Human interaction can’t compete with the dopamine spike that social media provides. The attention economy has made focus a rare commodity. Every app is engineered to pull us back in, fragmenting not just our time, but our relationships. Friendship now competes with algorithms designed to hijack our curiosity.

As censorship rises across American media and education, Dr. James Kendrick, the interim department chair of journalism and professor of film and digital media, warns that power and algorithms are shaping what ideas reach the public. From classrooms to social media feeds, he said the suppression of controversial topics limits critical thinking and open dialogue.

After 125 years of technological advancements and changes, The Lariat remains in print. Over 50 years after his tenure as editor-in-chief ended, Moore said he still reads The Lariat.

“The conversations that we had and the answers that they gave — it seems trivial, it seems silly, but it really got them thinking,” Sweet said. “There were great teaching moments, there were great just personality moments that we got to interact with students. Anytime you can do something outside the classroom, it makes it so much [more] freeing and so much more exciting that way.”

Despite conflicting perspectives on the Tea app’s implications, it continues to draw attention and engagement from male and female students alike at Baylor.

Every time a college student opens TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, they’re stepping into a digital hall of mirrors where their beliefs are reflected and reconfirmed. The “For You Page,” that students use for entertainment, has become one of the strongest engines for confirmation bias.

Three out-of-state freshmen walked into North Russell Hall one fateful August day, and started a friendship over a card game of “Exploding Kittens” that would later spark a campus-wide sensation in the form of a TikTok account under the name “NoRo Food Reviews.”

Hate on all levels is unacceptable, especially at an institution that leans on faith, family and friendships. Being abhorrent toward someone for doing something wrong is stooping to their level. Accountability should never turn into cruelty. As Baylor students, we need to be better. As cliché as it sounds, we need to be better Baylor Bears.

The Trump administration and China appear to finally have a deal to keep the platform live for U.S. users, though. Under the agreement, a group of U.S.-backed investors will own the majority of the company and TikTok’s algorithm will be retrained, with the deal expected to be approved through an executive order.

Snapchat is a social media platform that should be left in the past, where it belongs. If you want a career after college, do your mental health and authenticity a favor and move on from old habits. Snapchat feeds a self-destroying cycle.

Videos of Baylor students’ fully decorated dorms have racked up millions of views, sparking national conversation surrounding college move-in culture and social media’s influence on Gen Z.

As we reflect on the impact social media has had on our 2025 minds, it is much less positive. Social media has produced an anxiety-ridden, disconnected and apathetic generation. Our minds are filled with constant noise and comparison. Every major and minor tragedy is broadcast to us in grotesque detail.

It’s hard to deny the power of television, and reality TV is today’s cultural epidemic. And if you’re among the rare few who don’t watch, I envy your freedom. Reality TV is an entirely different ballgame.

Swifties are celebrating, skeptics are rolling their eyes and some Baylor students say they just don’t care. The engagement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce — the internet’s most-watched couple — has the Baylor community divided.

What initially started as a “Hercules” watch party for the Baylor Men’s Choir soon became the beginning of a multi-million-viewed Instagram video and recognition from LeBron James.

“This is what I tell them — AI is not gonna take your job, alright? First and foremost,” Rivero said. “But the designers that are embracing AI, using AI and educating themselves in this new technology will take their jobs. Why? Because AI makes everything faster. It makes the things that we as designers don’t want to do.”

Over the past month, fans from across the globe have begun making parodies of popular songs, and replacing the lyrics with pro-LeBron propaganda. This trend has come to be known as the LeBronaissance.

We’re not trying to be buzzkills, but there has to be another way for our campus to bond that doesn’t include snide remarks made about others or airing out dirty laundry through a YikYak or a street interview. And we should be asking ourselves why it is that the times when our campus feels like it’s coming together the most — like Sing and Pigskin season — are often the times when we try to tear each other down more than usual.

With the rise of social media, interest has grown in what many call “grandma activities” — including baking, puzzles, gardening and, most notably, crocheting and knitting.

“Policymakers need to look at TikTok as a systemic social media issue and create effective measures that protect children online,” said Dr. Jason Nagata in a January UCSF article covering the study. “TikTok is the most popular social media platform for children, yet kids reported having more than three different social media accounts, including Instagram and Snapchat.”

The Daily Beast and The Daily Wire are slowly taking the place of The Daily Planet. Our generation is responsible for this. We are watching and overseeing the end of an era as mainstream media sources are being edged out because of our embrace of social media.

To captivate audiences, Roni’s social media content leans into bold opening lines, humor and even a bit of profanity. Inspired by YouTube trends, they constantly iterate on creative approaches. As a result, they have amassed nearly a million TikTok followers and 500,000 on YouTube.

Uptmore said that since becoming Southlake PD’s public information officer, his two main objectives have always been to humanize the badge and provide transparency. According to Uptmore, most police departments communicated in rigid, formal language at the time of his hiring. He said he changed that by using a more conversational tone, making messages more relatable and engaging.

What was once a way to see the funny videos your friends were uploading, social media has become a landfill of advertisements disguised as entertainment. Whether you realize it or not, you are exposed to hundreds of ads each day that influence your decision-making.

While TikTok may start as a harmless distraction, it often evolves into an obstacle getting in the way of productivity. Many students find themselves losing hours to unproductive scrolling, falling into procrastination spirals that eat away at valuable study time.

As college students juggle academic pressures, social expectations and newfound independence, eating disorders have become a growing concern on campuses nationwide.

“Good or bad, you have to remember influencers want your attention so they can sell it to their sponsors and partners,” he said. “They want you to feel a certain way about how you look, so they can offer you the solution, [which is] buying more products. They don’t always have your best interest in mind.”

Contactless delivery satisfies our need for more things and to have them brought to us without having to interact with a soul, while streaming services, telehealth, personal grocery shoppers, curbside, home gyms, FaceTime, online school and remote work beg the question: why leave the house at all?

There’s nothing I can do about the connection between hunting and its Southern roots, and I promise I won’t call PETA every time hunting season comes around. What I find weird is the need to post it on social media. Somehow a limp deer with blood pouring from its mouth does not violate the community guidelines. If I’ve seen the first picture, I don’t need a slideshow of the deer from every angle — with video — of it getting skinned and shot.

It only takes reading a few news articles each day to increase attention span, slow aging and improve one’s conversational skills.