communication

I've gone through several phases of communication as technology progressed. I started off with old fashioned email. I used to write long letters to my friends and older relatives who didn't have the heart to tell a 10 year old to stop spamming them. I then discovered AIM and MSN messenger. From there it progressed to talking for hours on the phone to getting a cell phone and starting to text to facebook to snapchat. I've noticed communication has gradually become more and more concise until it was pretty much reduced to a picture with a few words. After all these methods of communication, I've become nostalgic for the days of actually talking to each other, whether it be in person or even over the phone. Even email was more personal than a 'whatsup' text every now and then. In order to keep touch with my friends from high school, I've especially come to realize I can't rely on these methods of communication. Every now and then, I'll call one of my friends and just catch up for a good 20 minutes before running off to my next class. For this reason, I really think talking to someone in person or over the phone is the best way of communication. I've seen too much miscommunication in which people don't put in a smiley face or whatever and gets misinterpreted as rude. In addition, one has to be a lot more focused in a phone call because they actually have to respond right away instead of watching cat videos, skyping, and facebook messaging at the same time.  This has actually been a pretty recent development for me; up to midway fall quarter I was fine with snapchats and facebook wall posts. It was only after I realized I was losing touch with some of my closest friends did I realize what the best method of communication was. 

Tunnel of Oppression

The Tunnel of Oppression was a huge eye opener for me. I've always known that issues like this existed, but the examples really hit close to home. The fact that modern slavery exists less then 5 minutes away from our bubble of SCU was insane. I didn't even think slavery was an issue in the United States. There were many other things that surprised me; the amount of rape that goes on on campuses, examples of cases of AIDs, different facts about religions, etc. Even though much of the content was depressing, I'm really glad I went. I would have never been prompted to do something about it if I wasn't enlightened to everything that happens in the world.
The tunnel of hope definitely helped, but the facts that I learned still weigh on me. I hope I can find something to actually do about it instead of sitting idly.