Each charity supports a worthy cause, and each event reflects a valiant effort to do something meaningful, but it takes more than simply attending an event to be a true benefactor of a cause. It takes more than doing a bit of fundraising and then checking it off an imaginary list of required good deeds.

This is not to say, by any means, that attending such events isn’t worthwhile. I myself have been to three Relay for Life events — and every year, I’ve made a luminaria bag for my cousin Bradley. Every year I’ve made an account and raised money in his memory.

For me, it’s the sentiment behind the event that matters, not the perceived benefits of the event itself. According to CharityNavigator, almost 20 percent of my minimal financial contribution to Relay is used by the American Cancer Society in further fundraising efforts rather than direct programming. I know that my once-a-year effort doesn’t really constitute a meaningful contribution to the cause.

I also attended the YellowJackets’ concert. But I would have attended the concert regardless of whether or not the proceeds from my ticket were benefitting Friedreich’s ataxia research.

What constitutes a meaningful contribution then? Consistency. Getting behind a cause and sticking with it. Leading an initiative, taking a stance, and following through.

That takes passion and a long-term commitment. It’s easy to get behind someone else’s cause (even blindly) and follow along. It’s much more difficult to take an initiative and become a true advocate.

Again, that’s not to say attending other events isn’t worthwhile — it’s necessary if another person’s cause is to be successful. For instance, the students who organized the Yellowjackets concert clearly made a long-term, impassioned commitment to their support and advocacy for Friedreich’s ataxia, needed all those audience members and ticket purchases. I know I’m glad that I was able to support them in their endeavor, but I certainly can’t take much credit for supporting the cause. A one-time contribution doesn’t justify that.

Admittedly, not all of us can — or should — dedicate our lives completely to furthering a cause. We can’t all be Martin Luther King and become the face of the Civil Rights Movement. We can’t all be Jody Williams and receive the Nobel Peace Prize for banning landmines. But we can do more than attend one-time events that “fulfill” a “good-deed quota.”

It’s wonderful and necessary that so many people are willing to spend time and money at events like the YellowJackets’ Concert for a Cure, Relay for Life, and the AHA walk, among others, in support of causes and organizations they feel to be worthwhile.

Still, it’s important to consider the greater impact we could have if every person dedicated him or herself to a cause, upheld a stance, and consistently followed through.

Remus is a member of the class of 2016.

As an intern at the capital building in the spring of 2009, I wasn’t allowed to state my opinion about same-sex marriage or take any pamphlets from advocates on either side of the argument. I did sneak a “Support the right to marry” button into my bag to be worn after my internship ended. I clearly remember being in the House of Representatives on a day that the bill was being debated. The aisle down the middle of the room sharply spliced the same-sex marriage advocates from those who were against the entire proposal. Emotions ran high and tempers were hot through all of the discussions and all of the voting, but eventually the state reached a decision. Even though the governor vetoed the bill, his view was overridden by the voice of Vermonters (barely, but it still happened.) It was a proud day for our very small state.

Based on my experience in one of the smallest state capitals in the country, I can only imagine the intensity of the arguments that happened a few weeks ago in Washington D.C. at the Supreme Court. Supporters of both sides camped out in line for days to get seats and watch the action in the courtroom, though they will have to wait until June for any decision. Until then, every opinion writer and expert on the subject will try to predict the outcome of the court even though it’s honestly impossible to know which way the verdict will go.

I understand the argument that traditional marriage should be between a man and woman and that, as some conservatives believe, that the purpose of marriage is procreation. I respect all those that see the marriage in that way, I really do. But as a somewhat-liberal Vermonter, I am proud to be a supporter of same-sex marriage.

I have many wonderful friends who indentify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. It would be wrong for me to tell them they cannot have the same kind ofcompanionship I hope to find someday as a heterosexual. Everyone deserves the right to declare their love to someone else, regardless of the sex of the object of their love. Many same-sex couples that have been allowed to marry have adopted children out of the foster care system. I know of one pair in particular. They have been the best dads a child could have ever wished for. They are a loving couple and together they bring to their child’s life all of the positive characteristics people often only associate with heterosexual marriage. Without their marriage, the child would have probably remained in the foster care system for many more years. Now, he has a family to support him and love him. They have been absolutely wonderful parents and provided a great home for a child that might not have had that otherwise.

This decision by the court will be just as big as Brown vs. Board of Education and Roe vs. Wade in terms of effect and the repercussions it is sure to bring. This will definitely be one for our children’s history textbooks. Our country is slowly moving forward, and this is another crucial step in the path towards those words that our forefathers wrote so many years ago: “All men are created equal.”

Sanguinetti is a member of the class of 2015.

Almost immediately following Tuesday’s viral wave of red came a second overwhelming onslaught of parody images. Two strips of bacon replaced the two bars of the math symbol. Bert and Ernie, of Sesame Street were added in another. Even Queen B made her mark, posting a picture of the sign accompanied by the simple text, ‘If you like it, you should be able to put a ring on it’ and then it clicked. A quick Google search yielded results matching my expectation — the simple equal sign was the logo of the Human Rights Campaign, colored red for ‘love and passion.’

