As someone who consumes lots of content, ranging from YouTube videos to Instagram Reels, I know how easy it is to spread information through social media. In fact, since 2020, there has been a major increase in people using social media for their news. However, to the uninformed, this has been a major detriment to finding information, especially surrounding one’s school.
The concept of school social media accounts is not new. I’ve seen plenty of schools post Reels to advertise themselves and their events. Even if I don’t know them, they’re still entertaining, and definitely get their point across. In the case of our school, we don’t really do that. There is one primary account, @swctacommunity, and each individual club and class has their own account. This is the primary way that I get my information for the school, and it works well for my own purposes.
Even with these Instagram accounts, though, many people are still left uninformed. Some choose to only follow the accounts that are a part of their respective club, some choose to follow the Student Council (StuCo) account, and some don’t follow them at all. Some students are unable to download Instagram in the first place. This is a major problem because for the uninitiated, they may have no idea what is going on at school. Sure, the school’s website has a calendar of the events for clubs and the school as a whole, but that is not ideal, as many people do not check this for any event updates.
Even people who do use Instagram often mindlessly scroll and don’t retain the information. The worst part about this is that there are better, more highly effective methods of getting information throughout the school that aren’t nearly used as much as social media. However, social media is still the most common.
And that’s the issue. Social media presents a disconnect between students, teachers, and those running the accounts. People don’t get their information properly presented in a standardized way. Instead, because people only choose to follow the accounts that are the most relevant to them, which leaves them separated from the majority. Those who may not follow the StuCo account, for example, won’t know about events from them. The same goes for the other club accounts, who often present relevant information.
As a further matter, the people who don’t have the privilege to use social media, for one reason or another, are even less likely to know their information. People don’t often communicate with each other regarding different events around the school. It’s more just expected that you know about what’s going on. This, yet again, makes it more difficult to stay “in the know” with school events and makes the “disconnect” even larger. Sure, there are the announcements that are required to be played across the school, Route131, but even those aren’t played by every teacher.
If social media information continues on this trajectory, the uninformed population will not only get larger, but will become more heavily affected. With new clubs being created and events held outside of school, more of these school-related social media accounts will begin to appear, and will create a larger gap between the knowledgeable and the unknowledgeable. This gap will lead to a greater number of people being unaware of what’s truly going on around school, leading them to miss out on incredible opportunities, such as Freshman Thursday or the Senior Field Day.
Unfortunately, until an alternative is found, the uninformed population will continue to grow, as the disconnect between students and their lack of information widens. As the ever-growing network of school-related accounts on social media continues, events will become less populated, clubs will have less members, and the school’s spirit will be on a steep decline. People want to maintain pride for their school, but if information is never truly found, they may never realize just what their school has to offer.
However, there is one solution to this major problem that could not only keep people informed, but have every announcement broadcast to every class at the same time of the day: the school speakers. Utilizing the school speakers will significantly increase the likelihood that people will pay attention to these announcements, as well as keep everyone informed. Although the method is outdated, people will be more likely to participate in school events and other activities because they know about them. More engagement will lead to a higher school spirit, and thus a more positive environment around our school.
