Let's Talk About Politics...and Money and Religion

December 19, 2017 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Since childhood, we’ve been told not to talk about three things: money, religion, and politics. These are contentious subjects. Unless we wish to be considered low class or have poor taste, we should steer conversations away from such landmines.

Well, the hell with that.

If I’ve learned anything this year, it’s that we’ve been thrust into hyper-partisan times where everyone seems to exist within personalized echo chambers. We listen only to what we want to hear. We seek only the things we want to see. We dismiss claims contrary to our beliefs, whether those beliefs are true or not.

Dissenting, Not De-friending

October 17, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

I'm not surprising anyone when I say 2016 has been a divisive year. It's not just presidential campaigns. We have Black lives versus blue lives. We have refugee crises. We have Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift teeing off.

A lot of this drama plays out on social media: Facebook posts, Instagram memes, and Twitter rants. I can't even say I'm innocent of the last - I retweet a lot of politically fueled commentary. And today's blog post is not about not posting your opinion. In fact I encourage it. I think we should share our opinions more - if they're backed up with facts and not assumptions.

But really, I want to say, we should share our opinions, and we should stop defriending people for it. How often do you see someone post something political and write, "Unfriend me if you disagree"? Or I have other friends who tell me they de-friend those who say something not in line with their worldview.

The Donald, Bernie, and Hillary Walk Into a Coffee Shop

June 02, 2016 by astoldoverbrunch in Cazey's Column, Guest Post, Life In Your 20's, life lessons, Humor

As we are all aware, the campaign for America’s 45th president is in full swing – full of gossip, scandals, lies, and more lies. Cazey and I frequently discuss the hilarity (and absurdity) of it all, even if it is reality. Most recently, we conjectured what it would be like if Hillary, Trump, and Bernie all walk into a Starbucks together, because, why not?

(Probably because we’re addicted to caffeine actually.)

Picture it: A bustling Starbucks on a busy NYC street corner (appropriate since all three candidates have ties to New York). There’s probably a five-minute wait to talk to the cashier and another 10-minute wait until your drink is ready; most people ignore your presence.

The baristas are all starving, high school- and college-aged millennials (or maybe they’re actors), each equipped with iPhone 7S’s and tattoos because everyone else has one, duh!

That Day I Spent Trying to Engage Famous People

October 02, 2013 by Sara Woznicki in Humor, Life In Your 20's, Sara's Column, Social Media, Tweets and Mascara, Work

Sometimes I get bored and read articles pertaining to my profession. I found this one awhile back that said that one way to get more followers and a higher Klout score is to engage with people that have more Klout than you. Duly noted. I never really acted on this advice until recently. I thought a less direct way to engage with people that will get my name known would be to use a hashtag that would make me famous. Obviously, I'm taking about the #InsertBandNameTODAY hashtag from the Today Show. (For those of you not familiar, every morning while the band plays, they show tweets that use the hashtag of the name of the band with TODAY at the end of it). After a week of trying to get my tweets on tv with no success, I gave up on that technique.

Then I moved to tweeting about products I liked, such as telling Panera I was craving a sandwich, or that Keurig coffee in the office was a real bonus. That got boring quick, as I'd essential get nothing more than a thanks.

So then I decided to aim a bit higher. I spent a day tweeting bands, celebrities, politicians, basically everyone about what I liked about them. I tweeted to one of the Congressmen that said they'd volunteer to not get paid during the shutdown. I tweeted to Ed Sheeran about one of his songs. I got nothing back from anyone. Then I got sad, CNN was on, and Jake Tapper came on with a bad looking hair do. So I tweeted about it.

AND HE RESPONDED THE VERY NEXT COMMERCIAL BREAK.

Tweet to Jake Tapper

I felt like a dick. The poor guy is covering the government shutdown and instead of me saying, "great coverage, way to ask the tough questions," or something, he gets to look at his Twitter and see me dissing his hair.

Then I tried to mediate it and say that his hair doesn't look that bad. I threw in a smiley face for good measure, only then have instant regret for thoughts it seemed creepy that I just did that. Whoops.

I think I'll stick to not tweeting at famous people from now on in fear I might actually get a response.