DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

Bressler, MJ

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 1 Article 34
Fall 12-1-2017
Vigil
MJ Bressler
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Bressler, MJ (2017) "Vigil," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 1 , Article 34.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss1/34
33Prairie Light Review  Fall 2017
    
 Vigil
 MJ Bressler
 
 Ribbons of sunlight fanned across the old wooden floor, as 
the student nurse hurried through the hallway to the end room. 
The ancient, dried out floor boards creaked and moaned beneath 
her feet like an old person, complaining at the disturbance. She 
wondered how many footsteps had passed this way in the ninety 
years the hospital had been in service.  
            It was built just after the Civil War in the late eighteen hun-
dreds. Soon it would be replaced by a sleek, modern edifice holding 
the latest equipment. Groundbreaking ceremonies were planned to 
take place in a few minutes in the parking lot below this section of 
the ancient structure. From the window in the hallway, she could 
see the group of participants wandering about with their shovels, 
waiting for the signal to plant them in the dirt. 
            Though inconvenient and difficult, she’d miss this old place. 
There was a comfortable familiarity here that could not be moved 
to the new building. With the stainless steel sinks and tiled floors, 
the new hospital would be sparkling with all the latest equipment, 
but sterile in personality. It would never have the character this old 
place had acquired over all the years it stood harboring the ill. 
            She walked briskly down the hall. The rustle of her 
starched, white apron sounding like the leaves in autumn as Oc-
tober breezes tried to disengage them from the trees. The sound 
always made her feel efficient. As she pushed the door open with 
one hand, while holding the blood pressure apparatus with the oth-
er, her mind reviewed the list of duties she had to accomplish before 
her shift was over. The structure and fast-paced schedule fit her 
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34Prairie Light Review  Fall 2017
like the nursing student uniform she so proudly wore. 
            Quietly, she approached the bed on which an old woman was 
lying. This patient had had a stroke a few weeks prior, and had not 
regained consciousness. The staff placed her on death watch, for she 
was terminal. 
            After the student applied the blood pressure cuff, she pumped 
the bulb and held the stethoscope to the pulse point on the crook of 
the woman’s left arm. She could not hear the beat. Again she pumped 
the bulb and listened carefully. She thought she heard a sound at 
forty over zero. She tried again to substantiate. Yes, she’d heard it 
correctly. The patient’s respirations were shallow and her pulse, slow 
and faint. She was clearly dying. 
            The student quickly reported her findings to the head nurse. 
Since she had never witnessed death, it was time she faced her fear, so 
she asked to be allowed to sit with the woman until the end. 
            The patient had no family, no visitors; she appeared to be 
alone in the world. The head nurse gave her approval to allow the 
student to observe the end of life. 
            The young nurse stood looking down at the old woman and 
thought that she had always feared death, but now she had the op-
portunity to keep vigil until death appeared. What had she expected 
to see, the Grim Reaper lurking in the shadows waiting to spring? 
He wasn’t in the quiet room with the old smells of Lysol, urine and 
decaying dreams. What she observed was a gentle peace. 
            She sat in the chair next to the bed and took the woman’s 
hand in hers and whispered, “You are not alone. I’m here with you.” 
Stroking the woman’s brow, as if comforting a child, she began to 
hum softly “The Old Rugged Cross.” It was the hymn her grand-
mother loved to sing. 
            Moments passed and the activities outside began to acceler-
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http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss1/34
35Prairie Light Review  Fall 2017
ate. The groundbreaking ceremony had begun. The old woman’s 
respiration decreased, as if she was hoarding each precious moment 
of the life she was about to leave. As the shovel entered the dirt for 
the new building, the crowd applauded and the band began to play. 
The beat of the drum reverberated, shaking decades of dust out of 
the old window frames.  
            The old woman’s heart beat a last farewell, as death stole 
her last breath and carried it away. 
            The student’s fingertips searched for a pulse, but felt none. 
She pumped up the cuff of the blood pressure machine. There was 
no sound. Calmly, she checked her watch for the time of death and 
wrote the numbers in the chart. After notifying the head nurse of 
the patient’s demise, the student cleared away the equipment that 
was no longer needed. She efficiently performed the tasks she had 
to accomplish before her shift ended, while her thoughts were on the 
death she had just witnessed. 
            It was not so terrible at all. Why had she spent so much 
time fearing it? Death was peaceful and kind to this old woman. 
Perhaps, it’s the dying that’s the most threatening to the imagina-
tion. The fear that one will be aware, fully competent of mind, yet, 
not able to catch one’s breathe or alleviate the awful pain. These 
were the distressing images dying provoked, creating fear.  
            This had been an easy dying, a peaceful death. 
            Walking down the hall she noticed the sunlight had disap-
peared from the wooden floor. Dark shadows moved along as if 
in mourning. The boards emitted a soft groan as she hurried over 
them, intent on completing her duties. Outside the ceremonies grew 
silent, while dusk threw a shroud upon the day.
  MJ Bressler
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Bressler: Vigil
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English

