If you have ever been a part of a yearbook staff, you know the great joy and pride that is felt when you crack open and smell the glue of a fresh yearbook. For me, that feeling dates back to my freshman year of high school when I completed my first yearbook. Since that time, I have completed seven additional yearbooks yet I still feel the same excitement when the yearbooks arrive on campus.
In order to fully appreciate a yearbook, you must first understand its purpose. At Harding, the Petit Jean is not simply a photo book for students to flip through and then toss to the side. It is a history book that records all of the details of each year that would otherwise easily be forgotten when you leave campus. It is the only publication on campus that has been able to archive information from each year.
Next Thursday when we hand out the 2013 Petit Jean, we will be continuing a tradition that dates back to Harding’s establishment in 1924. Despite all of the various changes around campus, the Petit Jean has stayed strong and continued to record all of those changes throughout the years.
As the digital craze continues to sweep the world, yearbooks are slowly being left behind. Because social media has given students a platform to post and share their own photos from the year, school administrators are jumping at the opportunity to cut the publication from their budget. Some schools have decided to create digital yearbooks on DVDs and pass them out to students. Others have decided to create websites where students can go to access photos and information from the school year.
For those schools, I am very sad. You see, digital copies of information are great for 2013 but what about for 2040? We have all seen how quickly technology changes, and we all have memories recorded on items like VHS tapes that are useless because we do not have VCR players anymore. Before we know it, all of our media will be obsolete if we do not continue to convert it to the latest technology.
My fear is that schools will record their history on items that in a few years will no longer be usable in any way. Social media and digital records are great but only when they compliment a traditional printed publication. For this reason, I urge you, always keep a paper copy.
