#Winning, fellas.

Sure, it’s common for us college students to talk about our hookups, whether it’s the best you’ve ever had or some really embarrassing story. I share things with my girlfriends, and dudes discuss it all the time. Heck, we used to have Morning After posts specifically for that purpose, but those are full stories that aren’t degrading and gross. However, there’s a difference between sharing within your circle of friends and sharing it all over the internet via Texts From Last Night format.

Let me introduce you to the sheer brilliance of BootyDrop.com, founded “to develop a culture where users can have fun with the site, while still respecting people in the stories and other Booty Droppers.” I’m sorry, but you can’t seriously expect users on this site to respect each other or those in the stories when the whole purpose is to basically degrade and embarrass said people in said stories. When explaining what a Booty Drop is, founders Matthew Weaver and Kevin Lance state, “Let’s be honest. Attending college was never about the education anyway. It’s about hooking up. You tell your friends the next day, but why stop there? Instead tell the world, anonymously.” Are you kidding me?! I’d love to have that conversation with my parents… “Hey Mom and Dad, I know you’ve been spending an ungodly amount of money on my college education, but I hope you know it’s really about me hooking up.” College is definitely about education, and those who don’t think so are probably the ones taking the Van Wilder route and failing their classes. Read More »

Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have (sadly) become a drug to our generation (and to our parents, all of a sudden). While social media definitely has its perks, it also has many cons, and I’m not just talking about how easy it is for my entire family to become friends with me and comment on every one of my statuses.

Perks: It allows people to keep in touch with old (and new) acquaintances, post and view pictures, spread the word about events on campus, meet people, and express themselves.

Not-so-perks: It also allows people to share (um) personal things. Really personal things (really often) that just make people feel really uncomfortable and awkward.

So how do you know if you’re using it all right or oh so horribly wrong? Here are just a few signs that you overshare on social media:

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Jimmy Kimmel has deemed November 17^th National Unfriend Day.  Yes, he’s talking Facebook and he’s insisting that you don’t really have 763 “friends” in real life, so why should you online?  Time to trim the fat, people!

Initially I thought this was a great idea.  Eliminating all those random welcome week acquaintances and sophomore year World Civ group project people would be pretty great.  I mean, seriously, who are these people anyway?  Do I care that your sister just had a baby?  Do I want to know what movie you watched last night with your mom?  Should you be posting pictures of your new tramp stamp?  Hell no.

But upon thinking some more, hitting that “unfriend” button could induce a sort of high.  It would start with people you’ve never heard of, increase to the ones you shared a few classes with, and end when you’ve cut all online ties to ex-boyfriends and old hook-ups.  Holy batman, you can’t stalk them anymore!  You can’t see if their new girlfriend is prettier than you!  You can’t know if they’re posting mysterious song lyrics that may or may not point to the beautiful moment you shared in the back of the bar last Thursday night when his hand was up your shirt!  What have you done!?

While I don’t think you should skip this new holiday altogether, I encourage you to observe it with a modicum of restrain.  Here’s a cheat sheet on who to delete now and who to keep around for a little longer:

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At the bar this past weekend, I saw a flash go off in the corner of my eye. A group of seniors lovingly grouped together to document their last first-night out in college. Moments later, as they began to separate from their completely posed positions, I heard a backwards-hat clad boy shout to the cameraman, “Tag me, bro!”

This scene is absurdly common. In fact, I am relatively shocked if only one “OMG… DETAG!” reverberates through my ears a night. The aforementioned seniors, and everyone with an Internet connection or cell service, were so busy documenting the moment that it’s extremely plausible to ponder: were they actually living in it?

Between Twitter, Facebook, BBM profiles and statuses, etc., citizens of the world are constantly connected at all times.

“I just got my first kiss!! ilu Johnny <3” popped up on my Facebook Newsfeed the other day.  The user was 14. (Perhaps the real issue is why am I FB friends with a 14 year-old…). That same evening, a friend was doing a bar crawl in DC and Foursquared his whereabouts half-hourly.

Sure, these examples could all be deemed as a total overshare of information, causing you to suddenly unfollow their Tweets or “hide” their actions on your Newsfeed. But, let’s be honest, they are far from uncommon.

As a society, we have become obsessed with sharing our lives via social media outlets. It’s almost as if a something didn’t happen if it wasn’t documented on the Internet. Read More »

"Spending the day snuggling with my snuggle bunny. Smoochy smooch!"

[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 whether sex sells!) 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!]

“Jane Doe adores John so much, it’s like fluffy pink bunnies of love are frolicking around inside of her. Wuvs U Baby!” Gag me. Seriously, how many times have you looked on Facebook and seen somebody else getting all schmoopy over their significant other in their status? It’s right up there with Farmville for my top FB pet peeves. My question is, have I become a jaded cynic who can’t appreciate open expression of love, or do other people think these overshares need to be outlawed too?

OK, maybe I’m reacting too strongly – I’ve totally been in that cuddly-baby-animals-feeling phase of relationships and have totally overshared it on Facebook without a second thought. Is it really fair to want to go punch a friend in the face because of the multiple daily updates on how much she misses her BF when he has to go to class? (Sidenote: don’t you wish FB had a “punch” feature similar to the poke? Come on, Mark Z., get on that!) No, probably not. I get why people do it, and it’s their business so I shouldn’t even let it get to me. If I don’t want to see it, just don’t check FB, right (ha! Like that’ll ever happen!). People have the right to put up whatever they want in their statuses and the rest of us should just deal. Read More »

The Internet is a nasty place. Especially for women. We all know that, but yet we stay on it. Some of us constantly. Valleywag recently featured an article titled “5 reasons why women really do need to get off the Internet.”

The reasons themselves may at first seem valid until you really think about them:

Because it’s a nasty breeding ground for predators and there’s nothing women can do about it.

Because we don’t know any better than to overshare.

Because there’s nothing worse in this world than being called a slut.

Because we’re giving it up for nothing!

Because men don’t believe we’re real women anyway.

I was shocked while reading this article, until I came to the conclusion that it must be satire. Or do women actually believe we need to get off the Internet?

My reasons women should stay on the Internet:

There is something women can do about the predators: Not talk to sketchballs online. Not give away personal information. Keep your social networking accounts private. Be smart, like many of us are. Read More »