Just about every student on a college campus is on Facebook, and if not Facebook, then Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, even LinkedIn. You name it, we probably have an account on it. The Classes of 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 collectively represent the first college-age group without real memory of a world without these apps.

When Facebook was "born" in 2004, the oldest of these students were just 8 years old - very unlikely to own a phone or use a computer for much other than educational computer games and maybe Webkinz (as of 2005) - and the youngest was 5 years old.

So, yeah, you could say social media is kind of second nature to us.

We use Facebook to buy and sell textbooks, find roommates, find houses and apartments, learn about what's happening on and around campus, invite people to parties and other events, publicize clubs and other campus organizations, and even skim the news.

I want to focus on that last point.

With Hurricanes Harvey and Irma both causing massive destruction in the Gulf and Southeastern United States much has been made of the storms on Facebook and Twitter. There's a lot to weed through: there are fake pictures of sharks circling cars on highways, articles on whether this is happening as an act of divine intervention or climate change, and even events requesting that we "All point our fans at Hurricane Irma to blow her away."

Some of this is funny, some of it is informative, and some of it is very obviously fake. The trouble is, the group that I've mentioned, the one that has never really known the world without social media, is very prone to scrolling mindlessly. We see something, react to it (or don't), and move on. It's categorized as information in broad strokes before we've even really thought about it.

Everything is taken slightly less seriously than it normally would be. If you heard about Hurricane Irma on the news, you would obviously be reasonably concerned for the safety of those affected by the hurricane, and perhaps for your own safety.

If you heard about Hurricane Irma through a Facebook event about: reporting her to immigration officials to get rid of her, telling her she's pretty so she'll calm down, writing her away with poetry, or, the classic, pointing our fans at her so she blows away, you're bound to take the whole event a little less seriously (yes, these are all real events that you can currently join on Facebook).

Now, don't get me wrong. I think that these are pretty funny, and I've joined some of them. The discussion is very entertaining and definitely helps to bring levity to a serious situation. But it's undeniable that these more casual takes on natural disasters, as well as government policies, social movements, security threats, and even the solar eclipse can warp a person's perception of what the events actually signify for the individual, the community, the country, and even the world.

We're in uncharted territory. People my age consume media at a higher rate than ever before, and in a very different way. Because we're the first generation to have so much at our fingertips, we really haven't been taught many rules for doing it beyond not trusting everyone we meet online and not posting anything we wouldn't want our grandmother or employer to see.

There's no question that social media has fundamentally changed the way in which we interact with one another and with the world around us. Events like those in recent weeks simply call these changes into question.