What? TV doesn't portray reality? No way...

I am experiencing a lull in my Netflix queue. Nothing's leaving and nothing new is getting to me. There is only one explanation for this: I currently have at home all 3 discs of the first season of Greek.

The ABC Family series, currently in the second part of its first season, follows the lives of a group of college students in different (fictional) fraternities and sororities at the fictional Cyprus-Rhodes University. Real-life Greek students seem to be split on the issue. At the outset, I was against the idea of a show about Greek life that uses a red keg cup as its logo. But one "maybe I'll just watch one episode to see how bad it is" viewing spurred more. And now I'm hooked.

But this is not a post about how the show misrepresents fraternities and sororities, as I could go on forever about details big and small that they get wrong--and, sometimes, right. The show is true to life in the sense that in any Greek community, there will be people that go to the extreme with the party lifestyle, and there will be people who live in moderation.

However. The show gets something wrong on not only in portraying Greeks, but simply in portraying modern college students.

Cell phones and texting are only minimally shown. Computers are only used in an academic sense. No one uses any form of instant messaging, or even vaguely references the Internet. Social media doesn't even seem to exist. And how realistic is that?!

From what I've seen, college students are always communicating in some form that does not necessarily include face-to-face contact. And sometimes, they are talking face-to-face AND communicating to someone else in another manner. They are connected to each other in dozens of ways, and Greek just doesn't ring true to me in that aspect. And if you ask me, the writers are missing out on some great potential plot twists. Why not have the dean find out about an illegal function via Twitter, or a ZBZ sister get dumped on Facebook? Situations like that happen in real collegiate and Greek life, so why not show it on TV?

Gotta go. The new episode is on.

Obsession.

It takes a lot for me to actually spend 99 cents on an iTunes song rather than steal it from one of my friends. This is one of those songs.

Chris Brown (18-year-old phenom) and Jordin Sparks (last season's American Idol winner) sang their hit duet, "No Air," on the Idol results show last week. It's hot. So hot that I sat on the floor next to the TV so I could be closer to it. (I don't care if that makes me a cougar, he's 18 and he's amazing!) It's refreshing to see young entertainers who actually have talent, and who clearly have fun doing their jobs.

Check out the clip below, and try not to love the song. (Also, note Chris Brown's new star tattoo behind his right ear. Rihanna, 19-year-old phenom rumored to be his girlfriend, also got a new star tattoo down her back. They're totally doing it.)

Millenial Insights

This term, I'm one of two teaching assistants in a class at the University of Oregon called Values-Based Leadership. I helped conceptualize and implement this class, and it's great to see it finally come into existence. The title sounds vague, I know, but what I prefer to call it is the Greek Leadership class. Open to new members of the University's fraternity and sorority community, this small class is helping freshmen begin to understand how they can be leaders in their chapters and on campus, by investigating their own personal leadership styles, exploring other styles, and discussing issues for our community. I have seldom met such an impressive group of 18-20 year olds. No, seriously. They blow my mind with some of their insights and comments about what leadership is.

That's why I'm so excited to see how they develop over the next 7 weeks. We have assigned to them a final project of a 3-5 minute documentary video about some issue that pertains to the Oregon Greek community. Today, we helped them brainstorm a list of topics, and seeing their wheels start turning was fantastic. To give them an idea of what such a video could look like, our director showed this video from Kansas State University. While it doesn't directly talk about Greek Life at all, it is A) a unique way to present information, and B) gives some quality insights into today's millenial students. Check it out below, and I'll post class updates from time to time.

Do Social Media Make You Schizophrenic?

Right now on Facebook, I "had a perfect spring term weekend."
On AIM, I'm "finance project, then dinner out with ali"
On Twitter, I'm " Blogging about social media kind of feels like a form of existentialism. I think."
On LinkedIn, I'm struggling to find a job.
And I have an entirely different personality on Blogger, mainly because I'm allowed way more characters.

As social media continue to explode, we suddenly have dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of different ways to express who we are. I'm not even going to list all of the ways social networks allow today's consumer to display information, because there are just way too many. But as a student of social media, it is interesting to note the different ways people tweak their personalities depending on which social medium they are using.

For me, Facebook is strictly for my friends, and people in my immediate (in real life) social circle. My status frequently includes current song lyrics that reflect my mood or plans, details about what I'm doing that week/weekend, or shout-outs to friends on their birthdays. AIM is the same, just a free way to talk to many people at once. My buddy list is solely people I know and have reason to talk to on a regular basis. My away messages, then, are pretty similar to my Facebook statuses-- what I'm doing, when I'm doing it, and how I'm feeling.

But I conduct myself differently in different areas of the Internet. I just started using Twitter, and I've found it more interesting to "follow" people I don't actually know, but who share my interests. With only 140 characters to craft your statement, it feels less creepy to follow someone via Twitter than to follow them on Facebook, with its over-sharing capabilities. So my "tweets" generally have more to do with what's happening in my chosen industry than anything about my emotions. And on LinkedIn, I'm just trying to job hunt, so I limit myself to professional information.

Managing all this information about myself can be daunting, and it does feel as if I have multiple personalities. Does anyone else feel this way? Is there a way that companies could capitalize on this in any way? Definitely good questions for the Web 2.0 age.

Random Thought of the Day

Why is coffee you make at home never as good as coffee you have at restaurants?

And I'm not talking coffee shops, that's a given that it's going to be better. I mean restaurants like your favorite brunch spot, where you can order large amounts of carbs and fats and grease to start off your day. (My personal favorite? Eggs benedict and home fries.) I think it's because when I ask for cream, I actually get cream in all its fat-full glory, whereas at home, I'm health-conscious and just splash in some fat-free milk. Which is basically water. And at restaurants, they have those handy packets of Splenda, which always seems to get my heart racing a little more quickly than actual sugar does.

So, in conclusion: Coffee at restaurants tastes better. Because I put bad-for-me shit in it. Next question: Is it worth it?