[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. Sometimes with mean words. 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 whether the first date is dead!) 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!]

There has been a lot of controversy lately over sites like RateBU, where pictures of girls are posted online and people vote on whether or not they’re hot. Yeah, I only wish I’d made that up. Regardless of whether you think this kind of thing is just fine or is a pathetic excuse for shallow douchbaggery, the question that a lot of schools are facing is – should this be allowed to happen? The question’s on the table ladies, let’s get to it!

Side A – We’re not talking about consensual sites here, where people post pics of themselves for others to judge. What we’re talking about is random people finding photos of others and posting them for the world to rate. Is it just me, or hasn’t cyber-bullying been one of the big hot button issues of the last few years… and isn’t this pretty much exactly the same thing? Whether the girls get rated well or not, it’s still submitting them for judgment and potential ridicule without their knowledge or acceptance. And particularly when these websites are affiliated or related to colleges, shouldn’t they be required to shut down this kind of content and punish the offenders the same way they would if someone, say, put up derogatory posters about someone else all over campus?

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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 »

While tirelessly working on a PowerPoint presentation for my Foreign Policy class this past Friday, I was forwarded another slew of slides chock-full of facts, images, and evaluations. However, these were far from academic.

As I clicked a link in the email, I was led to an article detailing one Duke University female’s fake senior thesis, titled “An education beyond the classroom: excelling in the realm of horizontal academics.” Highlighting her late-night (and decently drunken) romps with several Duke athletes, the writer created slides with Facebook pictures of the men, followed by detailed (and rather defamatory) evaluations of their performances.

The fact that this girl slept with a few lacrosse and baseball players isn’t really an issue. I mean, it’s college even the dweeb who has the roley backpack gets lucky during his four years on campus. What’s wrong here is that this woman’s PowerPoint presentation was forwarded to a few friends, who forwarded it to a few other friends, and the thing went viral.

Welcome to the new generation of Kissing-and-Telling. Read More »

[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month we're following Ariel as she, GASP, quits Facebook. She made it through her first week, despiter her body shutting down (no, for real). She was fine during week numero dos, even feeling a sense of freedom. And then she had a little relapse. Let's check in and see how she survived her fourth and final week sans the 'book.]

So I have now gone four mostly Facebook-free weeks. Which is saying something considering my little incident last weekend. I swear the universe was playing games with me for my final week of this challenge.

I’m officially back on campus, which makes living without Facebook damn near impossible. How am I supposed to figure out my plans for the night without FB lining up my social calendar in a neat column organized by RSVPs of definitely yes, maybe (if nothing else is going on) and no you will not catch me there if suddenly you were the only house throwing down in Frat Land?

And if that’s not bad enough, during some Thirsty Thursday festivities, my Crackberry (and myself) experienced a little blackout. Yeah, my only connection to the world was gone. Without Facebook or a cell phone, there would be nearly no way to communicate with anyone. I took a moment to cry/freak out. How would I contact my friends to let them know I was going to be late for our Friday night pre-game?

It was almost scary how disconnected I felt. Read More »

Facebook can turn even the most confident girl into a crazy stalker. Whether it’s clicking rapidly through photo albums and tagged pictures or checking out every. single. girl. who posts on your random hook-up’s wall, we’ve all been there. And that’s OK. It’s not like we’re sitting in a windowless van outside someone’s house for hours, watching their every move. No, we’re just reading what they wanted us to read. No privacy settings, no problem!

But while creepin’ on The Book is totes acceptable, there are some things that just aren’t. So if you’re so-bored-you-want-to-die at your summer job, or even if you’re just obsessed with finding out which of your long lost high school peers has gotten knocked up – if you want to keep your creeping under wraps, remember these few things when you go on a stalking expedition. Read More »

Snooze-fest.

Do you remember the good ol’ days freshman year? Sitting nervously in front of your laptop on a Sunday morning, awaiting the moment your friends would post the infamous pictures from the weekend? Then, it happens. At around noon, after a long breakfast spent reminiscing in the cafeteria Facebook explodes with album after album of weekend adventures. You spend hours laughing at your screen with your roommates: Who is that rando taking shots with us? You did a keg stand this weekend? Oh, so that’s where we got the blow-up doll!

Back in the day, Sunday mornings (or the entire day…) were dedicated to reflecting on the moments captured from the night before via Facebook. I know I used to love those days, when you found out you weren’t the only one running around campus having a good time….er….looking like a hot mess.

