Sunday evening, a University of Tennessee fan released a photo of sophomore defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche smoking from what appears to be a bong.
The Snapchat screenshot was said to have been taken in August but was released this week due to the upcoming Tennessee vs. Ole Miss football game, and many publications have decided to write about the picture.
Through the mixed reactions, head football coach Hugh Freeze has taken to the media to proclaim that he is “aware” of the photo. He goes on to say, per “The Clarion-Ledger,” “We test our entire team on our drug-testing policy at the beginning of the season, and then we have our follow-up tests through the course of the year. I’m super confident we handled each one the same, and we enforce our policy very consistently.”
So, everything is fine, right?
Not quite.
Nkemdiche’s photo scandal only points to a bigger issue of our generation: social media. The use of social media seems to be much less responsible and thus, more and more negative.
College life and social media go hand-in-hand.
I, personally, check my Instagram more times in a day than I call my mother — or anyone else, for that matter — in a week. It’s just easier to see what our loved ones are doing rather than sending one of those overrated “WYD?” text messages. Plus, I’m more of a show me, don’t tell me kind of person, much more interested in watching your posts than reading them.
As young adults preparing ourselves for the professional world, however, there are certain things we should omit from our feeds. A major step to fixing this problem is to stop listening and thinking like our college predecessors, those whose fun, illicit or otherwise, was subject more to rumors than actual physical evidence everyone could see.
Most people have heard something about college from their parents, high school teachers or other authority figures. The parties, adventures and unmentionables were often highlights in their college experience. Though education was the priority, we all know that fun matters as well.
College students will be college students. This fact is timeless, but social media has changed the rules of the game.
The absence of instant picture and video sharing in those days allowed our predecessors to live the “turnt” life without much scrutiny. They rarely had to wake up with fear of photos leaking because odds are, there were no photos to share. If there were photos, Snapchat and Instagram had not been created yet. Though the “turn up” may still be the same today, the technology is not.
We must consider many things before we decide to snap the next picture. The temporary times of pleasure can quickly turn into scandal.
With great things come great responsibility, and these great things include our ability to instantly share precious and fun moments with the ones we love. The responsibility of these luxuries needs to be exercised. Not only are we responsible for our actions, we are responsible for those of the generations to come. Imagine the things we will have to explain to our children, our bosses, the general public, if there isn’t a personal standard to social media sharing.
If the “turn up” is on, makes sure the camera is off.
KP Maye is a sophomore education major from Gulfport.
