In this digital age, we are never apart from the ones we love, at least not for too long.  With smart phones, texting, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, and SMS updates, we are just a press of a button away.  We are closer to other people than we have ever been before.  Even long distance relationships don’t seem that long-distance anymore.

But between new couples and old, is all this technology really bringing people together, or is it driving us apart?

While new technology is an awesome time-waster (among all the other fabulous things it does), the fact that it makes everyone so accessible is a little scary, not to mention the lack of mystery, chase, and boundaries between us all. We’re texting/IMing/Gchatting guys before we go out with them. And before that, we already know their favorite books, movies, quotes, hometown and birthday. We know what they’re doing, when they’re doing it… without ever asking them. Read More »

We all know that texting while drunk is a horrible idea (can we say misspelled embarrassment, much?), just as much as drunk dialing.  However, texting while doing other things can prove to be even more dangerous.

Recently there have been incidents throughout the country involving transit workers texting while on the job and then, from lack of attention, having accidents.  The most current example of this happened in Boston, where a trolley operator had been texting his girlfriend and subsequently rear-ended another trolley at a red light.  This event has triggered one of the strictest bans seen on mobile phones since my mom wouldn’t let me have mine at the dinner table.  If it goes through, transit operators in Massachusetts will no longer be able to even have a cell phone on them at work.

This policy of zero-tolerance on texting and calling for transit workers is a great idea.  Who wants to be responsible and call a cab home from the bar if your cab driver is just going to text the entire time and probably cause an accident anyway?  Nobody!  That’s why I think there are a fair few other occupations where this ban would also be helpful: Read More »

It’s easy to throw down your MasterCard and forget about how much your text books cost for the semester; it’s just as simple to open a tab at Happy Hour and let the Bud Light flow.  We all eventually realize, however, that college flies by in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, you’ll be on your own.

With the economy in peril, now is an especially good time to start keeping an eye on your credit score so you don’t find yourself denied when you try to open new bank accounts, get a new apartment, condo, or house, or reward yourself for landing your dream job by buying your first brand new car.  Maintaining a good credit score doesn’t have to be harder than next Tuesday’s cumulative Calc exam, though– here are five simple steps to stay on top of your financial game. Read More »

Meet the finalists of the Intel Science Talent Search, AKA the kids ruining the curve in your classes next year.

Two of the sexiest men in the world in one room. Why wasn’t I there??

This would be perfect for a spring break road trip!

Wait, that can’t be… is that… is Lady Gaga naked?

Easy steps to Amanda Seyfried’s red-carpet hair.

Need an excuse to get off the phone? Try these.

Who’s Kanye’s bald new GF?

Does this mean Kathy Griffin’s off the D-List?

Britney’s dad is not happy.

Justin Timberlake and Ciara team up to make “Love Sex Magic”

Time for roommate confessions… and you thought you had it bad.

[I like to think of myself as a pretty easy going gal, and try not to sweat the small stuff. But sometimes (ok, maybe slightly more often) the general cluelessness, carelessness and overall stupidity of some things and or/people really gets to me. I find that venting is the most efficient way to rid myself of the stress that idiots, wrong meal orders, lack of cell phone etiquette and cheese flavored products (that don’t even contain any freaking cheese!) induce.

So, in an attempt to avoid an ulcer or an unfortunate road rage incident, I vent to you, dear reader. Please feel free to join in and comment about anything–really, anything–that pissed. you. off. this week. Let it all hang out. I feel you.]

Budget cuts: It seems as though the recession has finally infiltrated the college bubble. We’ve been hearing about this horrible turn the economy has taken, but the closest we’ve come to experiencing it are reduced bar admissions. (And come to think of it, there hasn’t even been a decline in those prices…) All kidding aside, though, the economic crisis gripping the nation has, of course, affected our schools. And countless e-mails entitled “Budget Crisis Committee Meeting,” or “Plans to Cut Spending by 10% before July” skimmed over my threshold of awareness for quite some time. My professors, picking up on the general apathetic attitude, took it upon themselves to explain just what all of this meant. Apparently it means taking classes that require an intimate setting to be effective in lecture halls. It requires removing all of the phones from the English Department (yep, e-mail only!). It entails salary cuts for professors, some of whom have such prestigious reputations that they’ll gladly take their New York Times’ Best Selling butts elsewhere. Which also means that my degree won’t be as respectable as it would be if I’d had those professors or their letters of recommendation. And yet I have noticed no shortage of construction, new bronze statues or spanking new parking garages scattered around campus. Maybe if the budget were a little more prioritized we wouldn’t be facing these issues… Read More »

[It doesn’t matter what school you go to, what state it is in, how big it is, whether it is public or private, all girls or coed…there are experiences that all college students share. No matter how crazy you think your personal situation is, it is not just you.

So, let’s bring it all out in the open. Right here. Because you are not alone - we’ve all been there before.]

