Yes, you read that headline right. The web is going on strike! What? Crazy, I know. The internet isn’t shutting down completely, don’t worry. But big name sites like Reddit, Mozilla, and even Twitpic will be unavailable on January 18th in protest of two internet censorship bills: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). These bills are making their way through Congress on January 24th and if passed, it will mean the death of the internet as we know it.

The proposed SOPA bill would allow copyright holders and the Department of Justice to file a court order against websites that enable or facilitate copyright infringement. Now, that’s a broad statement. Basically, “the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.” This could potentially shut down sites like Tumblr, Flickr, and more. We certainly don’t want people pirating, but this bill will seriously cripple the internet and our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Read More »

Jon Hamm’s new look has us swooning

Men weigh in on what makes a woman a slut

Eeeeww: 51 year old ‘Green Mile’ actor marries a 16 year old

There is now a virtual pregnancy suit for guys

Emotions that have been invented by the internet

4 habits you need to adapt this summer

Heidi Montag emerges in the public eye again

Beyonce’s mom is more of a diva than the singer!

Justin Timberlake loves being single

As if the devastation from the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami weren’t enough, Japan continues to deal with threats from a damaged nuclear power plant. Ready for some numbers that will stop you in your tracks? The current death toll stands at 8,100, 12,000 people remain missing and 452,000 have been displaced. These figures, unfortunately, are on the rise. There are a few heart-warming reports coming out, such as the 80-year-old woman and her grandson found yesterday who survived for 9 DAYS (eek!) beneath the rubble of their house, but for the most part headlines remain focused on the nuclear catastrophe.  The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant lost power following the earthquake, and since then has been releasing radiation into the surrounding area. The government has been working frantically to restore power, but traces of radiation have already been found in Tokyo’s tap water and produce at grocery stores.

Read More »

People can learn a lot about you from your Facebook profile. By considering your favorite movies, pictures, quotes and the things other people write on your wall, it is quite easy to get a good idea of who you are as a person. And knowing that, many of us are extremely careful about what we throw on there.

And I’m not talking about taking down all those drunk pictures from the Jell-O wrestling tournament so you can get that job with the government you’ve been coveting. I’m talking about leaving those up to show anyone and everyone who is looking that you are one cool girl who happens to enjoy wrestling in gelatin.

Your Facebook picture is especially important. It’s the first thing people see when they look you up, not to mention the fact that it comes up next to every wall post, Facebook message, chat, update, etc., that you do on that damn website. Naturally, you are going to put a lot of thought into your photo of choice. It needs to be a good representation of who you are, be it an artist, a class clown, or any other type of person.

I spend a lot of time on Facebook (is there a 12-step program out there?!) and I’ve noticed that of the 500 million people using the site worldwide, there only 6 basic types of photos that people post on their profile: Read More »

This is boring.

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like soul mates!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Schools all over have been experimenting with social media lately – some of them getting into it and some of them encouraging their students to stay out of it. Now Harrisburg University of Science and Tech are blocking all social media from the school’s network including Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and AIM for a week. They’re not the first school to try a move like this, but my question is, is it right?

I think we’re all willing to admit that we’re maybe a little over-connected, maybe a little obsessed with our social media and it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world not to check our Twitter feeds every two minutes. I’m not striking out against the school not supporting social media – it’s their network and if they don’t want students using it that way, it’s their prerogative to block those sites. My problem is that this is an experiment. That’s right, a guy at Harrisburg saw his teen daughter juggling a lot of social media and decided to see what would happen if he took it away. Except, instead of conducting this little experiment in his home, he chose to use his position at the college to pull a social media blackout for a week. And then proceeded to tell virtually no one about it. My qualms about the experiment’s ethics aside (hello, consent?) the bigger question is, is this something the school should really be policing?

