The Eyeopener: Vol 55, Issue 7

Volume 55 - Issue 7 November 24, 2021 theeyeopener.com @theeyeopener Since 1967

ILLUSTRATION: VANESSA KAUK

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NEWS

Unvaccinated students barred from amending winter timetables

By Sarah Tomlinson and Thea Gribilas Ryerson community members are wary about the effectiveness of a new vaccine policy, which leaves students who did not provide their vaccination status to the RyersonSafe app or website by Nov. 21 unable to access their winter timetables and restricted from adding courses.

As previously reported by The Eyeopener, all undergraduate, graduate and law students who remain non-compliant with Ryerson’s vaccination mandate will be removed from any in-person winter courses, and may lose access to key Ryerson systems, such as RAMSS, if they have not updated their status by Dec. 15.

The update added that the school will work to “to support the needs of students in exceptional circumstances, including international students and Canadian students living abroad, who may not be able to be fully compliant by these timelines due to vaccine access issues in home countries,” but notes that exceptional circumstances will be considered on a very limited basis.

In an interview with The Eye, Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi

said such exemptions don’t apply to those who have singular beliefs or personal preferences. Instead, they think the university should have offered an online option.

“Requiring students to provide that proof through a very faulty app is setting everybody up for failure”

PHOTO: ALANNA RIZZA

said “[the] safety, health and wellbeing of all community members continues to guide the process and decisions will continue to align with public health agencies.”

Hazel Medham, a third-year journalism student, said she feels much safer knowing that Ryerson is requiring people to be vaccinated in order to be allowed on campus.

However, Medham said she doesn’t trust the RyersonSafe app to properly enforce vaccination mandates.

“Requiring students to provide that proof through a very faulty app

is setting everybody up for failure,” she said. “If they want students to provide this proof they need to either fix the app or allow us to also submit through RAMSS.”

A graduate of Ryerson’s master of public policy and administration and current TA, who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of reprehension, said they disagree with the new policy.

“Students are not really faced with “Why actually completely any other options than to vaccinate coerce students by taking or obviously disclose their informathem out of RAMSS?” tion. People that don’t disclose their information are outright banned She added that the university from having a post-secondary edushould have security stationed at the cation. That’s ridiculous,” they said. entrances of buildings checking for Although they acknowledged that people’s vaccine passports.

Ryerson is offering exemptions, they

“I understand not allowing unvaccinated students to come to campus but why not keep online classes around? Why actually completely coerce students by taking them out of RAMSS,” they said.

“The university claims to champion diversity, multiculturalism and inclusion, but this policy outright discriminates against a significant portion of the community and bars them [from] receiving education.”

For those students who have requested a medical exemption from the school, they will still be required to indicate their vaccination status to RyersonSafe or risk not receiving their schedules.

Decisions on exemption requests will be released the week of Nov. 22.

Ryerson to grant reissued alumni degrees with new university name

By Sarah Tomlinson As Ryerson University recently announced that it would be giving alumni the opportunity to have their degrees reissued and participate in the renaming process, some alumni say they feel indifferent toward the prospect of getting new degrees.

On Nov. 10, the university wrote to alumni that they will all have the opportunity to get their parchments and records reissued with the university’s new name once chosen. According to the email, this was done in response to the several questions they received related to the status and validity of degrees issued by Ryerson University.

“While the process for reissuing has not yet been finalized, it will be similar to the procedures established in 2002 when Ryerson Polytechnic University became Ryerson University,” the email reads.

Aman Rajwani, a 2011 commerce graduate, said he never received an email, but that he’s moved on from Ryerson and doesn’t care about being involved in the process either.

“Ryerson kind of bled me dry for my tuition fees,” he said.

“I’m not sure that a lot of alumni are looking backwards at Ryerson.

They kind of forgot what they needed. It was a stepping stone for us as much as we were stepping stones for the institution.”

Rajwani said the action feels more performative than anything

because since 2011 the university hasn’t made any attempts to connect with him as an alumnus.

“There wasn’t really an attempt to build community with alumni, to keep us engaged as mentors for the students, to bring us back as speakers to inspire students,” he said. “But now that the university is trying to rebrand and relaunch, we’re going to be a part of that because they want the social media likes and reshares.”

Milena Oliva, a 2020 nursing graduate, said she also never received an email from the university. However, she said she doesn’t really care that the university plans on reissuing her degree with the new name.

“I paid thousands of dollars for a piece of paper that just certifies me to work in the field that I work in,” she said. “The only way that I would care is if I had to pay for the degree.”

Sandra Martin, a contract lecturer and 1992 graduate of the School of Journalism, said she’s happy the option exists for alumni to give their opinion.

“If they are looking to get a broad opinion, then it makes sense because the alumni are considered part of the university community so they should be given the chance to have a say,” Martin said. “As an alumna, I get the usual emails from the alumni group keeping me up to date, so it seems fitting that they would keep me up to date on this as well.”

Martin said she remembers that alumni were involved when the university changed its name back in 2002.

“It’ll be more meaningful to a larger number of people now because it’s a bigger name change than going from Ryerson Polytechnic University to Ryerson University. There’s a lot more weighing on this name change,” she said.

To address concerns over possible reputation loss, the university wrote that its degrees are internationally recognized and will still be valid even after the name changes.

“The changing of the name of the university does not impact the value of the education, experience and credentials earned. We want to assure you that all certificates, diplomas and degrees that have been achieved will continue to be valid, credible and worthy of celebration,” the university added.

Oliva said she isn’t worried about how employers will perceive her new degree, citing the fact that this isn’t the first time the university decided to change its name.

“A lot of people who think that the reputation would be at stake do not realize that reputation is studied by actions and by intention, and if the intention of Ryerson is to keep its name as Ryerson University, that intention in itself shows a really shitty reputation,” she said.

Although she said she’s heard many people say the name change won’t

ILLUSTRATION: LAILA AMER

help Indigenous communities, she said it’s a step in the right direction.

“Realistically speaking, it’s not really going to do much in terms of them giving money to Indigenous communities. But it’s a start to at least acknowledge that this name causes a lot of damage to this day.

And that even just by changing it, it’s already shifting that legacy to end whatever idealization we have for figures who do not deserve it.”

Although Rajwani said he doesn’t feel worried about the credibility of his own degree because he’s since pursued a master’s at the University of Toronto, he said the university will have a hard time building up its reputation to what it once was.

“Ryerson is attempting to flush down any credibility that they had built over the past few decades, moving from a polytechnic to an undergraduate institution to one that confers master’s degrees,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge to

rebuild that credibility with a brand new name. That’s not an easy task.”

The university recently announced that community members are able to share their perspectives on a new name for the university through an anonymous online survey. The university also said members can share their thoughts via email at renaming@ryerson.ca, on social media using #NextChapterName or by mail to research firm The Strategic Counsel.

“Our alumni community is the largest and growing stakeholder of the university. We sincerely hope that you will work together with us to find a name for your alma mater that aligns with its values and aspirations,” the university wrote.

Although this action might be rooted in good intention, Oliva said it’s more performative than anything else.

Read the full story at theeyeopener.com

NEWS

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New Indigenous faculty committee to address ‘pretendian’ academics

By Sarah Tomlinson With the number of allegations against academics who falsely claim to be Indigenous growing, Ryerson University is calling for the creation of an Indigenous faculty committee to develop criteria to confirm who they consider to be Indigenous faculty members.

According to the statement released by the university on Nov. 15, the new committee is part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) created in spring 2021.

The MOU states that the new Ryerson Faculty Association (RFA) Indigenous Faculty Committee will be a self-governing committee composed of Indigenous RFA members—such as acting assistant, pre-tenure professors, limited term faculty (LTF), counsellors and librarians, the MOU states.

In an interview with The Eyeopener, university president Mohamed Lachemi said the creation of this committee will be done by the RFA. “The process of hiring Indigenous faculty members raises complex questions of identity and community,” he said. “The Ryerson Faculty Association is the party responsible for ensuring that the committee is constituted as per the memorandum of understanding.”

The university isn’t the only institution establishing mechanisms to address ‘pretendians’: a person who falsely claims to have Indigenous ancestry. Queen’s University is also launching a consultation process that will seek advice from Indigenous faculty, staff and students on how to build a system that will evaluate identity claims.

