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We may have a tacit understanding of how our solar system works, but watching the sun disappear behind the moon reminds us of the vastness of space and the enduring mysteries of the universe we inhabit.
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For all the advances in tech that let us try on various guises to play around with who we are, it seems that we just want new ways to be ourselves.
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When I was a kid, 'Quantum Leap' was one of my favorite TV shows.
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The video-sharing app Vine was the first place I got a glimpse of cultures beyond my own, including those of the Middle East. I was able to see how some women there wanted us to see them: prospering, aware.
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Getting a tattoo is arguably one of the most insane decisions a sensible human can make.
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We live in a time of astounding technological advancements. There are deep-sea drones and live-streaming virtual reality.
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I live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan, two of the most liberal places in the country.
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Many of the short videos on Vine feel as though they belong to an ever-evolving, completely new genre of modern folk art.
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As Twitter allows you to curate who shows up in your stream - you only see the people you follow or seek out, and those they interact with - users can create whatever world of people they want to be a part of.
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The Internet has become the go-to place to toss out ideas in the hope that they could lead to a job, but it has also become the place where people go to find the best ideas, creating a lopsided dynamic that tends to benefit people in power.
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The American understanding of China is filtered through years of politics; we rarely see the culture on its own terms.
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The Internet is especially adept at compressing humanity and making it easy to forget there are people behind tweets, posts, and memes.
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Most efforts to approximate normal human behavior in software tend to be creepy or annoying.
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Social media might one day offer a dazzling, and even overwhelming, array of source material for historians.
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Obama was the first American president to see technology as an engine to improve lives and accelerate society more quickly than any government body could.
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When I visited my family in Virginia, I tracked down my seventh-grade best friend and sat in TGI Fridays near a mall for hours, laughing while her daughter took insane-looking selfies on my phone.
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Best-friend tattoos require so much prep work, which adds to their legitimacy. First, a friendship must be deep enough to warrant the rite; then the perfect symbol must be found to forge the bond.
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Luckily, my only responsibility for 'Still Processing' is to show up and talk.
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Falling head over heels in love with women was a habit I thought I'd thoroughly grown out of in middle school, when a group of about five girls and I color-coordinated our outfits and spent weekends and even some weeknights sprawled out in each others bedrooms.
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'Drag Race' has taught me a lot about how to form community, to take myself less seriously and lose some ego.
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For all teenagers, the Internet offers a periscope to the outside world, but it's particularly important for students who are unable to find themselves represented and understood in their immediate surroundings.
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The future will bring new possibilities and ideas - and new terms for them.
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Learning to live with not meeting other people's expectations has been extremely freeing and is the only gift I wish to pass on to any future offspring.
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Nonviolent, visual protests have a long history of forming images that can quickly go viral and set a powerful tone for a moment.