Could Social Media Actually Be Leading To A More Tame Spring Break?
by Richard
Apparently, the answer to today’s headline is an actual yes.
Color me stunned. (Actually, what color would that be? I mean, angry is red. Greedy or jealous is green. Yellow is cowardice. Seriously, what would be the color of stunned? Purple, maybe? Well, a question for another time.)
According to a recent story that ran in the New York Times, young college-age dudes and dudettes actually are being more tame, less take-off-your-shorts-and-shirt-and-dance-on-the-table drunk.
I know, right? Wimps, he snorted derisively.
But today’s spring breakers — at least some of them — say they have been tamed, in part, not by parents or colleges or the fed-up cities they invade, but by the hand-held gizmos they hold dearest and the fear of being betrayed by an unsavory, unsanctioned photo or video popping up on Facebook or YouTube.
Late one March evening at Rick’s Bar on rum-soaked Duval Street, college students alternated Jell-O shots withiPhone shots.
“We are very, very reserved,” said Mia Klein, 22, a University of Connecticut senior from Amityville, N.Y., who stood around a table at Rick’s with friends and cups of beer. “You don’t want to have to defend yourself later, so you don’t do it.” The “it” being get sloppy, word-slurring drunk in an unvetted crowd.
“People do regret it later,” chimed in her friend and sorority sister Kelsey Tynik, who had just finished checking e-mail amid the screaming house music.
Wow, what a change. I remember when texting and pictures on phones first came out and people were all worried that the young dudes and dudettes were being too open about their lives, documenting and sharing everything that went on in their day-to-day. Good to see that at least some of them are getting the message that, once something is out there in public, it’s always out there in public, even when you’re no longer that person.
Camrea Sawyer, 22, a senior at Athens Technical College, was heading to the beach with her University of Georgia friends to chill and tan her already sun-crisped body. Keenly aware of the damage a misplaced, mistimed cellphone photo or video can do, she said she is careful.
“At the beach yesterday, I would put my beer can down, out of the picture every time,” Ms. Sawyer said. “I do worry about Facebook. I just know I need a job eventually.”
Asked if she would ever do anything some could view as inappropriate, like join a wet T-shirt contest, she said, “No way. I would never do that because everybody has phones these days.”
Her friend Allen Stein, 26, a recent Auburn University graduate who joined the group for spring break, says he is looking for a job and knows that employers scour the Web for clues to a person’s character.
“That’s the first thing they check,” he said.
Seeing this gives me hope that Zippy the Monkey Boy might eventually get a working frontal lobe. Right now, he’s still — technically — an idiot. He’s of the opinion he can do anything and say anything on Facebook and the like and it’ll never come back to haunt him.
An actual quote from the Zipster: “Do you know how hard it would be for them to find one (NAME REDACTED) on the internet?” Sure, he’s got a common name, but I’m thinking it would take all of about, oh, say thirty seconds. He just won’t believe it.
So we have to come down on him when he starts feeling his oats on Facebook. Looking at these college-aged dudes an dudettes, with their responsible, forward-thinking plans for the future, maybe there’s hope Zippy the Monkey Boy will actually grow up. Sometime.
Share on Facebook Tags: A Dude's Guide to Health, A Dude's Guide to Teens, Amityville, Athens Technical College, beer, College Students, Cowardice, dude, Dudettes, Duval Street, E Mail, facebook, Friends, Frontal Lobe, Gizmos, health, House Music, Iphone, Jell O, Kelsey, Monkey Boy, New York Times, pictures, richard, Social Media, Sorority Sister, Spring Break, Spring Breakers, texting, thinking, University Of Connecticut, Young Dudes, Zippy, Zippy The Monkey, Zippy the Monkey Boy
Comments are currently closed.