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Why yearbooks remain relevant in spite of social media
John Gearhart • March 14, 2020
A yearbook is forever
It’s no secret that we live in an increasingly digital and technologically advanced age. We understand the products we buy today will soon be obsolete and replaced by something new which might be smaller, bigger, faster, or whichever we view as better at that time - but what does better really mean when it comes to preserving history?
Are the digital keepsakes we have today going to be accessible five, 10 or 30 years from now?
As technology evolves so does the way we use it. For high school students today, the ubiquitous access to smartphones, tablets, and computers has paved the way for social media sites to grow and become a core part of the way this generation communicates. The rise in popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks has caused some people to raise the question, ‘Are high school yearbooks still relevant?’.
For me, the answer is obvious and absolute. Yearbooks are as relevant today as they ever were and will continue to be relevant for the foreseeable future.
You might be thinking that my answer stems purely from the fact that I worked for a yearbook company, but quite frankly, if I didn’t truly believe that that printed yearbook has a permanent place in the future I wouldn't be writing this article.
The truth is the printed yearbook holds and inspires a legacy that is far more valuable than the newness of the current most popular technological gadget, website, or app.
A yearbook chronicles the people and events of a given year for a particular school during a time in our lives that is special and deserves careful preservation.
I realize that you can download your Facebook posts or click back through your Instagram photos, but no social media site is capable of cataloging all of the unique experiences and events that matter for you and the rest of your student body. The fundamental problem with social media sites is they are not inclusive – which may seem like an oxymoron, but it is true. The difference between a yearbook and social media in this regard is that the yearbook truly catalogs the entire school, not just your clique of friends. This might not seem important to a high school student during high school – but to a 25-year-old looking back on their life in high school, it certainly has some value.
The yearbook staff spends many hours determining which events, pictures, stories etc. to include in the yearbook. Imagine trying to find out who was on the football team when you were in high school simply by scrolling through all social media posts and trying to see who is connected to whom. This would be a daunting task for most.
The best yearbook staffs know that to create a yearbook every single student wants to purchase the pages must be filled with relevant, personal, inclusive, honest and timely coverage. This is accomplished through fantastic photography coupled with names, important facts, and emotional, in the moment quotes; and in-depth features that allow students to tell their story.
This is where we run into problems. In places like rural Oklahoma, there are very few yearbooks that meet these kinds of standards. This stems from putting unqualified teachers in positions where they don’t belong. Often times computer teachers, English teachers, art teachers or even parents, become the yearbook adviser because there is no one else to do it. In such cases, these teachers don’t know anything about scholastic journalism or that there are national standards yearbooks are supposed to adhere to.
However, if all schools did follow the guidelines and policies set by the national organizations like NSPA, CSPA, and JEA then we would all have a better understanding and appreciation for yearbooks.
For argument's sake, let’s assume that the majority of yearbooks out there are solid pieces of student work that do follow said guidelines. In that case, instead of believing the newest trends in technology should eliminate the yearbook, understand that tradition reigns supreme.
It’s true 20 years from now your high school yearbooks may just be sitting on the bookshelf collecting dust like mine are this very moment, but by having a printed book right in front of me I know I am able to physically pick them up and look at them anytime.
Without a printed yearbook, how else would I reference photos or people from that time? Let’s pretend all we were given in lieu of a yearbook were image files and PDFs which you saved on a computer. Assuming you still have those files, and a computer or device that can still read them, you will have to try and remember which hard drive or cloud, what folder, and the name of the files. Simply knowing those files could have been deleted by accident or how easily the files could become corrupt or otherwise lost is very unsettling.
Instead, I can simply pick up my very own yearbook that has been made unique to me by penned messages and signatures from my closest friends. No matter how dramatically technology changes in the future, this printed book isn’t going to change. The way I interact with it isn’t going to change either which means it will always retain the ability to be enjoyed by anyone who looks at it.
When you pick up those old yearbooks, you can feel and smell the uniqueness of the book, which helps you remember all of the personal connections you had during those years. This sensation simply cannot carry over into the digital realm with immaterial objects.
The tradition of the printed yearbook shall remain in our future. Not only does this ensure we remember our own past, it allows our children and grandchildren to look through the pages, hold a piece of our history, and travel back in time to learn about the life we once lived.
Still not buying into it? You would rather log onto social media or some other fancy technology?
Well, if you’re like me and enjoy new technology, you should know that there are ways you can augment your book by using apps on your smart device.
Walsworth partnered with Aurasma and later with Blippar to bring augmented reality to yearbooks. By using the app to scan images inside the yearbook, videos, slideshows, websites, and other content becomes available to the reader.
You can even create amazing interactive animated covers using augmented reality.
But, Aurasma has already proven my point in that anything created in Aurasma over the last few years is already gone, and you’ll never have access to that additional content ever again. They revamped their platform after they were bought by another company and that data simply no longer exists. A prime example of what happens to digital products.
The yearbook marks your right of passage and it is a tangible record that will become your very own unique and permanent keepsake - and quite possibly, the only keepsake that you retain from that part of your life.
John Gearhart's Blog
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