Daily Barticles

What does your selfie say about you…

By: Louis Falcinelli

Selfie, a word recently admitted into the actual dictionary, (aka. the book of real words and stuff). The word is now as acceptable as a rachet hoe on a hot, sticky, sweaty summer’s day. But with everyone in selfie mode, how do you usually perceive your own? According to a 2013 British survey, 36 percent of bottle rotters (18-24) admitted they change their selfies before posting. Most of them retouch skin color (39 percent) or eye color (24 percent). 44 percent of those who edited their image said after changing one photo, they then edited every or most of the selfies they posted. I think anyone can relate to going filter mad when editing options are essentially endless.

MIRROR IMAGE, selfie devotees being used to seeing themselves in the mirror, might find it jarring that a 1977 study found that people preferred their mirror image to their real image. Imagine that? As in… not the mirror reflecting your own image into the lens which in turn captures you as well, so it’s not YOU YOU YOU from all avenues. Cites search engine journal, Selfie was officially added to OxfordDictinaries.com in August 2013. Rundown of facts:

• The first time that Selfie was used was in 2004 on Flickr.
• The word selfie in the English language has skyrocketed in use. It has increased by 17,000% since 2012.
• Google searches indicates selfie began increasingly popular in late 2012

Selfies in today’s culture take on all different forms:

Group Selfie

Animal Seflie

Bathroom Selfie

Gym Selfie

But who are we to actually hold that camera phone up to our face to illuminate, attract, or frame in our direction? Are we content, insecure, or merely dealing with a culture that teaches, IT’S ALL ABOUT ME and nothing else matters. Well, one things for certain, when you’re bold enough to take your selfie, do it right this time, not too much, too soft, self style, which is just right.

President Obama’s dream of free community college for all may actually be a reality

By: Louis Falcinelli

Rundown of requirements:

(cites white house blog)

• What students have to do: Students must attend community college at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing their program.

What community colleges have to do: Community colleges will be expected to offer programs that are either 1) academic programs that fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or 2) occupational training programs with high graduation rates and lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. Community colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.

• What the federal government has to do: Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. Participating states will be expected to contribute the remaining funds necessary to eliminate the tuition for eligible students.

Currently this is a proposal, we will update with any additional details

LET’S GO CLUBBIN, Or rather… LET’S RAVE!

By: Louis Falcinelli

BRIGHT LIGHTS, HYPNOTIC MUSIC, OVERFLOWING DRINKS, AND ENERGY GALORE!

“Welcome!” The environment immediately greets, as many bottle rotters have finally reached the pinnacle of social engagement.

It’s 10xs bigger than a club, with aspects of a lounge, sports bar, dive bar and hall, combining these aspects and bringing them to the next level, with everyone there to vibe as opposed to dance, to be lifted, instead of lax.

It’s a Rave.

“They’re fuckin’ awesome!” Fellow Raver says. But what is a Rave?

It has been described as a bond of closeness amongst people who congregate at them, that it’s so tight knit, many on the outside wonder what it is that has been so rapidly appealing among our generation. While there, no experience ever too fleeting, everyone thoroughly enjoying its offerings, having a deeper, more personal understanding, leading many to cite them as a “community of ravers,” people coming together for the sole purpose of engagement.

“I think it has to be the scene itself. Everyone is so nice, and we’re all there to have a good time and let loose a little so you never have to worry about looking ridiculous, ” Raver elaborates.

Not passive or having social hierarchy that many clubs or lounges emphasize. There is no need for materialistic items or statuses that people tend to use as their calling cards. Ravers build on the hype of the latest and best Dj/Dance music, transcending them to new heights, carefree emotions and substances (you can use your imagination). It fills the void or maybe it becomes part of it, however, raves have definitely struck a serious cord for fun in today’s world for any young person who may feel constricted, isolated or simply just want to get out there and rave, which is really another way of saying have fun. It has become an experience that young people devote themselves to when they make their outings.

One thing is for certain, It’s a new day and time for a night out on the town for a bottle rotter. It’s the day, the era, the age, to no longer just “club” but rather… to Rave!

By: Louis Falcinelli

Dating for a bottle rotter isn’t always perfect, then again is any relationship? However, the saying “how it’s done today isn’t how it was done back in the day,” still yields true, but it does have a twist for the way we communicate within the technology we are exposed to; cell phones, dating aps, texting, among many other ways to facilitate a relationship, but is this a way to express oneself in terms of how you feel, and who you really are…

Variable of options to take into consideration:

• Online Dating, making it much more accessible to meet people from all over the country.
• Dating Online, almost the reverse of online dating, you’re not on a dating site but you’re on a social media website, enabling you to facilitate a relationship of your choice. Send them a request, write a private message, like a comment, leave a sentimental “private message” in hopes it will lay the groundwork for a relationship. Many do find this a rarity nowadays, with the rise in social media visibility, keeping it more relative to who you know.
• Dating Apps, usually focused on the immediacy of meeting someone, with the start of a site like Hot or Not to the immediate rise of tinder.

