It's Official...

Facebook has taken over the world. Okay, well maybe it hasn't actually taken over the world, but it sure seems like it's getting close. My cell phone took a dip in a puddle this past weekend, so on Saturday I headed off to the T-Mobile store to get a new one. I had planned to get the same phone I had before, but since I had my other phone for over a year, the sales associate told me I could upgrade to a new phone for half the price. He recommended the Motorola Cliq and since I really had no idea what phone I wanted, I took his word for it.

Upon leaving the T-Mobile store, excited about my new phone, I sat in my car and began exploring my phone's features. On the homepage of my phone, I quickly noticed three icons with the infamous white "F" in a blue square, representing Facebook. The default homepage setting of my new phone includes a box showing you your current Facebook "Status," along with the ability to change it without signing onto the actual website, it also includes "News Feed" box, presenting me with my Facebook Friends status updates, and my phone's Messaging box that used to only include Text Messages on my previous one, now includes Facebook Messages. My Contact list in my cell phone now also includes all of my Facebook friends and their emails if they have it listed on their page.

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about these features on my new phone, however I was surprised by how much of my phone's default homepage included Facebook. I had to download an application on my previous phone for similar features regarding Facebook, but this one came more than fully stocked with the features just a year later. I no longer have to sign on to Facebook to update my status, send messages or see what my friends are up to, I can now just glance down at my cell phones home screen for all of the above. I did however actually remove the icon where my friends status updates show up because I found it to be a little bit of a Facebook overload for me.

Social Networking popularity is clearly increasing exponentially, where now cell phone manufacturers believe its important to include Facebook features on their new phones to help market them. In turn, these new phone features also have people logging on to Facebook even more. Since I got my new phone, I have noticed myself on the site much more due to its constant presence on my cell phone and I also find it kind of annoying that I have to scroll through all of my Facebook friends to find the person in my Contact list that I am trying to call. Even though I love my phone, I'm starting to think that all this Facebook stuff is just a little bit much....

Loyalty Over Honest Values?

In my Wellness class this week, we did an in class poll regarding what we would do if we found ourselves in various sticky situations. One of the situations given was somewhere along the lines of the following: You are the Treasurer for your student organization and have about $300 in your possession from the club. Your friend calls you one Friday night and sounds like he/she's been crying and they tell you they're in jail for driving under the influence and they are a few hundred dollars short of bail. They say they are good for the money and will pay you back as soon as they can, but the only money you have is the money from the club. What would you do?

Almost everyone, except myself and a few others said that they would bail their friend out of jail with the money from the student organization. They justified this with explanations of how they couldn't just leave their friend in jail and that as long as they paid you back, it wouldn't matter because they are your friend. I was blown away by this. My classmates would essentially steal money from a student organization to bail a friend out of jail who could have killed someone while they were out acting recklessly and driving under the influence. It would be a different situation if the money being used to bail the friend out actually belonged to you, but really?! Stealing from the organization that trusts you with their finances?! It was seriously shocking to listen to my classmates list off reasons justifying their answer to this question.

I understand that loyalty is a very important aspect of friendship, but so is being accountable for your actions. It's not justifiable to steal money to bail a friend out of jail when they chose to act inappropriately. What about the loyalty you are supposed to have to your student organization and values of being trustworthy? What is happening to my generations values and integrity?

Tipping Point

I have been working at Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant since it opened in early November and I recently switched from being a hostess, to being a waitress. Some called me crazy for giving up the $9 wage I was given for taking guests to their table, but I couldn't stand how boring it was standing around at the host stand. In Texas, the wage for a waiter/waitress is set at $2.13/ hour, which in my opinion, is completely ridiculous. The "logic" behind the wage being so low is that you will end up making at least minimum wage ($7.25) from the tips you receive. To me, this is a flawed logic because there are nights when the restaurant is empty and I'll walk away making $10 in tips after being there for close to four hours. You also are required to do side-work at the restaurant such as rolling silverware into the napkins, sweeping floors, wiping down the kitchen or cleaning the bathroom. This is all done for $2.14/hour. Given, there are nights where I will walk away with $50-100 in my pocket, which makes up for the slow nights, but at the end of the week, I'm still only averaging about $2-3 more per hour than a hostess.

In California, where I'm from and will be waitressing this summer, there is no difference between the wage a Server is paid and the minimum wage and that's the way it should be. Waitressing is a demanding job that requires you to walk quickly around the restaurant, heeding to your guests commands for hours on end. The tips given by the guests should serve as a reward for hard work and not be the means by which I am paid. I mean, really? $2.14/hour? How can that seriously be rationalized when a restaurant would be nothing without the hardworking waiters and waitresses to take care of the guests? I should be making much greater than $2-3/hour more than I did as a hostess because it's a much more demanding position.

Thankfully, I can look forward to the better wages I'll be making this summer working in California and that I'm at least making more money now than I did as a hostess, but something needs to be done about the Tipped Minimum Wage Law in Texas. $5/hour would be a much more reasonable wage for such a hard job.