Vigil

Pederson, Jenna

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 1 Article 37
Fall 12-1-2017
Hope
Jenna Pederson
College of DuPage
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The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Pederson, Jenna (2017) "Hope," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 1 , Article 37.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss1/37
37Prairie Light Review  Fall 2017
Hope
Jenna Pederson
Hoping for a better day is pointless
I will never tell my friends
To hope for a better day.
No one understands lifeIn this world
There are the wealthy
That’s who I aspire to be.
There are those who help the poor.
I’d hate myself if I ever became one of them
In this world there are terrible people
That, however, is incorrect
People who believe in hope are stupid
We live in a world that claims
Dreaming of a new world
Like hoping for change
Will never work
Doing nothing
Is what’s right
Hoping
Is nothing
Money
Is what we want.
Hope, 
We’d understand hope
If we saw the hidden messages 
In life
(Reread the poem from the bottom line to the top line)
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Hope

Tryloff, Robin

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 40 | Number 1 Article 38
Fall 12-1-2017
Devotion
Robin Tryloff
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Artwork is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Tryloff, Robin (2017) "Devotion," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 40 : No. 1 , Article 38.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol40/iss1/38
38Prairie Light Review  Fall 2017
Robin Tryloff,
“Devotion”. 
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Tryloff: Devotion
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Devotion

Failla, Ross

ESSAI
Volume 15 Article 17
Spring 2017
The Drone: The Impact on Civil and Criminal
Concern
Ross Failla
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Failla, Ross (2017) "The Drone: The Impact on Civil and Criminal Concern," ESSAI: Vol. 15 , Article 17.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol15/iss1/17
39 
The Drone: The Impact on Civil and Criminal Concern 
 
by Ross Failla 
 
(English 1102) 
 
 
 