LOVE which we know takes time to build a foundation on, may appear too accessible today, but it’s no wonder with rotters having it all at their fingertips, just a click of a button, a scroll of a mouse, a tap on a keypad, and they are instantly transported into the dating stratosphere, where the possibility of “LOVE” sold, seems more like it’s traded as a commodity with ad space right next to the picture of the one you wish to court, or a swipe which deems one individual from another worthy or unworthy based entirely off of physical attraction.

Have our hearts been fooled? Do we accept this as the new standard in how we love, how we court, and what a substantial relationship is built upon, or does it serve as just taking up time, filling up space, eliminating the void that remains to be there but hidden in the digital era of the dating pool… 

Has this new dating styled cause less style, tact, or basic class and replaced it with a lack of etiquette that does speak to this day in age for having little to no idea about courtship, being that their already conditioned to removal brought upon from that distance online, controlling the conversation from a text, email, messenger, or another digital replacement for genuine affection. I mean, does an emoticon really do it when it comes to romance…

By: Louis Falcinelli

Some time back, I was driving through a familiar area, and caught, out of the side of my eye,  a building, its lettering, faded, its color, worn, and its frame, essentially condemned. It had been a popular video store I had frequented in my youth, it was a Blockbuster. This shook me up, immediately transporting  me back into the store that was the cornerstone of my youth, renting movies. Any bottle rotter can surely remember the days of waiting for your parent or guardian to get home just so you could go out and “rent a video”. It was on par with a heavenly experience to any child, as it allowed them to get out of the house and get lost in a place that manufactured a way for them to get lost in a reality of their choosing. You didn’t rent movies, you rented dreams, ideas, possibilities, in general.

Walking through the front door of this place filled with a variety of movie candy and popcorn, allowing you to roam the many genres, each aisle might as well have been another world from the box covers alone,  laughing faces usually served as Comedy, frightening images or horrific expressions, Horror, space covers and or futuristic creatures, Sci-fi, and so on. It was an exploration or odyssey in its own right. Truly glorious.

There were instances where your parental figure could use it as a bartering tool:

“Now if you’re good will go to the video store.”

Or a punishment:

“Cause you were bad we’re now not going to the video store!”

Other times when you invited a friend over or you went to their house, this would add to your hanging out, serving as a popular social event,  while still a preteen, and beyond. Late night rental sessions when you were old enough to drive, getting a few movies based on the most bizarre covers, some fast-food,  and you were set! What a night! But… When we grew, technology seemed  to get too advanced too quickly , and the days of no late fees and a buck a video, were no longer relevant, quickly replaced with an entire video store in a box. There was no more exploration, the odyssey had ended.

Now you either swipe a credit card and touch the screen for your movie of choice, or have it all  from the  comfort of your very own home, where your TV screen streams any movie, anytime, anywhere. Driving past this place, that nostalgia quickly rushed back, making me sad. Cause as fun  as I had, and memories I shared, I thought, my children, the next generation of children, will never know Blockbuster or the like, well, they may know about it, but never be able to truly know that indescribable feeling of what it was like to go into a store, which was more than a store, and  rent a movie, which was more than just renting one.

By: Louis Falcinelli

“Would you like fries with that?”

a phrase uttered time and again from the supposedly deemed underclassman, underachiever, slacker, struggler, or youth, working at a part time and or half fasted, dead end job, is now becoming a reality for the bottle rotter fully formed with a degree, skill set, or opportunist, looking to better themselves.

Younger workers who enter the workforce in lower wage jobs will have a hard time catching up later in their careers (cites New York Federal Reserve, taking into account over 200 million pieces of earnings data from 1978 to 2010.)

Some 58% of the jobs created during the recent economic recovery have been standard lower wage positions, like retail and food prep workers, (according to a 2012 report by the National Employment Law Project.) These low-wage jobs had a median hourly wage of $13.83 or less.

The rate of barely $14.00 or, more often than not substantially lower, make it a virtual impossibility to have any substantial independence, making millennials/bottle rotters stagnant in the advancement of their professional development, in trying to obtain a more decent position.