But fast forward three years when everyone and their your mother is watching what you decide to post on Facebook. You can’t just post everything you want anymore with reckless abandon; you’ve got your future to think about, and the judgment of your entire extended family (who are all now your FB friends), and the fact that Facebook is changing their privacy settings so often, you have no idea who can see your latest drunken exploits. So you start thinking before you post, de-tagging unflattering (from a professional perspective) photos, and deleting anything remotely inappropriate (“Let’s get crunk tonight!”)  from your Wall. Read More »

As a generation of Facebookers, Twitterers, bloggers, BBMers, iPhone-ers, GPS users, and so on and so on, we are often viewed by the older I-went-to-the-library-to-do-research generation as lazy and dependent.  We have the world at our fingertips and we don’t have to use our brains for virtually anything, or so they claim.

Yes, we can access Google at any moment, and no we do not need White Out to correct our papers, but to the contrary, it is our 24/7 connection that makes us anything but lazy when it comes to fighting for what we believe in.

Take for example, the heated debate of gay marriage.  While an older generation calls the shots in Congress, in most states, it is still illegal.  According to a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 65 percent of college freshman surveyed were in favor of gay marriage.  The findings revealed that even a large majority of students classified as far-right were also supporters. Read More »

If you’re anything like me, you’re a sucker for a name brand. Despite wanting to be above it, I die when I see the new Marc Jacobs handbags or Prada runway show at Fashion Week. Also, if you’re anything like me, your bag costs more than what’s in your bank account and realistically you shouldn’t be buying that Chanel watch that costs more than your rent.

And that’s where consignment shops come in. Once you get past the fact that you’re not going to have a Saks-esque experience, these stores are a goldmine of high-end fashion for a college budget. However, rooting through said stores can be a lot of work and not exactly the most pleasant experience. So you turn to Ebay; it’s great for designer labels, but you soon learn (often the hard way) that you never know what you’re exactly getting.

Enter, online consignment! The way of the shopping future is here, and it’s named WWW and wearing Gucci loafers.

Consignment is just like picking through a closet that isn’t yours. The closet of that girl on campus who always looks super pulled together and fabulous. The one you want to hate because she always looks so damn perfect, but you can’t hate because she’s just so darn nice. She’s got a smile that matches her flawless wardrobe and handbags, and you would just kill to raid her closet for just one night.

Well, now you can! Christabelle is that girl and she’s opened her closet to you! OK, so maybe she’s not actually letting you rifle through her personal closet, but Christabelle’s Closet, an online consignment shop, is every college girl’s dream. This online shop has new or nearly new designer clothes that would make any savvy college girl gasp. From Gucci Flats to Rebecca Minkoff bags, Christabelle’s got it all, including a fully stocked designer label $10 section chock full of Michael Star tees and Intermix dresses. Yeah, ten freaking dollars.

And Christabelle is as sweet as she is fashion savvy, offering a very haute deal for CollegeCandy readers:

She’s giving you (and me!) 15% OFF ANYTHING in her closet for the entire month of March just by entering the code COLLEGECANDY when you check out.

I know I’ll be using it when I finally snag those Dolce & Gabbana heels that I’ve had my eye on for-ev-er. And probably a few other gorgeous things she’s got hanging in that virtual closet of hers.

With a deal like this, soon you’ll be that girl on campus that everyone wants to hate because you’re always looking so good. And they’ll want to hate you even more when they know how little it cost you to do it.

Just recently, I heard through the grape-vine about a little video-chat sensation called Chatroulette. Now, we have all heard of Skype, a video chat used to communicate with friends for free. But creators of Chatroulette decided to float to the rebellious side of things and create a video chat for strangers. Of course, this is the next best thing since AOL chat rooms.  Me and my friends had a blasty blast with those things in seventh grade, so chances are we can have just as much fun 10 years later via video, right?

I took it upon myself to recruit my noble roommates to find out. After we had a five minute primp session in front of the webcam, we decided it was time to take the plunge into the Chatroulette universe. There we were, tilting her heads back and forth in the webcam establishing our places on screen, and nervously debating pressing Play [trust me ladies, this phase was as melo-dramatic as it sounds].  It is quite nerve-racking to toy with the possibility of being face to face with a stranger. On the internet. In my bedroom. So, with our utmost courage-we pressed play. Read More »

It was just another daily Facebook-check when a message from Mark Zuckerberg appeared on the top of my newsfeed. Blah, blah, blah. Shut up, shut up, shut up. We know there are millions of users on Facebook – my mother is on it for God’s sake – no need to write us a message about it, Mark! (Yeah, we’re on first name basis.)

Bored, I closed the letter and contined on to my daily Facebook routine (you know you have one, too):
Check notifications
Check boyfriend’s page
Check cute guy in class’s page
Check for new photo albums of friends…

And then I typed in my ex-boyfriend’s name. We’re not friends on Facebook anymore (so dramatic), but I just have to check if he’s changed his picture!  Don’t judge – you know you do it. Read More »