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 »

One of the ways you can date a movie is by observing the telephone usage of the characters.  For instance, how many chick flicks have you seen where Mom answers the phone and it’s, swoon!, Bobby from the football game calling to speak with Megan.  Does Meg play hard to get and pretend like she’s not home?  Will Mom jot down a message and stick it to the fridge?  Maybe Megan grabs the phone up in her room and excitedly twirls the cord around her finger as she accepts Bobby’s invitation to dinner.

In every dorm room and apartment I’ve shared with friends, I’ve wanted to get a communal landline and implement the message corkboard.  Of course I never voiced my desires, but it all seemed so…quaint.  In my head I pictured us all going out to the bar on Friday night and waking up Saturday afternoon to a barrage of post-its sporting guys’ names and numbers.  Maybe we’d even have a color-coded system.  Red for hottie, blue nottie, pink for potentially gay.

In reality, Saturday afternoons were spent on the couch watching Housewives marathons and being jarred out of a trance as our cell phones vibrated and beeped.  Todd says: “Nice 2 meet U last nite.  Going out agn?”  Mark says: “Wut up?”

I’ve been there, and I’d bet ten dollar-beers that you’ve been there, too.  The sad part is, we’ll respond, albeit halfheartedly, knowing exactly what they’re getting at.  “Going out again?” is code for “Wanna make out tonight if we happen to be wasted at the same place at the same time?” and a seemingly innocent “What’s up?” is the product of a moronic mind who has nothing more interesting to say to the goddess of a woman he met over Long Islands. Read More »

"She hung up without saying 'I love you.' Waaaah"

Remember those nights when you spent 5+ hours talking on the phone with your girlfriends about what your man friend was trying to tell you when he texted you, “Good Night” with a winky face? Well ladies, you’re not alone. A recent study has shown that men actually over-analyze and get more emotional about relationships than women do!

Yup, when we’re not looking or listening (usually because The Bachelorette is on…), our beaus are secretly going to their dude friends and discussing the ups and downs in their love lives.

I guess we’ve been wrong all along about the idea that men never talk about their feelings with their broskeez and how they don’t care about their relationships with their significant others. In actuality, it might be all they talk about when they’re alone! All those times they told us they were goin’ to “chill with the dudes,” our boyfriends were probably spooning, crying and spilling the beans about their feelings over a cup of tea and a biscotti.

We’ve been so wrong for so long. I imagine this is how things are really going down during bro time. Read More »

Technology is amazing, we can all attest to that (especially if you’re reading this online on the best website ever. I <3 the Internet.) But technology,  has also made things, like the way in which we communicate, a lot less personal.

With the Internet, texting, cell phones, and every other quick mode of communication, we speak to each other differently than how we used to.

What we’ve gained in convenience, we’ve lost in finesse and beauty. Instead of beautiful, handwritten letters, we send and receive quick and short emails filled with LOLs and emoticons. I can’t tell you the last time I actually wrote something down and the last letters I received were from Bank of America and a summons for jury duty. Lame.

So with graduation coming up (5 MORE DAYS… AHHHHH!), I wanted to find a cheap and chic way to send letters to my friends once we’ve all gone our separate ways. But custom stationary and envelopes can be expensive, so I created a way to get the custom envelope look without breaking the bank!

What You’ll Need:
4×6 or 5×7 envelopes, any color: These can be really cheap, basic envelopes. You can buy these in packs at stationary stores or most convenience stores!
A magazine or two: You’ll use magazine pages and fun advertisements for the outside of your envelope.
Glue stick
Scissors
Plain white labels – Optional. This will be where you’ll write the destination address. You can pick these up at any office supply store. Read More »

Another week has passed and I’m one week closer to graduation. In ten short days I will stand up, toss my cap in the air, and graduate in front of family, friends, professors…and a bunch of random people I don’t know.

Many of you have already taken this step. You’ve cried sentimental tears or jumped for joy as you packed up boxes and drove away from your home for the past few years. But if you have the pleasure of a quarter or trimester system you, like me, are lucky enough to have a smidgen of time left.

A lot of people have been worrying about the typical things that soon to be grads and recent grads worry about: getting a job, finding an apartment, moving, paying bills, insurance, liver recovery, taxes. I am stressed and concerned about all of these things. But I’m also stressed about some basic issues I haven’t considered until recently, like friendships.

For many grads, we’ll be moving away from the network of friends we’ve created over the past four years. For me, I will be moving clear across the country and my insecurities are rising. All my friendships are about to change and come June 14, I will be in a Long Distance (Best Friend Forever) Relationship. Read More »

So you meet this guy.  Yay!  He seems really cool, you guys can talk, joy of joys!  Visions pop up in your head of you two enjoying a picnic in the park, holding hands walking to class, maybe even him standing outside your window after a fight holding up a boombox (it doesn’t matter where he got a boombox, the point is that he has it) that’s playing “In Your Eyes.”

Sigh.  You are so ready to do couply things with him…BUT WAIT! Just as you’re setting up your profile on The Knot, suddenly (seemingly out of the blue) he says he “wants to keep it casual.”  WHAAAATTT??!! CASUAL?!  Where did that come from? And how could you have not seen it coming??

