![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Social media preferences differ between grade levels
November 28, 2015
Social media remains a popular outlet of internet usage amongst students. However, the usage of social media differs between the four upper school grades.
A poll sent out to students revealed that freshman and juniors preferred Instagram and Snapchat while Sophomores used Facebook the most. Seniors used Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook evenly.
Some freshmen rarely use any social media. Ashwin Reddy (9), who has Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook accounts, spends little to no time on social media daily.
“I rarely use any [social media accounts],” Ashwin said. “If I’m feeling very exuberant, maybe ten minutes. Otherwise, zero minutes.”
Amongst all grades, Instagram and Snapchat were the most popular.
“I use different social media for different things,” Evan Lohn (12) said. “Snapchat for pictures and Facebook for chatting with people for a long time.”
The most common reason for using social media is communicating with friends. The class Facebook pages for the Class of 2019 has 65 members, compared to the 127 members for the Class of 2018 and 165 members for the Class of 2017’s page.
“I use [Facebook] to interact with my friends,” Neha Tallapragada (9) said.
Senior Shilpa Repakula enjoys using Snapchat because it is a casual way of interacting with friends.
“I used [Snapchat] mostly to communicate with each other,” she said. “If I see something cool, rather than taking a picture of something that doesn’t really matter but is interesting, I could just send it to someone else.”
Many students use more than one outlet equally as another due to the different features and benefits of each.
“I like to use the messaging on Facebook and you know, Instagram can’t message but there are like really nice shoes on Instagram,” Junior Jordan Goheen, who uses Facebook and Instagram equally, said.
Students across all grades spread out the amount of time spent they spend on social media throughout the course of the day.
“I don’t do it just in one period of time, I like do it in between,” freshman Tiffany Zhao said. “Whenever I’m on my phone I just check Instagram for like one minute.”
