The debt of our youth

Is social media doing enough to educate these young adult about the debt they are going to be in after college. I know when I was deciding to go to college one of the reasons I choose UMASS was because it was the cheapest out of all the colleges I was accepted into. I knew after graduation I would have to start paying of my loans on my own, however after this class I had never been educated at all on how terrible debt is for my generation after college. “Debt from Student Loans is crippling a generation” by Star Ledger is a great article in which explains how much people are not educated enough on this topic. Many people come out of college with over $100,000 with no job and have no idea what they are going to do. They make the point of how is this fair? Being an in state student many times makes it a lot easier to make decision on what school you are going to be attending because of how much cheaper it will be in the end.

After college it is very difficult to get a well paying job because of how bad the economy is today. Many people right after there undergrad they go straight to graduate school however many people are not able to do that because of how expensive it is. There is many websites that try and portray how bad debt is for our generation but not enough to make a difference I feel. Not enough students are educated enough on this matter and it is not good. To make it more known I think high school should have a class or at least assemblies to show them how bad debt it so they are able to manage their money at a younger and what to expect after college.

The following is a humorous video of generation debt.

Blog 2: Activism Websites

As I said earlier in my post, is my generation really being educated enough on debt? Are college student’s aware of how much debt they are going to be in after college?

The The EDU Debtors Union is a great example of how social media has been used to make people aware of generation debt. These recent graduates started a website where you could take a picture about how much you are in debt and send it to them to be placed on their website. Thousands of people did this and are able to see that they are not the only ones. This is to make other people aware of generation debt. The following video gives a more in depth process of how the Debtors Union use these photos.

Not only do they use a website to explain there work, they make youtube video’s and are known for taking these pictures. The scariest thing on this website is they keep a up to date clock called the “Student Loan Clock” that is changing every second showing how much debt everyone in the world from student loans. the clock goes up on average around 3,000 dollars a second. You are also able to follow them on facebook to give you updates and give your story. The debtors union have truly used social media to show others that they aren’t alone with college debt. Their are people everywhere in debt and they have used social media to their advantage. They use every type of social media from facebooking, blogging, twittering, youtubing and keeping a website!

The following video was written by a recent graduate art student about his unemployment. He was wrote this to lighten the situation of his debt and show how difficult it is as an graduate of art to get a job from his degree. The song is a great way to provide humor in in his $20,000 debt.

He does a great job explaining that even though he has a degree the best job he is able to. I feel is if Youtube is one of the best ways to provide information and use social media activism. This is because people can actually see what people mean when they are trying to educate one on something. By making this video it actually put humor in a seriously matter but also makes his point across.

WordPress or blogging is also a great way to make people aware of generation debt. The blog Generation Debt is a great example! This blog updates videos, pictures, newspaper clippings and everything on generation debt and the workforce. Out of all of the websites I have found this one is the most informational and helpful when trying to learn about debt. People do not realize how terrible it has become and if more people used social media to educate people and or recent students about debt then more people would know how terrible debt is.