Click it or ticket…or else?

Originally published June 3, 2008.

In case you haven’t seen the obnoxiously blatant “Click It or Ticket” banners strung about every kind of fencing in towns across the state, May was apparently Click It or Ticket Mobilization Month. I finally became so annoyed about seeing these horrendous signs that I decided to check out the listed on them, buckleupillinois.org.

The central goal of the mobilization campaign is to lower car accident injuries and fatalities in Illinois essentially by advertising the threat of penalty (tickets and fines) for not buckling up. What this means is that 1) the state has paid, at least in part, to hang up these banners and post “seat belt enforcement zone” signs all over Illinois in order to decrease these injury statistics, and 2) state government also wants to encourage people to download or order other items to advertise the Click It or Ticket campaign. These promotional tools include static clings, paycheck inserts and even pizza box stickers.

I understand that distribution of promotional items is an attempt to get the community more invested in the success of the program while doing some of the footwork for the state. But the primary responsibility lies with driving instructors and parents: two groups of people who can either personally mandate that their wards buckle up, and who can successfully foster the habit of wearing a seat belt through repetition and personal demonstration.

With that in mind, it’s frustrating to know that transportation funding that could have been spent on other safety issues has gone to put up public eyesores promoting seat belt enforcement laws. Yes, seat belts save lives. Yes, it’s a good idea to make a habit of wearing one at all times and make sure others in your vehicle are belted in. But no, it’s not really the state’s responsibility, especially fiscally, to make certain that every adult in Illinois wears their seat belt.

As an adult driver, if you are willing to risk your personal safety and possibly your life because you think your seat belt feels uncomfortable, be my guest. If you opt not to enforce buckling up with everyone who rides in your car, go ahead, pal. If you find yourself in an accident and the physical well being of your passenger is compromised, it’s on you. The same thing goes for passengers who refuse to wear their seat belts-it’s your life and your choice. Please note that we are discussing adult drivers, not learning drivers or young children.

In theory, personal choice to wear a seat belt is the same as the choice to wear a motorcycle helmet. If I had to choose between potential temporary discomfort and my life, the decision would be easy. But if someone else wants to risk becoming a road pancake or flying through the windshield of their car, the state should not try to function as your personal nanny or allocate federal funding toward that end. This money could be presented as safety grants toward campaigns that target problems that directly result from the unfair compromise of someone else’s life or well-being (such as drunk driving).

That being said, it’s June 3. If people aren’t buckled up by now, they probably aren’t going to be. Maybe the state can spend more safety funding on removing their banner from my backyard.

Twitter dee and Twitter dumb

Originally published May 27, 2008.

God knows there are tons of networking Web sites taking the internet (and our social lives) by storm: MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster, Jobster, Homester, Familyster, MySpaceBook, FaceSpace, MyFaceSter; the list is endless. Basically if you combine a place (home, school, work) or a relationship (friend, family, stalker) with the suffix “-ster,” “-space,” or “-book,” you are bound to find a networking opportunity.

A more recent addition to this steadily growing list of sites is Twitter – an exception to the previous naming rule. The site is crafted around a single question: What are you doing right now? As far as I know, this is the only thing you can do with a Twitter profile.

I find the whole idea of service like this entirely disconcerting. People already take their MySpace top friends listings seriously (I’m sure that somewhere out there, a relationship has ended over another guy knocking a boyfriend into the number two spot). Others exploit their Facebook status messages in order to broadcast their up-to-the-minute feelings to their entire friends list (“So-and-so is feeling sad and wishes someone would cheer me up…”). What is the allure in knowing what someone else does every minute of the day?

Imagine the messages:

“I’m eating breakfast. I sure love me that Special K!”

“At the grocery store! I buy milk!”

“I shouldn’t have eaten that two-week-old seafood for dinner! Going to the bathroom now! Will update from hospital if I have food poisoning!”

As things stand, I have never heard of offices using this site for co-workers, and I don’t think anyone would want their family or friends to know what they happen to do at any given moment. Twitter advertises that the service is as informative as you want it to be. You can update very infrequently, or turn off updates by certain people. Okay, great; but if you don’t want to display your whole life like the Truman Show or ignore people, why would you use the service to begin with?

As fun as it could be to obnoxiously use Twitter for purposes of personal humor, we’ve developed yet another outlet for our secret inclination toward social exhibitionism. We’re so starved for our fifteen minutes of Internet fame that we imagine that broadcasting our every move will interest someone, anyone, enough that they will continue to read. Between Internet networking and blogging, everyone and their mother – often quite literally – crave that acknowledgment, whether in Web site hits or comments.

As a response, I’m working on my own project. I’d like to combine the personal information of Facebook profiles and the University’s Find People online search, the visual broadcasting aspect of YouTube and the constant status update capabilities of Twitter. That way, people can find out who you are, see exactly where you are, and read/watch what you’re doing at any given moment.

I’m calling it “House Arrest.”

Urbana campus the first among equals?

Originally published May 20, 2008.

