Is social media the bad guy??

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On April 10, Park High School had the opportunity to listen to a guest speaker who hails from Utah and shared his knowledge on the omniscient power that, in a way, has taken over our lives as we know it. Colin Kartchner addressed the social media issue with poise and passion. He didn’t seem fazed at all by the fact that there were at least 700 teenagers in the same room as he.   

Kartchner is not your average “blogger.” In fact, he’s not a blogger at all. Instead of blogging, he makes fun of himself and gets paid for it. Weird, right? But he doesn’t keep the money for himself. He uses the money for people in need 

Kartchner arrested everyone’s attention right as he walked on stage with his shiny bright red Nike shoes. After that moment, everyone was paying attention to him. He balanced his seriousness of social media with a touch of humor. He included memes that every teenager would laugh about, and also included just random pictures of pigs in red boots. He frequently referred back to the picture, just for the kick of it.  

After his speech, Hailey Shammel, a junior at PHS, thought about how many people in her life social media has affected and also the people who surround her. Shammel compared his speech given to us and his Ted Talk online and what she found, gave her a new understanding.

“And what I’m finding is since he dealt with a younger crowd, it was more kind of involving. He used like memes and little jokes in between. He laughed a lot. There were some serious moments, but there wasn’t much,” says Shammel. “And with the Ted Talk that I watched, it just shows you how serious he is, and he doesn’t really throw out any jokes and nobody in the crowd is laughing. And it kind of makes you wonder, do people ever take you seriously when you’re younger? Or do they just present themselves a certain way to you because they feel that that’s the level of maturity that you’re at? “ 

Overall, Kartchner made an impressive impact on the students at PHS, but it hasn’t fully changed the amount of students on their phones during school. The staff is looking at possible changes to the student handbook regarding cell phone usage for next year to try to help solve this issue.  This week’s Principal’s Advisory will focus on the topic of cell phones in schools.