“We have a responsibility to find out and speak the truth” This was done in light of the University of Saskatchewan controversy after a CBC investigation cast doubt on claims of Indigenous identity made by one of its most prominent members of faculty, Carrie Bourassa.

Bourassa, who claims to be Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit, has since been terminated without pay from her position as scientific director of the Canadian Institute of Health Research’s Institute of Indigenous Peoples’ Health. She was also suspended and placed on paid leave by the University of Saskatchewan.

Raven Sinclair, Cree, Assiniboine, Saulteaux, Métis and two-spirit from George Gordon First Nation from Treaty 4 territory in southern Saskatchewan, who lives and works in Treaty 6 territory across the centres of Alberta and Saskatchewan, said that any Indigenous hiring committee should be composed of

ILLUSTRATION: LEILA KAZEMINE

people whose Indigenous identities have been confirmed.

“If people have claimed to be Indigenous and have been in the institution for a while but there’s no genealogical evidence of historical connection and ancestry in specific communities, then their agendas, we have seen, are attempts to influence any procedures and policies in favour of other pretendians,” said Sinclair, who is also a professor at the University of Regina and member of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Indigenous Research Reference Group.

Sinclair said Ryerson has a multitude of Indigenous scholars like Pam Palmater, Lynn Lavallée, Eva Jewell and Hayden King who could be candidates for the committee.

“They’re recognized by the national Indigenous academic community. They know who they are.

They know who their communities are. There’s no question about their Indigeneity,” she said, adding that the university must then listen to the committee’s feedback.

“They’re not going to act in isolation. None of them. When they come into those sorts of contexts, they’re taking on a sacred responsibility to speak for themselves, their kinship networks, their communities, the people that they serve, every single one of them.”

Lynn Lavallée is the strategic lead, Indigenous Resurgence in the Faculty of Community Services and is Anishinaabe Métis registered with the Métis Nation of Ontario.

She said pretendians offer a great learning opportunity for Canadians given how complex Indigenous identities are.

“The purpose of colonization was to strip us of our identity, defeather us, so it’s understandable people may be unclear about who they are but we have a responsibility to find out and speak the truth,“ she said. “​​We’re in the truth and reconciliation era. We have to focus on the truth. Everybody needs an Indigenous identity 101 course to understand the complexities of identity.”

Veldon Coburn, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Indigenous Research

and Studies, said pretendians are generally “harmless.”

“I only see them really having a detrimental impact on Indigenous people’s lives when they work to displace and dispossess us,” said Coburn, who

“[Pretendians] misrepresent Indigenous existence. Their behaviour and conduct signals all sorts of outlandish things to people” is Anishinaabe from Pikwàkanagàn.

He referenced a CBC News article in which a recently discovered historical letter linked to more than 1,000 Indigenous ancestry claims was deemed likely be fake.

Through this letter, 1,000 descendants of 19th century voyageur Thomas Lagarde claimed they were Algonquin and were thus in a position to potentially make false claims of entitlement to a massive pending land claim agreement involving almost $1 billion and more than 500 square kilometres of land between the Algonquins of Ontario and the federal and Ontario governments.

“That’s where you see material harm,” he said, adding that there are other pretendians who are more symbolic and “superficial.” “[Pretendians] misrepresent Indigenous existence. Their behaviour and conduct signals all sorts of outlandish things to people because they pick out stereotypes for them to embellish and exaggerate,” he said.

Sinclair echoed Coburn’s point.

“When pretendians are questioned and react with rage and accusations of harassment and victimization, they don’t realize their behaviour confirms suspicions because Indigenous people don’t react that way. We will tell anyone about our kin and ancestry. It’s not an issue.”

Sinclair added that in some instances, pretendians easily make their way to high positions of power due to institutional racism.

“Institutions open their arms to pretendians because they fit their racism fueled image of the ideal ‘Indian’ which, it seems, is a non‘Indian,’” Sinclair said, adding that they hurt Indigenous communities

by taking positions from actual Indigenous people.

According to the MOU, faculties may decide that an Indigenous hire will be someone with a terminal degree or, alternatively, someone with Indigenous knowledge.

When a faculty position is designated as an ‘Indigenous hire,’ the MOU states that there must be a tenure stream Indigenous faculty member as a voting member on the department hiring committee (DHC).

If the DHC doesn’t have an Indigenous faculty as an elected member, the chair or director of the department will appoint an Indigenous faculty member from the Indigenous Faculty Committee for the hiring of the designated Indigenous position only.

However, when a self-identified Indigenous candidate applies for a regular non-Indigenous faculty position, the DHC shall consult with the Indigenous Faculty Committee, and the Indigenous Human Resources Lead to confirm the validity of the Indigenous candidate.

Bourassa’s situation is just one of many that have surfaced over the years. Jacqueline Keeler, editor-inchief of Pollen Nation Magazine who is of Dineh and Yankton Dakota heritage, compiled a list of over 150 names of alleged pretendians.

Coburn said pretendians in academia particularly can obtain grants and collaborate with communities in a “deceitful and exploitative nature.”

However, he said the consequences of being discovered can affect both the pretendian and the institution.

According to an article published by the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees, University of British Columbia professor Amie Wolf was fired from her job as an Indigenous education lecturer. This came after she sent death threats to her critics when she was outed for allegedly falsely claiming an Indigenous identity by the Twitter account @nomoreredface.

“Nobody’s going to want to research with them. Nobody’s going to want to research with anyone that works with them either. Nobody’s going to participate in their conferences,” Coburn said, adding that the enrollment in their courses has the potential to drop and their applications for research grants could be denied.

Although the MOU was only established in the spring, it states that if an existing Indigenous faculty member has a concern over a previous evaluation that predates the introduction of the evaluation model, they may indicate this and it will be taken into account.

With regards to hiring Indigenous librarians and professional counsellors, the MOU says that the university and the RFA will meet to develop a hiring and evaluation process by Dec. 31.

Editor-in-Chief Tyler “Bet On It” Griffin News Thea “Okie Dokie” Gribilas Heidi “I’m Scared” Lee Sarah “Have Fun <3” Tomlinson Photo Laila “Monopoly Milf” Amer Vanessa “Coca-Cola Truck” Kauk Jes “God-Fearing” Mason Online Dhriti “Stay Constipated” Gupta Alexandra “Imprinted 4Ever” Holyk Features Abeer “Colonial Soup” Khan Arts and Culture Elizabeth “Hamster Wheels” Sargeant Business and Technology Charlize “QUEEN BLOB” Alcaraz Communities Mariam “New Job New Me” Nouser Sports Gavin “We Move” Axelrod Fun and Satire Rochelle “That’s Deep” Raveendran Media Norah “Never Sleeps” Kim Web Developers Doug “MORE” Nguyen Farhan “BLOB” Sami General Manager Liane “Book Club” McLarty Advertising Manager Christopher “Skull Tats” Roberts Design Director J.D. “Holiday Saved” Mowat Contributors Vanessa “Still No One” Tiberio Aditi “5 Sources Already” Roy Prapti “Whoops Totally Forgot” Bamaniya Krishika “Sounds Interesting” Changrani Didhiti “Don’t Worry Bout It” Kandel Nada “Surprise!” Abass Aru “Not My Name” Kaul Nishat “Student Jobs” Chowdhury Mariyah “Advocate 4 Yourself” Salhia Adam “Cynthia” Floujeh Dream “No More Ls” Homer Mario “My Reps!” Russo Ben “On IT” Okazawa Daniella “Tangerine Fan Angle” Lopez Gigi “Anti-Charlize” Arabi

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</unplugged> the team behind the </unplugged> issue

Editorial: A phone turned off captures the best memories

A big part of my childhood revolved around the first computer I got when I was nine years old. My pareditor-in-chief ents, who worked away in Canada, Tyler Griffin bought a small white HP laptop for me for Christmas when my brother writers and I still lived in the Philippines.

Alexandra Holyk It took a lot of convincing for Thea Gribilas them to get me the laptop but I reaAbeer Khan soned it would allow me to video Rochelle Raveendran chat with them. At the time, it had Prapti Bamaniya been around three years since I’d Darya Soufian last seen my parents, and I knew we Ryan O’Connor were all itching to see each other’s Jack Wannan faces again.