y definition the “drone” is an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control or onboard 
computers (Merriam-Webster). A defining feature in war is the ability to make remote 
killings and targeted strikes on enemies, and in the modern area, the use of drones has 
provided the U.S. military with that ability. With modern technology and the ever-growing need for 
specialized warfare, drones have the ability to conduct surveillance, provide facial recognition, read 
license plates, and launch missiles from hundreds or thousands of miles away. In the 21st century, 
drones have progressed from military use to the law enforcement community; they are now readily 
available to citizens and hobbyists. The citizen drone has features similar to those of military or law 
enforcement drones, in that they can travel far distances while taking still or video images.  The 
abilities of these machines raises both ethical and legal concerns. 
 Drones date back to as early as World War I, when they were intended to be used for aerial 
surveillance (Aquino-Segarra, 2016, p. 336). It wasn’t until World War II that remote-controlled B-
24s were used in bombing missions. In the Vietnam War, United States Armed Forces had remote-
controlled drones with still cameras that were used for surveillance (Aquino-Segarra, 2016, p. 336f.) 
In the mid-90s, a video camera was added to these drones, and this started the rapid evolution of their 
development into modern day. 
 The current domestic use of drones by police and civilians has raised public concern in both 
privacy issues and government overreach. Drone use among law enforcement agencies include, but 
are not limited to, conducting surveillance, surveying traffic or road conditions, searching for missing 
persons, or tracking criminals. With this advanced technology, legislative review has become a 
priority among states to enact laws and regulations to govern police use with drones, to prevent 
privacy violations and Fourth Amendment violations of citizens.1  
 Currently, drone use is only regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 
(Aquino-Segarra, 2016, p. 335).2 The concern is that the federal regulation only addresses the 
“safety” portion of the law, which only describes how and where people can safely operate drones. It 
does not necessarily address privacy issues or police misuse. For this reason, it has been the 
responsibility of each respective state to enact its own laws governing the use of drones by police. 
 Joseph J. Vacek, J.D., wrote an article in 2014 titled “Remote Sensing of Private Data by 
Drones Is Mostly Unregulated: Reasonable Expectations of Privacy Are at Risk Absent 
Comprehensive Federal Legislation,” that addresses tort law and tort liability associated with 
drones.3 Joseph Vacek is a tenured associate professor at the University of North Dakota School of 
Aerospace Sciences. He specializes in various topics including space law and Fourth Amendment 
search and seizure law. 
Vacek’s article focuses on the laws regulating remote sensing of data under tort laws from 
which the general right of privacy is developed. He identifies three areas of tort law relating to drone 
use: tort of nuisance, trespass, and invasion of privacy (Vacek, 2014, p. 466).  Nuisance refers to 
questions of whether people should be compensated for not only personal injuries, but also injuries to 
a person’s property. The law of nuisance has developed the idea of zoning when referring to 
property. As it relates to drones invading personal property, it may give way to litigation to the drone 
operator. The second class of tort is trespass, which is much more clearly defined as “wrongful 
interference with another’s possessory rights in real property” (Vacek, 2014, p. 468f.) In addition, 
B
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possessory rights of property also extend upwards in air space and air rights of the land owner. The 
flying of drones may potentially unlawfully trespass on people’s personal property, or air space, 
which could lead to litigation. The third tort Vacek acknowledges is invasion of privacy, which refers 
to a civil tort action of “intrusion upon seclusion.” A Harvard Law Review article in 1890 
foreshadowed that technology would develop faster than the law.4 This is a classic example of how 
technology has progressed before any concrete laws have been established. The Harvard article 
concluded that, at the time of the article, the federal and state laws have provided only limited 
protection to people based on their protection under the Fourth Amendment and civil tort laws. 
To further expand on civil tort law and liability of drone operations by civilian and hobbyists, 
Benjamin D. Mathews, J.D., discusses these issues in an article called “Potential Tort Liability for 
Personal Use of Drone Aircraft.” The article was published in 2015, and at the time, Mathews was a 
staff writer for the St. Mary’s Law Journal, and as a staff writer was responsible for conducting 
extensive legal research and citation-checking of articles in preparation for publication. 
Mathews’ article addresses potential tort liability associated with the private use of drone 
aircrafts. In short, it presents issues that arise when the rights of one private individual to own and fly 
a drone conflict with another private individual’s right to be safe from trespass and invasion of 
privacy. Similar to the above article, Mathews agrees on three main topics of civil tort for the private 
citizen: nuisance, trespass, and invasion of privacy. 
A new concept that is addressed is “strict liability” to private citizens when operating drones. 
Strict liability means, “the exercise of due care does not absolve the actor of accountability” 
(Mathews, 2015, p. 597). Strict liability cases are used in activities that the courts have deemed as 
abnormally dangerous activities. Blasting, releasing poisonous gas, and storing explosives have all 
been classified as activities that are abnormally dangerous (Mathews, 2015, p. 597). Courts will need 
to interpret drone use and see if it falls in the scope of abnormally dangerous activities, in the event 
for example an operator crashes a drone into private property or a person, resulting in injury or 
damage. This means, even if the operator used their best due care and best intentions not to crash a 
drone onto their land or person, engaging in an act that may be classified as abnormally dangerous 
may still hold the operator liable to litigation. 
Mathews concludes that the law is least equipped to address private use of drones and 
trespass to property. He points out that in previous times people’s ability to spy on their neighbor was 
limited. To spy on a neighbor who is sunbathing, one would have to peek over the fence. Now with 
drones one has have the ability to fly over someone’s yard with a machine that is capable of 
capturing imagines in high definition quality, and zoom in further than the naked eye. Legislators 
will have to decide the height at which these drones can be operated at, proximity to private land, and 
time of day, to name of few. 
In addition to the personal liability among private citizen use, another crucial matter is the 
use of drones by police. Michael L. Smith J.D., discusses the drone use among law enforcement in a 
2015 article titled, “Regulating Law Enforcement’s Use of Drones: The Need for State Legislation,” 
which was published in the Harvard Journal on Legislation.  Smith is a J.D. graduate from UCLA 
School of Law and is currently an associate at the Los Angeles office of Lewis Brisbois. An 
interesting statistic the article points out is that the FAA projects that 30,000 private drones may be 
flying in the United States airspace by the year 2020 (Smith, 2015, p. 423f.) To put that in 
perspective, a 2014 statistic said the United States had 7,064 commercial planes in inventory 
(Aeroweb). Although that number of 30,000 is high, it should be noted that not all drones are the size 
of commercial aircrafts. Many of them can be the size of a human palm, or an arm’s length. 
Smith’s article is twofold: its calls attention to those states that have passed regulations of 
drones, and compares the differences between those regulations. For purposes of this paper, I will 
focus on Illinois law and regulations. At the time Smith’s article was published in 2015, only thirteen 
states had successfully passed legislation regulating government drone use, Illinois being one of 
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41 
them. Police practice is modeled around the Fourth Amendment, which in short, states that people 
have the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects without unreasonable searches 
by the government without warrant. Smith breaks down the thirteen states’ drone laws into three 
broad categories: those that allow broad judicial exceptions to warrant requirement; those that 
explicitly provide statutory exceptions; and those that contain moratoriums on government drone use 
(Smith, 2015, p. 427). 
Illinois falls under Smith’s category of states that have explicit statutory exceptions to the 
warrant restriction. This means that Illinois has a law spelling out that police shall obtain a warrant 
prior to its use; however, it has some clear exceptions allowing police to use a drone without first 
obtaining a warrant.5 Some of those exceptions in the Illinois law state that a warrantless search by 
drones may be used to locate missing persons, survey a crime scene, or survey a traffic collision 
(Smith, 2015, p. 430). In addition, warrantless searches of drones may be used to counter a terrorist 
attack from which credible information was obtained or during a natural disaster to public health. 
Smith concludes that states that have yet to enact laws regarding police drone use must 
update their laws, and current states that have enacted laws must closely monitor them for updates as 
technology expands. 
Orlando Aquino-Segarra investigates further, similar ideas of drone use by the police in a 
2016 article titled “Drones: The Need for More Regulations.” Aquino-Segarra is a third-year law 
school student at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, School of Law. As mentioned 
previously, the FAA is in charge of enacting all drone regulations at the federal level. Aquino-
Segarra agrees with other findings, that the FAA regulation is only to promote air safety and is not to 
speak upon the privacy and government overreach issues. Currently, twenty states have passed laws 
relating to drone use by police (Aquino-Segarra, 2016, p. 342). Several other states have considered 
legislation involving drone laws, but have yet to enact them. 
Aquino-Segarra points out two different ideas of drone laws with the police. First, the 
technology impact on privacy, and second, safety concerns involving crashes. He suggests that with 
technology advancing, these drones now are able to be equipped with night vision cameras, thermal 
imaging cameras, or GPS tracking. Typically, what can be seen by the naked eye in a public setting 
does not constitute a search by police; however, when using sensitive technology such as thermal 
imaging or night vision, drones may go beyond the scope of what the human eye could naturally see. 
Most state laws, thus far, do not have a clear outline addressing drones equipped with such sensitive 
technology. Aquino-Segarra then points out the safety concern of flying an unmanned aircraft. In 
2014, there were reportedly 238 interactions with drones and pilots, and 780 through August of 2015 
(Aquino-Segarra, 2016, p. 3350). It is suggested that if vehicles are required to have license plates 
and insurance, perhaps drones should as well. 
As the articles discussed above indicate, it is clear that drones have developed many concerns 
in both the private citizen and governmental use. The research suggests that states need not only to 
enact laws governing their use, but also to closely monitor them as the rapid change in technology 
further advances these machines’ abilities. 
 
