white residents in the county. These health disparities occur in two forms: upstream and downstream factors. “Downstream factors are immediate factors that are proximal towards individual behaviors and health care behaviors,” said Juan Marquez, the medical director of the Washtenaw County Health Department. “It’s things somebody can do. Somebody can potentially eat different.” Diabetes is one of the largest health disparities among African Americans in the county, and its high rates can be linked to downstream factors. Managing chronic illnesses can be tricky for vulnerable populations, like those of low income. “Some of the downstream factors related to diabetes are things like transportation to the physician,” Marquez said. “If it’s hard to get to your primary care doctor, it’s really hard to get your medications filled. It’s hard to get tested. It’s hard to figure out how to best manage diabetes.” Mismanagement of chronic illnesses is often rooted in the process of prevention. For diabetics, visits to the specialist and access to testing strips are vital to managing the disease. Although diet is important to preventing diabetes, mismanagement can often stem in exercise inaccessibility. In years past, the MacArthur Boulevard Neighborhood in Superior Township did not provide adequate places for children to play; there were no sidewalks and few play structures. However, more play structures have been built in recent years. Although the MacArthur Boulevard Neighborhood is starting to make strides in play places for younger kids, there is no practical place for teenagers to spend their time or exercise. Infant mortality is another health disparity that impacts the county. Currently, infant mortality among African American mothers in the county is four times higher than the rate for white mothers. Kelly Stupple, the child health advocate for Washtenaw County, has noticed that college-educated women of color are losing babies at a higher rate than college-educated white women. In the United States at large, the

infant mortality rate was 11.4 per every 1,000 live births among African Americans, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In contrast, the infant mortality rate for whites clocked in around 5 per every 1,000 live births. Downstream factors impacting infant mortality can stem from issues pre-birth. When babies die prematurely, the health of the mother at the time of conception is usually poor. Often times, the child lost to health deficiencies is usually not the mother’s first, and the amount of time in between pregnancies is usually brief. The mother’s mismanagement of chronic illnesses and a poor diet can have adverse effects on the child’s health. Prenatal care helps mothers preemptively address posed health risks of child birth. This care, usually provided by doctors, nurses or midwives, is important for mothers when managing chronic illnesses, especially when symptoms can be accentuated by pregnancy. However, prenatal care can sometimes be neglected by women with chaotic lives. Caused by toxic stress, this chaos can have detrimental effects on the mother or child’s health.

“Racism is entrenched, and it causes all of these disparities. “ When stress exists for months or years on end, it is usually labeled as toxic stress. Stressors like gun and drug violence, physical or mental birth defects, food insecurity or racism can cause this long-standing stress. When toxic stress is an adamant part of one’s life, the chaotic aspect that stressors bring can divert attention away from important health management steps. In terms of infant mortality, toxic stressors can divert attention away from prenatal care. Although these downstream factors contribute to this disparity, the gap between white and black mothers can most often be linked to upstream factors. These factors are rooted within neighborhoods and the community, funneling into a larger, overarching factor of historical inequities, policies and systems. “Historically, people of color and poor people have been used in medical studies and experiments,” Stupple said. “But beyond that, I think the distrust stems from a lack of cultural competency in providers. So people, not being people who are providing the service, not just with

doctors but with nurses, technicians, and front desk people not being sensitive or kind. When people are accessing services, and people feeling as if they are being talked down to or disrespected when they're getting services, and that results in a lack of trust.” The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male,” was an experiment conducted by the United States government lasting from 1932–1972. In this experiment, the government told the 600 African American patients that they had “bad blood” and were going to receive free medical care. However, treatment was actively denied to the patients, causing many patients to pass it on to their partners and children, or more commonly, death from untreated syphilis. The legacy of experiments like this are published as falsehoods presented in our textbooks and education. “There's also systematic review racism in the healthcare system,” said Heather Vaquera, a prevention specialist in the sexual health program of the Washtenaw County Health Department. “A lot of times people have had negative experiences, or they know people have had negative experiences, so they certainly don't want to utilize the healthcare system. They certainly don't want to use a government entity that offers health care services.” Overall, health disparities in the county linger in income inequality. The gaps in culturally competent health care among African Americans are established in the gaps between income. I have seen these gaps first hand. Diabetes runs in my mom’s side of the family. My black side. Diabetes diagnoses have emulated among my black family members. My mother’s prediabetes diagnosis is similar to my grandma’s, and if not taken care of correctly, it can spiral into diabetes –– following my uncle and grandmother’s parents. My family follows suit with thousands of other African Americans that are burdened by health disparities. “Racism is entrenched, and it causes all of these disparities,” Stupple said. “Plus the fact that people aren't treated equally, the stress of living in a racist world can actually impact your health.” The county’s gaps are rooted in history –– the history of the manufacturing industry. These gaps exist in our entire country, and demonstrated as published falsehoods in our medical textbooks and demonstrated as distrust among marginalized groups. Although the area is resource rich, gaps between black and white continue to exist. Not only do these gaps exist within my family and the country, but they exist in our county. C

Opinion |

November 2019

Graphics by Noah Bernstein

Why are we hooked?