Jessica Mazze Besides the digital family reSophia De Guzman unions, I would make good use of the laptop for other reasons. Even visuals team before my age hit double-digits, I Laila Amer was already regularly online.

Jes Mason My cousins and I would film ourVanessa Kauk selves playing a cup stacking game Isela Gomez through the built-in webcam and I Leah Bergmanis would take pictures of myself with Michelle Parleviet weird filters to post on Facebook. It Vedangi Patel was also where I learned how to code.

Andrew Yang The laptop’s death came early though, just a year after receiving web development it. Consequently, it also killed my Farhan Sami childhood innocence.

Doug Nguyen It was affected by a virus I got while playing Ameba Pico, a virtual advisor life simulation game on Facebook. A Ramona Pringle link that opened when I was playing the game led me to a shock website, guest volunteers which are sites intended to be offenCharlize’s plants sive and startle viewers.

GigiFINAL COPY with outlines colored The virus1 was embedded RWA 20211121 paper.pdf 2021-11-21 4:13:24 PMinto the fake Facebook page and rendered managing editor Charlize Alcaraz

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words by charlize alcaraz | image by jes mason

my gifted computer useless. My fear came from both the disturbing images I just witnessed and the fact that I destroyed the single device that let me see my parents from thousands of miles away.

It was fair for my parents to not buy me a replacement. However, that incident did let me buy back my childhood. Without the laptop, I instead spent hours playing with my cousins outdoors under the sun as any kid should.

We flew kites made out of barbeque sticks and plastic bags, rode bikes until my slippers got dirty in the mud and made small candles out of soda bottle caps.

Recently, while remembering what being unplugged from the internet as a child did for my mental health, I voluntarily restricted my access online when I felt overwhelmed with uni-

versity, moving apartments, working full-time and taking care of myself.

I deleted what I figured were my most-used iPhone apps: Instagram and Twitter. My screen time analytics showed I would spend at least three hours of my day scrolling between the two platforms.

In between work and after my shifts, I found myself mindlessly going through my social feeds until I would find a post that unsettled me.

Whether it was a bold political comment, tragic news or jealousy from seeing the lavish lifestyles of influencers, all of these things deteriorated the way I perceived myself and the world around me, as it warped my perception of reality.

I’m uncertain whether it’s the need to stay in touch with my network or to keep up with current events, but I felt I had a sense of responsibility to stay plugged in.

Whenever I felt the instinct to check my social media feeds during my time away from them, I had to constantly remind myself that there is no obligation to do that, that there’s no need to endure trauma or stress because I have control of when and how I want to use the internet.

Something else I realized while being unplugged is that I often use my social media accounts to capture memories. Whether it’d be posting a story on Instagram or live-tweeting an event, I was always in-between the online and offline worlds—never fully enjoying either of them.

My time away from Instagram and Twitter made me gain a lot more appreciation for the little things in life that I had never put much thought into before.

Quietly doing chores together with my roommate in our new apartment, drunkenly building Ikea furniture with my friends in the journalism program, watching my parents joke around as they help me pack my belongings and almost dying from laughter with my boyfriend after seeing a Little Tikes car driving around the pedestrian-only zone on campus.

These are some of the things I experienced in the moment, unplugged from the internet. If I was chained to my phone or laptop, I would have lost the personal touch of these memories I hold close to my heart.

Now, as the Unplugged Issue hits the stands, I’ve since reinstalled Instagram and Twitter. This time around, however, I know how to use these apps and the internet at arms length—removed from the personal place they once had in my life.

After having to be constantly online for the majority of the pandemic, I realized it was absolutely crucial to dedicate time for myself to be unplugged. The Unplugged Issue and its stories encapsulate my experience, along with other students’ personal accounts, of reexploring the need to maintain an inescapable connection with the online space.

</unplugged>

Maturing internet culture means memes are getting cringier quicker The science behind meme relativity and how it feeds into internet culture

words by ryan o’connor | visuals by jes mason Everybody loves a good meme.

Whether it be commentary on a current event or used for regular discussions, there’s always an internet-born saying or image that encapsulates exactly what you have to say.

If you’ve been an internet citizen since the early days of memes you would have noticed how much they gradually changed over time.

But, perhaps the most noticeable change in meme culture has been the ever-decreasing lifespan of the memes themselves. So, what is the reason for the fast meme turnover we see today?

“Social platforms

are designed to keep the viewer constantly scrolling” One of the beautiful things about memes is their accessibility; just about anyone can make a meme about pretty much anything. The ease of creating memes has undoubtedly contributed towards their status of being beloved cultural objects over the years. If you have a meme idea that you think people will find funny (even if it’s only intended for your friend group), it’s never been easier to hop on your device and whip one up on sites such as Mematic or TikTok. Better meme-creation software, faster internet speeds and more people online are just a few reasons why today’s digital content landscape has become much more crowded than it was 10 years ago.

Ramona Pringle, an associate professor in the RTA School of Media and director of The Creative School’s Innovation Studio, said today’s higher saturation of content on the internet makes it difficult for viral memes to stay relevant.

“Social platforms are designed to keep the viewer constantly scroll-

ing,” said Pringle. “You never get to the bottom of the page, you never run out of content.”

“There’s always something new being created and they are designed in such a way that perpetuates the need for more content and the desire for people to always be scrolling and searching and finding new content.”

According to Pringle, the more content that is being produced, the less time people are spending on using and reflecting on that content.

The rise of TikTok has sparked somewhat of a meme renaissance in recent years and with the platform being the ultimate ‘instant gratification’ content vehicle, it has become a contributor towards shortened meme lifespans.

The ease of generating online content and a decrease in society’s collective attention span means that there is a high-supply, high-demand cycle for viral memes. In today’s age, few online trends are made to last.

According to data analyzed by Joe Veix for The Outline, a meme lasts an average of about four months.

The outlet also reported that the average lifespan of memes is seeing a downward trend.

Meme relativity reached its peak in 2012 when their lifespan reached an average of 6.25 months, eventually hitting a slump in 2014 where a meme would only stay relevant for about 4.38 months.

However, Pringle believes a key factor to achieving meme longevity boils down to how well the meme allows us to express ourselves and identify with others.

“There’s memes that end up getting picked up as shorthand for certain expressions like, this is how we make fun of people; this is how we make fun of politics; this is how we roll our eyes at something,” she said.

“I think these are the ones that

last. When a meme can be used to express core emotions, values or commentary, then people will be more likely to return to it and continue to reference it.”

This may be a reason why reactionary memes, such as Leonardo DiCaprio pointing, can still be seen floating around social media as opposed to ‘viral event’ memes, a mass internet phenomenon where people

5 poke fun at recent news.

The catch is that reaction memes can be applied to many different scenarios as opposed to, for example, Bernie Sanders wearing mittens and the hundreds of other variations of the meme that were created to poke fun at the politician during the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Most reaction memes, however, eventually die out just like the rest of the crowd. They set themselves apart from other meme formats such as GIFs due to how efficient still-image memes are to create, and how easily they can be shared across social media platforms.

Generation Z’s desire to keep up with the newest trend is another big reason why people are so quick to discard stale memes, according to some Ryerson students.

“When a meme can be used to express core emotions...then people will be more likely to return to it” Clare Feng, a first-year master of digital media student, said she finds herself perplexed at times when she tries to keep up with memes online. “I do find myself trying to be up to date with the most popular trends on Twitter or on TikTok,” said Feng. “I find myself wanting to know about it so I don’t

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feel lost when people are laughing about it.”

The confusion mostly comes from TikTok, according to Feng, as “there’s always a new trend going on, but by the time it blows up and it gets to you, there are five other trends that are also blowing up and people want to get on at the same time.”

With Gen Z spending a large portion of their days on social media, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s only natural that memes and online trends be referenced in daily, offline discussions.

If you were to look back at a meme you were referencing in conversation even just a month ago, you may be surprised to learn how many other viral memes have cycled through your dialogue since then.

Older memes such as ‘Bad Luck Brian’ or ‘Doge,’ whether they are being used ironically or by middle-aged divorcees on Facebook, are examples of memes that have stood the test of time solely because of their status as internet artifacts.