 
  
 
Notes 
 
1. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution reads: “The right of the people to be secure in 
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be 
violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and 
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” 
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Failla: The Drone: The Impact on Civil and Criminal Concern
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42 
2. For hobbyist or civilian, the FAA states that the owner should be 13 years or older, the drone 
must weigh more than 0.55 pounds and fewer than 55 pounds, fly below 400 feet and remain clear of 
surrounding obstacles, keep the aircraft within visual line of sight at all times, and remain well clear 
of manned aircraft operations and cannot not operate the device carelessly or reckless. 
3. Tort laws are civil theories generally referring to civil conduct. They are simply used in civil 
lawsuits or litigation, where one person sues another for money. 
4. The article was written by a Louis D. Brandeis and Samuel V. Warren who both addressed 
privacy issues long before the Supreme Court had addressed them. It is said to be a defining piece of 
work in law history, which defined the word privacy in many aspects and which protected 
individuals from intrusion by others. It can be found in the Harvard Law Review December of 1890, 
Vol. 4 Issue 5, pp. 193-220. 
5. See Illinois Compiled Statute Chapter 725 ILCS 167/1, “Freedom from Drone Surveillance 
Act,” for further and complete description of Illinois State Law regarding police drone use. 
 
 
  
 
References 
 
Aeroweb. [U.S. commercial aircraft fleet of 2014]. Number of aircraft by model, type, manufacturer, 
and airline. Retrieved from http://www.fi-aeroweb.com/US-Commercial-Aircraft-Fleet.html 
Aquino-Segarra, O. (2016). Drones: The need for more regulations. Revista de Derecho 
Puertorriqueno, 55(2), 335-353. Retrieved from 
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cod.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5dbc8072-
447f-49e3-b349-703486d38b1d%40sessionmgr102&vid=4&hid=125 
Drone. (n.d.) In Merriam-Webster online. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/drone 
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois compiled statutes. Retrieved from 
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=3520&ChapterID=54.15 
Mathews, B. D. (2015). Potential tort liability for personal use of drone aircraft. St. Mary’s Law 
Journal, 47(2), 573-602. Retrieved from 
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cod.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5dbc8072-
447f-49e3-b349-703486d38b1d%40sessionmgr102&vid=7&hid=125  
Smith, M. J. (2015). Regulating law enforcement’s use of drones: The need for stated legislation. 
Harvard Journal on Legislation, 52(2), 423-454. Retrieved from 
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cod.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5dbc8072-
447f-49e3-b349-703486d38b1d%40sessionmgr102&vid=10&hid=125  
Vacek, J. J. (2014). Remote sensing of private data by drone is mostly unregulated: Reasonable 
expectations of privacy are at risk absent comprehensive federal legislation. North Dakota 
Law Review, 90(3), 464-484. Retrieved from 
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.cod.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5dbc8072-
447f-49e3-b349-703486d38b1d%40sessionmgr102&vid=13&hid=125 
 
 
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ESSAI, Vol. 15 [2017], Art. 17
https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol15/iss1/17


The Drone: The Impact on Civil and Criminal Concern

ESSAI
Volume 15 Article 38
Spring 2017
Tribute to Faculty
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai
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in ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
(2017) "Tribute to Faculty," ESSAI: Vol. 15 , Article 38.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol15/iss1/38
132 
Tribute to Faculty 
 
We warmly pay tribute to all submitting instructors, past and present. 
Their dedicated and inspired teaching has contributed to 
the successful publication of their students’ work 
in ESSAI Volume I through Volume XV. 
 
