Welcome to the ‘teenies’!

Dear Readers

Welcome to the ‘teenies’! Although much of the print and televised news over the Christmas break was dominated by our national inability to deal with the snow, it is clear that 2010 is going to be a big year in politics. With the infamous ‘Christmas-day-bomber’ provoking a knee-jerk reaction that will see the introduction of near-naked bio-metric scanners at airports, it is clear that the ‘war on terror’ is intensifying. So if you have any opinions you want heard, from international issues to ones relating to our current educational, economic and political crises, feel free to get in touch so we can feature your piece in our freshly redesigned Badger. In this way we can continue to function as a forum of debate on the issues we face in our University, in the government and beyond.

We would also like to reaffirm our commitment to producing a platform for the diverse views and opinions of our student body. The articles published in the comment section do not necessarily represent that Badger’s opinions, or those of the editors. Remember we want to stimulate lively debates in this section, but at the same time are committed to impartiality and professionalism in our own approach.

Finally we would like to say an enormous thank you to all those who contributed to the comment section last term.  With such a huge range of contentious issues on offer, The Badger’s Comment and Opinion section is a more vital tool than ever before in the constant battle to get your voices heard.  You can now get involved via our Facebook group (Comment & Opinion Writers at The Badger 2009/10) or by emailing us directly at badger-opinion@ussu.sussex.ac.uk, as well as keeping up to date with all our articles and leaving your own comments at thebadgeronline.co.uk/section/comment.

Gemma, Mark & Nicky

Comment & Opinion Editors

Big Brother isn’t watching…but Facebook is

Have you updated your Facebook status today? Or perhaps uploaded some pictures whilst spending a few moments to become a fan of Roast Dinners or Sleeping?

If so, you are not alone, in fact you are actually in the middle of an expanding mob of cyber-based networking. In April 2009, Facebook recorded over 200 million active users on their website, uploading around 850 million photographs each month, and collectively managing to spend 3.5 billion minutes per day procrastinating, stalking, fine tuning their profile or attending to important matters such as finding out which Skins Character they can most relate to through a handful of simple questions.
Read more

Internet makes for idle students

Web 2.0, the second generation of the World Wide Web, may be producing academic laziness amongst higher education students.

A report investigating the effects of recent developments in web design on higher education was launched at The Barbican, London, on 12 May by The Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and other social networking technologies popular with students came under the scrutiny of the committee.
Read more

Facebook 50 times more popular than journals

Figures have revealed the web surfing habits of   Sussex students. Facebook was the most  popular   website, accounting for nearly 50 times as much web traffic as the academic journal sites ScienceDirect and JSTOR.

Other top destinations included YouTube, MySpace and film download sites. The figures sampled a one week period last term, including internet access from computer rooms, campus accommodation and wireless users.
Read more

Facebook privacy row

Facebook was forced to reverse a decision to introduce new terms and conditions which would have allowed the website to retain all users’ messages, actions and updates – even after they have deleted their account.
Read more

Students campaign for non-genderist bus pass

Two Sussex students have forced Brighton & Hove bus company into reconsidering their compulsory selection of gender on Saver tickets. The students created a Facebook group which brought about the policy review. They argue that it is in an unnecessary and inappropriate categorisation, since there are people who might not identify as either male or female. They have sent letters of complaint to the director of the Brighton & Hove Bus and Coach Company, who has agreed to remove the sex panel from future saver tickets. Read more

‘Students use facebook to create their ideal self’ claim psychologists

Students use Facebook and Myspace to create their ‘ideal self’ says a recent report on self presentation, gender and social networking sites. Read more

The guise of Facebook

This media entity is regrettably, seen as the handshake of social acceptance, friendship, inclusion and popularity. Yet how many people do you actually know on your Facebook? and how many do you even like of the ones you do know?
Read more

NUS awarded for HSBC Facebook campaign

The NUS has been presented with an award for its HSBC campaign, which forced the bank to go back on its decision to impose charges on graduate overdrafts.
Read more

Cambridge dean masquerades as Spaniard on Facebook

Last week Dr Peter Anthony Linehan, dean of one of St John’s College, Cambridge was caught out by his students when he created a Facebook profile to do a bit of his own detective work on his student’s behaviour.

Since the 1st October 2008, the university has limited the amount of wine which students could take to dining halls from the usual bottle of wine to two glasses. This led to the creation of the Facebook group ‘St John’s has banned us taking wine to the hall’. Read more

Next Page »