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Monday, May 11, 2026

Opinion: Columns

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Opinion

Media is growing, and we’re growing apart

The idea of binging shows and the culture around streaming consumption has become harder to understand. They spread as more people come out to speak their hearts and minds in written, spoken or visually recorded means. Streaming platforms like Netflix, YouTube Premium and Hulu, in addition to regular cable TV, are oversaturating the public. This new, vast generation of streaming sites makes it hard to find those shows that bring us together.


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Opinion

The curly hair revolution is here

All my childhood, I wanted pinstraight hair. The hair that grows out of my head is the exact opposite, curly like the corkscrew you use to open a bottle of wine. It’s hard for me to remember one classmate growing up who had curly hair. There was no one to share the trials and tribulations of having a hair type that requires half a bottle of conditioner. In high school, I abused my curls via over-shampooing, over-brushing and tugging on them to calm them down. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized my hair wasn’t the problem, but my brain — all thanks to the beauty and supportive nature of the curly hair community.


Opinion

Eating disorders can affect anyone, not just young women.

When people think of eating disorders, they often imagine a stick-thin woman comparing herself to models or Barbie dolls. We often fail to realize people of all body types struggle with eating disorders, including men. Parents worry about their daughters starving themselves but don’t think to check on their sons’ eating habits, despite the fact that one out of three people afflicted with an eating disorder is a man.


Opinion

A few last thoughts and a final goodbye

Now that this day is here, the day of my last Alligator column, it may be appropriate for me to reflect on what I have been trying to do here for the past couple years.


Opinion

SG banquet: Mac and cheese, prayer and cowboys

Well, I made it into the Student Government banquet this year, and it was a rather interesting event. For starters, they dropped around $20,000 on a banquet and ended up drinking out of disposable plastic cups. They are humble people, aren’t they?


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Opinion

Forget Hallmark holidays. Introducing: Instagram holidays

National Girlfriend Day. National Boyfriend Day. National Ex-Spouse Day. The list goes on and on. It seems to me that in recent times these “holidays” have grown in popularity thanks to the online societies unasked for and organic decision to use them as a reason to post. These are days when your feed is full of people posting about their significant others, whom they love and appreciate, but it has become an excuse to post a picture that you have had saved in your camera roll.


Photo by Blake Barlow on Unsplash
Opinion

Do more responsibilities make us adults, or are we still figuring things out?

am not a history buff, but I imagine that in the past it was easy, or at least easier than today, to discern when a child became an adult. There were rituals, or rites of passage, that set clear limits. Plus, a child had to pass through those rituals much sooner in life than we do. My fiancee’s grandmother, for instance, was married at 18 years old and was a mother at 20. Marriage has often been considered a marker of adulthood. She and many others from her generation had, from our perspective, clipped childhoods and prolonged adulthoods.


My AirPods are fake, but they stand for something bigger
Opinion

‘Fake’ is in the eye of the beholder.

Earlier this year, I wrote a column about how I owned a pair of fake AirPods. Well, I would like to write I have gotten a second pair that is much closer to the actual product. A trip online to an Asian wholesale website, a few extra dollars for express shipping and six days of waiting brought another pair of fake AirPods to my dorm. They came in a box with the same minimalist Apple style, a lightning cable that works for my phone and even some stamps. My first pair of imposters cost me $2 and were honestly a hassle. These fakes, however, have changed the game for me.


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Opinion

To Meme or Not To Meme?

It is time we talk about memes and meme culture. I love a good meme, and I assume you do as well, or else you wouldn’t be wasting your time reading a column about memes. Internet memes have become a prevalent part of a Millennial and Generation Z’s daily life. You could even say they have become a sort of coping mechanism. Memes represent the pent-up frustrations and passions of this time in history. Millennials are generally known to be in a worse off economic situation than the generation before, having been handed the failures of our ancestors without sufficient education to craft a solution. Those of us pursuing a college degree have to deal with incredibly high tuition costs and possibly immense student loans. Millennials are characterized as the “anxious generation,” and Generation Z has been reported as naming depression and anxiety as the biggest problems facing their peers, according to The Economist. The only way out of the unearned strife that has defined the short run-time of the third millennia is a good meme. But when should we create or share a meme? When should we not? It must be noted one cannot always meme, but then again there are times when a meme is the most essential service one can provide. For guidance, we look to Shakespeare’s most famed work, “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” or Hamlet, for short.


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