“You’re suspended.”
“For what?”
“For drinking under the age limit.”
“How did you find that out?”
“Facebook.”
The above situation never happened to me personally, but it certainly did happen to seniors I went to high school with, and the news spread quickly through the school, so even students who didn’t know the suspended students, knew of the story.
This situation certainly brings up an important question: Was it right for the high school officials to suspend those students based on a photo found on a social media platform?
“Online investigations might lead to unfair or inconsistent treatment” Natasha Singer says in “They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets.” I do believe that it is unfair for high school officials or college admission committees to take it upon themselves to investigate further on an individual without prior permission. Most social media platforms that are in use are being used for personal reasons. If an individual post’s something unflattering on their personal site, I do not think it’s any officials job to investigate it. If it’s a post not directed to the school or college in any way, then is there really a justifiable reason to refuse this individual? Maybe I’m an optimistic, but I think everyone deserves a chance to prove who they are in person, not through a social media platform, and more so, not through technology. If that said individual does no harm to the school or college and maintains good grades, then why should it matter how this individual expresses him/herself outside of those domains?
As a more experienced woman, I do think individuals should be monitoring the content that they post; however, they shouldn’t be held responsible if admission committees find something that they do not agree with. Most of the social media sites used today by the teen community are used for nothing more than social interactions. They are not using social media to make themselves look better as Ms. Heck says: ‘“If you’ve got stuff online you don’t want colleges to see…deleting it is kind of like joining two more clubs senior year to list on your application to try to make you seem more like the person they want at their schools.’” They are using them to blow off steam, stay connected to others, and stating how they feel.
I can understand more why employers, over admission committees, might search a potential candidate because they are joining a professional community and usually employers are looking for mature, sophisticated candidates. So, I can understand that a candidate’s chances could be hurt if the candidate says a negative comment on their social media account. New college students, however, are usually not even twenty yet and fresh out of high school. They are more likely to make immature remarks without thinking about the consequences. So, at that stage in their life, I don’t think college admission committees should be judging them too harshly.
If anything, colleges should be teaching students the effects of posting harmful or jeopardizing content on social media platforms, and the consequences that might come from that. Isn’t that what college is for? To learn. So why not teach students how to become more conscious individuals instead of rejecting them based on prejudgments an admission committee member made based off an unreliable source, and not even inform that individual why he/she got rejected. Maybe if college admissions committees explained to the individual why he/she is getting rejected, he/she will learn from their mistakes, saving them from another rejection letter.
A peer of mine always has her head in her laptop. Everywhere she goes, everything she does: she’s just always typing away. It’s hard to turn away from the technology that we’re presented with. It allows us to make greater and diverse connections we normally wouldn’t make. It allows us to write faster, to get more ideas together in a framed time space. It allows us to stay up to date on everything that is going on in the world and with our friends and family. However, it doesn’t allow us to spark our imagination. It takes away the real connection with people and the experiences one encounters on a day-to-day basis.
So, this girl was in one of my classes last semester. The class was a small class, consisting of about fifteen students. It was a close-knit class, which allowed the students to make connections and work with others in the class. This semester I encountered the laptop girl once more, but she didn’t remember me. She didn’t know my name or that we shared a class together, even though I remembered both about her. I strongly believe that the cause for that incident was because she constantly had her eyes glued to a computer screen, not bothering to glance up to take in her current surroundings.
I, on the other hand, never bring a laptop/tablet to class. I sit in class and walk around campus with my head up, taking in the slight difference in brick color on the buildings and how the red awning over the entrance to the bookstore dips down just a bit as if there were a puddle of water pooling in the center. All these observations and experiences that I encounter are translated into details within my writing. I strongly believe that a person who takes in their surroundings and is involved in real-life experiences, not through a computer screen, will become a stronger, more successful writer because they have the advantage of translating the real world into their writing.