“Ten years ago, the ecosystem was completely different in terms of how people communicated, as it was mainly text-based,” said Pringle, adding that the rise of visual media has contributed to the evolution of internet culture.

“People communicate through visuals more than text now because a video can say so many more things than some words. It’s almost like a new alphabet of ours.”

To be young and online Gen Z students on their inevitable and all-consuming relationship with the internet Words by Charlize Alcaraz and Abeer Khan

T

he first summer of the pandemic, Jade Smith could barely bring herself to get out of bed. She’d rarely leave the confines of her room, finding little motivation to even sit at her desk a few feet away. Smith had just moved back to her hometown of Ottawa from Toronto after Ryerson closed its residences to students in March 2020. That year, she completed all her exams surrounded by her blankets and pillows and while the world self-isolated at home due to COVID-19, Smith isolated herself in her room as her mental health declined.

Every morning when Smith woke up, she’d open Instagram, check her DMs and sift through people’s stories. The third-year arts and contemporary studies student would see people post about their own trauma, negative feelings about the pandemic and life in general or positive posts pretending the world was a perfect place.

She says when people would post about the pandemic, violent world news or their own mental health, it caught her off guard and made things feel bleak. “It wasn’t good to be around a lot of people talking about how depressed they are and how they want to not be here anymore when I was in the same space,” she explains.

“It didn’t make me feel like I wasn’t alone, it just made me feel like maybe it’s not worth it.”

At the time, going on social media was a regular routine for Smith, who spent five to six hours per day on apps like Instagram, to keep up with friends and Twitter, to stay up to date with her favourite K-pop groups. However, she quickly came to understand this routine was unhealthy. For Smith, who has had chronic anxiety and depression as well as body dysmorphia and disordered eating from a young age, social media was extremely consuming and overpowering. “You want to know what’s happening, but at the same time, it’s just too much at once,” she says. “When you’re already overwhelmed with things, it almost felt like a nuisance when I had to open up an app.”

Visuals by Laila Amer

What she says was once enjoyable quickly became a great stressor in her life, causing fatigue and contributing to her poor mental state. Smith would find herself crying constantly and comparing herself to others online. When she’d see people post positive things about their own lives while she was struggling with school and her mental health, it lowered her self esteem. “I’m not going to go look at people showing me that they’re having the time of their lives when I feel like shit, because none of that makes me feel better,” she says.

After Smith finished her exams last year, she slowly started to wean herself off of social media by deleting her Twitter and refraining from using Instagram. “I consciously made the decision,” she says. “At one point I was like, ‘I don’t feel good when I’m on it,’ so I just stopped going on it.”

While the lines between people’s online and offline worlds became increasingly blurred during the pandemic, that’s always been the reality for Generation Z, who’ve been online their entire lives. As a result, Ryerson students like Smith say they’re tremendously fatigued from the pressures of maintaining and facilitating an online presence for their social endeavours. And with school shifting online, there’s virtually no escape from the internet now, leaving students overwhelmed.

Those born 1994 and later, also known as Gen Z, are the first generation of “social natives,” according to a 2019 study conducted

by Hill Holiday, a marketing research platform based in Southern California.

According to the study, 94 per cent of Gen Z use at least one social media platform and 50 per cent report that social media blends together with other ways in which they interact with friends and find content. “It’s impossible to have a conversation about Gen Z without talking about social media,” the study reports.

“For Gen Z, what is happening online and on social media is what

is happening in real life.” However, this online presence can be detrimental. The study reported that 48 per cent of those surveyed say social media makes them feel sad, anxious or depressed.

Additionally, schools aren’t equipped to create virtual learning environments (VLE) where students can thrive, even if those schools are virtual in design, according to a 2020 study published in Education and Information Technologies. The article reports that students went from daily face-to-face interactions that built relationships and promoted positive social-emotional skills to the bare minimum of sending an email a few times a week.

“It cannot be assumed that because students use technology at very high rates for personal relationships and entertainment that they can directly transfer those skills to...digital literacy necessary and conducive to learning in a VLE,” the report says.

Makana Chock, a media psychology professor at Syracuse University, says humans are literally coded to have the need to socialize with others, which makes logging off or deleting social media apps more challenging. The sudden loss of a social lifeline when you delete social media can cause people to experience distress, according to Chock. Many functions of the neocortex are devoted to being social and engaging with other people.

As social media became a primary method of communication during the pandemic, staying off it was also harder. She explains when people miss out on social media, their bodies experience increased levels of stress. “It’s not just what’s in [social media], it’s the frequency with which we check it and the perceived need and expectation to keep going back and popping back in again,” she says.

“One of the main ways we socialize in the contemporary world is via the internet and social media, and that’s so important these days,” says Smith.

“I’m always so overwhelmed with my own life and everything

</unplugged> that’s going on, especially in a pandemic,” she adds. “But then at the transition to online learning difficult, as she says she didn’t learn same time, I want to know what’s happening.” much at all.

As a student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, her specific learning style involves being in an academic environment—a separate space away from where she rests t the beginning of this fall semester, Lina Elsaadi felt like and eats. “Online [learning] a zombie. She remembers struggling to keep her eyes is completely a waste for me,” open in class and feeling like she hadn’t slept in three days Elsaadi says. “Being in-person despite having just woken up. The third-year media production is a very important thing for student had preemptively enrolled herself into 12 classes at the my health, my mood...for me to time to increase her chances of potentially having at least one in- actually learn and benefit from person course. However, her generated timetable forced Elsaadi to my education.” sit through three back-to-back Zoom lectures that were each three Even during breaks in class, hours, every Wednesday.

Elsaadi says she still finds herself Conflicted with headaches, back pain and the overall feeling of passively scrolling through wanting to get up and stretch, Elsaadi says her Zoom lectures were social media, mindlessly tapping draining both physically and mentally. For her, powering through through people’s stories on back-to-back classes from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. felt unreasonable.

Instagram.

“I get up from my computer, it’s 9 p.m. The entire day just went She says she often sees people by. I literally do not have time to have a break.” post “highlight reels” of their Contained in her studio apartment in downtown Toronto, lives or only publicize the good Elsaadi has her office, bedroom, kitchen, dining room and living parts. This negatively impacts Elsaadi’s mental health, as she finds room in one area. “You’re in the same space that you’re working, herself comparing her life to their polished ones. sleeping, living and you’re not really getting a mental break from “When you’re coming back from a long day of school and you’re it,” she says. “We’re in a 24-hour cycle. We haven’t really escaped tired, your brain is not functioning in a way that can filter those our work, we haven’t really escaped our school.” things,” Elsaadi says. “When you’re tired and you’re sad, you’re The boundary between the online and offline worlds dissolved seeing somebody living the life you want, that’s going to affect years ago, according to Ramona Pringle, an associate professor you.” at the RTA School of Media. “We live in a hybrid reality,” she says, referring to the interconnectedness of being online and offline. Pringle says within the context of the pandemic, hybridity has been stressful because workplaces and schools have had to deliver things in multiple ways. But in general, humans have been working within a hybrid space as the internet gained prominence very day, Gabriella Yabiku sets her laptop down on her desk, in the 2000s because their attention has been split between being ready to join her business classes—but sleep is always at the in-person and online, essentially living in two different spaces at back of her mind. The third-year business management the same time. student joins class every day to score the participation marks she Pringle further explains that due to the lack of distinction needs for her grades, but as her classes continue, she’s always just between these two worlds, burnout can occur when students dip looking forward to going back to sleep. too much into one space, for example: being too online. “We’ve This habit especially worsened during the second semester of never been trained in terms of how to best live within the reality her second year when she could “barely do anything,” knowing that of the world we live in.” she could easily switch from listening But to an extent, it’s not to her lectures online to entertaining something students can herself on the internet instead. Yabiku really be trained on due to says the way her studio apartment in the inherent presence of Toronto is designed doesn’t allow for the internet ingrained into her to separate her living and study their lives, she adds. spaces. “It’s kind of distracting because When it comes to your bed’s right there,” she says. “You Zoom, Chock explains can just go lay down and watch lectures that the cause of stress in your bed or never watch.” and fatigue from meetings Without ownership of a standalone happens two-fold. Firstly, TV, Yabiku also uses her computer for the act of staring at oneself watching TV shows, further splitting can be stressful, as being her attention from school when she’s aware of how you’re fully aware that Hospital Playlist, a acting can take up a lot of Korean drama she’s watching, is only cognitive energy. a couple clicks away. “My brain doesn’t Secondly, Chock says recognize that I’m doing different people use their cognitive things,” she says. “Am I having fun or energy to interpret am I working?” Yabiku asks herself. what other people are The crossover between work and doing. The lag caused by entertainment eventually led her to internet speed separates the timing of visual images and auditory feel burnt out; it was taxing to focus on school amidst all these elements, which can cause stress for users trying to process them distractions. As the diversion took away her energy to focus, she simultaneously. says she was “barely surviving” and “barely waking up” during the Another factor is the position in which users look at the camera. lockdowns that started in November last year.