Read More »

For every hour a student is in class, he or she should be studying for two.  That’s what they say, but is that what you do?  The Huffington Post reports that students today are studying drastically less than their predecessors.  While you or I might roll our eyes and say, “Duh Mr. Scientist man, haven’t you heard of Facebook?” the brains behind this study insist that social media outlets are not to blame for our desire to slack off.  Well…then what gives?  After briefly scratching my head and doing a minimal amount of research, I’ve come to the following conclusions:

Uhhh, It’s Called the Internet
While this report insists that the Internet is not to blame for our poor study skills, I have to disagree.  It’s not so much that I think we’re all on Facebook (she says as she closes that tab), I just think that the process of cracking a book open has changed so dramatically since the good ol’ days.  No longer are we wasting time flipping through card catalogues and rummaging in the library stacks.  It’s a simple point and click world- from Wikipedia to the New York Times archives, we have everything at our fingertips.  I refuse to believe that that doesn’t expedite our cram time.

Housewives Marathon.  All. Weekend. Long.
Guys, admit it: reality TV is like crack cocaine even to an actual crack addict.  Give me a comfy sofa (hell, give me the floor) and six solid hours of Project Runway, Housewives, The Hills…even a really good infomercial has the capacity to grab my attention.  When given the choice between a ten-pound Chemistry book and P.Diddy hawking Proactiv, there simply is no choice. Read More »

Have you heard of “dick slang,” the newest dance sensation sweeping the nation? No? Well, watch and be all at once fascinated, turned on and disturbed.

I have tried to come up with so many things to say about this video but I just can’t do it. Really, it speaks for itself.

Watch at your own risk.

While I love the Internet for giving us Facebook, AIM and the ninja way of downloading music without getting caught, there are still some things about going online and the web that I could do without. I’ve noticed that since I’ve been going on the web 24/7 for work and internships, I’ve been getting angry.

Really angry.

And here are just 5 of the things that make my want to throw something. Like my Macbook. But I stop myself, because it’s not her fault. And she’s just so pretty and shiny and wonderful… Well, when that rainbow beachball pinwheel thing doesn’t pop up every 3 minutes.

1. Those who don’t properly utilize the BCC
Come on, people. BCC was invented for a reason and that reason was to eliminate the firestorm of emails that comes from those morons who can’t tell the difference between “reply” and “reply to all.” Don’t risk getting 150 emails (50% of which are people complaining about those who reply to all) in response to your “Sunday Funday” email invitation and just use the BCC. PLEASE.

2. Those who don’t know the difference between “Reply” and “Reply to all”
See above. You’re making lots of enemies, reply-to-all-ers. Watch your back. Read More »

Let’s face it: we all make stupid decisions. Like choosing a fifth over a review session, or bringing that guy home…who stole our iPod in the morning. That’s part of college life… and a big part of what makes it so memorable. But there are some choices that have longer lasting repercussions; things we do now that will haunt us later.

So here are the 11 things from your 20’s you will most definitely regret when you’re 40. Read More »

Remember those slam books that used to circulate around middle schools and high schools when we were younger? Or the Burn Book that led to that day of sisterhood bonding after it was discovered in Mean Girls? [If you were lucky enough to miss out on this tween trend or are the only person on earth who hasn't seen Mean Girls, slam books were notebooks that got passed around, in which everybody could write their thoughts and feelings about another person without adding their name – and those thoughts and feelings were usually very negative and very hurtful]

Remember that horrible feeling you would get when you saw your name, terrified to read the comments but also unable to resist it? Remember how happy you were when those years were over and slam books were behind you?

Well, they’re back, they’re online and they’re worse than ever.
And you can create one for yourself?

Welcome to Formspring.com.

Formspring.com was originally made as a website where people could post anonymous questions on a person’s page for them to answer. I’m not sure of the exact reason for creating this site website, or why people would use it, but I’d like to think that it started with innocent intentions; a way for people to find out more about you without having to flat-out ask. However, like most things on the Internet, the site quickly morphed into something else.

Formspring in its current form has become a place where people can talk some major sh*t, and do some completely anonymously. Apparently, once you set up a page on there, you can comment on just about anything without ever having to list who you are. Postings range from actual questions (i.e. the original intentions) to vicious and evil comments (“You’re so fat,” “No one likes you,” “Why are you and your friends so ugly?”). Yeah, it’s bad. Read More »