#LifeoftheKnight: Social Media is Not a Right

In today’s society, hashtags have become a staple in social media culture. Whether it’s to spread activism like #MeToo or to show our support for a local sports team like #FlytheW, they still have the same goal, to spread and share information. What was supposed to bring the school together, the hashtag #lifeoftheknight, has become an outlet to spread inappropriate jokes behind anonymous accounts, insult administration and staff and bully fellow peers.

Many of us complain about the blockage of social media apps on the school’s wifi, calling it dumb, stupid or a total inconvenience that we can’t Snapchat our streaks during class when we’re supposed to be learning. However, this one incident clearly shows why we need social media to be blocked while we’re in school.

Once we’re given the opportunity to use social media in school, we immediately abuse it. Instead of using Twitter positively like talking about our favorite teachers, classes or what makes the “life of the knight,” we used it to have the chance to be crude and hurtful so everyone could see it.

Even if it was only a handful of students that were participating in destroying the purpose of #lifeoftheknight, we all still suffer the consequences because of the actions of a few. Twitter and every other social media app still remain blocked and the whole world has access to see what some of us act like during the school day.

Whether or not we like to admit it, we still represent Kaneland and what it means to be a Knight, even if we’re not in school. That even includes how we act on social media. Anyone can see what we post, and we all know that.

We’ve all heard the stories of kids getting their acceptances to top schools like Harvard or Stanford rescinded just because they posted something that they thought was “funny” when it was either in poor taste or just inappropriate. We don’t want to be those kids just because we think it’s funny. We need to watch what we post and hold each other to a higher standard so others that don’t go to Kaneland can take us seriously.

Having access to social media is a privilege and not a right, and until we can clean up our act, it will remain a privilege that we don’t have for all the right reasons.