What is a group chat? Akshat Iyer

Group chats. A conglomeration of many different personalities in one tiny screen. People think that it is a problem for a person to be on it for too long, and they might be right. Why would staring at a screen be good for anyone? However, we aren't just staring at a screen with mindless communications. We aren't hurting our eyes for fun. We are learning. We are getting to know people. And a group chat is a way to get to know many people at the same time. It isn't just some small useless screen. It is a form of bonding. Some people don't understand the need for this type of technology. It can be used in a multitude of ways, far more than is realized. Emotions can be passed. Problems can be passed, and solutions can be found. People can be helped out, not only academically, but mentally and emotionally as well. However, the group chat can have its downsides when the memberships fall into the wrong hands.

A group chat that starts becoming a cesspool of negativity and toxicity is not good for anyone. It isn't good for the people who just want to have a good time. It is not good for the people who want to be helped, academically, mentally, or emotionally. In fact, a toxic group chat can be mentally detrimental to a person, causing what happens in the cyberbullying movies they show us at school. Problems. Problems that can have a permanent impact on a person's perception about themselves, which can cause some very negative outcomes.

All in all, group chats are an experience that is unique with every instance that exists. They can either be an outlet for positivity, or a cesspool of negativity. Whatever it is depends on who are in it. Group chats truly depend on the beholders.

We have some positive vibes from our group chat, this was totally not staged, don't worry about it!.

Definition of New Years

by, Jenna Bargfrede

As the new year approaches around the corner one may begin to ask what does New Years mean? As a young girl I constantly wondered about the holiday. It always seemed trifling. What was the use of celebrating a thing that always comes? Birthdays will eventually end with a death. Christmas was a season of giving. Thanksgiving was there to show gratitude. Every holiday had some kind of purpose, but what was the purpose of celebrating the death of a year and the birth of a new one? After much thought I realized that there was a lot more meaning to the holiday than just the changing from one year to another. It means watching the ball drop, because no matter how stupid, how anticlimactic it is you always watch it. It means those family parties where you eat junk food/appetizers and watch a game or too. It means hanging out with friends, because they were there for you the entire year. It means new resolutions that will probably die in the first to weeks, but you try anyway because its a fresh slate and how can you pass that opportunity up. It means maturing. It means gathering the will to try again, to seize the opportunities that are given to you. It means the passing of time, moving on, change.

New Years celebrates life and how it continues indisputably. It celebrates the end of one year, the end of old, and transitions into the bright prospect of the new that is filled with opportunities. It celebrates your time on earth, because how else do we recognize a person's time on earth than by their years. New Years means many things, and I've begun to realize just why we celebrate it. So from the very bottom of my heart-- for perhaps the first time-- HAPPY NEW YEARS!