College Acceptances in the Age of Facebook
April 15, 2012
Rachel Stone Acting Co-Editor-in-Chief We have become brands of ourselves. This is neither a psychological musing nor a statement of Fitzgerald-esque disillusionment, this is a quote taken from my father upon hearing my explanation of what exactly Facebook was. He’s right, of course. We have become excellent self-publicists in this new age of social media, painting our own portraits in pixilated pastel. We have come to realize that we have a perpetual audience, and we act accordingly. This has power, and regardless of whether this power is enough to destabilize an African warlord, it still has enough to reign over independent opinion. This “audience dynamic” has come to affect our most personal choices, notably college acceptance. In a culture where Harvard graduates are superstars, it is unavoidable that your audience will reflect this at least minimally. Whether we like it or not, in most instances the number of likes you may receive upon posting a status of “Yale 2016” and “College of the Redwoods!!!” will generally vary proportionally to the reputation of the college (another pseudo-brand in and of itself). “It’s weird,” mentioned a student currently deliberating between a small, liberal arts college and a more well-known Ivy League school. “It’s not like I’m making my decision for Facebook, but rather it begins to feel like more people would be proud of me if I posted about going to an Ivy.” He went on to state that, “with Facebook, college acceptance isn’t just a strictly personal choice, but a choice that is broadcasted to your whole stratosphere of Facebook friends.” However, you may argue that this will always be the case. It’s society, Rachel, not Facebook. At this, I might perhaps withdraw an old lecture-pointer from my pocket and proceed to draw up a few charts and statistics to prove my point. But as this is an editorial and not a video chat, you will have to make due with my argument instead. It isn’t just Facebook – that part is true – but rather it’s what Facebook is. Facebook is a microcosm of society, neatly packaged and fluorescent. We can see in three seconds if something is socially acceptable or not, and it is basic human nature to be influenced. So what do we do? Well, we could preempt all of this by not posting about college acceptances, but why must we? It is an element of significant pride and accomplishment, and our friends are probably going to end up mentioning something anyway. We could take up residence in a vacuum, or perhaps a nice little cave east of Southport. We could hold a middle finger to society and choose what makes us happy, dammit. Or, we could simply acknowledge that this “audience effect” exists. But as a junior in that strange limbo between premeditated anxiety and perpetual terror, I at least have some time to decide.]]>
ckaplan • Apr 16, 2012 at 7:57 pm
stoney you’re too raw. also lets hope life isn’t middle school, middle school sucked.
rstone • Apr 16, 2012 at 8:09 am
That’s a good point. College decisions are (to a certain point) largely arbitrary, but in such a small environment (another microcosm of society, if you will), accomplishments begin to feel personal. My ultimate opinion is that there may not be one straightforward way to handle this, but rather acknowledging that this is the case might be the way to deal. As a “post-er,” if you are okay with the fact that what you share will impact others (as well as impacting yourself), then by all means do it. Life is not middle school; there are disappointments, and not everyone gets a medal for playing and having sportsmanship. The rejected person you referred to above undoubtedly will go to a school that they will also come to love (if it isn’t another one of their first choice schools in general), and person A will ultimately need to learn to deal with rejection as well. Now as a Junior I obviously don’t know enough about what I would do and how I would feel, but as an observer I can say that the people I’ve spoken to who have had to deal with these rejections publicized on Facebook have come away from the process with a certain maturity that I had yet to encounter in my fellow high-schoolers. So to make a long story short, I don’t have a concrete opinion. I might post about where I get in (and I might not) for a myriad reasons. The real thing that I wanted people to get from this article is that we are coming of age in a strange time, and that constant exposure to technology has impacted more than we understand.
rstar • Apr 15, 2012 at 10:02 pm
You bring up a really interesting phenomena, and it reminds me of the double-edged sword of posting college acceptances : what if someone else at Latin didn’t get in? Or got wait listed? Im not saying that people should be extremely excited or proud about getting in to a great college, even there first choice. Actually I’m not even saying they shouldn’t post — its a great way to let everyone collectively know your future plans and let them share in the excitement. But – Latin is a really small community and its likely that if people know Person A got in to Harvard/Yale/Standford ect. they also know Person B got rejected.
Anyway – its messy. What I’m saying is, how can we “share” this information without flaunting it, and without unintentionally calling out the not-so-lucky ones. Is it possible? Is it even worth trying, or should the rejected person, frankly, suck it up ?
What do you think?
scohen3 • Apr 15, 2012 at 8:36 pm
you are an amazing writer. that is all.