If you needed further proof that education has become little more than a commodity, then the news that Ucas is selling access to millions of students to advertisers might just be it.Just advertisers? Good lord, from the pearl-clutching going on, you’d think she’d discovered they were planning to sell students’ personal details to white slavers...
And anyway, aren't teenagers supposed to be clued up on all this technology stuff? Just set up a divert for these emails to go straight to the trash folder – job done!
Yes, you can opt out of receiving the digital marketing emails, but only by also agreeing to miss out on the education and careers newsletters, too.And how many students even read these in the first place? Will they miss them?
But it seems Rhiannon has been perturbed by commercialisation even from a tender age:
Even as a teenager I knew instinctively it was wrong. It was about 10 years ago that the first advertising posters cropped up at my school, in the corridors and canteen, advertising films and junk foods. Prior to that we had been using Pepsi-branded exercise books, but the posters were a step too far.Couldn’t you have just hurried past, eyes cast firmly on the ground, shielding yourself from the awful sight..?
or she could elect to buy all her own equipment and then it would be unsullied by corporates giving them money.
ReplyDeleteOh the days when you know nothing about economics, or anything...
Her parents must be proud. They clearly started her young.
...err, I'd had enough of education at 18 (7 years at boarding school) so didn't trouble any university with my presence. Now, at a twilight 64 I find I'm inundated with various advertising emails but as you so wisely say, it's but a moment's effort to set up a divert-to-drivel-folder rule, and then either just empty your drivel folder or briefly scan the subject to see if the email warrants full perusal.
ReplyDeleteNeither rocket-science nor time-consuming.
Would she be one of those rare students to have no F/book page on which to advertise to all & sundry the trivialities of her life?
ReplyDeleteI left school when I was 15 and a half, and got a job.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't held back, because I'm not a fucking remedial.
"Her parents must be proud. They clearly started her young."
ReplyDeleteI wonder...
"Neither rocket-science nor time-consuming."
Indeed so. But it's clearly far more lucrative to whinge about it in a 'Guardian' column!
"Would she be one of those rare students to have no F/book page on which to advertise to all & sundry the trivialities of her life?"
Heh!