To Sarah Perez: You’re right, real people don’t have time for social media. In fact, real people, especially the ones that work at my university, don’t have time for the web period.
My University Is Not Into Social Media nor the Web Itself
Yesterday, I received a hard and shocking slap back to reality. I’m so used to being able to send an email, a twitter message, a friggin IM even and for once I couldn’t rely on these services. I couldn’t rely on the tools that help make my life so convenient and easy when it comes to connecting with others to get the job done. Yesterday, I had to request a transcript to change schools. Who knew the process would be so difficult? My request has actually been in effect for weeks. However, I had to send someone out to my school in order to get them to do their job. I was pretty pissed about that. I’m 7-8 hours away from my school and I was definitely not going to make that drive for a few papers and $15 in fees. I could not do any of this online. You just don’t know how confused I was about that.
These are the tools I would’ve used to solve the problem:
- Paypal – Hello! Get with it already. Paypal is the best way to make a payment online.
- IM – My school isn’t the type of school you’d like to email. They’re never on top of things, which is why I had to send someone out there to begin with. They’re slow, they know it, and they could care less. Yeah, they should hop on Skype or Google Talk.
- Mixx/Digg – I’d like to socially submit my requests and get my friends to Digg it up to the top of the queue for immediate response.
- Twitter – Could you please let me know when my stuff has been sent off? This way, I know you’re doing your job.
There was one interesting technological machine I had to use that I had mixed opinions about: the fax machine. Besides my cellphone, this was the only other piece of technology I used that I wasn’t sure I want to use. The reason I had to use it was because they needed my signature in order for my friend to be able to pay for my transcripts for me. If she has my social security number you better believe she has my permission to make a request on my behalf. It’s not like the transcripts are going in her hands anyway.
The Dreaded Fax Machine
While the fax got through quickly, fax machines are pretty fickle if you ask me. I’ve always had the worst experiences with them. As aforementioned, my university is never on top of things. Why would I want to fax something to them? I need to know you got it and you’re processing it or it’s in queue. I don’t want a million excuses and there’s plenty of excuses just waiting to be handed out when it comes to fax machines. You’re not fooling me.
Get With The Web!
Integrate Paypal so I can pay for these things online. Integrate IM so I can receive customer service quicker. Integrate Mixx or Digg because I’m popular on campus and know people who’ll Digg my request up. Integrate Twitter so that you can quickly and easily let me know that my request has been processed so that I don’t have to worry, and I’ll have proof of everything in case you want to give me a random ass excuse later on. Get with the future. Help make my life easier. Ok? Great! Thanks.
