"They Steal"

One of the few generalizations in Don Tapscott's book Grown Up Digital about the Net Generation is that we are thieves. By illegally downloading, obtaining, and viewing private information, we have a blatant disregard for the personal rights and property of others. The biggest complaint about our unlawful acts relates back to the illegal downloading of music files which, in other words, is stealing from the artists and companies behind those songs. Without the consent of the creators of products, we are not permitted to be in possession of any of their products, as is enforced by law.

To be perfectly honest, this is a growing problem with our generation. We don’t seem to be able to see the boundaries that divide public and private information, and even if we do realize where those boundaries lie, I think that most of us have the attitude of “everyone else is doing it so why can’t I?” It’s this attitude that gives our generation as a whole a bad name when it comes to illegal activities being done via internet. Though one cannot say that “everyone” is doing it, I do believe that a large majority of us are doing it, both with and without the knowledge that we are committing illegal acts.

Greek Life

When I applied for SMU and did my research on it, one of the big things I had learned about it was about its prevalent Greek life. After asking around and figuring out if that was something I would be interested in or not, I decided that rushing might be fun. I’d never thought of going Greek until now, but now that I’m currently in it, I can see first-hand the SMU’s increasing interest in shutting down the system altogether, and I really believe that that would be a big mistake for them, considering it’s one of their bigger claims-to-fame.

Fast-forward about 6 months from my research stage and here I am in the middle of my first semester of college. I’ve now been in the “college scene” for about 3 months and am having the time of my life. I’m living on my own, going out and coming back when I want, and deciding which sorority would be best for me and my interests. Everything I’ve gone out to has been sponsored by at least one of the Panhellenic fraternities or sororities. Little did I know though that the school is not a supporter of Greek life, and that they have been making it their jobs to punish and penalize frats and sororities whenever possible in an effort to eventually possibly have the means and evidence against them to get rid of the Greek life altogether. I just think that the school is going out of their way to get these frats and sororities in trouble, and that because of this, events and functions held by them are becoming riskier due to the inability of the school to let Greek life hold these events of theirs on campus grounds.

Thoughts?