But wait a minute… weren’t these people sporting the red equality sign today the same people who had set their profile pictures to a patriotic “KONY 2012” poster just a few months ago? Did they not tint their images green to ‘show support’ for the Arab Spring and add a pink ribbon to the bottom corner for Breast Cancer awareness? Do they even grasp the complexities of these issues? In my experience, they do not, and one Facebook user recently claimed that he “just did it because everyone else was doing it.” 

Like this user, many of the people who jump on these bandwagons make it their mission to defend issues they often know little about. These ‘social justice warriors’ care less about the issue than about their appearance and need to fit in and follow social trends, often in a rude and condescending manner. During the KONY 2012 revolution, people of all ages paid homage to the kids lost to Joseph Kony’s Lord Resistance Army using a stylized election poster titled “KONY 2012”, and vowed to catch Joseph Kony by the end of the year. Many of these same people were unable to label Uganda on a map. 

It’s unfair to generalize every person who has jumped on any sort of social media to show their support for a pressing social issue as a flaky groupie.  Being informed on contemporary issues is not mutually exclusive to being vocal on social media. While movements such as “Change your profile picture to _____ to show your support for _______” spark a conversation, they don’t create change. 

I’m speaking less about the issues than I am about the ideas surrounding the issues. I support gay marriage 100 percent. I support transgender marriage and bisexual marriage and lesbian marriage. I support cancer awareness and non-violence and animal rights and laws preventing child trafficking. 

However, it’s important to realize that a couple clicks of your computer mouse will not revolutionize the world. Malcolm Gladwell, journalist and author of the critically acclaimed “The Tipping Point,” “Blink,” and “Outliers” reflects on this idea, “The role of social media in protests and revolutions is grossly overstated.” he states. Though he agrees that social media makes it easier for activists to express themselves, he also states that social media makes it “harder for that expression to have any impact.” Though social networks are effective at increasing participation, they do so “by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.” 

If you really support gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender marriage like the Human Rights Campaign advocates, consider taking action, or at least becoming more aware. Follow the United States vs. Winsor trial, and keep up with the news. If you’re feeling bold, call your state representative, call your Senator, write for the local paper, but please, please, please, whatever you do, leave your Facebook profile out of it. 

Arre is a member of the class of 2015.

Courtesy of leadershipfreak.com

In a classroom of 200 students, a professor conducts a quiz in which students rate themselves on a number of attributes and capabilities in comparison to their peers. After tabulating the results, it turns out that nearly every single student viewed his or her self as above average. What’s more, 25 percent of those students saw themselves in the top one percent in terms of their ability to get along with others.

This tendency to overestimate one’s skills in relation to others isn’t new. It’s called “illusory superiority” or the “better-than-average effect” and has been observed across all walks of life: drivers, parents, CEOs, presidents. According to recent surveys, however, this level of self-inflation among students, in particular, has reached a new peak.

The American Freshmen Survey, which has asked students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966, found that over the last four decades there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as “above average” in areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability and self-confidence. Approximately 75 percent of freshmen asserted a greater “drive to achieve” than their peers, and about 60 percent rated their “intellectual self confidence” and “leadership ability” as above average.

Disregard the statistical improbability of these numbers. Disregard the fact that the average, in these cases, refers to the median and not the mean. What worries me most is the disparity between a person’s self-perception and the reality around us.

I’m disinclined to blame Western culture for over-gratifying this generation, for drilling ideas of brilliance into the minds of students, for handing out unwarranted cookies, dash of narcissism included. There’s nothing wrong with self-confidence. It is unearned, self-inflated confidence that sits at the root of this problem.

Harboring such a high image can be severely detrimental. When we routinely convince ourselves that we’re better than we actually are, we won’t progress. This is not to say that people shouldn’t view themselves in a favorable light; it’s just that people are more aware of their strengths and not their weaknesses.

Interestingly, a catch-22 of this phenomenon is that incompetent people are unable to recognize their own poor performance; they can’t assess themselves accurately and thus tend to grossly overestimate their skills and abilities. Known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, unskilled people not only fail to learn from their mistakes, but they also consider themselves more competent than their peers.

Although there’s no easy remedy for such a problem, I believe one solution is self-awareness. Coming to terms with reality can help target and understand blind spots and weaknesses. And, as hard as that may be, this will give us the capacity to accept and face what we tend to deny. We can’t change what we don’t acknowledge.

In the ideal world, self-image would be linked to self-knowledge. According to behavioral economist Dan Ariely, setting benchmarks can prove to be another way to overcome perceptions. Fortunately for us, college provides the appropriate atmosphere to cultivate this insight.

Maybe as a new step, perform a reality check. Question assertions. Question your perceptions. Question your surroundings. Question yourself, and shatter this illusion.

Kerem is a member of the class of 2015.

