Iris Kim
To the old, new social networks hard to pin down
Last Thursday, a couple of my friends and I were asked to appear in a news segment for CNN. What hard-hitting story marked my national television debut? No, it wasn’t an in-depth commentary on Harry Potter—it was a piece on not-so-new social media sensation, Pinterest.
By Iris Kim March 1, 2012
In 2012 presidential race, our last hope is Leslie Knope
No currently airing television show highlights the tedium and frustrations of government bureaucracy with comedic ease quite like NBC’s Parks and Recreation. The show’s popularity and comic brilliance is assuring to viewers, especially those who double as voting citizens, that government officials like the Deputy Parks Director of the Pawnee Parks Department, Leslie Knope, exist. Sadly, however, it seems characters like Knope only occupy in the fictional sphere.
By Iris Kim February 2, 2012
For Millenials, too many choices and not enough options
This week, Georgetown alum (and former Voice editor) Noreen Malone (COL ‘07) wrote a feature story for New York Magazine encouragingly titled, “The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright: My screwed, coddled, self-absorbed, mocked, surprisingly resilient generation.” I started reading it in the library today and had to leave because I felt near a breakdown (and a breakdown in Lau 2 is just not okay). As if I needed another reminder that the next stage of my life is a complete mystery to me.
By Iris Kim October 20, 2011
A child’s vocabulary of terror from ground zero
I remember hearing the words vividly, sitting in the cafeteria of my Chappaqua, NY, middle school: “Planes have crashed into the World Trade Center. We don’t know much else right now, but we believe it to be the work of terrorists.” As time went on, hysterics escalated. When we returned to our classroom, one kid broke down in nervous, hiccupping tears. His mother worked on one of the top floors of one of the towers. We didn’t know what to say. We were kids. We tried to grasp the situation and assure ourselves everything would be okay. I remember feeling helpless and having no idea how to feel, what to think, or what to expect.
By Iris Kim September 8, 2011
The quality of children’s television is no longer All That
A month ago my friend sent me an email titled “START GETTING EXCITED LIKE NOW,” with nothing but a link to a screenshot of a press release from Nickelodeon Studios in the message’s body. They were announcing plans to produce brand new episodes of cartoon classics like Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, Angry Beavers, and Doug, with production to commence on Mar. 14. Like any other kid who grew up with the shows that made the network an instant nostalgia inducer, I was ecstatic. Turns out it was a hoax pulled off by some punk ass kid in California that knew a little Photoshop. Damn high school kids.
By Iris Kim April 7, 2011
An Iris by any other name would smell as sweet
Syllabus week is a wonderful time of reunions, reclaimed freedom from parental oppression, and a disregard for that thing that seems to pester us each morning (or early afternoon, for the less ambitious) — class. In the haze of first lectures and discussions, I always experience a syllabus week tradition of my own—my professors’ inevitable confusion as they stumble through my first name during roll call.
By Iris Kim February 10, 2011