The jobs that were promised, hoped for, or needed, aren’t there right now, the ones that are there remain a grind to get into upper mobility within the social structure of all good “key holders” who are really weighing down bottle rotters, refusing to leave their coveted positions, due to a still recovering economy (they helped to put in the crapper), leaving that degree student, that educated opportunist, that hopeful one, waiting, as the John Mayer song says so brilliantly “…waiting on the world to change.”

 How bottle rotters live smart and get penalized for it

By: Louis Falcinelli

In another example of how a stand has been taken amongst the younger generation.  At 63 percent, bottle rotters (ages 18 to 29) don’t have a credit card. (According to a survey commissioned by Bankrate and compiled by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.)

Bottle Rotters, 19 to 29 have around 1.5 credit cards on average, fewer than the 2 cards of Generation X borrowers (ages 30 to 46) and 2.7 cards of Baby Boomers (ages 47 to 65), (according to data provided by Experian, a credit reporting firm.) In addition, only 35 percent of adults 30 and above currently don’t have credit cards either… showing this trend being carried over to all those that precede the rotters.

On a conscious effort to be wary of the ways of their over indigent parents’ generation (baby boomers), with an economy they were in witness to exploding into their very wittle baby eyes, bottle rotters, now grown as young adults, are immune to the economic devastation done, and with financial debris scattered about for over a decade, they have made a valid action in restraint from the good ‘ol plastic. You think this would be commended, but instead, furthest thing from.

Through all this credit card withholding, or hardly using, has served to hurt their overall credit score by not giving into what they do not have an abundance of, (money). Leaving them with low credit, no credit, or unobtainable to posses one, simply because they didn’t want the “debt till death” tradition, honored since time immemorial, only now, seeing it as preventable by staying away from the card that loves to loan, that of which they do not want. However difficult the struggle, many currently remain committed to stay away from the hassles it incurs, interest rates, overdrawn fees, penalties, etc. adding to their already current disposition.

In a society where MORE is NOT LESS, because when you spend money you don’t have, it serves to advance lenders in thriving on your increased rates, principle balance, and any other additional, fine print charges you owe, all adding to suite the credit card companies, instead of your own interest (all pun intended).

By: Louis Falcinelli

SINGLE WORDS,  EMOTICONS,  Oh… and other fun things for your brain to decipher…

With the words used in the texting lexicon not exactly resembling the English language, the supposed side effects, unfortunate accidents, mishaps and promotion of social isolation, among  other possible out causes attributed to this new phenomena, known as texting, has many, previous generation no doubt  wondering, is texting really driving us mad?

As the technology of conversation only continues to develop, with the way we receive, relay and distribute,  making it more accessible to say much without really having to converse,  has a generation of bottle rotters  against the grain of what many perceive as madness.

Rundown of facts:

TWD (Texting While Driving) 1,600,000 accidents per year – National Safety Council 11 teen deaths everyday –  Institute for Hwy Safety Fatality Facts Nearly 24% of ALL car accidents.  (Approximate average) 44 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers. (NCSL)

SIT (Socially Isolated Texter) Researchers at the University of Maryland studied 200 students after 24 hours of no texting or any media,  found many of them were basically experiencing withdrawal, anxiety, and difficulty functioning.

Hyper-texting, texting more than 120 times a day, can lead to an increased risk of smoking, drinking and drug use, physical violence and sexual activity (study released in 2010 by the American Public Health Association reported). With the rise in a new way we communicate, it’s both an exciting though unpredictable entrance into the main stage of communication, with the youth obviously  leading the way in this revolution.

Will it call for a mandate, moderator, or be given free rein, remains to be seen. What do you think or, WBU?

By: Louis Falcinelli

The stakes for wanting to be able to continue your education just got a little higher…

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the federal student loans have increased to over a trillion dollars, from 2007-2014, just a 7 year period!

It is in that time span that the median earning potential for a full time employed, approx 25 year old, has actually decreased, sites The U.S. Beau of Labor Statistics.
So this is to say that as the rise of debt continues to increase for students wanting higher education, the ability for their earning potential keep plummeting in the meanwhile.

Therefore, it should come to no surprise that the U.S. Department of Education reports that to the tune of 40%, roughly half the student debt, is not being paid back, and over 50% of borrowers are struggling to pay their loans on time, which doesn’t even factor in the actual loans, or the interest rates compounded on top of them, sinking a former student into the financial hole even more so.

When the costs have risen to such levels of almost nonsensicality while the earning potential continues to decline, making the education you are swimming in debt to afford more and more less valuable, serves as the ultimate irony, and a real cause for reform.