It seems so arbitrary, but actually, he left signs all over the place.  Here are five of the more obvious ones. And if they seem glaringly obvious to you, fabulous! But trust me, sometimes (like when all we can see are butterflies, rainbows and slow-mo frolics in grassy fields) we all miss the signs, even the ones that are big, bright and flashing.

He Only Calls After $1 Pitcher Night
When a boy drunk dials you (constantly) it’s not “cute” that he’s “thinking about you when he’s drunk!” That is not romance, that is a boy who is not only cheap when it comes to you, but apparently wants to be as blasted as possible before being seen out with you.

He Introduces You To His Friends as “This is Blah” or “This is my friend, Blah.”
If he doesn’t introduce you as his girlfriend, chances are…you aren’t. Read More »

BREAKING NEWS. A study done at The University of Maryland shows that students are addicted to social media.

….Wait a second, we needed a study to prove this??

It is no secret that social media outlets run our lives.  Whether it Facebook, Twitter, or the variations trying to prove their worth (what up, MySpace?), we are constantly connected.  Even on the go, we can count on our trusty iPhones and Blackberrys to bring these outlets to us.

But back to the study. The participants were forced to go one entire day without media of any kind and then blog their feelings when the 24-hour period was up. (Seems a little counter-intuitive, no?) Those who made it through (not surprisingly, some did not) reported that although surrounded by people, they felt completely isolated.

“Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort,” wrote one student. “When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable.”

At first glance, that student seems rather pathetic. But think about it: most of us can easily relate to the feeling. Whenever something happens, many of us instantly turn to Facebook or Twitter to share it. That’s why sites like that, and others like TFLN, exist. We are constantly sharing with others and every time a new outlet pops us that allows us to do so, we hop on board. It’s gotten to the point that if some worthy (or even unworthy) news event is not on Facebook, it is as if it never happened. Read More »

After watching this video around 14 times over the course of the week, three things have crossed my mind.

1. Uh – yes! – I hate that cardboard sh*t on the DVDs, too.
2. So that’s the one person in the U.S. who purchased Sorority Row?
3. What sorts of things do I hate enough to rant about in a YouTube vid?

And then I started my personal list of the things I hate. I hate when people that are under the age of 40 call me sweetie. I hate the way Old Navy clothes NEVER seem to fit me right. I hate Perez Hilton. I hate when I carve out a spot in an aerobics class at the gym and some bitch comes in late and stands right. in. front of me. I hate that, no matter how hard I try, I can’t sound nearly as fierce or fabulous as Kingsley (I think that’s this fabulous guy’s name?) when I list off all the things I hate.

And now it’s time for the CollegeCandy writers to open up and let it all out. So, what gets their blood boiling?

Carly – Grinnell: 1. The sound it makes when people itch their legs with long fingernails when they are wearing jeans. 2. Fake friendliness. 3. The fact that the guy I have a crush on keeps inviting me to do things one-on-one with him but NEVER accepts when I ask him to do the same stuff. WTF?!

Lauren – University of Michigan: I hate when people want to have full-blown convos via text. And then when I try to call them (because it will take less time), they don’t answer. HELLO, I KNOW YOU ARE THERE.

Meg – University of Delaware: improper grammar. I cannot stand people who cannot speak their first language properly. It makes you sound uneducated.

Emmy – Loyola University Chicago: I hate that kid in my honors class who will not shut up, even when the professor cuts him off… And awkward encounters with exes. And when there is no Peach Mangosteen Snapple left in the campus store for me! Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Zappos…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Party School Texts, Daily Burn and Musicovery) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

Life can be pretty overwhelming sometimes: balancing classes, a job, and social life can sometimes be too much for one person. I know it gets hard for me to remember all that I have to do—especially schoolwork.  I have a regular planner that I carry around in my purse to help keep me organized, but I don’t always remember to look at it every day when I get home, which means sometimes I forget about a reading assignment or worse, a test… which doesn’t really help my G.P.A.  I know I need a better way to organize my schoolwork, but I haven’t found a way that works for me yet.

A few years ago, Andrew Schaper was a high school student with the same organization problems I have.  In order to solve these problems, he created Soshiku, a website that helps you manage and keep track of all your school assignments. Read More »

Ben and Lauren, the brains behind TFLN

It used to be that I spent a good chunk of my day stalking my friends (OK, my exes) on Facebook, but all that changed the minute TextsFromLastNight came into my life. Now most of my time is spent LOLing at my computer and emailing my latest faves to my friends. And I know I’m not the only one. TFLN, a website born out of a drunken weekend in Detroit, gets over 15,000 submissions a day and 5 million readers LOLers a month. It’s even been nominated for a Webby award, a huge honor in the Internet world, especially for a site that documents drunken debauchery. (Go vote for it!)

Since my very first TFLN encounter (“I used a bag of wine as a pillow last night”) I’ve been determined to meet the geniuses behind it and kiss them on the mouth shake their hands. And I finally got my chance… to talk to them, at least. Last week I got to sit down with Ben Bator and get a behind-the-scenes look at TextsFromLastNight: how it started, where it’s headed, and how they choose which texts will earn a coveted spot on the site.

I also got his direct number so I could send all my drunk texts directly to him, but I’m gonna keep that one to myself.

Read More »