ssues & ideas

EDITOR MEGAN BOBETSIS

THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCT. 16, 2014 7

Social interactions and the Net

App-made
lust won't
last long

People meeting online are
setting themselves up for
“an emotional wasteland”

By LENA ALSAYEGH

Cuddlr have become popular over

the last year, but their effects on
real-world interpersonal interaction
may not be beneficial in the long run.

Tinder markets itself as, “the fun
way to connect with new and interest-
ing people around you... a new way to
express yourself and share with
friends,” though it has become widely
known less innocently as the hook-up
app.

Cuddlr, on the other hand, rounds
out the other side of the spectrum, in-
tended for merely platonic hugging
with strangers in your vicinity.

Relationship expert and sex thera-
pist Dr. David McKenzie sees relation-
ship apps and online dating as modern
tools that facilitate the dating process,
but he also stresses proceeding with
caution.

“What they’re leaving out is the es-
sential part of conflict, of things that
need to be worked out. They give a
false impression of what it is to be in a
living dynamic relationship,” McKen-
zie said.

Brooke Ancheta, an arts and scienc-
es student, said she has used Tinder,
but that “it’s really messed up.”

Ancheta added, “it’s kind of creepy
that you just click yes or no [on a pic-
ture], it’s superficial.”

When asked what effect she thought
such apps were having on relation-
ships, she said, “there’s no such thing
as a relationship anymore.”

Biology student Courtney Harvey
also called Tinder superficial.

“Social media speeds up the [dating]
process and cuts out a lot of important
things,” Harvey said.

McKenzie explains that when two
people come together, there will inevi-
tably be conflict.

“A living dynamic relationship
means two people come together with
two different world views, two sets of
genes, two value systems,” and this is
not reflected by the apps, McKenzie
said.

He went on to specifically address
apps like Tinder, which focus on casual
encounters.

“In any situation where there’s
hooking up, in the long run it’s women
who lose,” he said. “It’s usually people
who want shallow, short-term, mean-
ingless relationships - it’s an emotional
wasteland.”

Psi apps such as Tinder and

LENA ALSAYEGH photo illustration
Tinder helps local people meet up.

By VIVIAN CHUI

nline classes may be just as
good as in-person learning, giv-
en the right student and the
right instructor.

In addition to face-to-face instruction,
many educational institutions including
Langara, offer online classes as a flexi-
ble alternative to increase access to ed-
ucation and encourage collaboration.

General arts student Kayla Isomura
took a political science course only of-
fered online at Langara last fall and she
said it was more self-paced.

Sarah Bowers, chair of Langara’s ed-
ucational technology department, said
that online classes allow greater com-
mitment.

She has taught communication
courses online and in person, and has
recently attended online courses of-
fered by Athabasca University.

“T get out of bed and do my course,”
said Bowers, who has three small chil-
dren.

“There is no way I can go out and
take a course for three hours.”

Isomura said online coursework re-
quires more self-motivation.

“You need to actively go online and
do the coursework, whereas in-person
you just show up for class,” Isomura
said.

Bowers said, “There is a lot of work
trying to get the online classroom en-
gaging and interesting for students, be-
cause they can choose not to come so
much more easily.”

For Isomura, online classes fail in al-
lowing classmates and teacher to con-
nect with one another.“We only met up
on the exam,” she said.

“You never know who's actually get-
ting it, whereas in class, people will
speak up and you get an idea.”

The teacher never responded to her
emails, Isomura added.

Bowers connects with her students
better online and invites students to put
a picture of their pet as their icon.

“People will have side conversations
while still doing the work,” said Bowers.

“You might get little bits of conversa-
tion five minutes before and after a
face-to-face class.”

Bowers added that sometimes, shy
students are more comfortable partici-
pating in an online class, as they have
time to think and not be put on the spot.

“Research shows that there are is no
significant difference in learning out-
comes,” Bowers said, but students who
take online courses or face-to-face
classes have usually self-selected them-
selves.

“They themselves know what's best
for them.”

VIVIAN GHUI photo
Most students have the option to choose whether an online class will benefit their learning style.

D2L isn't for everyone

Online classes can be convenient but isolating

KAYLA ISOMURA
Langara general
arts student

66

You need
to actively
go online
and do
the course
work,
whereas
in-person
you just
show up
for class

Plugging in
Online makes
hiring easier

Certain apps are helping
companies advertise and
find potential employees

By NICH JOHANSEN

part of the business world and an

online presence may help a com-
pany advertise and make a potential
employee more hireable.

Social media began as a way to con-
nect with friends online, to share inter-
ests and to see what your connections
are doing. It has since grown rapidly
and has become increasingly impor-
tant in the business world.

“A lot more com-
panies are expect-
ing you to bring
your own social
media contacts
into jobs,” Ro-
chelle Grayson,
who teaches social
media strategies
at Langara, said.

“Part of that is
just [showing] ex-
pertise ... a little
bit of depth in cer-
tain areas or topics really helps when
you go for a job interview.”

Social media allows employers to see
a broader picture of a potential em-
ployee, beyond just their work experi-
ence.

“Employers are looking more for a
holistic, ‘who are you?’ not just what
you have accomplished.” Grayson said.

Chris Yeh is the talent development
specialist at Clio, a legal management
software company.

Rather than using social media to
look at potential hires, he uses it to
show people Clio’s work environment.

Yeh said the company uses websites
such as Twitter and Instagram to com-
municate what it’s like to work at the
company, rather than simply using
them as a job board.

When it comes to prospective em-
ployees, social media “communicates
to us that you can pick up some of the
newer technologies,” Yeh said. “But it’s
not imperative that you have a Twitter
profile.”

For Vanessa Leigh, publisher and
founder of Vancouver based Ion Maga-
zine, social media is used in the day-to-
day running of things rather than in
the hiring process.

“For my core staff it’s basically part
of the deal that they have to interact
with everything Ion is doing,” Leigh
said. “Post on their Facebook page,
tweet it out there and get the word
out.”

For her freelance writers, social me-
dia interaction can be a deciding factor
on who gets rehired.

“We're more inclined to go back and
use somebody that is interacting with
the magazine,” she said.

According to Grayson, building a so-
cial media presence early is vital.

“Getting your social media profile
started your first year [of university] is
something you should do,” she said.
“By the time you get to year three or
four and you’re looking for the job, it’s
almost too late.”

And Grayson doesn’t think this is
changing, “I see social media as a criti-
cal piece of the hiring process going
forward.”

Ss media is becoming a major

CHRIS YEH
Clio talent devel-
opment specialist