As of May 13, 2008, the new e-mail addresses reflecting the campus domain change are functional. Though the full switch will take some time, this is a big stride in the university system’s, or rather, the campus’s new marketing plan.

I say campus because this move to the illinois.edu domain (from uiuc.edu) only affects the Urbana-Champaign location. The Chicago and Springfield campuses will remain unaffected by this change. According to the Illinois Domain Project Web site, this is because UIC and UIS are already “well-branded” institutions, while “research shows that the Urbana campus is not well-known as UIUC” (http://webtools.uiuc.edu/blog/view?blogId=278). Maybe not, but the Urbana campus is easily known as the University of Illinois, and anyone interested in attending the University will have no trouble Googling it that way.

As for being “well-branded,” UIC does indeed boast the status of being a recognizable part of the University of Illinois network. On the other hand, a frightening amount of Urbana students do not even know UIS exists, let alone that it has been a part of the University of Illinois system for more than a decade.

In any case, I don’t doubt that this is a solid marketing ploy for the university system’s main campus. However, it also seems arrogant and disruptive to the potential unity of the three locations as a university system. While it would also require an even greater amount of work to completely shift all of the previous domains to a new central domain, it would also better advertise UIC and UIS as institutions with a caliber of education equal to that of the central campus.

And doesn’t the university system constantly boast that students at both sister campuses receive a “University of Illinois education”? By changing uiuc.edu to illinois.edu, university administrators essentially say the exact opposite – that UIUC is the only “Illinois”, and that its own affiliated locations are nothing but cheap knock-offs.

To give one campus the illinois.edu address is to grant it permission to surpass the importance of the entire system. It also further deters potential Global Campus students after the university has tried to bring so much attention to its pet initiative. UIUC is a large, traditional university which caters most specifically to students within the Champaign-Urbana area who can attend classes on campus.

Prospective Global Campus students will be hard-pressed to enjoy the one-and-only “Illinois” experience – that is, the education it offers – from a distance, as the central campus offers few online classes in a tiny number of degree fields. So by changing uiuc.edu to illinois.edu, insisting we’re the only Illinois there is, we’re saying that only traditional students can be a part of that Illinois. We’re also broadcasting the message that to enroll in other online degree programs offered through UIC and UIS (outside of the Global Campus program) are substandard imitations of UIUC -excuse me- “Illinois” degree programs.

While the campus will continue to avidly pursue this particular brand idea, it is important that students here recognize that there is an “Illinois” outside of UIUC, and that the people who attend other branches of the University of Illinois system are equally important members of that system seeking a high-quality U of I education and paying U of I tuition. Let’s keep this “illinois.edu” business from going to our heads.

Keeping summer a vacation

Originally published May 13, 2008.

At last, our 2 1/2 months of freedom have arrived. Immediately after writing that, I think of all the people for whom this isn’t true. Whether it’s summer classes or summer jobs, the word “summer” just isn’t synonymous with “vacation” anymore. Like many others, I’ll be working two jobs this year to help offset the ever-rising cost of a University of Illinois education.

But now is also the time to enjoy the last, receding vestiges of childhood. Yes, “childhood.” Even for those who work to put themselves through school all year-round, we still exist within a strange limbo stage in which the youthful lack of responsibility tangles with the beginnings of the threads of commitment that weave together to become our adult lives. We’re not quite kids, and we’re not quite grown-up. Summer break represents the peak of the tension between the two.

We should embrace that little bit of extra childhood that higher education affords us with time off, even while we’re working and taking extra classes. Summer can still distinguish itself as a totally separate time of the year, made for reflection, relaxation and fun. I may need a week off from required readings, but it’s still the best time to squeeze in the books I wanted to read for kicks.

We shouldn’t hesitate to “play” with friends – while we’ve maybe moved on from street baseball games and sidewalk chalking (and maybe we shouldn’t have), the reconnecting and hanging out with people close to you has been put off long enough. You can appease the adult in you by getting some coffee together (instead of soda at the mall), or seeing a movie (without Mom having to come pick you up afterward).

When it comes right down to it, childhood is about making relaxation a priority, and having a summer break encourages us not to lose sight of that as we race furiously toward adulthood.

But we’ve already spent 10 months frantically anticipating assignments and exams, and there’s no easier way to give up any enjoyment of your break than to let adult obligations stress you out. Money for car insurance, gasoline, food and rent has to be earned somehow. And there will still never be enough time to work a 40-hour (or more) week and achieve all the tasks slated for the eternally elusive “free time” we hope to have. If we don’t try to at least partially plan our schedules around the things we love, and want to do, we set ourselves up for the rut in which we’ll spend our actual adult lives.

So when you flop down on your couch after you come home from a long day of work, or sigh tiredly every time you glance at your textbooks, remember that the little bit of kid left in you still exists. Embrace it while you can.

Take a trip, climb a tree, make pancakes for dinner, or even dig up your old action figures. Make time to get your summer started off right. When it’s gone, it’s gone – don’t let it slip away.