The role of technology serves a great deal of attribute in Greek life. Without it, people in Greek life would not be able to communicate as much and stay in touch with graduated brothers and sisters and potential recruits. In my previous blog entries on this site, I exemplified mostly how we use social networking sites to stay in touch and recruit potential new members in various ways. Now, I see a different purpose that the role of technology plays: staying and connecting with alums who laid the foundations for these brotherhoods and sisterhoods by which means continue to prosper every day and will continue to do so as long as the sole and purpose of each individual fraternity and sorority beat in the heart of every brother and sister alive or dead.
In my audioboo interview, I interviewed Kiran Najeeb, my line sister in my sorority. She is 20 years old and a Criminal Justice major. Her opinion about what role technology plays in Greek life was similar to mine. Her thoughts summarized were that it played the biggest role in recruiting new members into the various organizations as well as helped advertise the organizations whenever events were being held and we wanted to whole campus to know about. Other Greek and non-Greek supporters would come out to these events to help support us and show their love and support for these organizations. Her audioboo interview can be listened here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/231360-audioboo-interview-2.
Technology plays a deeper role than just communication through social networking sites. The websites that these organizations have that present their organizations help notify anyone who is interested in researching them of the purpose, history, and brothers and sisters of the organization all across the nation. These websites are designed very creatively by brothers and sisters themselves. They put all their hard work into these websites because they want to present their organization in the best light possible. And to have the honor of designing your colony’s website is an accomplishment just in itself.
Further development of the role of technology in Greek life involves looking at how technology can help Greeks stay in touch with graduated brothers and sisters and brothers and sisters across the nation. I crossed the spring semester of my freshman year, and I remember meeting my national line sisters. Just standing up there, with all my sisters, gave me the feeling that I wasn’t doing this alone, I have all these people next to me going through the same thing I am going through, we are all going to go through it together, and we will get it done together. After we all had crossed, we all went back to our schools and missed each other dearly. Facebook allows me to stay in touch with my national line sisters. I can comment on their walls and see how they are doing at school and how our sorority is progressing at that colony. Furthermore, it allows me to get to know them more and more. I don’t feel disconnected from them and whenever I miss them, I know they are only a Facebook post away. Staying in touch with alums is also another aspect I explore about the role of technology. Hundreds of sisters that I never met before all friend requested me on my crossing date. You feel like the person loved most in the entire world and it is truly a wondrous feeling. My big sister is an alum of this school, and although I have never been able to meet her, I decided to join my sorority because of her due to numerous reasons. She was one of the first people who introduced me to Greek life and serves a role model to me because she is one of the founders of my sorority in this colony. I get to stay in touch with her through Facebook. I ask her about her life and she asks about mine. She lives all the way across the nation, but I know that although I have never met her, she is there for me no matter what. She is my big sister and I know that she is only a phone call away if I ever need her.
If anything, I think the role of technology will only further enhance what it already does for people in Greek life. Some trends that I see developing in the next 1-2 years are that we will be more dependent on technology than ever before. Due to our large numbers, the biggest advancement of technology is communication. Communication is the key role in everything that a brotherhood and sisterhood look for in. We want to network with as many people as possible, and we would all like to thank technology for making that happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment