“Please write down an insecurity you have, you don’t have to put your name. The only person who knows is you,” Craig Puritt said to a group of around thirty students, aiming to get the conversation going with an icebreaker.

As Vice Secretary of the African American Student Organization (AASO) and sociology major, Puritt created the discussion-based program “Love Yourz,” which took place at 7 p.m. this past Monday, kicking off a series of programs for AASO week. Focusing on self-love and self-awareness, the goal of “Love Yourz” was to encourage the voices and opinions of students.

After the group was finished writing down their insecurities, Puritt read the most popular ones out loud, which included weight issues and personal appearances.

“Somebody could be just playing around or saying something in a joking manner, but it sticks in your head,” Puritt stated.

The discussion then delved in to how individuals scrutinize themselves by comparing their appearances or relationships to celebrities.

“We compare the people we want to be with with what we see on TV,” Purritt said.

Many people chimed in when he said that this perspective ultimately has caused “infatuation to take the title of love in today’s society.”

The group really started to get vocal when Puritt asked the question, “Do you feel in our generation, that love has changed?”

Nyandusi “Dus” Nyachae, Buffalo State alumni and motivational speaker, added his opinion that “people respond to love as a feeling, and then people move on those feelings. It’s all just based on instant gratification, and on the media’s influence. We confuse love with feelings.”

Nyachae’s opinion caused the discussion to wade into the uncharted waters of social media, and all that it entails.

“We want to feel validated, we crave it,” Nyachae added, spurring talk of apps that enhance a woman’s body, or allow users to buy “likes.”

Nyachae also said that society as a whole needs to “stop giving credit to those celebrities with low self-esteem, because it misleads everyone else.”

Instagram was brought up often, with many people expressing their intense dislike for those who post constantly for “likes” only. One voice in particular in the back of the room said that “those girls only know how to take pictures. That’s all they know what to do. I don’t compare myself to that.”

The majority of the students who attended the program let their voice be heard, and the group respected each opinion, even if there were some who disagreed. No topic was considered unwelcome, and issues ranging from trust to neglect were discussed in both length and depth. Puritt ended the program by sharing his own personal life experiences concerning insecurity and neglect, which was met with warm applause.

Wednesday’s program is titled “Blast from the Past,” and Thursday’s program “We are Not 28” will end this week’s series. President of AASO and public communication major Lauren Cantres stated that she hoped this week’s festivities would “help bring awareness to anything going on in the African American community, and bring together the student body as a whole.”