Friday, February 29, 2008

Religious views have spot in open discussion

People always say it's not polite to discuss religion in public, but I disagree. In the United States, religion has always been tied to public life.

The magnitude of religion's role in public life has ebbed and flowed considerably throughout time, though.

Modern Americans feel that religion is an essential part of their public identity - many choose to define their public identity as a part of their religious identity, according to a recent article by Daniel Lichterman, published in the February 2007 edition of the American Sociological Review.

Judging from religious clashes we often see in Free Speech Alley and the comments section of The Daily Reveille's Web site, lsureveille.com, many University students also feel strongly about the role religion plays in public life.

The reactions we see at the University reflect a national trend - religion is once again a powerful force in the public life of most Americans.

Yet America's public face likes to pretend it is not a religious nation.

President Bush references Christianity in his speeches and appeals to conservative Christian base, but the official stance is that we are a nation that tolerates religious freedom while having no national religious identity.

Ignoring this may honor the separation of church and state; it cannot stop religion from affecting the public sphere.

Simply pretending something does not exist is not tolerance.

Continue reading at The Daily Reveille...

Friday, February 22, 2008

New college graduates to face job market challenges

The upcoming generation of college graduates may have a rude awakening when they enter the job market.

Features of the labor market that our parents took for granted such as benefits, job security and a guaranteed promotion, are most likely a thing of the past.

Some researchers - most notably Peter Capelli in his 1999 book "The New Deal at Work: Managing the Market Driven Workforce" - even imply these features themselves were an anomaly.

Like most kids that grew up in America during the '80s, I consider the accomplishments of my parents' generation as my model for success. I planned on finding a job and sticking with it until I moved up the ladder - going from rags to riches in a story that could happen in America.

I thought that was the way things worked.

Continue reading at The Daily Reveille...

Friday, February 15, 2008

Privacy issues at heart of Facebook.com problems

Facebook.com watches every move we make.

That's right - every profile clicked and every message sent is logged into a database and saved for future reference.

The data is primarily used for marketing and never shared with or sold to private companies, according to Facebook's public relations department at Facebook.com.

Facebook is adamant about protecting the privacy of its users, but the issue at hand is more complex - how much privacy do Facebook, and Internet users in general, really want?

The popular social networking utility first overstepped its boundaries in 2006 with the introduction of the News Feed - an application intended to broadcast most of the routine activities users performed on the site to other users.

Facebook users came together to protest the News Feed application, and within a week, nearly 800,000 members joined a group protesting the application. In response, Facebook's staff created a modest set of privacy controls that allowed users to partially opt out of the service.

The privacy options have been expanded, and these days, users can choose which activities get posted on their friends' News Feed; but Facebook's privacy woes don't stop there.

Continue reading at The Daily Reveille...

Friday, February 8, 2008

Scientology faces threat from Internet movement

The Church of Scientology is embroiled in an invisible war with an enemy hell-bent on its absolute destruction.

Invisible wars are nothing new to members of Scientology - they've been battling the invisible electrical impulses that make people do bad things for years. They're also used to negative media attention, as they've spent the better part of their existence battling that too.

The difference is, now their enemy is human and using the Internet to mobilize its army against the church.

The declaration of war begins with Internet piracy. In late 2007, a video intended only for Scientologists was released to the public via the user-generated media site YouTube.com.

The video wasn't anything more than a fancy recruitment video released by the Religious Technology Center featuring Tom Cruise. The Church of Scientology viewed the leak as a breach of privacy and began taking action against its aggressors - using the legal system to simply and efficiently silence its critics.

Continue reading at The Daily Reveille...

Friday, February 1, 2008

Competitive sports create virtual communities

Competitive sporting isn't just fun and games - it's a veritable social institution.

Most people at the University already know that sports are valuable, but I haven't always agreed. To be honest, I actively disliked competitive sports for most of my life.

It turns out I was missing out on a huge part of society.

My dislike of competitive sports dates back to my childhood. I tried to play basketball and baseball, but I wasn't very good nor was I interested in learning how to get better.

Sports just didn't mean anything to me. I preferred to play Nintendo with my friends.

See, I was good at that.

Sports began to bother me as a teenager and young adolescent because they caused me social discomfort. I didn't know anything about sports, so sports-themed conversations were often painful. Without knowledge of the terminology, players or rules, I wasn't able to converse with people my age. I always felt lost during sports-themed conversations, even among friends.

I thought it couldn't get any worse, but I was wrong.

Continue reading at The Daily Reveille...