Deborah Adelman 
Scott Albert 
Jim Allen 
Kathleen Altman 
E. Bates 
Patty Benson 
Raymond Benson 
Brian Blevins 
Scott Boyd 
Franz Burnier 
Allan Carter 
Tom Carter 
Nancy Conradt 
Trisha DeWitt 
Sue Dreghorn 
Barbara Eaton 
Linda Elaine 
Helen Feng 
Clarice Foland 
Aleksandra Galus 
Bob Georgalas 
Julie Gibbs 
Gloria Golec 
Jeanne Grogan 
Ida Hagman 
Naheed Hasan 
Lisa Higgins 
Connie C. Howard 
Bill Hussong 
Richard Jarman 
Ellen C. K. Johnson 
Daniel Kies 
Beth Kirkpatrick 
Dennis Korneff 
Kristopher Kowal 
Keith Krasemann 
Chikako D. Kumamoto 
Deb Lantermo 
Hina Latif 
David Leary 
Freyda Libman 
Lynn Mackenzie 
Sarah Magin 
James M. Magrini 
Heather Maher 
Anne C. Malone 
Nicole Matos 
Jackie McGrath 
Samuel Mitrani 
Christine Monnier 
Michelle Moore 
Katie Nagel 
Nick Obradovich 
Karen Persky 
Chris Petersen 
Kamelia Popova 
Loretta Pyrdek 
Eva Maria Raepple 
Lynda Randa 
Kent Richter 
Carol Riphenburg 
Shamili Sandiford 
John Santiago 
Steve Schroeder 
Hema Shende 
Dale Simpson 
Jason Snart 
Alice Snelgrove 
Susan Stamler 
Lois Stanciak 
Jodi Stapleton 
Carol Strelczyk 
Kathleen Szeszol 
Thomas Tallman 
Tom Tipton 
Beth Vlad 
Diane Wawrejko 
Ben Whisenhunt 
Liz Whiteacre 
James Wies 
Keith Yearman 
1
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Tribute to Faculty

Gill, Bill

ESSAI
Volume 15 Article 18
Spring 2017
Unsocial Media
Bill Gill
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact orenick@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Gill, Bill (2017) "Unsocial Media," ESSAI: Vol. 15 , Article 18.
Available at: https://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol15/iss1/18
43 
Unsocial Media 
 
by Bill Gill 
 
(English 1101) 
 
 
 