In person, people often look into each other’s eyes or directly gaze A student’s laptop opens millions of doors to millions of worlds, towards their face when they’re speaking, signalling they have according to Pringle, which in turn causes a lot of distractions. She their attention. Zoom offsets face-to-face interaction that people explains that when a student is physically sitting in a classroom, are accustomed to, says Chock. For example, a computer user they want their professor to be interesting because they are facing would have to look at the webcam on top of their laptop to look them in-person. Whereas taking classes alone in your studio as if they’re presenting to the audience. This creates a disconnect apartment, “you almost don’t have as much of a strong desire for which severs the social aspect of meetings where verbal and visual the people around you to be interesting, because there’s so many cues aren’t picked up, further isolating students and adding stress, other interesting things,” she says.

Chock mentions.

Additionally, Pringle explains that with all of the consumable “This is our bodies telling us: ‘They’re not looking at me, they’re content available on the internet, it starts to confuse the brain not paying attention to me.’” and incite exhaustion because “there isn’t a hierarchy of what’s Elsaadi says her program is very hands-on, making last year’s interesting.” The brain has difficulty deciphering what’s more

A

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7 important since professors, classmates and the entire internet are all just one click away.

As disconnected as Yabiku feels from her classes, she extends the same sentiment to how she perceives the way her peers portray themselves on social media. She says the friends she’s made in her program would post announcements on Facebook and LinkedIn, sharing that they’re doing work for a student association or a job they recently acquired.

This makes Yabiku feel isolated from them, often laying in bed comparing herself to her classmates— too exhausted to be involved in extracurricular activities herself.

She says business students in her program are keen to be involved in all aspects of social and professional life, especially in student groups, in an effort to build professional and social networks. “I felt bad because I was doing half of what they were doing,” she says. At the time, she was barely passing her classes and had difficulty waking up every morning. “I compared myself a lot. It was really hard because of that,” she says.

Pringle explains that although people don’t mean to, they’re naturally drawn to consuming and posting content about the “good life,” adding that people’s perceptions of others have been manipulated since before the pandemic as aspiration does well on social media. According to a 2015 study published in PeerJ Computer Science, positive content is more likely to be shared and favoured than negative content.

This makes it easy for people to live vicariously through accounts they follow on social media. “It’s almost as if by watching it, we don’t need to do it,” she says. “We’re drawn to the better version of things.”

However, Pringle adds that there will come a tipping point where simply scrolling through social media will cause frustration, especially when people are confined to their houses. She cites instances where celebrities would post pictures of themselves travelling internationally while others stayed at home during the pandemic.

“It always is just this mismatch from what you’re experiencing, or what reality is and then what you’re witnessing and it just doesn’t make sense.”

T

oday, Smith uses social media very scarcely. She hasn’t redownloaded Twitter and only uses Instagram casually to communicate with people through direct messaging. She’s come to understand that she can control how she uses the apps.

“Social media isn’t inherently good or bad to begin with, it’s just how we use it,” Smith explains. “I think people forget we do have a certain level of power in what we see.” This has been a huge “game changer” in her life, now removing followers, muting or unfollowing people that post content she doesn’t want to see.

Instead of being online, Smith now cherishes the time she spends with her coworkers at Second Cup on the University of Ottawa’s campus, where she works as a barista. She’s become best friends with a few of her coworkers, having fun together when they work shifts. “While I’m working with them, I don’t think about [school],” she says. “I’m working, but I’m mostly just hanging out with friends. That’s what it feels like.”

She’ll often get to the cafe early and sit at a table with her laptop out doing work before the start of her shift. During this time, she basks in the atmosphere of customers trickling in and out and lively conversations between coworkers. This in-person interaction alleviates some of the stress and allows Smith to stay offline and make in-person connections, which has done wonders for her mental health.

In a recent conversation with her doctor, Smith told her that she’s had more periods of low moods than she’s had positive experiences throughout the pandemic. However, Smith also says learning to be self-aware, after taking time for herself and away from social media, has helped her recognize the harm in being chronically online. “I’ve grown the most I ever have in my life in the last two years.”

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</unplugged>

DOOMED BY

SCROLLING Students say doomscrolling takes a toll on their mental health and studies words by alexandra holyk visuals by jes mason and heidi lee

Yalda Safwar says she initially saw an uptick in her screen time when she was in high school in the late 2000s, citing peer pressure to join Myspace, MSN and Facebook.

But as time went on, Safwar found use of the new technology and started using social media platforms as a channel to stay in touch with her family and friends, in addition to staying up to date with the news cycle.

“These platforms know what they’re bulding is addictive” As an Afghan-Canadian and now second-year journalism student at Seneca College, Safwar uses social media to connect with her homeland. However, she often finds herself spending hours upon hours reading disheartening articles. She says she feels drawn to them because of the humanitarian crisis taking place and her natural curiosity as a journalist and self-proclaimed "news junkie."

In August, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan after U.S. military forces withdrew from the country, causing thousands of deaths and displacing millions of people. Safwar says this kept her glued to her screen and on social media and she felt as though it was, and still is, her duty to constantly be informed.

“There is this culture of always being connected and always being on. And I'd argue that it's not necessary, even when it is your career,” she says.

When Safwar finds herself wanting a break from her phone, she says she plays puzzle games and watches Christmas movies and TV shows with her family.

“Sometimes to get my mind off of wars and the ugly realities of our world, I’ve just leaned onto the reality of Kim Kardashian and her family,” Safwar says.

Post-secondary students and recent graduates say they recognize they’re doomscrolling for a variety of reasons. Some say it's because their careers involve staying active online, some get bored and use the platforms to keep themselves busy, while others doomscroll to distract themselves from work or school.

For Maverick Sleep, the term "doomscrolling" is something he's been familiar with for five years.

The RTA sport media graduate says he first noticed he was spending too much time on social media when he started at Ryerson in 2016.

“I always found I doomscroll or [excessively] use social media... scrolling for long periods of time with no real purpose,” Sleep says.

“It’s mostly out of boredom, but it’s also just me struggling for any type of human interaction.”

Sleep adds that he finds it difficult to break out of the habit as he wants to catch up with current events, especially amidst the pandemic and during an increase in political and racial injustices.

Sleep also recalls seeing an increase in his procrastination levels when it came to school assignments, which he attributes to doomscrolling. According to a 2015 study in the Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, high screen time was associated with poorer mental health and academic outcomes.

Pringle compares this notion of doomscrolling to the idea of “digital rubbernecking.” This happens when a social media user witnesses something bad going on in the world, but they continue scrolling because they can’t look away.

“It’s kind of the perfect storm; that you're turning to these platforms to get a certain human satisfaction of seeing and being seen,” she says.

Pringle emphasizes that doomscrolling can take a mental toll on users regardless of age. “You’re being bombarded by all of this, and yet it’s really, really hard to just unplug, to just quit.”

“When you’re pursuing journalism, you’re supposed to be [in] the know and on the go 24/7 on social media,” Safwar says. She added that she would make excuses for the time she spent scrolling online, prioritizing building her network as an upand-coming journalist over school assignments, work and family.

However, in her first year of college in 2012, Safwar noticed she was falling into a pattern of "doomscrolling," which in turn negatively affected her academic performance and took a toll on her mental wellbeing. She says she tries to find a balance between her responsibilities and screen time, but struggles to.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the term ‘doomscrolling’ refers to the act of continuously viewing news feeds on social media even if the content causes distress, with no ability to stop.