Sacha Kopp, Dean of CAS, would certainly agree with me. In “‘There Is No Yellow Brick Road,’” he words it like this: “…life and careers are a collection of experiences and learning opportunities that shape who we become…we alone are the unique person that results from those experiences.” Experiences, not only make for stronger writers, but for more relatable personalities. The more individuals experience, the more they are going to learn. The more you learn makes for a rounder individual which is exactly what employers are looking for. Employers don’t want a 2-dimensional person, knowing nothing more than how to google things in point-2 seconds. Experiences from the real-world is what’s going to translate into solving real-world problems. Sometimes one must rely on more than just the internet.
I understand and take note that my generation and the one’s following are heading in the direction of abusing technology to the point where I must fall to their demands. I might have to learn how to become reliant on technology if I ever want to advance in my field or even, much larger, the world. No one has the time to look up from their computer screens because everything that is happening worth importance is happening within that screen. Honestly, this new approach to living and experiencing is hard for me to digest because I believe it takes away from the authenticity of a person. Personalities and individuality diminish behind a keyboard, and my personality is something that I value greatly and believe it has gotten me far.
I want to advance and make connections just like anybody else, but I’m still not convinced that technology is the way to do that. I want to believe, and still do, that experiences outside of a computer screen shape individual personality, and teach us how to handle situations. I never want to lose sight of who I am. I want to advance and portray myself in an authentic light, not an artificial one the way a computer screen does.
As the new school year approached, another meeting was held to further prepare us for the next batch of kids. My boss, owner of a gymnastics school, sat atop a table while her coaches sat around her on benches, absorbing her words.
“You are the best gymnastics coach there is. That is what you must portray. Do not admit to any child or parent that you do not know something. Those words should never come out of your mouth. You are the professional in this sport, and those kids look up to you. They need to know that you know everything, and can and will pass that knowledge down to them. Even if you don’t know the answer to their question or know how to spot a particular skill, you do not let them know that. You answer to the best of your ability, and you do not let them try the skill that you do not know how to spot. You tell them ‘next week we will do it. We don’t have time today,’ and then you go and investigate how to make that happen; how to spot that skill, so you can come back the next week knowledgeable and ready.”
My boss’s main point was that each and every one of us has to become and act professionally within the workplace even if we’re still learning, which all coaches are; we never stop learning. With my boss’s words, “I am a professional.” I am. That’s what my students see me as because I hold the knowledge that they wish to seek.
Within my job, I am viewed as a professional, but I’m not sure I can say the same for my academics. Majority of English majors, or any major that falls into the Humanities School, feels the heat from outsiders. Society views the Humanities as just not as important, compared to Management or Political Science, for instance, as Barbara Schneider and Jo-Anne Andre illustrate in “University Preparation for Workplace Writing: An Exploratory Study of Three Disciplines.” Even Stony Brook University makes this assumption which can be argued through the many budget cuts the Humanities are continuing to go through. Adjunct professors who have been teaching for years are getting laid off, professors from the Science Schools are being brought over to double as writing professors, classes are being cut, and the day/times of class offerings are shrinking. The Humanities School is dissolving because many see it as not important.
However, society needs students from the Humanities School just as much as society needs Management and Political Science students. Management and Political Science will not cooperate or stay afloat without Humanities students because Humanities students know how to effectively communicate through speech and writing, solve problems analytically, and work with a wide range of knowledge because Humanities students are not tuned to specific studies like Management and Political Science students are because Humanities students cover a broad variety of subjects.
The lack of care from professors within the Humanities School may be the problem why Humanities students feel as if they can’t go on to become a “professional” in their field like the Management and Political Science students can. The reason for this may be because the professors within the Management studies and the Political Science studies may care more, on a general sense, about their students because those students can go on to be “professionals” within their field. If the professors within the Humanities studies are already thinking and have the attitude that their students are not going to become “professionals” within their study, is it likely that they will try as hard?
The reason why I feel that I am a professional at my workplace is because my boss makes me feel like I am and tells me that I am. Because she cares, I want to care. I want to prove to her, my students, and myself that I am a professional; that I do hold the knowledge to the sport.
Even though some people may not care, and put forth the incentive that you cannot and will not be a professional, you must not think like that because everyone has the power to be a professional in whatever field they find themselves in, regardless of their major. Be your own inspiration and forget the professors and society that tell you, you will never make it into the professional world. I’m an English major and I made it.