rom the advent of agriculture to the scientific and industrial revolutions, inventions were few 
and far between but each invention was needed and practical; in other words, they were good 
things. Inventions like Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone or Thomas Edison’s light bulb 
made life better and easier for millions of people. Fast forward to today and we are drowning in 
technology. Maps have turned into GPS units. The record player, the telephone, and the television 
have slowly morphed into the iPhone. Virtually anything can be digitized in today’s modern world. 
Even something as human as socializing is currently undergoing the process of being digitized 
through social media. 
 Many, including the author of “Social Networking, Social Good,” Rebecca Thompson, claim 
that overall, the invention of social media was a good thing because it provides many services 
including offering “comfort” to those cannot find it in their real lives, eradicating the “distance 
between far flung friends,” and contributing “to the creation of new knowledge” (254). However, 
despite the potential for these positive events to happen, overall, social media is more detrimental 
than beneficial because it encourages egocentrism, is taking place of actual real human conversations 
and interaction, and, most importantly of all, is a hotbed for clickbait articles.  
 Social media websites feed on narcissism. Twitter encourages users to share every thought or 
feeling they have, making them feel important or special. Facebook’s timeline system operates in a 
way so that users will only see things they like most of the time. A 2012 study from Western Illinois 
University found that most narcissists are attracted to the amassing friends aspect of Facebook 
(Parker-Pope 16). The more recent Instagram, a social media company owned by Facebook, now 
provides a service solely based on users posting pictures, usually of themselves, for other people to 
like them and comment below. All of these aspects of social media are creating a false image that 
everything in the small world of the user is acceptable and most people care about the user, when that 
often could not be further from the truth.   The most recent social media company that feeds on 
narcissism is Snapchat. In defense of the app, journalist Joel Stein claims in his 2017 Time magazine 
article, “What’s It Worth to be Yourself Online? The Genius of Snapchat” that “Snapchat is the only 
[real] social media company” (32) because it focuses on the private interactions between friends, 
accompanied by pictures that can only be viewed for up to ten seconds before disappearing forever. 
He even refers to Snapchat as “a utility company for visual texting” (28). However, one aspect of the 
app Snapchat, called stories, requires the user to post a video or picture that any person added to a 
friend’s list can see. But if Snapchat is just “visual texting” (Stein 28), a very private act, then what is 
the purpose of having a feature that operates exclusively in the public?  
Most millennials (including myself) love music and attend concerts. The last time I went to a 
concert was when I saw Tame Impala at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the summer of 2016. 
As I stood there next to my friend Saul, basking in the sounds of Kevin Parker’s psychedelic rock 
tunes and the overwhelming smell of illegal substances, I noticed that many members of the audience 
were standing with their phones in the air, making sure to film the entire concert and put it on their 
Snapchat story for all to see. I watched Saul do it. As much as I hate to admit it, even I committed 
this wicked sin. Were we recording it to save for later? Probably not. Was it to give our friends some 
insight to their experiences? Probably not (our real friends were probably next to us at the concert). 
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So why then? The only answer left is we did it to show off, to say with pictures and videos that we 
got to go to this concert and others did not. In short, to enlarge our (probably already oversized) egos. 
Stories are not the only aspect of Snapchat that feed off narcissism. Evan Spiegel, co-founder 
and CEO of Snapchat claimed in a 2013 interview “we’re trying to create a place that is cognizant of 
that [the illusion of perfection created by other social media sites], where you can be in sweatpants, 
sitting eating cereal on a Friday night and that’s O.K” (Stein 30). So if the goal of Snapchat is to 
show the reality, to be the countermovement to sites like Facebook that show only the ideal version 
of the user, why do filters exist? One of the more popular filters is the dog filter, which basically 
gives the person in the photo a cute dog nose accompanied by an even cuter pair of dog ears. It 
cannot be a coincidence that a filter that covers the nose and has a tongue that stretches to cover the 
chin, two parts of the face many feel self-conscious about, is one of the most popular filters on 
Snapchat. Other filters distort other areas of the face and some, such as the ‘Butterfly Princess’ filter, 
make the user appear more beautiful and almost angelic. These filters, much like the catalog of 
perfect photos of a “vacation in Maui” (Stein 30) on Facebook, only serve to further imbed a false 
image of beauty, and thus, further enlarge the ego of the user. 
Social media may get rid of “the distance between far-flung friends” (Thompson 254), but it 
also creates vast chasms between people who are in the same neighborhood, same class in school, or 
even right next to each other. I am currently a college student at my local community college. Since I 
have been in college, instead of talking to the people around me and building relationships, I spend 
most of my time with my nose buried deep in my phone, focused on Twitter or Instagram memes 
(internet jokes that go viral), especially when I have time to kill during classes. I also make sure to 
bring my headphones in order to bury any outside noise with the smooth sound of music, probably 
Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground belching lyrics about his quests to find heroin on the bustling 
streets of New York City. But, even if I do want to talk, I look up from my phone and see fifteen 
other faces buried in their screens. I swear sometimes it feels like I am surrounded by zombies, 
deathly afraid to look away from their phone screen in case they miss a second of whatever is 
happening anywhere but here. They are physically present but their consciousness is at Coachella, 
their eyes locked in on their surgically prepared celebrity hero, their pupils as wide dinner plates, 
their heart pumping like a punk rock drum beat as they begin to scream “Oh my god! It’s Kylie!” 
But my generation, those born in the late 90’s (I was born in 1998), has only been exposed to 
social media for a short period of time; social media was not around during the early to mid 2000’s, 
our peak years of childhood socialization. The next generation’s social tendencies may prefer texting 
to talking, liking to compliments, and Facebook friends to real friends, and the distance online 
interaction provides because socializing is easier that way. Conversations have awkward pauses in 
them; they require thinking in the moment, and dealing with whatever judgments other people might 
have. Being a person is hard. Being a wall of text is easy. 
Social media websites, especially Facebook, are hotbeds for clickbait articles. Clickbait 
travels on Facebook by sharing. Sometimes a user’s friend will share an article with an enticing but 
meaningless headline such as “Which Disney Character Are You?” (“Which”) or “6 Terrible Games 
Released in 2016 That Were Supposed to be Amazing” (Lyles). The user will click on the article, 
read whatever useless information it contains, and move on. Facebook will then assume the user 
liked the content of the article and show the user more of it. The point of clickbait (besides 
entertainment) is, according to Anna Escher and Anthony Ha of Techcrunch.com, to bring in “page 
views. Most sites use traffic numbers like page views or unique visitors to bill advertisers and 
measure their general success” (screen 2). The point of a clickbait article is to draw readers in with a 
catchy headline and then bombard them with ads. Companies (or scams) will then buy up those ad 
spots like cheap stock in order to increase their visibility as a product. For the content, just hire some 
young, aspiring author fresh out of some state university somewhere that can write inoffensive and 
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broad content, such as listicles, in order to retain readers and keep them coming back, thereby 
accumulating those precious page views.  
This clickbait problem would be absolutely fine if it existed in a vacuum, but clickbait is all 
but destroying newspaper companies and professional, reliable journalism. “Increasingly, content 
isn’t created by journalists once employed by legacy media. It comes from freelancers, citizen 
journalists, bloggers, and vloggers. Freelancers are being hired while experienced, older journalists 
are laid off” (screen 2) claims Jeffrey Dvorkin, a professor of journalism at the University of 
Toronto, in a 2016 article for PBS. Afraid for their job security, many journalists turn to writing 
clickbait articles that play it safe and attract views. In “Why Click-Bait Will Be the Death of 
Journalism,” Dvorkin concludes that “one of the best qualities in the journalistic culture is 
skepticism. But when it comes to digital, skepticism has been replaced with unquestioning 
enthusiasm” (screen 4). Mindless amusement makes money, asking questions does not; in other 
words, clickbait makes money, real journalism does not. This trend towards entertainment and 
clickbait over real journalism is detrimental because it deprives the public of real and pertinent news 
that they may not want, but they need.  For all its benefits social media is cancerous in that its 
narcissism can metastasize, making it harder for people to actually talk to one another, creating an 
expressway where misinformation can commute.  
I hate social media and yet, I still use it every day. I criticize the zombies around me, but like 
them, I am caught in the vice of social media. And, eventually, we zombies will take over. According 
to Nielsen, Snapchat “is used by roughly half of 18-to-34-year-olds” and “those who use it daily open 
the app 18 times a day for a total of nearly 30 minutes” (Stein 28). Social media apps, such as 
Snapchat, can be more addicting than heroin. I would wager there are more brain cells left in Keith 
Richards’ brain than there are teens without Twitter accounts. Good, bad, or evil, social media is like 
a Japanese bullet train that cannot be stopped and something we will all have to deal with in the post 
millennium world, whether we like it or not. 
 
