As the school year comes to a close and final exams dawn upon underclassmen, many students find themselves consumed with anxiety and fear over passing these dreaded exams. In light of this, students across the country used the growing power of social media, specifically Twitter, to their advantage. Instead of studying, several students formulated agreements with their teachers by stating, in writing, that the student is exempt from taking the final exam if they acquire a significantly large number of retweets on the tweeted picture of the agreement. The student then tweets the picture of the agreement, which contains both the student and the teacher shaking hands and the agreement written on a whiteboard in the background. While some teachers and students see this growing trend of procrastination as a fun, social experiment, it couldn’t be more opposite.
Allowing one student to exempt a final based on the amount of retweets he or she receives mimics a popularity contest. The more followers one has, the more likely he or she is to receive more retweets on certain tweets than someone with fewer followers. Students who have a larger social media presence and are notorious for tweeting about controversial, amusing subjects tend to gain more attention and ‘favorites’ from their followers.
If an individual with a larger social media presence makes a final exam exemption agreement with a teacher, he or she is likely to be closer to achieving the amount of retweets needed versus someone who isn’t as popular among their followers or classmates on twitter. The agreement endorses popularity as students who are considered to be more popular among their peers will be more likely to achieve their goal than someone who isn’t, therefore denying the less popular student a fair chance at exempting his or her final.
However, some teachers and students have found the agreement to be an interesting learning experiment. Math teacher Brian Gervase made a final exam exemption agreement with PreCalculus 300 student Abby Huskisson, allowing her to exempt her final if she received 50,000 retweets on the picture of their agreement. While the agreement seems to only benefit the student, Gervase combined his interests in social media and experimental data in order to turn the deal into a learning experience. “(Abby and I) kept a data experiment chart that recorded how many tweets she had each day. Although I knew that she wasn’t going to get 50,000 retweets, I thought it would be interesting to calculate the data,” Gervase said. As of May 21, Abby has received 1,456 of the 50,000 retweets she needs to exempt her final, meaning that she has approximately 2% of the retweets she needs before the deal expires on May 31.
While the data aspect of the agreement is intriguing, students and teachers need to put the reality and necessity of these agreements into perspective. Using social media in order to escape from responsibilities, such as taking a final exam, encourages unhealthy popularity contests and fail to prepare them for a college and professional atmosphere that do not allow any form of a shortcut whatsoever.
Nicole Williams | Editor-in-Chief
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