LSU was ranked No. 10 on StudentAdvisor.com for its use of social media practices to keep students informed, but this may not be as good as it seems.
There is a widely accepted idea that the media movement is creating an equal opportunity for all people to stay informed and involved in society. Our generation especially thinks that social media and the Internet are platforms that all people can reach. This is not true.
Our rank passed Tulane by 73 spots. Almost all the universities that were deemed more media-oriented than LSU were Ivies. We started from the bottom; now we are with the big guys.
This is great for the majority of students who use social media to stay involved, but what about the rest of the student body?
I’m glad our school is progressing toward a more mobile future by keeping students in the loop. But as with anything new and revolutionary, there’s a gap between those who can move forward and those who get left behind.
Only 53 percent of college students have a smart phone, according to a study by the University of Colorado at Boulder. Yes, this is the majority, but not by much.
The average smartphone user checks their phone about 150 times a day, according to a survey of Internet usage released by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. If that doesn’t demonstrate our obsession with media, then I don’t know what does.
We are glued to screens without even realizing the other 47 percent of campus is being left out.
Sure there are library computers students can utilize, but it’s inconvenient when they are constantly crashing or are closed on certain days.
Our campus media efforts are relevant, but we can’t forget to reach out to the rest of the population who still use more basic forms of communication.
It is so easy to alienate those who aren’t as up-to-speed with the current media revolution. Not everyone can afford a high-tech computer, let alone a smartphone.
By only focusing our efforts on media interaction, we are unintentionally creating class divides. How can someone without a Twitter be informed of campus happenings when they are only tweeted about or advertised on Facebook?
If you only check the online LSU events calendar and not Twitter, you might miss things like the Homecoming concert we had on the Parade Ground last week.
It makes us seem like we only care about the percentage of people who can afford these gadgets, and the rest can stay home in their underprivileged bubbles.
I know this isn’t our school’s intention, but it’s a truth that most of our country is experiencing.
Think about it. For those of us who use a social medium or smartphone, it’s simple to see how our lives revolve around technology. Our political, religious and academic opinions are all influenced by what we see online.
We think those who are less informed than us are ignorant, when in fact they may just lack the tools to gain the appropriate knowledge. And considering our country’s distribution of wealth, it’s reasonable to say that as the digital divide increases, so will our class divide.
We are in a time of media dominance. And when I say “we,” I mean the United States, not necessarily the rest of the world, 70 percent of whom do not have Internet, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
So until our world transitions to be 100 percent digitally informed, we should still make an effort to keep the minority educated on current events. This concept should be remembered on college campuses as well as in the professional world.
It seems like a hassle to send out hard-copy newsletters or have radio broadcasts, but it’s something that should be kept running, if only for the sake of keeping the public informed on the most basic matters.