 
  
 
Works Cited 
 
Dvorkin, Jeffrey. “Column: Why Click-bait Will Be the Death of Journalism.”  PBS, 5 screens.  
Public Broadcasting Service, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.  
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/what-you-dont-know-about-click-bait-
journalism-could-kill-you/  
Escher, Anna and Anthony Ha. “WTF Is Clickbait?" TechCrunch, 7 screens. TechCrunch, 25 Sept. 
2016.Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.  https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/25/wtf-is-clickbait/ 
Lyles, Taylor. “6 Terrible Games Released in 2016 That Were Supposed to Be Amazing.” Fraghero, 
4 screens. N.p., n.d. Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017.  http://fraghero.com/6-terrible-games-
released-in-2016-that-were-supposed-to-be-amazing/  
Parker-Pope, Taylor. “All About You.” Well, May 20, 2012, p. 16. 
Stein, Joel. “What’s It Worth To Be Yourself Online? The Genius of Snapchat.” Time 13 Mar. 2017, 
pp. 28-32. 
Thompson, Rebecca. “Social Networking Social Good.”  The Curious Writer: Brief Fifth Edition, 
edited by Bruce Ballenger, Pearson, 2017, pp. 254 - 257. 
“Which Disney Character Are You?” BrainFall, 3 Screens. Web. Accessed 26 Apr. 2017. 
http://brainfall.com/quizzes/which-disney-character-are-you/#ByhM_d0Ce  
 
3
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Unsocial Media

Phegley, Lauren

Fiction and Reality: Serial Killers as a Product of Postmodern Fiction

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 39 | Number 2 Article 6
Spring 5-1-2017
Let's meet the editors!
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Prefatory Note is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for
inclusion in The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
(2017) "Let's meet the editors!," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 39 : No. 2 , Article 6.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol39/iss2/6
Let’s meet the editors! 
Shailesh Patel is the Editor-in-Chief of PLR. The computer science 
major is in his second semester as Editor-in-Chief and his fourth 
semester in PLR. The code loving Editor loves to write when a com-
puter isn’t needed. His mediocre writing has been published in some 
places, and lesser known works have been featured on the fridge or 
the bon fire kindling.
Jamie McCreedy, PLR’s peachy Production Editor, is a strawberry 
blonde—not blonde—haired second semester student and PLR 
officer at the College of DuPage pursuing a Radiography degree. She 
loves dancing and prancing around in her Baymax onesie with her 
fellow fuzzy friends and frequently watching midnight episodes of 
the Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, and Modern Family. Many say she 
has a contagious laugh and is constantly spotted in public laughing 
until her stomach hurts. “Thanks, I’ll be here all night.”  Hair flip. 
Trips off stage.
Lindsay Flinker is the _____ (insert 
synonym for wonderful) Market-
ing Editor of PLR. She is a twen-
ty-something from DuPage County, 
who is still figuring out what to do 
with her life. She has taken a few 
writing courses, and hopes to some-
day write a novel. The bubbly intro-
vert enjoys all things Disney, pillow 
forts, cozy blankets, and dancing in 
her pajamas. She aspires to one day 
own a few farm animals (or dogs at 
least) as she changes the world with 
her pals by her side. Laughs at Jamie 
tripping offstage. 
Spring 2017    5 1
et al.: Let's meet the editors!
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016
Marisa, only one s, Jud2 is known as the quiet one. It is her third 
semester on PLR. She is majoring, maybe, in zoology or graphic 
design; other possibilities include basket weaving, public speaking, 
acting, auctioneering, and puppetry. Marisa is active in the softball 
community, squashing local teams with her fierce throw. She has 
pets. Lots of them. Even a turtle.
Amy Peter is thriving in her third semester with PLR. When she’s 
not performing at White House dinners or concert halls, she spends 
her time ____________. With her music education major, she is not 
yet a music teacher, but Amy hopes to eventually give up her job at 
Goodwill. Amy still has a dog and a lazy reptile. 
Derek Plate is a long-time reader and writer, two-semester PLR ed-
itor. He had the first act of a ridiculous play he loved writing pub-
lished in the first annual Iowa Summer Writing Festival Anthology. 
He has previous work experience writing for a PR firm. (The second 
time around, we are pretty sure that Derek still wants every piece to 
get in.)
Madeline Jefferies, future crazy cat lady, is an English Major with 
an emphasis in Writing, and a Library Circulation Clerk. This is her 
third semester working on staff at PLR. She loves art, literature, but 
most importantly, the escape from reality that a good book provides. 
Thania Hernandez is an English major who had no choice but to 
join the Prairie Light Review team four times due to a lack of other 
more practical plans. In the future, she will have to take on work as 
either an editor, a technical writer, or any other related writing field 
while attempting to write the Great American novel. In her free time, 
she enjoys long walks, binge watching Doctor Who on DVD, and 
now sticks to a more regular writing schedule.
6    Prairie Light Review 2
The Prairie Light Review, Vol. 39 [2016], No. 2, Art. 6
http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol39/iss2/6
Hannah Fisher is a first-time assistant editor of PLR, and an honors 
student with a long list of credentials that she has no clue what to do 
with. She does know that she loves her neighbor’s fat cat, Smudge. 
And that while she has eccentric purple and blue hair, her favorite 
color is yellow.
Alice Ventura is an avid painter and pluviophile. She’s an over en-
thusiastic computer nerd, and has to re-explain all hardware lingo 
that comes up in conversation. Every. Time. Cough, cough, Jamie. 
When she’s not painting, she is eating Chinese food at her favorite 
restaurant. Her favorite video game series is The Legend of Zelda™, 
no exceptions, and she owns every game! She is a first year editor at 
PLR and is studying English and Art.
Trina Sotirakopulos, PLR’s infamous advisor. Mic drop.
Ronda L Crawford is partly truth, partly fiction, with the superpow-
er of  straddling worlds and bending phrases. A Beyonce enthusiast 
with a $20 a week movie habit who still reads books on paper, drinks 
brown liquor on occasion and knows lots of things. My spirit is guid-
ed by a stuffed pig named Piggie, my best friend is a Duck named 
The Management, and my greatest love is a Potato named Rae (who 
also happens to be my daughter). You can find me on any given day 
writing and binging series on Netflix. References available only by 
request. I thank you for your consideration.
Spring 2017    7 3
et al.: Let's meet the editors!
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Let\u27s meet the editors!