On Consumer Psychology, Data and User Dependence in Technology BY NOAH BERNSTEIN

Before you read this, take out your phone and check the amount of time you have recently spent on it. On average, I spent three hours and 41 minutes on my phone everyday this week. More specifically, 47 minutes per day on Instagram. The impact of this goes beyond the heavily-discussed effects on mental health and productivity. All of the time we spend on our phones contributes to accelerating a self-sustaining cycle resulting in our dependence on technology. In an effort to expand the breadth of their data collection and subsequently, customer commitment, Facebook introduced the “Like” button in February 2009, giving the site a colossal advantage over other big tech companies. The “Like” button introduced an entire new facet of data collection; it gave Facebook a glimpse into the emotional identity of the user, while simultaneously stimulating the user with a variable reward. Nir Eyal, author of "Hooked: How To Build Habit-Forming Technology" and according to 44

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| Opinion

the MIT Technology Review, “the prophet of habit-forming technology” dubbed variable rewards as “the most powerful tools that companies use to hook users.” Not surprisingly, variable rewards, such as likes, follows and streaks — same as those which are found in addictive gambling games — are synonymous with social media giants. The most recent Pew Research Center survey found that only 51 percent of U.S. teenagers use Facebook. However, in that same report, 72 percent of teenagers use Instagram: one of Facebook’s many sub-companies. Facebook owns Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram and they compile data from all four of them. During those 47 minutes on Instagram, my swipes, taps, likes, follows, views and location metrics were monitored. This has been occurring since the site was first introduced. According to TechCrunch, a news outlet owned by Verizon and AOL, in 2012, Facebook was gathering 2.7 billion likes and 300 million photos per day, downloading

roughly 105 terabytes of data each half hour. Extrapolated, Facebook was harvesting 5.04 million gigabytes per day. Your phone likely has 64 gigabytes of storage in total. This was in 2012, when Facebook had just passed 1 billion users. Now, according to Facebook, they have 2.4 billion users across four major communication platforms and seven additional years of technology development. Despite the confidentiality of Facebook’s data harvesting blueprint, we can only assume exponential growth in their data capturing capacity. Five years after “Hooked” was published, Silicon Valley meshed Nir Eyal’s theory with over a decade of comprehensive data on their users to craft a product which subtly, but constantly guides their user back to their company. As a result, according to a Pew Research Center study, 54 percent of American teenagers said they are worried about the time that they spend on screens. You might not be addicted, but you are wired. Companies like Snapchat, Facebook

and Amazon have ingrained themselves into our lives. These apps provide teenagers and adults alike with communication and networking opportunities at a scale which previously were not dreamt of. During my middle school years when technology was beginning to integrate into my personal life, the most debated question was whether I could get a Snapchat account. Three years later, my parents still don’t get the point of it. Why do you just send pictures back and forth? Can’t you just text them? What do you mean you are going to lose your streak? Wait, you get a Snapchat score? In seventh grade, I didn’t understand why I wanted it so desperately either, but I still did. Eventually, I have come to realize the immense social pressure and unique, rock-solid social networking framework that Snapchat has provided its users. As reported in their 2019 Q3 Report, Snapchat reaches 90 percent of people in the U.S. who are 13-24 years old. The reason being, Snapchat is simply a good product. Filters, Snapchat games and easy communication along with the variable rewards of Snap scores and streaks are make the user experience fun: these improvements are also responsible for making users continue to return to their service. Consequently, this allows the company to profit off of advertising. In the now technology-diluted, high school social reality — crushing social pressure makes it feel impossible to make plans, get to know new people or even go a weekend without Snapchat. The cycle of data collection, developing consumer habits and ultimately improving the social networking capabilities of their website, proved so successful that people don’t feel they can connect without it. With this said, it is equally important to recognize the irreplaceable research, innovation and convenience that companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon have introduced in their short life span. For example, according to Google’s annual report filings, advertising was an astonishing 85 percent of the revenue for the $877.19 billion company. Just a week ago, Google announced that their engineers had successfully developed a working experimental quantum computer. According to the company, their computer completed a mathematical calculation in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Current supercomputers would take 10,000 years and intangible amounts of energy to complete the same equation. Google has also revolutionized the American classroom. As reported by The New York Times, Google’s educational service, called G Suite; its complementary apps and Google’s Chromebooks are present in over half of elementary and middle schools in the U.S.. We cannot extract technology from our society without a complete rebuilding of it. However, we must approach it with an eagerness to take advantage of the otherwise inconceivable opportunities to connect people and create things with a positive impact on our future. C

