Status updates, tweets, profile pictures and hash-tags are a part of “Generation Z’s” day to day life. But is this hurting our generation more than it is helping us stay connected? It certainly seems that way with more students spending more and more time on these social networking sites.

10. Increased Drama. Ughhhhhhhh

When you are reading something online it is different than hearing it in person.  The interpretation is up to you. A report from a divorce attorney says nearly 20% of all divorce papers had some reference to facebook. This not only affects your relationships with friends and family, but it can also affect chances of finding a job. According to careerbuilder.com, 19% of people were not hired for trash talking former employers.

9. Too Time Consuming

It almost seems as if most of our time these day is spent on social networking. Recent statistics have reported that the average user of Facebook spends roughly 55 minutes per day just on Facebook. That is almost six days a year spent on your phone/computer just on facebook.

8. People you Don’t Know Contact you

Alright, if you put your number on facebook, you are only asking for problems. First of all, don’t add people you don’t know or you don’t want to talk to. Odds are if they have added you, they will find your number and try to contact you. Don’t be surprised, upset or start complaining when your best friend’s forty year old uncle decides to start texting you because of your negligence.

7. Private Life Becomes Public

Private relationships should stay, just as the name suggests, private. Most people don’t care about your two-week-a-versary. Also, your potential future employer can see your posts.  Everything that goes on the internet stays there.

 6. Look at Me! Syndrome

Complain about not getting respect? Truth is, I am not going to respect anyone that takes a picture of themselves in the mirror with a duck face and peace sign, while sticking their butt out and an extremely low cut shirt. It just screams “I need attention”.

5. Religious (Or Lack There of) Battlefield

On Facebook, people have every right to state their opinions. However, it often leads to people overstating those opinions. Like in #10, people still overreact when it comes to fights and drama.  Right now there is a hot debate between atheists and Christians. There is a time and a place for that and Facebook isn’t it. You can express your opinions but don’t take it too far where you are trash talking other people for their beliefs.

4. Difficulty Getting a Job #KMN

 Imagine you are graduating from college and are legal drinking age and you have pictures of the “rager” that you threw last Saturday. Monday morning you are applying for jobs and you don’t know why no one is calling about your resume. In a lot of big companies, there is a department that looks at potential employee’s social networking pages and blogs. Companies would rather not hire the frat boy with a lampshade on his head with his beer pong table in the background. Statistics from careerbuilder.com report that 25% of managers said they have used some form of social networking to judge candidates, and 51% of those have decided not to hire a prospective employee because of their facebook page.

3. Face your Problems, Don’t Facebook them

It seems as of today, our first instinct is to go on a social networking site to deal with our problems. Often times people don’t even acknowledge the person that has wronged them. People just continue to put up passive aggressive posts that do nothing to help the situation.  Stick up for yourself and interact with other people. Posting stuff on social networking is only going to strain relationships more and give people a thinner skin. Not to mention people are opening their problems up to other people, possibly getting them involved, and making things more complicated.

2. Increased “Slang” and Incorrect Grammar Usage!?

We live in a world full of shortcuts with LOL, OMG,  and ROFL. There is nothing wrong with using these phrases, but  we are sometimes unable to distinguish when these are appropriate and when they should not even be thought about and that can lead to problems.  But the bigger problem here would be incorrect grammar usage. Being in school I see incorrect forms of you’re and your on a daily basis. People do not know the correct forms of their, there, and they’re anymore. It is almost as if social media has somehow erased some part of our intellectual being, things that we learned in early grade school are no longer important to us.

1. Inability to Communicate with Other Humans Face to Face, Especially Adults.

Due to the lack of personal human interactions, our generation lacks in a sense of professionalism and just communication skills in general. From my experience in working retail, many kids my age are unable to communicate successfully and politely with me. I believe that this is some of the byproducts of an electronic society. It hurts our generation’s chances in job interviews and puts us back in time. We need to be able to interact with other human beings face to face, not just through the internet. 25% of people that are not hired by a company are said to have poor communication skills during the interview.

]]> https://www.hoofprint.net/top-ten-reasons-social-networking-is-hurting-our-generation/2012/feed/ 1 https://www.hoofprint.net/bison-softball-heads-to-sections-after-winning-last-regular-season-game/2012/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bison-softball-heads-to-sections-after-winning-last-regular-season-game Mon, 21 May 2012 17:26:21 +0000 https://www.hoofprint.net/?p=12034 The Buffalo girls varsity softball team ended their regular season strong last week.  Winning 3 of the 4 games played last week, they finished with a big 2-0 win over Spring Lake Park on Friday night.