Johnson, Micheal Lee

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 39 | Number 2 Article 8
Spring 5-1-2017
Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy
Micheal Lee Johnson
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Micheal Lee (2017) "Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 39 : No. 2 , Article 8.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol39/iss2/8
Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy 
  
Sing it Frank 
I'm busy at physical therapy 
struggling with back spasms 
looking out this window, these clouds 
this rain, slice this thunder, 
listening to your songs over again 
on the Muzak for this 6th week in a row, 
peddling this mechanical bike, 
might as well be a mechanical bull 
with a heat pad on my spinal cord. 
I'm deep inside your larynx 10 minutes 
3 times a week tickling it back and forth, 
jousting and reviewing those playgrounds 
of all your illicit affairs. With a few shots of vodka 
peddling these wheels with intensified pressure 
I can appreciate Lana Turner, Judy Garland, 
Lauren Bacall, even Marilyn Monroe. 
"This is my kind of town Chicago is, 
my kind of town Chicago is." 
Micheal Lee Johnson
10    Prairie Light Review 1
Johnson: Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016


Sing it Frank, Physical Therapy

Tolman Flannery, Maureen

The Prairie Light Review
Volume 39 | Number 2 Article 12
Spring 5-1-2017
In the Fullness of Early Aging
Maureen Tolman Flannery
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
The Prairie Light Review by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Tolman Flannery, Maureen (2017) "In the Fullness of Early Aging," The Prairie Light Review: Vol. 39 : No. 2 , Article 12.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/plr/vol39/iss2/12
In the Fullness of Early Aging 
 
Nearly midnight—when Phil Ochs 
will sing about all the things 
he won’t be able to do when he’s gone 
so, he guesses, he’ll have to do them while he’s here. 
 
But he’s no longer here 
so irony buzzes, a winter housefly, 
through the pith of his lyric. 
We cherish these untangled days 
 
when loving well is all that’s required. 
This evening, fresh from storefront theatre, 
we are fired up by theatrical innovation-- 
babies raining from the sky, 
 
a wordy, impertinent fetus 
curious about the world he will enter. 
Still discussing the play, 
we heat up the clam chowder 
 
sit at the butcher-block table 
as if at a seaside crab-shack 
and turn on the radio for the last hour 
of the Midnight Special—
 
our Saturday night folk ritual. 
We talk casually of when one of us 
will stride ahead into Unknowing 
and which of us is best equipped 
 
to cope with loneliness, 
as though we might stave off mortality 
by naming it, by weekly references 
to its caprice as we blend our voices 
 
with the long-dead folk singer 
celebrating the tenuous blessings 
of a fragile hold on his guitar 
and rhythms of breath and pulse. 
 
Maureen Tolman Flannery
Spring 2017   13 1
Tolman Flannery: In the Fullness of Early Aging
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