Your Profile Broken Down

50 percent 76 billion 2.4 billion

of the American e-commerce market is controlled by Amazon.

dollars are spent by tech companies on their research and development throughout a year.

active members are monthly users on Facebook — over 30 percent of the world’s population.

Data, tracked through digital cookies, and variable rewards such as Likes, result in locking in human attention and dependence towards technology.

Snapchat’s Streaks and Instagram’s Likes are variable rewards, which are also found in addictive gambling games, such as slot machines. Opinion |

November 2019

Graphic by Sophie Fetter

What it Means to Have Pride A queer woman’s take on the Straight Pride Parade. BY GENEVE THOMAS-PALMER

This is the clearest memory I have of elementary school: in first grade, a girl in my class kissed her female friend on the cheek and my gym teacher broke them apart, saying it was inappropriate. I had that teacher for my entire elementary school education, but I would never see her that angry again. The image of that teacher is forever burned into my brain; for years, I believed I remembered her so clearly because I loved her class so much. Now I think that it might be because that incident was the first time I was shown that a woman loving another woman was inherently wrong. It didn’t stop there. Neighborhood parties my family and I frequented were full of happily married husbands and wives boasting about their kids; my favorite books and movies featured young girls lusting after boys; it was decided that I was no longer allowed to have sleepovers with my male friends — my only friends at the time. When I started daydreaming about marrying and raising children with the girls at my middle school, I was scared. Growing up, everything around me told me I was supposed to fall for a boy, and when the idea of gayness was mentioned, it was often the butt of a joke or rude comment. I still struggle with my lesbian identity; there is a part of me that feels wrong for being gay. Ever since I came out, I’ve worked towards unlearning all of the self-hate that has been built into me since that day in gym class. I am constantly working and struggling to be proud in my sexual orientation. 46

The Communicator Magazine

| Opinion

There is, however, an institution created with the intent to actively shame queer people for who they love: conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is a practice in which people who are often regarded as mental health professionals use various methods — from physical harm such as electrocuting or drugging patients to emotional harm such as encouraging isolation from friends and family and making patients feel guilty for their same-sex attraction — to attempt to influence LGBTQIA+ people to adopt heterosexuality. It is still legal to perform conversion therapy in Ann Arbor, even on minors. I’ve struggled my entire life to accept myself and be proud with who I am; it baffles me that there are people profiting from making gay people feel dirty and wrong and disgusted with themselves. Nobody makes their living off of shaming straight people for being straight. But, in August of 2019, several hundred marchers paraded the streets of Boston, carrying signs reading statements such as “Straight Lives Matter,” “Make Normalcy Normal Again,” and “Take Back the Rainbow.” This event was called the Straight Pride Parade. Preceding this, the organization Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) made a request to fly a straight pride flag they created in a flag raising ceremony at the Boston City Hall. This was one of two flag requests that has been rejected by the city of Boston (the other was a Christian flag), which flew over 280 flags as of October 2019. In response, SHFA organized their Straight Pride

event. “Ever since 2017, we’ve been fighting against the city,” said Samson Racioppi, the Grassroots Organizer at SHFA. “We wanted to demonstrate to the city that we’re not going away. Whether they like us or not, they’re going to have to deal with us.” In my interview with Racioppi, he expressed how he, as a straight male, feels discriminated against based on his sexuality: queer people are represented in film, the media doesn’t cover attacks that have occurred against him, and he feels the family unit (one man and one woman raising a child) is being eroded. He believes that “heterosexual values are under attack.” “When the media fails to report on the fact that we’re being attacked, we have to come up with more creative ways to get their attention,” Racioppi said. “Our way of getting their attention was organizing the Straight Pride Parade.” The issues Racioppi faces as a heterosexual in no way compare to the historical and systemic oppression of the LGBTQIA+ community. Queer minors who come out to their parents can face disownment and homelessness, even being kicked out of their homes. An employer can still fire someone based solely on their sexuality or gender identity — equal rights still do not legally apply to queer citizens. Gay people were legally barred from immigrating to the United States until 1990. “There’s a level of fear that comes with being queer that straight people just can’t understand,” said Sage Iwashyna, the President of CHS’ Queer