Ramona Pringle, an associate professor at Ryerson’s RTA School of Media, says that social media platforms enable doomscrolling because they're designed to be never-ending, comparing the phenomenon to quicksand. “The deeper in you get, “It’s really, the harder it is to pull yourself out.” really hard to Though Pringle says she underjust unplug, to stands the feeling of constantly havjust quit” ing to be online because of students’ employment or wanting to be informed, she says it shouldn't be at In order to reduce his screen time, the detriment of someone’s mental Sleep would schedule time for social health or completing necessary and media during his study breaks or do important tasks. something else that would keep him

from going on his phone, such as completing house chores, cooking or going on walks.

Since graduating, he says the pandemic only worsened his doomscrolling habits because he’s been forced to stay indoors, leaving the internet as his only social lifeline for human interaction.

Sleep calls his doomscrolling practices a “double-edged sword” because while he searches for social interactions, he also finds things that upset him. He says he’s drawn to social media regardless, to find a sense of “clarity” or “satisfaction.”

Similarly, OCAD University student Krystina Levitski says she finds satisfaction when scrolling through social media, particularly on TikTok. She says watching the shorter videos makes her feel like she is completing a task while she distracts herself from other responsibilities and assignments.

According to a 2020 study titled, “Neurotransmitter Dopamine (DA) and its Role in the Development of Social Media Addiction,” scrolling through social media content can quickly become an addiction due to a “feedback loop” related to the release of dopamine.

The study says dopamine is released when users regularly check their phones for notifications that could be positively stimulating or rewarding. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that plays an important

feature sends a report to the iPhone user that provides them with a breakdown of the time they spend on each app, each day.

Levitski recognizes that doomscrolling has become an addiction and says she has tried several different methods to limit her screen time. This includes getting her boyfriend to set a passcode when limiting screen time on certain apps, to prevent her from increasing her scrolling time. However, she says she even wants to scroll when she and her boyfriend are watching TikToks together on his device.

role in executive function, motor control, motivation, arousal, reinforcement and reward, often linked to happiness and forms of addiction.

When dopamine is released based on positive stimulation obtained from social media, users are sucked into feedback loops and continue to keep scrolling.

Apple allows its users to limit their screen time manually by setting controls on certain apps. At the end of every week, the Screen Time

know what they're building is addictive," adding that “they also know that they're addictive to the detriment of the mental health of especially young people."

Pringle adds users are also constantly comparing themselves to those on social media. Thus, it is difficult for them to escape from both the bad news and the "perfect" lifestyles that pretend to be authentic.

"And yet, it's really, really hard to just unplug, to just quit."

“It’s pretty much an addiction... you’re getting secondhand scrolling” “It’s definitely a weird experience because it’s pretty much an addiction, it’s like you’re getting secondhand scrolling,” she says.

Levitski says she’s also deleted social media apps to prevent herself from doomscrolling, but she just ends up redownloading them.

“I sadly look at my screen time and I get really disappointed in myself.”

Pringle explains that the continuous scrolling feature was built by social media platforms with intent.

Levitski echoed Pringle’s statement and said: "These platforms

</unplugged>

9

Experts say students lack awareness when it comes to identifying cyber threats and are calling on institutions to implement better digital literacy skills training.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced students around the world to pivot to online learning.

While its remote and digital nature offers accessibility by attending class from anywhere, it also comes with increased cybersecurity risks.

miliar phone calls and open wifi networks, which could’ve been set up by hackers to obtain your information.

Statistics Canada reported that malicious hackers are exploiting the pandemic by sending phishing emails that appear to be related to the health crisis. The organization says these scams can range from texts or emails about vaccines, the Canada Recovery Benefit or Canada Emergency Student Benefit payments.

“Knowledge is very important, especially knowledge of cyber security among students”

The university blocks up to 500 malicious malware email attachments every day Information technology (IT) specialist at Webster University James Curtis said students—especially those who aren’t in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)—are behind when it comes to preparing for malware attacks.

A cyberattack is a malicious and deliberate attempt by an individual or organization to breach the information system of another entity, according to Cisco, and can take shape in different forms with malware being the most common type.

Malware is a term used to describe malicious software—including spyware, ransomware, viruses and worms­—that spreads copies of itself from computer to computer. Cisco also reported that malware breaches a network through a vulnerability, typically when a user clicks a dangerous link or email attachment that then in-

Stories from Hayley Hugh: Social Media Justice Warrior satire by rochelle raveendran | visuals by leah bergmanis

Dearest diary, On days like these, I know how Rosa Parks must have felt when she was sitting on the back of that Alabama bus, resting her head against the window, looking out at a world that was totally against her.

60 years later and I’m feeling Rosa’s same pain. It’s like, what was even the point of her sitting down? If you think about it, Rosa had it kinda easy—she only had to deal with Alabama. Whereas when I want to do good, because I actually care about my global village, all I get is worldwide hate.

I was so excited to drop my mental health awareness sweater line yesterday. I ended up going for pastel blue reversible crewnecks with the slogans: “Have you taken your Zoloft today?” and “Klonopin is my bestie,” with matching sweaters sold separately for small-to-medium sized dogs or large cats. But as soon as it

stalls risky software.

Curtis also said schools should consider integrating cyber safety into courses across all disciplines, citing practices such as using two-factor authentication for all login processes and ensuring that third-party applications cannot be installed on university computers without approval from the school’s IT department.

Ryerson chief information officer Brian Lesser said since 2017 Ryerson has conducted cybersecurity awareness month every October, providing cybersecurity pop-quizzes for students to prepare them in the case of a malware attack.

Lesser said, generally speaking, a university department will request to use a third-party app for a course and the IT department will do a subsequent privacy assessment on the

platform to decide whether it is safe.

The university also carried out a series of contests that encouraged students to report fake phishing emails that were intentionally sent by the school all throughout the month.

Marcus Edwards, a former member of Ryerson’s Cybersecurity Research Lab, told The Eyeopener that the university blocks up to 500 malicious malware email attachments every day and received one million password guessing attempts in one week.

Statistics Canada reported that 47 per cent of cyber security incidents that year affected universities and were more likely to be impacted by malware to steal money or demand ransom payments. It also notes that 70 per cent of universities reported that their employees required additional time to respond to the attacks.

Simon Fraser University was hit with a ransomware attack in February 2020, compromising the information of about 250,000 students, faculty and alumni as reported by CBC. Mehdi Shajari, an assistant professor in the Ted Rogers School of Management agrees with Curtis in that the biggest concern for students navigating the internet is a lack of education in cyber safety.

“The only way to to cope with the threat [of cybercriminals] is awareness,” said Shajari. “Knowledge is very important, [especially] knowledge of cyber security among students.”

He also said universities need to work to help students improve their understanding of internet security.

According to Shajari, students should be particularly careful with emails from unknown senders, unfa-

Since the start of the pandemic, Statistics Canada also determined that more than one in three Canadians have received a phishing attack.

Recently, Ryerson created a campaign created by Human Rights Services at the university. The campaign was introduced to have a centralized list of resources for Ryerson students to consult on their online safety.

Its community members are able to file a complaint with Human Rights Services based on the sexual violence policy, the university said in an email to The Eye. Students are only able to file complaints through this service when engaging in university-related activities. However, the policy may apply to social media even if the account is not directly affiliated with the school.

launched, people started flooding my Instagram comments saying the line was “insensitive.”

So typical because people loooveeee to wear Moschino and Nike logos on their shirts, but when it’s a message with an actual meaning, suddenly everyone’s against it. Society is so superficial, it makes me sick. Everyone talks about the stigma attached to mental health, but no one talks about the stigma attached to talking about the stigma attached to mental health. I’d love to see “Bell Let’s Talk” talk about THAT for a change.

The worst part was people saying $475 was too expensive just for the dog/cat sweater. I mean, sorry, this is a fast-fashion-free zone. Didn’t we as a society agree child labour is bad? Or maybe that was just me, because I actually care...

Haters don’t get that social activism isn’t just fun for me; it’s my life.

