I’m obsessed with Twitter. As a result, I often see people retweeting pictures posted on the infamous account, @SUNYPartyStory. After seeing a few of its posts, I have come to a troubling conclusion about the account and the message it presents. I like going out as much as the next person, and doing stupid things now and again is natural in the college student life. But where do we draw the line?
For those who don’t know, @SUNYPartyStory is an account where students at any SUNY institution can send in the most outrageous pictures from their night out. The ones that the account deems the funniest or craziest are posted onto the account for everyone to see. I only find a portion of them funny. An overwhelming amount of the photos sent to the account are disgusting, uncomfortable or downright degrading. I’ve seen pictures of someone’s cut-up face, a girl — probably unaware that her picture was being taken — having sex, and puke and other bodily fluids strewn across bodies and floors, just to name a few.
I’ve seen pictures sent in by Binghamton University students featured on the site numerous times. There are pictures of students dancing with Rasa at Paradigm, which are funny — the picture of a kid passed out in puke, not so much.
And now I come to the worst offender: a picture of a puppy doing a keg stand. I remember seeing this picture on my Timeline and instantly being disgusted. Seeing pictures of stupid people was one thing, but seeing an animal thrown into the mix was another level. It’s hard to tell if the picture is staged or not, but either way, the image, sent in by a SUNY Brockport student, is not funny by any means. Even if it is a joke, it is shameful to replicate a situation of an animal being abused. Why do we applaud idiots like this? Why is it considered funny? This picture was the final thing that made me fed up with this pointless account.
Maybe I’m just a prude, but I can’t see these images as anything other than damaging to the college community. Our generation is criticized constantly for being idiotic, lazy and obsessed with partying. I am usually the first one to stand up against this claim and argue that people our age are doing great things. Specifically on BU’s campus, the majority of students are pursuing a range of academic research and creative projects, working hard on sports teams and trying to make a difference through student groups. What is sad is that accounts like @SUNYPartyStory publicize the bad. We are worth more than that.
Partying has its place in the college experience; it is fun, and it is a way to relieve stress and enjoy time with friends. But it doesn’t need to get out of hand. Accounts like @SUNYPartyStory encourage reckless behavior and idealize debauchery. It is the most basic level of entertainment and shouldn’t be how we choose to represent ourselves as the community of SUNY students. College is a huge economic investment, and it’s important to remember that school and learning are still parts of that investment. Let’s put students into the limelight who actually realize this as people we should admire instead of the guy who can do 30-second keg stands.