Boozin’ to a Bad Reputation
Posted: March 20, 2014, 12:15 a.m.
by Maggie Jones.
With Spring Break 2014 in full swing, there is an abundance of high school and college students jetting to the beaches. Perhaps many will have a nice, relaxing vacation from school, but with the reputations spring-breakers have, it will more likely be a booze-cruzin’, drunk-beachin’, regrettable time.
The week of spring break is filled with decisions that could make or break you. If you survive spring break with a nice tan, good memories and tasteful beach pictures, then you did great! But, if you end up with a broken bone, jail time or loss of pride, then it might not have been a beneficial vacation.
We spend a lifetime forming a reputation that portrays who we are. In just one week our hopes and dreams could be crushed. As college students planning for future careers, we hope to retain our positive reputation and grow from our experiences.
Maintaining a positive image on social media that is appealing and doesn’t draw the wrong attention can be a challenge for those who enjoy a good time.
On social media sites, the majority of information created is available to everyone. It is smart to always be mindful of pictures and content displayed at all times, but especially throughout the week of spring break. We become immersed in the fun, party atmosphere of the week, but may forget that others are always watching and nothing can ever be permanently removed.
Although you may want to upload those bikini, beer pictures on the beach, your future employer may not be amused. A careless decision could cause you to miss out on a great career opportunity.
Keeping a clean social media presence exhibits a good reputation, professional attitude and attractive employee potential. Each of these will advance you in life and not hold you back to the days of college spring break. Getting drunk may give you pep, but misbehaving gives you a bad rep.
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Maggie, I could not agree with you more. As technology advances social media has an increasing impact on our lives. As a junior in college I can honestly say I can look around my classroom of 200 students and see that almost everybody has laptops and iPhones. This is what has made our generation a different day in age compared to when our parents were in college. They did not have different forms of social media following their every move to threaten their reputations. I think most college students think they are invincible during college, and their actions will not follow them after they graduate. I feel like the consensus among many students is that their four years of college is four years they can do whatever they want despite the consequences they could have later in life. As you mentioned above, spring break is definitely one of the wildest times of the year for college students. I got on my Facebook just a couple of days ago after spring break was over, and there were multiple drunken, inappropriate bikini pictures on the beach. I also saw the video that Fox News released about Ainsley Earhardt interviewing spring breakers in Panama City Beach, Florida. I have truly never seen something more appalling in my life, and this is coming from a 20-year-old college student. As I was watching the video, I was imagining what their parents were thinking when they saw their children doing drugs, having sexual relations and drunkenly cursing on national television. I am not sure what the solution is to try to stop this inappropriate social media outbreak, but something needs to be done quickly. If being jobless and barely able to make ends meet in 15 years does not wake up students, I am not sure what will.
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I completely agree with this article, Maggie. The way spring break is looked at as a chance to forget all morals and values to go wild has become intense.
PermalinkSocial media may not seem permanent, and sure, there is a delete button for most things, but it does not guarantee the post being completely removed from all history on the Internet.
It also does not ensure that within the time the post did have online, an employer didn’t already see it.
This article makes a great point while explaining how overly wild spring break is specifically. This one week seems to be the only time that students get so notoriously out of control and have the mindset that they are invincible to consequences of poor decision making. I think that this article opens up a point of view that not all students are like this and I appreciate it. This was an overall great article.
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This is a great article, Maggie. I completely agree with you. As a junior in college I have become much more aware of the effects social media can have on one’s reputation. It is so easy to go on vacation with friends and forget that your actions can end up online and potentially ruin your future. I think it is very important for people to manage their social media outlets in order to obtain a clean, professional image. The competition for a job is so high these days, and like you said, “a careless decision could cause you to miss out on a great career opportunity.” It is so sad to see students ruin their futures due to posts on social media or irresponsible decision-making. I went to Destin for spring break this year and witnessed many students go to jail for making foolish mistakes. Although it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and crazy atmosphere of spring break, it is smart to step back and decide if it is worth ruining your reputation. Maggie, your article did a great job illustrating the importance of maintaining a positive image on social media.
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This blog post is something that should be considered a lot more in our generation. I have actually had conversations with people regarding the importance of how others portray themselves on social media. In my opinion, Twitter seems to be where most of these inappropriate statements and pictures are posted. There have been numerous times when I have seen people post about how drunk they are, and it never shocks me any less. I have been told by numerous instructors throughout college that most businesses today will ask to see a potential employee’s Facebook before hiring him or her. In today’s competitive job market, why ruin a career over one week or weekend?
I completely agree with the focus on the specific week of spring break. Students go extremely far when it comes to partying during that week. I actually saw a news segment today on Facebook covering the week of spring break for college students. If posting what they do on social media is not bad enough, maybe publicly announcing and showing their actions on the news is. Our generation needs to take their actions more seriously and be careful what they portray themselves as to the open public. People are not shy about their bad decisions, but they should be.
The link to the news segment is below.
Permalinkhttps://nation.foxnews.com/2014/04/02/hannity-uncovers-wild-behavior-spring-break-florida