Courtesy of virginmobilelive.com

If you haven’t been living under a rock, chances are you’ve heard of something called Instagram. If you have been living under a rock, let me fill you in. Instagram is a smartphone app that lets you apply filters to your photos, and share them with your friends. These filters crop the pictures you take into a square á la Polaroid. They also change the hue. That’s all it does. It makes pictures look terrible, and hundreds of millions of people use it.

The biggest problem that I have with Instagram is that it is simple and unintuitive. All one has to do while “instagramming” is select presets and add hashtags that do absolutely nothing for the photo. This takes no skill whatsoever. There’s no manual mode, nor are there ways to stand out creatively. This lack of options just raises the self-esteem of “instagrammers” who think that the photos they take are art simply because they are on Instagram. It’s the “I do art” mentality that is destroying this planet from the inside out.

On top of that, many of the pictures that go through Instagram are so trivial that the content is void of meaning. Personally, I don’t enjoy seeing pictures of pets, feet, or food with a color palette somewhere between puke and shit.

The sad truth is that Instagram is a great way to share photographs, but the processing of images and results of that processing make it a joke in the world of photography. Instagram is fairly useful for journalists or other photographers who have to juggle a complex array of tools. But these 5% are in the vast minority of users who know how to properly use Instagram. With great power comes great responsibility.

Many of the presets on Instagram give images the appearances of looking “hip.” They add cheesy vignettes and fake-looking borders reminiscent of Polaroids, blur certain parts of images, give tints to the images, and more. What’s sad is that this actually appeals to the vast majority of people, numbering hundred of millions. Instagram is the epitome of superficial, modern conformity. Why do you want to take pictures that look exactly like millions of pictures that other people around the world are taking? Be unique.

When you take pictures with Instagram, your perception of life becomes warped. You start to see the world in terms of photographable and nonphotographable. Your painted toenails suddenly become something more than painted toenails. This is especially problematic because you end up getting the least out of life. You are stuck trying to present your life as an artificial, picture-perfect world, hence the unnecessary and usually bizarre effects. Your toes become your gateway into the world of “art”. Is it just me, or does this sound incredibly stupid? Instagram is basically Autotune in the visual world, distorting your creations and making them seem fake.

Real hipsters use real Polaroid cameras. Wannabe-hipster, 16-year olds with no knowledge of old-school photography use Instagram.

I’m not trying to say that you need a “real camera” to take good pictures. But what I am trying to say is that you don’t need to add horrible looking effects to uncreative pictures to make them look creative. There’s a better solution: take creative pictures and don’t put a horrible filter over it.

Seriously, it reduces photography to garbage. Don’t use it.

Schaffer is a member of the class of 2016.

Despite all these questions that may take a toll on your emotional well-being, Valentine’s Day turns out to be a happy day for most. With the importance that college students place on this holiday, it is important for guys and girls to get a sense of how the opposite sex feels.

As a guy, getting the perfect gift for a girl has always been a struggle. Girls often use Valentine’s Day as a way to decide whether your relationship is worth it, and this is often measured by the quality of the gift. Whether to get her flowers or chocolate, or maybe even jewelry, is a toss-up to say the least, and once you decide on what to get, it’s sometimes even harder to narrow down to the specific necklace or bouquet.

Girls, on the other hand, feel more confident about giving gifts on Valentine’s Day because it is really the thought that counts — on both ends. The most important part about this holiday is the time you spend with someone special to you, and that might be where guys could use some work. Let’s be honest, Feb. 14 is for girls, and it is important for guys to show us that they care enough to spend some time planning this special day. Who cares about flowers if they arrive at your door with a random delivery man instead of your boyfriend?

As a guy, Valentine’s Day is chock-full of confusing emotions and hopeless attempts at mind-reading. It’s hard enough to know how your girlfriend is feeling on any given day, but on Feb. 14, it is almost as if she feels the need to define your relationship for the world to see. Why is it that girls feel that this holiday is the deadline to determine whether the relationship is going anywhere?

As a girl, I can vouch that we are always wondering what direction our relationship is headed in, and the media has allowed Valentine’s Day to be a marker for this. Guys have turned labeling a relationship into a negative thing, but we think it reduces any misunderstandings. The reason we put so much pressure on them during this holiday is that it is the only acceptable time a girl can ask her boyfriend about feelings and their relationships status without accusations of neediness or nagging. Valentine’s Day should be a simple celebration of happiness and love —Why are guys scared of expressing emotion?

As a guy, it’s not as much about being scared of expressing emotions to their girlfriend but rather about how you go about doing it. There’s definitely a fear about meeting your girlfriend’s expectations and expressing your feelings, and that often prevents guys from being themselves, especially on days like Valentine’s Day.

So even though guys and girls have different ways of expressing their love, they both care for each other and want to show that to the other person. Remember for this Valentine’s Day to be open and act as you feel appropriate. No need to adhere to the social stereotypes laid out by the media and popular culture.

Klibridge is a member of the class of 2015. Lerner is a member of the class of 2016.