College life isn’t complete without students streaking through campus or sporting events.
A friend of mine, who will remain anonymous, told me a great story about a time when she was an undergraduate. During finals, when students were under a lot of stress, studying day and night, she and a group of friends decided to enter the campus library and make their way to various sections of the building. Once in place, they casually peeled article after article until they were completely naked.
Suddenly, they raced through the library, stunning students who could only stare on as the naked bodies congregated in the middle of the library baring all to see. The streakers then proceeded to run outside and around the rest of campus, causing the initial observers to momentarily break out of their stress and have a laugh over the recent incident.
Since this time, my friend, the Streaker, has moved on to become quite successful just as many of her fellow streaking conspirators had. We laughed over her telling of the episode. I remarked how nice it was of them to provide a bit of comic relief for her classmates but that it was a shame that something like that could no longer happen.
“Why not?” she asked.
“Would you want to see your lovely chest bouncing around in a video posted on YouTube, your naked a$$ on Facebook or your parents receiving a Twitter that their daughter was seen running around campus in her birthday suit?”
“Good point. I hadn’t thought of that.” And most people don’t, especially when they are young.
In an age when our lives are recorded and presented for the public’s viewing, we no longer need to dial in to Reality TV shows to watch others’ stupidities: we just search the Internet.
So poses the irony. While Social Media has given individuals the opportunity to share their opinions, experiences, and information to the masses, it has also restricted our behavior as we realize that a seemingly harmless act could cause major consequences for us, and others, in the future.
I don’t want to live in a world free of streakers.
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