If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
I want to share with you how a computer and digital forensic examiner would confirm / dispute Te'o's story. Hiring a competent computer and digital forensic examiner could help uncover unknown evidence which could be used to confirm/dispute an alleged victim's statement.
Manti Te'o has completely taken over the news cycle. The scandal has shed light on a number of important realities: fact-checking is a lost art that journalists will never forget to do again, and getting "catfished" is a thing in 2013. But the most unsettling aspect is not making headlines.
It's precisely this social norm that contributes to a football star thinking he's in a relationship with someone he refers to as his "girlfriend."
Maybe Nanas don't inspire him or the people around him -- after all, everyone deals with dying grandparents. Cute girls doing selfy pics on the other hand? Cue up the Rudy music.
Whether in person or online, we all need to be careful about letting in those who aren't genuine and don't have the qualities we want in the people we let into our lives -- whether through our door or through our computer screen.
Our faculty spend endless hours searching for ways to teach today's college students about honor and integrity, about the importance of embracing an honor system that abhors lying, cheating and stealing. Armstrong is the latest poster boy for dishonorable behavior.
This is a crisis of character for Manti Te'o. Scouts around the NFL and people around the country are wondering what Manti Te'o is made of. They wonder if his judgment and character are as non-existent as Lennay Kekua. I hope he figures it out and proves them wrong.
I think it's the obligation of gay people to say that whether Manti's actions were the result of extreme sexual naiveté or an attempt to mask his lack of pro athlete hyper-heterosexual, these are patterns that are common in our community.
How could someone fall in love with a voice, an abstraction, a ghost? And how could that same someone be so invested in resuscitating that charade, long after he learned the truth? The thing is, I know exactly how. Manti Te'o had his Lennay and I had my Kenny.
The following is a verbatim transcript. (You can't make this stuff up. Or, then again, maybe you can.)
In general, I'd say having instant access to people's random thoughts is creepy and weird. With Twitter and Facebook you get instant access to all sort of useless information, for free. What's better than that? Absolutely nothing. What's worse? Absolutely nothing.
I hope that Te'o and Notre Dame were simply victims of a hoax. We need figures in this country to believe in and root for.
This story can be spun in dozens of ways. But one thing clearly emerges for me: Humans are vulnerable; we create our reality indirectly, using words and images, building on dreams. By our nature, our language permits the twinned characteristics of fiction and deception.
I understand why Lance Armstrong felt he needed to dope. I don't understand why he needed to lie (and tweet) with such conviction that I believed in him. I understand why Manti Te'o needed to build a great "brand." I don't understand why he needed a fake social media girlfriend to do it.
We know that the key to positively influencing adult behavior lies in getting individuals to practice existing skills in novel contexts. Our solution, therefore, is simple: We must take our existing complex thinking and problem-solving skills and use them more often.
Steubenville and what is going on at Notre Dame show us exactly what "widespread lack of consequences for sexual assault" means and will continue to mean for children going to colleges and universities in the United States.
