Oct. 13, 2015

Students have become extremely dependent on social media, both academically and in their everyday lives.  Social media selfies have become an addiction that is reliant specifically on the moment you are living in. This has high relevance to all graduating college students because the idea of taking selfies on the graduation stage is becoming a high-rising, inappropriate trend. As I am soon to be a college graduate, I think of my upcoming graduation, and how I want my family, friends and the professional school photographer to capture the moment as I walk across the stage.  This is a milestone in college students’ lives that cannot be captured within a selfie, it can be captured by embracing the moment.

Along with these students’ excessive dependence, taking selfies during graduation is incredibly disruptive towards parents, peers and the students walking behind you.  If every student that was on stage took a selfie, the time of the graduation ceremony would be at least doubled.  Selfies throughout graduation should not be allowed, and I agree completely with the University of South Florida as they ban selfies throughout the stage of graduation.  To avoid this disruptive behavior, schools need to take action against the idea of taking a selfie on the graduation stage. They need to immediately put rules in place before this trend gets out of hand.

Disrespectful selfies on stage are causing commotion within colleges.  As I see it, the disrespect level is immensely high and thrown off for the families and supporters of college students.  Agreeing with the rule to hold off on selfies only seems mature and reasonable to bring the focus solely on the student whose name is being called. It is one picture that you are taking that disrupts an entire ceremony that is not only for you, but also for your peers. Therefore, only thinking of yourself and how cool your selfie could turn out, instead of thinking of everyone else around you, proves how social media is creating a completely self-absorbed society. The level of disrespect students have to even raise issues regarding this is astonishing because when thinking about stopping to take a selfie, and then checking it afterwards, it makes selfie taking an entire process.  If every student were to take a selfie, it would not only increase the time in which graduation was made but make the school photographer seem irrelevant.

Social media is, and has been, becoming a dependent factor that students feel the need to be a part of.  A cause of this dependency is selfies. In all honesty, there is nothing wrong with a selfie when there is a time and place; just like the article stated. Taking a selfie throughout the graduation ceremony is more than a little extreme because you disrupt and disturb the people, parents and students around you. A selfie cannot capture the emotion or experience of graduating, therefore it simply becomes a picture that blends in with the rest of your camera roll. There is plenty of time before and after graduation that selfies can be taken, yet during the graduation ceremony is not one of them.

Elana Schubert

Social Work BA