i -w- -W Wednesday, January 16, 2013/ The Statement 7 The Social University a love letter byteresamathew ann arbor affairs: old testament love by teresamathew W e all have love stories - romantic, platonic, heartbreaking or heartwarming. No one has lived a life devoid of love or at least one or two great stories about it. Ann Arbor Affairs is a new, monthly rotating feature in the Statement, based off of both the Modern Love column in the New York Times and LAAffairs in the LA Times. These stories can relate to anything concerning love for and in Ann Arbor. If you have a story of a terrible date, a long-lasting romance or how much you love your dog, send it in. Submissions can be emailed to teamathew@gmail.com. Even if your love life has less intrigue than your calculus textbook (but just as many complex variables), chances are you have a story to tell. And if, like me, you have no substantial love life to speak of at the moment, just follow the advice handed down to budding authors everywhere: write aboutwhat you know. So here is the first Ann Arbor Affairs column, penned by yours truly about my long-suffering pining for Jewish boys. We hope you enjoy it. Join the . alfl Come to our Mass Meetings! Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 P.M. Sunday, January 20 at 7:30 P.M. Thursday, January 24 at 7:30 P.M. All meetings are in our newsroom at 420 Maynard Street, behind Betsy Barbour and Newberry Halls. I was 14 when I fell for my first Jewish boy. Granted, he was over twice my age and I'd never actu- ally met him, but what liberal, politically aware teenager hasn't had a crush on Jon Stewart? And it wasn't just a passing fancy - oh no, it was a trend. For years I would find myself attracted to actors who just so happened to be Jewish. As Mindy Kaling so astutely put it, "I, like the rest of the North American world, have a fondness for witty, East Coast- y, over-educated, well-dressed Jewish guys." I couldn't pinpoint it exactly - there was just some- thing about the dark curls, intel- lectualism and knowledge of the Old Testament that spoke to me. I was not sure if this was a real- ity or a result of watching far too much Aaron Sorkin-produced television. It certainly didn't help that I went to an all-girls high school and didn't know how to interact with boys - Jewish or otherwise. When I was asked for my type, I would chuckle awkwardly before sheepishly responding, "Um...Jewish?" I am very clearly Indian. I am also Catholic. People were con- fused. It made sense to me, though. Indians and Jews have a lot in common: We come from cultures that are highly community- oriented, we prioritize education and the highest achievement in either of our societies will probably forever be becoming a doctor. I still remember my Jewish friend telling me a joke about how, at a hypothetical Jewish president's inauguration, his mother turned to the sena- tor next to her and proudly said, "You should see my other son. He's a doctor." I understood. The happiest day in my mother's life was when I told her I was taking college cal- culus, and she's still hoping I'll come to my senses and abandon Norton Anthologies for medical journals. And then there's the fact that I used to read the Old Testament for fun as a kid, back when I had a comic book Bible. Esther was my favorite character, and when I learned that there was an entire Jewish holiday dedicated to her, it seemed like just one more reason to become Hasidic-ally enamored. And while people keep telling me that the best way to meeting a nice Jewish boy is to go to Hillel, I can't help but feel that the ones in attendance there are more concerned with meeting nice Jewish girls than trying to figure out if the Indian girl in the cor- ner is attempting to be a shiksa. After coming to Ann Arbor and actually interacting with Jew- ish boys, I've reconsidered my position somewhat. I have yet to meet any boys with curly hair and soulful eyes who have made me want to willingly abandon the freedom to eat cheese and meat in tandem. Just as I'm not Aish- warya Rai, not every Jewish boy is going to look like Adam Brody and have the wit of Aaron Sorkin. Stereotypes, shockingly, are not always an accurate portrayal of an entire group of people. Who knew? Maybe the specific Jewish guys that Kaling describes are like unicorns or manic-pixie- dream girls - ideals created by the media and our own imagina- tions. Or maybe I'm just in love with Jon Stewart after all. SA sophomore Jeremy Jones updates his Twitter daily. Within his 22,763 tweets, he comments on everything from his new economics class to the first birthday of Beyoned and Jay-Z's baby, Blue Ivy. Over winter break, Jeremy receid a tweet from @umich, the Universit account. In response to his tweet aI I return to the University already, @pmic responded: "We're ready for you! Hope y)u're enjoying your break." "Being that that's our school, it shows that they are really connected and unified their students through social media," Joe sad "I'm really happy that my school actially views my tweets and actually knowis what' going on." Jones received responses from the Univ sity's Twitter account two additional times as well. With different Tumbir, YouTube, Face book, 'Twitter, Instragran and LinkedIn accounts, Jeremy said he esta blished his social media presence "to have a voice." - As one of hundreds of millions of people flocking to these social media platforms, Jer- emy recognizes his new place in the global conversation through social media. Creating an off-campus, online campus community Social media, more specifically Twit- ter, creates a quasi-Greek agora, or gather- ing space, for the modern world, according to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, a University alum who spoke at Rackham Auditorium in November. "\e once again start to see multiple per- spectives on a particular news story or event that's happening," Costolo said i)is presen- tation. "We once again start to have a shared experience cross the globe about what's hap- pening and what we're viewing now. We once again get ai unfiltered perspective of what's happening. But. at the sanei tme, it comple- ments all t hese traditional formis of broadcast media." With easily accessible forums, like Tsvit- ter and other social media platforms, people can witness and express reactions, personal thoughts and beliefs with a clickl of the mouse or a tap of the finger. With Tubir, Face- book,tPinterestmanddseveral twitter accounts, amongothersocial mcdasplatforms, the Uni- versity attempts to keep iup with this techno- logical trend. To manage thisnewi, social media venture, the University hired Jordan Miller to ful- fill the new director of social media position last Fcbruary. But Miller working under Lisa Rudgers, the vice imesident for global cOiimmissiiiications and strategic initiatives resigned in December uinder alegations that parts of her resume had been falsified. Prior to Iser resignation, Miller sutd ini a by Jen March interview that she hoped to establish the University as a national leader in the use of social media. "In the same way that the University is a top school in so many other ways, we canand should be a ground-breaker and a though. leader in social media," she said. "W, be a school that other schools can -ook t ad sy 'That's how the University oft-ch1gan don it. They're doing it right and that w ik :I isi'd be doing it too."' -7 Nin usehrv and Decemlay I JBrI universities with 457000likes in 2012with a 4.6-percent growth rate. Currently, the a umich Twitter handle has more than 31000 followers and the Univer- sity has more than 470,0 0 Facebook likes. In Mich, s ishble.com, a website devot- ed to discussing digital innovation, named the University the fourth most social media- savvy tniversity, showing how Msichigan has established a prominent presence in higher educat ion social media. Josh Pasek, an .assistint professor swho teaches a Comimunication Studies class this semesterH tiled "Social Media and Politics," said the University needs someone to facili- tate the social media across campus. "A University ,s lairge as Michigan needs to coordinate its message across a variety of sources, and I think that tihere's no ques- ltion that today social medla are important," he said. "There has to be someone that acts -s a lIaikon for different public affairs, news for the University and the University's social medianetwork." In a blg post on Jan. 14, Rudgers exam- ined the growth experienced in the past year of social media at the University and wihy it's important. "Social media has fundamentally changed hosw icecommunicatewu ith one another and with our stakeholders," Rudgers wrote. "It's time for us to stop treating it as an add-on,