As students take their first steps into a new semester of college, they realize that socializing is a gradual, yet significant, process that can direct the course of their lives at Stony Brook University for the next four years or so. In the age of technological communication, we have never seen a greater emphasis placed on knowing what’s what and who’s who through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other forms of social media. Ask a typical student how he or she makes friends, and an immediate response will be: “Through Facebook.” In a mere decade, technology has taken the form of a medium through which we can share every moment of our lives as we experience them. Although Facebook offers networking opportunities, long-term problems remain hidden under a thick layer of status updates, likes, comments and tweets.

It used to be that when someone took an awkward photo of you, it would end up on every social networking site for the entire world to see, like and comment on. But now, when someone snaps an embarrassing photo of you, it is usually because as soon as that photo is opened it is gone just as quickly as it was taken.