u/Callia_Ellesfire

During my time in college, I developed an addiction to the internet and social media, but for my senior year, I decided to make a change. I decided to get rid of a bunch of Apps including Tiktok and Twitter. My plan was at the very least not mindlessly doomscroll because I have a tendency to spiral easily. I was also excited to room with friends for my senior semester in a suite. I told my friends bluntly that I'm trying to reduce my screentime so I don't spiral and if people start talking about online drama, I might leave the room just for my own sanity.

It was fine for the first 4 months. However, it became sour when we would all hang out and people would just be on their phones doing their own thing in the same room. When we would interact, most often people were talking about online drama, specifically relating to fandoms. I personally have had horrible experiences as in the same year, a friend group who I thought was kind to me ditched me for other people over fandom drama. Nevertheless, it made me feel awful and I would always leave. I felt horrible because I thought I was being too sensitive. There were also issues surrounding chores since they would make me do a large chunk of them because I was the most "able-bodied" one due to how much I could do on campus academically and physically.

Due to not having a lot of friends over drama I was feeling cooped up in my dorm and would often go to social events alone just to get out. I was also doing a lot of school activities to distract myself from doom scrolling. One day I was a bit disappointed in not being able to participate in our conservations because it contained online drama. One of my friends ( I'll call N) said that she has a tailored algorithm so she doesn't receive negative content. I then told her I also have gone through certain things and I still spiral. She then said I needed to deal with being online more if I wanted more friends because its how people communicate now, citing that a lot of neurodivergent people are that way. Then, she told me I was being dramatic and tried to claim I was forcing people to interact when I was just upset that all people talked about is fandom drama. I got up frustrated and didn't say anything. Later I met someone with their friends (I'll call that person C), and it felt freeing being able to go out to a cafe and talk a bit, even if it was for a short time. I met up with C again and we went to a beach. Overtime, I just forgot about my suitemates. I would occasionally remind people to do chores because I still had to remind people, that that was it. When N confronted me about how I don't hang out at the suite I said "I just wanted normal friends".

I now regret how I phrased it, but my main point I still believe in. I later learned that one suitemate couldn't graduate the same year as me because he spent too much time on his Twitch channel (he got pushed back another time). AITA and is there anything I can do to support my suitemates?

I won a prestigious art award at my university plus $400. I was excited to get it at the University Undergrad Award Ceremony. When I looked at the certificate and check for $400 I got I was slightly disappointed. For the certificate, they added a letter onto my first name. The check was more frustrating, they added a letter and forgot a large piece of my last name. As so I couldn't deposit the check. I contacted the student alumni president but they were on a trip and couldn't take my calls or emails until next week (7 days later). I later learned that no one else has the problem except me from student affairs. When they contacted me, they want me to be available at a random time of the day so they can coordinate a time to give me the respelled things to me even though I have school on that day and it's my busy day. I did get mad at the person on the other side of the call saying that I wanted them to give me extra money for this screwup, told them to STFU, while angrily hanging up and throwing my phone across a room. I honestly don't believe the University is truly sorry for this incident. I would understand if it was just a simple participation award that you get in K-12, but for a relatively small research university where only 100 people at most got awards that gets a lot of praise, I believe it couldn't have been that hard to get my name right, especially everything is in a school database of names and other information. Also I would think for important awards they would contact you to write how you would want your name spelled before rewarding it to you. It's also worth noting that my name is the only one that sounds like the name of someone who is BIPOC. I truly believe they should do something else for me outside of correcting the certificate and check name. This incident has made me feel like the award was worthless and I feel like making a hole in a wall or sabotaging the university's reputation. Everyone else got the respect they deserve, why not me? It's not just the incident that has made me fill with rage, but the amount of hurdles it took to resolve a problem that could have been easily avoided. AITA?