What doesn't kill us.....we eat!

In the last class some students commented that fast food was too much for them to handle, or that they felt bad after they would eat it because of what went in to making the food. I didn't really understand why they chose to say that, considering the majority of campus food is fast food itself. In class big name fast food chains were discussed like McDonalds and Taco Bell but nobody mentioned anything like Uncrustable PBJ's, fountain drinks, or Bosco Sticks. Those foods are terrible for you, students just don't take notice of it because its not in a bag marked with the golden arches or a bell. I work in food service on campus at Lafollette and every day I make food that is bad for them and they keep coming back every time I work. Other times I will see someone look at a bag of chips containing 180 calories, then they will turn to their friend and say something along the lines of "this is disgusting" then they will get an Uncrustables sandwich which has 30 more calories and much more sugar in it. I just don't quite understand why people judge food by the label. They seem to have never heard the term "don't judge a book by its cover". These people are constantly ingesting crap into their system thinking that it is healthy when really it is worse than the things that they are trying to avoid. A way to fix this would be to promote looking at nutrition labels instead of looking at packaging that shows persuading healthy words to draw in the customer. Salads are one of the big foods that seem healthy but can actually be terrible for you. If you put too many things on the salad or too much sauce the calories can easily become very high. Salads may not always have nutrition facts on them because they're ordered at a restaurant or made at a salad bar, but the restaurants that serve salads should have a list of the calories in all of their menu items, or at least a close approximation. So next time when you're trying to decide between a bag of chips and a salad or Uncrustable remember to check the nutrition facts before throwing the chips back with disgust.

Intimacy and Social Media

Recently in class, we discussed intimacy in terms of social media. Although some individuals believe that social media hinders intimacy, others believe it improves relationships and satisfies intimacy requirements. The problem with both of these claims is that intimacy is not just one component but a combination of several qualities, such as: verbal communication, body language, physical touch, communication through text, etc. With that in mind, social media does not necessarily hinder intimacy between individuals, but at the same time, social media does not fulfill all of the requirements of intimacy.

First and foremost, I believe that social media has benefited society in many ways. The service is changing journalism and provides personal information to friends and acquaintances with little effort. One can send private messages, share photos, and boost their friends' self-esteem through retweets, likes, and other ways of approval. However, intimacy is much bigger than any social media service can provide. Although social media may allow two individuals to communicate with one another, I do not believe that alone should be considered intimacy, but rather, a quality that is a part of intimacy. If intimacy were a car, communication through social media could be considered the transmission, a component of the final product.

Most people want more out of their relationships with friends, family, or significant others than just messages, Skype chats, or Tweets, showing that social media can only provide certain parts of intimacy. Even after Skyping with a significant other, a service that provides face-to-face interactions, one would typically prefer to see the individual in real life.

Many people believe that social media sites fulfill all of their intimacy (intimate?) needs, causing them to feel lonely or unfulfilled. This unrealistic expectation is something that is fueling our individualistic society, replacing the all encompassing, intimate communities that individuals had 40 years with ago with more abstract and psychologically unfulfilling communities that we see today. Don't get me wrong, social media can provide parts of intimacy and improve aspects of relationships, but it cannot provide every quality within intimacy that face-to-face interactions provide.