According
to CBS News, a new study shows that almost 80 percent of college students have
received sexual text messages, and more than half of all college students have
received sexual images via text messaging. But did you know that ten percent of
the sexual texts were forwarded to friends without the consent of the person
who originally sent the message? Kind of a scary thought.
In high school, every year our last
volleyball practice before homecoming weekend, my coach would always give us
his famous “homecoming speech” and every year he would say the same thing, “If
you aren’t going to be smart, at least don’t be stupid” and that is exactly the
moto I will use for this post.
Yes, as I am sure some of you
know, each state has their own laws and viewpoints on sexting and age and the
content of the message and blah blah blah. However, that is not what I am here
to talk to you about. Because quite frankly, it is not my business whether you
engage in sexting and you probably do not care if I think you should or should
not do it. What I am here to do is inform you on the risks and hopefully convince
you make smarter choices if you choose to sext.
Because
most college students are not yet looking for “the one”, they filter through
relationships quite rapidly. Because of this, with each new relationship one
may have, they want to feel a sense of belonging. So they are sharing more of
themselves with people they are still getting to know. But once they click that
'send' button, who knows where else the message will end up?
If you
do choose to send explicit text messages or picture to someone else, please
wait until you have built a strong relationship full of care and trust. Don’t
send anything revealing to someone you are still getting to know. I have not
experienced this personally but I do know of a couple people who decided to
send photos to people they thought they could trust only to find out that now
the entire school has seen it. It is a serious issue that affected them both
mentally and emotionally and I never want to see that happen to anyone else.
One last
thing to keep in mind while sexting, there is always the possibility of what
you send going public. We know you’ve heard the lecture before, “don’t send
anything you wouldn’t want your mom to see” and as annoying as it is, it’s sadly
a rather valid statement. BUT it is understood that some occasions call for a
little something special, and when those occasions arise it’s best to be safe
rather than sorry. Think before you send.
And my
final words on this highly controversial and widely discussed topic that has
many views on it, if you choose to sext, if you aren’t going to be smart about
it, just don’t be stupid.
Reference:
"Sexts"
all the rage among college students. (n.d.). Retrieved March 01, 2016, from
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sexts-all-the-rage-among-college-students/