Do they know how hard it is to create a cottagecore-themed infographic of COVID-19 death tolls in South Asia in a way that isn’t totally depressing? Do they think I enjoy scouring through TikTok sounds to find the perfect classical music for my guide to the best GoFundMe campaigns helping golden retrievers affected by the Australia wildfires?

No one sees your intention and your good heart when they prosecute you online. Excuse me, but I

didn’t realize it was a crime now to use your platform to spark social change. I’m just so sick of the carceral state, you know? And to think, I could be an Amazon Prime student-ambassador-influencer right now if I wasn’t so committed to my anti-corporate ideals. I sacrificed two-day shipping for my life-long commitment to activism.

Maybe it’s my fault for making effortlessness my brand. My followers only see the final polished product, not all of the thought and effort that goes behind each decision. And really, that’s on me. I should do a POV TikTok tomorrow to show my process of developing a hashtag for the refugee crisis in Venezuela.

Ultimately, whatever people com-

ment, I know I was destined to bring the greatest good I can to the world, and I refuse to be silenced. I’m not gonna give up my work. I’m not gonna stand up from this seat. And if SHEIN bounced back from selling swastika necklaces, I can bounce back from this.

With love, Haley

10

</unplugged>

In a senate subcommittee hearing that took place in October in the U.S., senator Richard Blumenthal asked Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, if she was committed to ending “finsta.” In response, she clarified the meaning of the slang term and explained that finstas are not products developed

by Facebook.

The term "finsta" is derived from "fake Instagram" or "finstagram," and refers to an individual’s secondary social media account made for content they'd prefer to share more privately, often with close friends or people they trust.

This gives users a layer of privacy if they don’t want to be associated with their real name or public account and to hide posts from family members, workplaces or schools.

Finstas are also sometimes referred to as spam accounts. These are private, secondary accounts where people post without the fear of judgement and more frequently than they would on their public profiles.

“I just made it because I thought it’d be fun” Third-year graphic communications management student Michelle Martínez Peña said she started an alternate account when she was about 13 years old, after seeing her peers creating them. When the microblogging site Tumblr was more popular, she said she had “stupid shit” that she didn’t want anyone else to see.

“I just made it because I thought it’d be fun. It was pretty early on, [around] 2013 or 2014, before they got really popular,” said Martínez Peña. “There was no real pressure to do it. I need a backup [account] that’s not going to be something that my parents or family are going to see.”

The secret life of ‘finstas’ words by darya soufian | visual by andrew yang

“There’s this myth young people don’t care about privacy”

Platforms such as Twitter and Instagram commonly host people’s alternate social accounts because of the easy-to-use privacy and security options. The platforms also allow people to stay logged into multiple accounts from a single device, allowing for easy profile creation to take on multiple online personas.

Twitter and Instagram also offer the ability to approve or deny a follow request from certain profiles to restrict the amount of people that can view the contents of a profile.

Canadian journalist and RTA School of Media associate professor Ramona Pringle said she first learned about finstas through an article by digital media researcher and Cornell University professor Brooke Erin Duffy.

Pringle wrote an article and did a radio piece on the topic for CBC, outlining why some people create

Off the grid words by jack wannan | visual by andrew yang If you want to contact Lauren Gillanders, Instagram may not be the best option. The third-year social work student is currently doing something that few do these days, and that’s cutting a social media platform completely out of her life.

In a world where people have to be on social media for friends, family,

and warrant suspicion, prompting questions such as "Where are you?" or "What are you hiding?"

Kara Brisson-Boivin is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University and director of research at MediaSmarts, an organization focused on digital literacy. Brisson-Bovin said that what people do or upload in the online space lives beyond the moment in which you posted it.

school and even work, it’s not easy to leave these online networks that keep people connected. But without an Instagram account, Gillanders says she likes the change in her life. Viewing others’ posts and making her own took up large chunks of her day.

“I was spending way too much time on it. It would be the middle

‘fake’ social media accounts to reveal their real personalities, a contrast from the pressure of maintaining a polished, public account.

“Even though a platform like Instagram promotes the idea that everyone is their authentic self, the reality is that it’s very performative,” said Pringle.

Not all finsta users have public accounts, some have private personal accounts and secondary finsta pages with follower counts typically in the low double-digits, according to the professor. Pringle admitted that although her main profile isn’t public on Instagram, she still has multiple accounts for tracking things like recipes and interior design.

A common reason for these secondary accounts is for protection from future employers, something that Pringle discussed with Duffy, who said this is what drives the

finsta phenomenon.

According to CareerBuilder’s 2018 social media recruitment survey, 70 per cent of employers use social networking sites to conduct research on potential candidates. It also found that more than half of hiring managers who screen applicants via social media have found information that gave them reason not to hire candidates.

“The various aspects of our personality don’t always match up to tell a perfectly curated story,“ said Pringle about social media identity.

“We’re complicated and we’re nuanced, but it also isn’t necessarily what you want an employer or the admissions committee seeing, or if you’re a celebrity, your fans seeing.”

She also said that if people were to Google someone or search them up on another platform and nothing came up, it would raise a red flag

of the day [and] I would just find myself submerged in Instagram,” said Gillanders, who said her phone usage would balloon to an “outrageous” seven or eight hours per day.

For many, leaving social media is easier said than done. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter have become intertwined in people’s personal and professional lives giving them more reason to constantly maintain an online presence.

to leave Instagram in high school, but coming back because she felt “out of the loop.” This time around, Gillanders had to figure out how much she actually cared about what would be missed out on.

Leaving social media isn’t just leaving behind an account. For some, it means potentially losing connections that were developed and maintained on digital platforms.

It’s part of what brought Ameena Pathan back online after a one-week absence earlier this year.

“There were so many group chats on social media [and] there were so many friends that I only had on social media,” said Pathan, a graduate of Ryerson’s new media program who graduated from the university in the winter 2021 semester.

It’s not hard to find almost anyone on social media. Engagement on social media for young adults is prevalent amidst society’s shift to digital transformation. An October 2020 study by eMarketer found that 99

“There were so many friends that I only had on social media” Gillanders made the decision last month to deactivate her Instagram account, detaching her from one of the most used social media platforms in the country. It’s something she has tried before and is attempting again, and she says it’s not easy.

She remembers specifically trying

In 2019, Brisson-Boivin did a qualitative research project with young Canadians on privacy and consent. She said she’s not surprised young people want an “alternative, harder-to-find or almost unassociated account with themselves.”

“Some of our more recent research projects have shown young people are increasingly showing an awareness of the need to maintain a particular level of professionalism,” said Brisson-Boivin.

“I think they are also aware specifically because of the consequences for future employment.”

She added people as young as 14 and 15 are concerned about how their online actions will impact their university decisions or a future job.

From celebrities like Cole Sprouse and Lorde to Ryerson students, having another account is becoming the new normal for an online identity. Brisson-Boivin believes there's a common misconception about young people and privacy.

“There’s this myth young people don’t care about privacy and that’s not true at all,” said Brisson-Boivin.”Young people care a lot and they put in a lot of time and effort into managing the various audiences that see their social content.” per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 use a social media network at least once per month.

“I was spending way too much time on [social media]” Many social media platforms have evolved over the years, allowing more ways to communicate than publicly posting an image or video.

Many people use apps like Instagram or Twitter to privately message— something that wasn’t originally offered by the platforms at launch.

Instagram started its direct messaging feature in December 2013, while Twitter only increased its direct message character count from 140 to 1,000 in June 2015, nine years after Twitter opened to the public.

Read the full story at unplugged.theeyeopener.com.

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RU DISCONNECTED? Addressing the digital divide between Ryerson students and online learning word by jessica mazze | visuals by vedangi patel Although post-secondary institutions have begun to open up campus spaces for in-person learning, universities across the country are increasing digital adoption. This means that students, faculty and staff may continue to navigate virtual environments even after the pandemic is over.

Schools have been more open to digital transformation with the adoption of Zoom lectures, but there are students and faculty who live in areas where they cannot keep up with the university’s rapid adoption of newer technologies. For some, this might mean being constantly disconnected from virtual work or learning environments because of the area in which they live.

38 per cent of households report download speeds below the CRTC’s national target of 50 megabits per second This phenomenon is known as the digital divide: a number of barriers that prevent some from having internet and computer access.

