Businesses are constantly trying to keep up with the latest technology and software, but is the younger generation always one step ahead? Being social media savvy is becoming more and more important nowadays, and there are many ways in which the student uses it to their advantage. Businesses could learn from looking at how lazy students make their lives efficient through the internet. As the socialites of our time, student scheduling has to be done somehow!
We all find Facebook annoying at times; especially when we are bombarded with holiday snaps of people we met once in freshers’ week clogging up our news feeds. However, it has its redeeming qualities where arranging a student’s busy social life is concerned.
This is the usual protocol: bribed by free Domino’s pizza, the student gets seriously carried away at the freshers’ fair during the first week of university and signs up to far too many clubs and societies. And, like Russian dolls, the said societies then add the students that they have lured in to their Facebook group, under the umbrella of the University-wide Facebook group.
After repeated emails, notifications and missed meetings, the student decides which society they are actually going to go to, and this is where Facebook really becomes useful. Let’s face it, everyone uses Facebook, and there is no better way of easily contacting a large group of people instantly. You can find your new flatmates on a Facebook group before you even get to university. But the President of, let’s say, the Obscure Cinema Society, is far more clued up than simply posting on the group to reach people. Oh yes, Facebook group administrators have a multitude of photo albums, document uploaders and event planning tools at their disposal.
Scheduling events through Facebook has never been easier. A typical example would be planning a ‘social’. A group member asks a question on the Facebook page about what the next Society outing should be, and the members of the group click their preferred multiple choice answer or input their own. After this, the event organiser’s dream comes into play- a Doodle poll. This is an online tool which allows users to indicate when they are free in a calendar format. Thus, convenient dates appear without any rapid-fire Facebook chat confusion and unnecessary stress. According to the genii at Doodle, finding a date for a meeting is twice fast using their site.
However, there’s more. Every society has its own ‘stash’- hoodies, t-shirts and even that all-important embossed onesie- bearing their logo. Ordering these garments has become easier than ever before with ‘Google Docs’. All that you have to do is fill in the spread sheet with what you would like to order, there’s no need to leave your bed!
There really is no stopping Google. With an editable ‘Google Map’ upload, students can add on where they are living as they enter the world of grotty student housing. It enables those who are leaving the comfort zone of halls to keep in touch with others who have also moved out, and see where they are now living, which can be quite reassuring.
‘Google Hangout’ has been more than ideal for university students away from home. Group video calls are free, so it’s goodbye to Skype, and hello to a reliable and improved service that isn’t a strain on the purse. It’s also a barrel of laughs; I have spent hours annoying my friends and family with the range of sound effects on the chat panel. You can even make virtual hats appear on your head, allowing for endless fun seeing how many you can put on at once.
Social media has allowed the student to have all the relevant details of their social life at their fingertips. It even means that you don’t have to leave your room to ask your flat if anyone has a convict’s fancy dress costume for the cops and robbers bar crawl. What social media can do is quite impressive, and is very much in keeping with the fast pace of modern day life. Needless to say, I still get the emails from the university choir I never went to, telling me when the meeting for the Songs of Praise viewing is. Not forgetting the Snapchat that reminds me to go.
