Parents and Tik Tok Fame
The internet is the current university campus but it does not give out pieces of paper to be framed. It prints money, something parents find hard to believe.
“But is it legal?”
Kids try to convince parents that the internet can be financially rewarding. Why stay in college when a publisher can pick up your blog and turn it into a book or record deal? Oprah Winfrey and other talk show hosts also regularly invite bloggers and YouTubers to give expert opinion on this and that. Such exposure can lead to bigger and better things.
I cannot keep up with new jobs descriptions created by the internet, webmaster, online editor, content manager etc. Sales people in your computer store in Halifax or Manhattan probably got the job because of product knowledge gleaned from the internet.
Go on-line. Check job sites. How many require some form of internet know-how? What ticket do young people need then for the future? Is it online savvy or a thesis on how the vicious justice system in England failed the working class by sending them to Australia for petty crimes?
No. The internet will not demolish red brick institutions where students spend three or four years of their lives, but it is chipping away at the bricks. Brain surgeons and other medical doctors will always need a university education otherwise we won’t be caught dead on the operating table.
Some parents are not amused by the 24/7 campus. They used to have unified blocks based on class, race, religion and dollars of all hues in the bank. They had reasons for taking their children to a particular preschool, high school and university.
The new campus has allowed water to seep in the brickwork. They see their values on the precipice ready to plunge into unknown murky bytes, where their beloved daughters and sons have new allegiances and career options, mostly determined by punching the cellphone or computer keypad for hours.
Nonqaba waka Msimang
Blogger Without Borders
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