Although the game on Friday was called due to rain after the 5th inning, the Bison were ahead 2-0 and it was still considered a win.  The past couple weeks, some of the Bison’s key players have been out with injuries and illnesses so this last game the Bison coaching staff switched up the line ups to give some of the players a rest before heading into the playoffs. Sophomore Maddy Desmaires was at the mound while  Sophomore Nicole Duske was behind the plate.  Eighth grader Kallie Wycoff played short stop and Senior Shanlee Braun played first base. The Bison could afford to do this because it was a non-conference game and the section seeding had already taken place.  They finished 4th in the Mississippi 8 conference with an even 6-6 conference record.  Becker finished on top in the conference with a 9-3 record.

The section playoffs start tonight in Richfield.  The Bison got the #6 seed in the section and will play a lower seeded Minneapolis South-West at 5:00pm.  If the Bison come out on top tonight they will continue to play later this week, and if  not hey will wrap up their season.

“Lately we’ve been playing really well which has given us confidence going into sections. If we keep playing like we have been we should do alright,” said Junior Haley Prim.

The final score will be on twitter tonight after the game, so you can follow @thehoofprint to get updates on the game and other things happening around the school and community.

On Monday, the team headed to Becker High School to  play the Bulldogs who had shut down the Bison 10-1 in their previous meeting in April.  The team was entering the game looking for a big win after losing five of the six games the week before.  With strong defense and powerful offence they took control and got the job done.  The Bison finished the game winning 9-1.

Junior Bailey Braatz took charge on defense as she only gave up one run pitching all seven innings.  Sophomomre Chelsey Hensen was another defensive asset playing left field for the Bison as she had two good catches in the outfield. After the first inning the Bulldogs remained scoreless for the remainder of the game.

On the offensive end, the Bison were scoreless in the first inning but then did not go an inning with out scoring after that.  Junior Maddie Loomis was a key batter as she had two solid hits with the bases loaded.  She first hit a double right field that scored 2 runners in the third inning and then in a later inning she was up again and hit a strong single scoring one run.

The Bison have three regular season games remaining before they head off to sections on Monday, May 21.  They will host STMA tonight, Big Lake on Thursday, May 17, and Spring Lake Park on Friday, May 18.  All games will start at 4:30 and will be held at Buffalo High School.  The section seeding has yet to be decided and will be announced later this week.

At least that what the recommended school policy says.  Some teachers stick to this rule but others have their own policies.

“Some teachers see [texting] as disrespectful and others see it as a privilege,” said Junior Mariah Brings.

But when teachers see it as a privilege and don’t mind the cell phone use, do they care who can text and who can’t?  Math teacher Michelle Macalena says, “It is important to be consistent with your cell phone use in class.  During instruction time, there’s no texting. The last three minutes of class, I really don’t care.’

Technology teacher Rebecca Karna agrees and tries to teach students appropriate use.

“If a student has work to do and I know they do, I don’t yell at them but I remind them that they could be using their time better,” said Karna.

But there are a few teachers who do see it differently.  Social Studies Todd Manninen doesn’t think it matters what grade a student has but what grade the student is in where Senior Shanlee Braun thinks that if a student works hard and has a good grade they should have the freedom to text in class and those that don’t shouldn’t have that privilege.

“It really depends on what grade the students are in,” Manninen said. “I don’t let my freshman classes to even have their phones out.  I think seniors are a little more mature, they can balance work time and they have the ability to know when they have to put in away.  I’m not parental with juniors and seniors because you could be at the college level if you wanted to be.  They have the judgment to know when to be engaged [with the class].”

Students sometimes feel like teachers favor those kids who are doing well in a class verses those who tend to struggle.  Math teacher Stacy Eggers doesn’t think the discipline should change with the grade, but if a student understands things quicker, they may end up having more time to be on their phones or iPods.

Junior Julia Hogan says, “teachers kind of ignore the smart kids who have their phone out constantly, but as soon as a kid who isn’t as smart even reaches in their pocket to check the time, they would remind that student to put it away and pay attention.”

BHS doesn’t have a set policy on when cell phone use is acceptable, only guidelines.  Teachers have the choice whether or not to use these guidelines which creates more freedom in the class room.

“It is up to the teacher in each class,” said Principal Mark Mischke. “If kids with 84% can text and kids with 80% can’t, people would be at my door asking about that.  That’s the key part about this school and what students enjoy about coming to this school is the freedom.  We don’t have a zero tolerance policy in hardly anything and it’s good we don’t.”

Story by Haley Prim and Emily Spier

Photos by Jack Elliott

Before the game was called and everyone headed into a nearby building, the Hornets held the 3-1 lead.  The game is going to be made up but at an undetermined date.

On Monday, the day before the “rain out”, the Bison hosted Annandale High School.  The Bison came out victorious winning 11-2.   The three games before was a rough road for Buffalo as they fell to Waconia 1-2, Becker 1-10, and STMA  0-10.