The Phone in the Toilet:

You put on your cutest (and tightest) jeans for the partayyy. When you arrive at the house, you drop your jacket in your friend’s room, take a few shots and head out to the living room to mingle. Your best friend is coming late/the boy you want always texts you late-night, so you keep your phone on vibrate in your back pocket so you can feel it when it rings.

You take more shots. And more. And drink a lot of beer. You laugh, you party, you begin to feel really drunk.

And, OMG, you have to pee so badly.

You head upstairs to use the bathroom; it’s gotta be cleaner than the one on the main floor, not to mention the line is probably shorter. Ugh – it’s not. You pull your phone out of your pocket in hopes that your boy-toy has sent you a “where you at?” text message, then shove the phone back into your pocket when the door opens and two people (looking particularly happy) walk out.

You run into the bathroom, lock the door, and stumble as you attempt to pull your jeans down. Just before you get them below your knees you hear a plunk and, HolySh*tNoEffingWayOhMyGodOhMyGod, your phone is in the toilet. Read More »

At least that’s what she told Star Magazine.

This kid is so cute, we maybe, kinda (not for a long, long time) want kids.

Do lip plumpers really work?

Nicole Richie heads back to work.

The Halloween Costume Generator (for the ladies).

Nominate your school for the next Victoria’s Secret collection!

Does anyone use the phone anymore!?

Yes! We can finally get Zac Efron to sleep with us!

Britney set to perform live on Dec. 2! Trainwreck? We hope so!

Michigan grad to be on Vh1’s “The Pickup Artist”

The perfect Halloween accessories.

[Every week, CC and John will bring you some of the wierdest, funniest, saddest things he hears on his college campus.  Join the Overheard revolution!  Leave your own overheard convos in the comments.]

“Is that your phone?”

“Yeah.”

“You have a pink phone?”

“Mmhm.”

“Is it, like, your girlfriend’s phone?”"

“Nope.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”

Found in a dining hall, on a piece of paper shoved into a napkin dispenser:

“Students! Rise up! Class riot today, 3:00 in the courtyard. Refreshments will be served.”

Two in the morning – a pair of legs is poking out of a broken window. Two guys in striped hipster hoodies are standing nearby, craning their necks to look in.

“No, no,” say the legs. “This isn’t going to work. I’ll still be locked out, I’ll just be locked out inside.”

Ten or so sweaty people in t-shirts and tank tops are clustered around a cooler. One guy lifts the top off the cooler and dumps some colored powder in.

“What was that?” asks one, confused.

“Nothing,” says the dumper. “Just drink the Kool-aid.”

There’s a commotion outside, in the hallway. I poke my head out. A man is sprinting down the hallway with his sweater unzipped, a rhinestone necklace bouncing on his exposed chest hair, and his mouth wrapped tightly around a beer bottle. Read More »

My phone is ringing. Again. And again. And again. At 4 a.m. my ex calls, just to shoot the breeze. I have to get up for work in three hours! The six missed calls earlier were not one, not two or three, but four different friends calling to find out what I was doing that evening and if I wanted to go out for drinks.

This is not a weekend.

This is a Wednesday night.

It seems the time has come to prune some extraneous leaves on the branches of my social tree. My phonebook now includes some names to which I cannot even match the slightest hint of a face.

I have now reached the stage where I can answer the question, “So what are you up to tonight?” with, “Oh nothing,” and invariably end up somewhere loud at three in the morning stumbling into a dirty bathroom and incessantly repeating the line that never fails to impress: “I have work in the morning! I can’t believe that I am out doing this!” Read More »

Recently, during a rather absurd evening involving a really sh*tty club and free bottles of Grey Goose, I found that I had somehow misplaced my cellular phone.

For the next two weeks while battling with my insurance company about their obligation to pay for a new one, I was completely phoneless. And surprisingly, I found that while not being able to call my roommate or receive text messages from my BFF was disheartening, the most annoying thing about not having a phone was that I never knew what f*cking time it was. During my time of mandatory cell abstinence, I commented on this fact to my mother. Her response was thought-provoking.

“Why don’t you get a watch?”

A watch? The last time I had a watch, I was in sixth grade. It was a gift from my parents for my twelfth birthday and on the face was an image of Elmo whose arms ticked away the minutes. At the time, I thought it was the sh*t and all my ladyfriends agreed, but when the leather straps crumbled the following summer I was pretty well over it and I’ve never felt the need to get a new one, Elmo-themed or otherwise.

Which leads me to ask the question, are watches obsolete? In this age when everyone has a phone that they have on their person more or less at all times, is there really a need for watches? The only people I can think of who do have watches are people like my mom and grandma who grew up in the Dark Ages before Verizon existed, and even they have the option of telling time with their phones. It would seem that their insistence on wearing watches stems from a deep-seated habit of looking at their wrist when someone asks the time as opposed to rooting in their pockets. Read More »