Straight Alliance (QSA). “They can’t understand what it’s like to be afraid to love someone.” There are things I have to worry about solely because of my lesbian identity. My options for colleges are limited, as I have to make sure I attend a school where I will be safe. Every time I go in for my yearly check up with my pediatrician, I fill out a questionnaire in which I am asked if I am or think I might be queer, then have to sit through an uncomfortable discussion with my doctor about my sexuality. At the camp where I work in the summer, I worry that, in being openly queer, my campers’ parents will later complain. My attraction to women is often questioned, and I am asked to explain why I’m gay and how I know I’m gay, and am I sure I’m gay? There have been times I’ve been the only queer person in a group of people and have been asked to speak for the experiences entire LGBTQIA+ community. I have to worry about my physical safety at all times — there are high rates of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community, which is what gay pride originated from. On June 12, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. This was a relatively common practice at the time. The officer in charge, Seymour Pine, had performed a similar raid at the same bar just four days preceding the Stonewall Riots. At the time, men could be arrested for wearing drag, and women must be wearing at least three pieces of “feminine clothing” to avoid jailing. That summer night, however, is often recognized as a catalyst for the queer movement towards equality, because LGBTQIA+ customers fought back. “[Queer] pride was a protest,” Iwashyna said. “It was a call for justice, a call for people to wake up and understand that queer people are people who need rights and who need to stop being murdered.” Nearly 50 years after the Stonewall Riots, Omar Saddiqui Mateen of Orlando, FL opened fire in a queer nightclub, Pulse, injuring more than 50 and killing 49. This is the second most deadly mass shooting in all of American histo-

ry. Half a century of fighting for rights, equality and pride, and there is still widespread violence against queer people. Straight pride, beyond mocking the significance of LGBTQIA+ pride, is contorted in its name: pride. Throughout my life there has been an endless struggle for pride in my gayness. Until 1991, it was illegal to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community — to be proud and queer was criminal, to be wrong in every aspect of the word. Heterosexuality has never been made illegitimate. Straight people don’t have to unlearn years of social cues showing them it is perverse and dirty to be proud. There is nothing wrong with having pride in heterosexuality, but to boast about it in such a manner as the Straight Pride Parade is an affront to the hardships of LGBTQIA+ people, who had to fight for their pride.

More than that, Straight Pride takes focus away from the effort of queer people to gain equal rights, which is one of the main purposes of LGBTQIA+ pride. “Straight pride demeans queer people and our movement,” Iwashyna said. “It takes it and it twists it and it creates and feeds into this idea that queer people aren’t actually fighting for rights.” Everyone deserves the freedom to speak their mind without fear of repercussions. If SHFA wants to fly their straight flag, they should fly it. But they shouldn’t call their movement pride. They should never compare their request to fly a flag being rejected to the violence and systematic discrimination that queer people face. There are more pressing issues than not being allowed to fly a flag — let’s focus on those. C

Photo courtesy of Super Happy Fun America This is a photo taken at the Straight Pride Parade and is featured on SHFA’s blog.

Opinion |

November 2019

Real Talk With Roxie Richner Connecting Through Reading In the Richner family genes, stubbornness runs deep. It’s not that we’re bad listeners or closed-minded, we just all have strong attachments to our values, beliefs, backgrounds and experiences. My dad grew up in Grosse Pointe, a wealthy, predominantly White suburb of Detroit. In high school, the lessons he learned were taught from a Judeo-Christian, White, privileged, Western perspective. He went on to attend Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college. Naturally, my dad was a Republican. When I was younger, I attempted to talk about politics with my family, but those dinner table discussions often ended with my dad feeling hurt and me feeling defeated. I was combative and self-righteous in my approach. Over the years, as I’ve become increasingly politically conscious and passionate, I’ve learned how to better spark civil discussions and hard conversations. As a family, we’ve found out a key to productive political conversations: reading. My family has always loved reading. We subscribe to the New York Times, TIME magazine and The Atlantic, and we devour each issue. We spend evenings reading novels, and we constantly give each other book recommendations. These books and articles provide a shared frame of reference. While the content may be interpreted differently from reader to reader, the discussion begins from a common place. From healthcare to immigration to police brutality, we inform ourselves and then we discuss. Do we agree with the perspective the article was written from? Have we thought about this issue before? How are our views different after reading and learning more? Never would I have thought that introducing tactics from a literature class or book club into my family life would have made such a difference, but it truly has. Even more so than nonfiction articles, literature has allowed my family to take deep dives into difficult issues together. In my first year at Community, I took Harlem Renaissance Literature