This could mean having a wifi plan that is affordable, yet slow. Or perhaps download speeds are below 50 megabits per second in Toronto, or even having a computer that cannot download additional learning software for university assignments.

Even simply having a laptop and internet connection is not enough

to handle today’s standard of digital access, according to Nour Abdelaal, a policy analyst at the Ryerson Leadership Lab. With remote learning, the transition to virtual work and schooling has meant that households in Toronto have a greater demand for a strong internet broadband. “You want to make sure that it’s the right speed to be able to do complex things like online learning, Zoom meetings and making sure those connections are working,” Abdelaal said.

According to a 2021 report from the Leadership Lab and the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship, a policy institute that researches on Canada’s innovation economy, 98 per cent of Toronto households have home internet access.

However, the study found that about 38 per cent of households report download speeds below the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) national target of 50 megabits per second.

For Ryerson students, having internet access to go through online schooling has been crucial for academic success, as well as managing internships or part-time work.

“I would have preferred to live at home, but my parents are from an incredibly rural area, so I didn’t have access to fast internet,” said Genevieve Whiteway, a third-year environmental and human geography student at the University of Toronto.

Whiteway is from Nova Scotia, and although she preferred to be

with her family during the lockdown in March 2020, she stayed in Toronto to have the internet access she needed for her coursework.

“I wouldn’t have had nearly the access that I had before. A lot of the work that I do would be through computer programming online,” said Whiteway.

A common problem that has come up for many university students is that the software they need for classes has taken up their storage space on their computers, while the software itself runs slowly as a result. Students who have access to home internet may still not have the equipment or technology needed to support educational software for their learning.

For Kyle Shepherd, a first-year fashion design student at Ryerson, having Photoshop and other Adobe Suite programs installed on his computer has caused problems that impact his schooling.

“The projects that I’m doing require those programs,” said Shepherd. “They take up so much space.”

Amandeep Singh Batth, a data analytics student at the Chang School for Continuing Education who is completing his final certificate class this year, had to upgrade his computer to run a virtual lab for his final team project.

“A lot of things had to be downloaded in our virtual lab…and it was a lot slower than it would have been in person,” said Batth.

His previous Windows computer was much slower and could not run the virtual labspace he needed.

Batth realized he needed to invest in a better laptop, reasoning that he needed a computer that had a better configuration that could support his learning software.

As Ryerson plans for an increased number of in-person classes on campus in January, students will have limited access to public spaces that offer free internet access, like libraries and cafes that are connected to wifi. Commuter students and those with slow internet or limited access may not be able to utilize a better infrastructure provided by universities, an infrastructure used to accommodate thousands of students who don’t have access to the technology at home.

According to Abdelaal, the digital divide is an affordability problem for students in the city. Though for students living in rural areas, the divide can be categorized as an infrastructure problem that is exacerbated by weaker internet access the further they live from the city and into more rural areas.

“We found that affordability concerns for digital assets has been a huge driving factor of the digital divide, especially when we’re talking about university students,” said Abdelaal.

According to Abdelaal, telecommunications companies have certain programs that are cheaper for low-income students, young parents in school and disabled students, yet they have strict program eligibil-

ity criteria that bars access.

“There are programs that definitely assist a huge portion of the population, but don’t necessarily capture the full extent of the digital divide,” says Abdelaal.

In the Brookfield Institute report, 42 per cent of those in Toronto without home internet access use the public library for access, compared to 16 per cent overall.

Abdelaal says that universities can address the digital divide by acting as “facilitators” by partnering with libraries, community organizations or even local school boards to loan out devices.

“I would have preferred to live at home, but my parents are from an incredibly rural area, so I didn’t have access to fast internet” She believes another solution to the digital divide would be to have universities and school boards increase their digital literacy training for students and give them “the right skills and tools to be able to communicate online.”

Batth suggested that the university should create a phone line for technical problems, one that students can call should they struggle with online learning.

“I would recommend having one hotline number for the university for all technical issues,” said Batth.

Although Ryerson has IT help services available for technical issues in the virtual classroom, Batth found that he and his classmates had to talk to a few people to find the one person who could assist them in navigating classroom software.

“A single hotline number would be easier, because sometimes it’s a mix [of problems] and you have multiple resources and contacts, but you don’t know where to go,” he said.

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Facebook shut down, family meltdown words by sophia de guzman | visuals by laila amer

A key finding from a report by Ryerson University’s Social Media Lab was that Facebook was most popular among users aged 55 and over. This demographic covers over 50 per cent of the site’s monthly active users. The same report also found that the site lost 11 per cent of its demographic aged 18 to 24 in 2020. Signs point to what many young people already believe: Facebook is dying.

Some first and second-generation immigrant students rely on these sites to stay connected to their family However, Facebook and particularly its subsidiary WhatsApp, remain vital to a portion of young users. Some first and secondgeneration immigrant students rely on these sites to stay connected to their family and friends abroad.

On Oct. 4, Facebook and Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and WhatsApp were down for about six hours in a nearly global outage. Soon after, users began to report having issues with the platforms, Facebook acknowledged that systems were not functioning properly in a tweet. Only a few days later on Oct. 8, the tech giant, yet again, acknowledged another outage.

“I wouldn’t be able to communicate with my extended family that I’m already losing contact with by not being there” According to a statement by Facebook posted to its site, both outages were brought on by selfinflicted errors.

With Facebook and its subsidiaries housing over $3 billion daily active users, both outages caused the hashtag ‘#facebookdown to be trending on Twitter for hours on both days.

The first shutdown was the product of a mistake made

during routine maintenance, “effectively disconnecting Facebook from data centres globally,” according to its parent company, Meta. The second and shorter outage was caused by an error in system configuration, preventing some users from accessing Facebook and its products to contact loved ones and run their businesses.

Second-year child and youth care student Nicole Agyenim Boateng said she keeps a close connection with her uncle and family in Ghana

through Facebook; if it were to shut down for a week, Boateng said she might risk losing that close connection with them.

“I don’t think I was able to talk to my family for about the entirety of the day that Facebook was shut down”

had to resort to using another platform just to hear from her families in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Sri Lanka, as she uses WhatsApp for daily chats with her family.

“I don’t think I was able to talk to my family for about the entirety of

“I wouldn’t be able to communicate with my extended family that I’m already losing contact with by not being there. It’s integral to my family staying together.”

Ramona Pringle, director of Ryerson’s Creative Innovation Studio and

the day that [Facebook] was shut down,” she said.

Due to some restrictions around what apps can be used in the UAE, Fernando uses another similar app, Botim. With a paid monthly subscription, Botim users are able to call and send messages, serving as a associate professor at substitute for Fernando during the Ryerson University, said the Facebook shutdown. wide age-range that exists on However, all of these experiFacebook versus other social ences only consider Facebook as media platforms is a possible its initial implementation—a social reason for its decrease in popunetworking site. Since its launch larity with Gen Z. in 2004, Facebook has grown to Despite its detachment from become one of the most powerthe younger generation, Faceful media and tech giants in the book remains the most popular world, acquiring companies that social media platform in Canada broaden its offerings. with 83 per cent of Canadians A prime example is its 2014 having an account, according to acquisition of WhatsApp worth the Social Media Lab’s report. $16 billion, which reaches a more Dezerine Fernando, a thirdinternational audience, as well as year social work student, said she Instagram and Oculus VR, which

Facebook intended for a younger audience.

In its expansion, Facebook may not even need to stay cool with the kids to continue bringing in revenue—it would still have success by launching “parallel products that are appealing to younger demographics,” according to Pringle.

“I do think it’s within the realm of possibility that what we see as Facebook today, the standalone app, may cease to exist,” she said. “But I think that they have got the reach, the human power to maintain their market dominance as where people turn to connect.”

“Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has grown to become one of the most powerful media and tech giants in the world” On Oct. 28, the parent company behind Facebook the social media platform announced that it would be changing its name to Meta, prefacing its upcoming launch of the ‘metaverse,’ a virtual world in which people can work, communicate and play online.

What that means for the future of Facebook’s suite of apps is unclear, but it’s certain the shutdowns only proved their importance to so many.