The Bison had big bats and solid defense in the win against Annandale.  Senior Captain Shanlee Braun led the team on offence and ended the the win going 4-4 from the plate.  Sophomore Kaitlin Radford also had a big game hitting a 3 run inside the park home run.  Junior Bailey Braatz started at the rubber and Sophomore Maddy Desmaires came in to finish out the game in the last 3 innings.

“The Bison were back and it was fun playing the way I knew we could play,” said Junior Haley Prim.

The Next couple games for the Bison are away Thursday at Cambridge High School and Friday Night under the lights at Chanhassen High School.  Their next home game will be held on Thursday May 10 at 4:30 pm against the Rogers Royals.

“It’s like a reassuring feeling winning our first three games.  It boosts our confidence and makes us excited to keep on playing and winning.  It also helps our team mesh a little more and makes us closer as a group.

Tuesday’s game against Rogers was a strong defensive effort as they left the Royals scoreless.  On the offensive side for the Bison, Senior Shanlee Braun hit a double to right center with two outs and Junior Emily Varner then hit a single to score Braun in the first inning.  They then scored in the second inning after Senior Deanna Spier got on base with a single and Junior Maddie Loomis got on base after laying down a bunt.  The Royals defense couldn’t field the bunt and over threw first base.  Smart base running scored Spier and Loomis made it to 3rd.  Eighth grader Kali Wycoff hit a double to score Loomis.  Spier hit another single and scored off of Sophomore Katelyn Radford bunt towards the pitcher.

Junior First basemen, Emily Varner, ended the game going 2-3 from the plate and was named KRWC’s player of the game.

The Bison will travel up to Monticello to play the Magic tonight at 4;30 at Monticello High School for another good conference match up.

“It felt really good to beat them by that much especially since they were a big competitor last year.  They had also played 2 games before so it felt good to win our first game,” said Junior Haley Prim.

It was a cold day for a game but that didn’t hold back the Bison’s bats.  Both teams were scoreless in the first inning but C-I were first on the scoreboard in the top of the second.  Junior Pitcher Bailey Braatz walked the first C-I batter, and the second batter hit a hard line drive out to Senior Right Fielder Deanna Spier.  The Ball tipped off her glove and the runner on first ended up scoring.  Spier recovered the ball and threw it into Senior Short Stop Shanlee Braun who then tagged the runner out at second.

By the end of the third inning the score was tied 2-2.  The Bison came back to get 4 runs in the 4th inning and 3 more in the 5th.  C-I got  a hold of  3 more runs in the 7th inning and that would end the game with a final score of 9-5.

Varner lead the teams offence and ended the game going 3-3 from the plate hitting a homerun, a tripple and a double.

The Bison were seeded first in the section so they played the number eight seed Brainerd, but the section was so evenly balanced the whole bracket almost got flipped.  Three of the four games that took place in the first round turned out upsets. Number One Buffalo lost to #8 Brainerd, #3 Elk River lost to #6 Bemedji, and #4 STMA lost to #5 Moorehead.  This was the first season since the 2006-07 season that the Bison held the top spot in the section, but this year that spot was just a number, not a trip back to the State Tournament.

The game started in the favor of the Bison.  Junior Peter Cassady wins the tip and Senior Dom Gilmer got an early bucket.  With about 9 minutes remaining the Bison were leading 12-8.  Junior Ethan Freer’s shooting was starting to get hot.  After he hit three 3-pointers, the Bison kept the three point lead with 5:20 remaining in the half.  After a time out called by the Warriors, Brainerd started fireing back.  They hit a few long range shots and took the lead at the half 30-29.  Freer had 15 points and Schepp and Gilmer both had 7 points each in the first half.

The Bison started with the ball in the second half the Warriors scored first.  Freer, the leading scorer , committed his third foul with in a few minutes of the half and was replaced by Senior Caleb Ruter.  Buffalo was down 35-41 with 11 minutes remaining and Freer came back into the game.  Things started going right for the Bison starting with Cassady’s back to back and one’s, both  assisted by Freer, which cut Brainerd’s lead to only 2.  Brainerd at that point had 10 fouls in the half so for every other foul, the Bison were shooting double bonus.  Freer hits another shot and a free throw to put the bison up with six minutes left for the first time since the first half.   They kept the lead for a solid three minutes when Brainerd hit some key jumpers.  Both teams were at that point shooting double bonus for each foul with the score tied 55-55 with 25 seconds remaining in the game.  The clock ticked to 3 seconds and Schepp shot a 3-pointer that bounced out.  Cassady got the rebound but ball spun out and didnt fall in.  They were headed into overtime.

Overtimes are four minutes long and start with another tip off.  Cassady wins the tip but Brainerd was quick to score first. With the clock at 1:38, Freer hits his fourth 3-pointer of the night to cut Brainerd’s lead to 3.  The Bison make another free  throw and Junior Jason Senger drives in the lane to tie the game 63-63 with 24 seconds.  Brainerd has the last shot but was unable to finish so they head into double overtime.

Again, Brainerd comes out strong and takes the lead right away.  Both Senger and Freer commit their 5th fouls back to back and are subbed out.  The Bison were down one with the ball with 31 seconds remaining, but a turnover and a techincal foul gives brainerd two free throws and the ball with 13.8 seconds remaining.  Brainerd makes one of the free throws and keeps the ball away from the Bison.  There were 4 clutch free throws missed by the bison in double overtime.

The final score was 67-69.  Junior Ethan Freer had the game and his season high 28 points knocking down four 3-pointers.  Senger and Cassady followed him with 11 and 10 points in the game.  The loss ends the Bison’s season with a final record of 17-10.

The Bison were scheduled to take a trip up to play Cambridge-Isanti on Tuesday, but because of the winter storm warnings the game was postponed until Thursday.   They had to play earlier than usual because of the C-I girls teams’ home section game that night.  The Bison came out strong and ended the first half leading 37-17.  Even though the Bison had such a big lead in the first half, the Bluejackets didn’t give up and did end up outscoring the Bison by 6 in the second half.  Because of the early lead, the bison ended up winning 67-53.  It was a great team win with four Bison players, compared to the Bluejackets two players, with scores in the double digits.  Junior Jackson Schepp had the game high 13 points, followed by Seniors Dom Glimer and Caleb Ruter with 12 and 11 points, and Junior Peter Cassady with 10 points.

Twenty seven hours after getting a win against the Bluejackets, the Bison went back to work and tipped off against the Becker Bulldogs on Friday at senior night here at BHS. Since it was senior night, the starting lineup had 5 seniors in it including Caleb Ruter who has had a few starts this season before as well as Tanner Thielman, Trevor Eder, Ryan Olson, and Colton Haight who had their very first starts of their career.

The Bulldogs were the first on the board when they drew an early foul but Olson later hit a three pointer to answer back and put the Bison on the score board.  With about 9 minutes remaining in the half, the Bison were trailing 6-14 but a 24-11 point run put the Bison up at the half with a half time score of 30-25.  Senior Dom Gilmer led the half with 15 points for the Bison.  Buffalo started off strong in the second half and had a lead as big as 10 points, but the Bulldogs hit some key shots to cut the lead to 5 or 6 points twice.  Because the score was close in the last two minutes, Becker was fouling and putting Buffalo on the free throw line.  The Bison took over and finished out the game.  The final score was 68-60.  Dom Gilmer had the game high 21 points followed by Junior Ethan Freer’s 18 points.  After the game, Coach Nick Guida took time to honor the senior basketball players and talked about each boy and gave them a gift.

After getting the two convincing wins, the Bison will play in their first Section game tonight against Brainerd High School.  Buffalo is number one in the section so they get their first play-off game at home.  The game starts at 7:00pm and to get in you must pay or have a sectional pass.  Mississippi 8 passes and Bison Activity Passes will not work.  If you are not planning on going to the game and have a twitter account but would still like to keep up, you can get updates on the game by following @thehoofprint.

The Bison started off the game with an and-one play by Junior Ethan Freer and are the first team on the score board.  The Knights weren’t satisfied so they started shooting and couldn’t miss.  With about 5 minutes reamaining in the half, the Bison called a time out when they were only down 15-22 to hopefully get back on track.  But STMA kept shooting and were up at the half with a score of 19-32.

Coming back from the break, the Bison again drew an early foul and Junior Peter Cassady got to the free throw line  with in the first few seconds of the final half.  With 7:11 remaining in the game a time out is called with a score in favor of the Knights 48-31.  The Knights’ hot shooting hands got them a total of 10 three pointers and were shooting almost 50% from behind the arc.  Their solid defence also shut the bison down and kept Buffalo’s leading scorer, Senior Dom Gilmer, scoreless.  The Bison fell with a final score of 43-63.  Freer was the Bison’s high scorer and ended the game with 13 points.

The boys are now 7-3 in the conference and 15-9 over all.  They will be headed to Cambridge-Isanti to take on the Bluejackets on Tuesday February 28, and will be hosting Becker on Friday March 2.

There is still hope, if all things fall in place, for the Bison to keep their Conference Title streak going. The top two teams in the Conference right now are STMA and Rogers and they will play each other on Tuesday February 28 as well.  If STMA loses their last two Conference games against Rogers and Monticello, Rogers loses against Big Lake, and Buffalo wins their next two conference games, then there will be a three-way tie for the Conference Title.