I'm proud to announce that I now have the honor of being the Vice President of Membership for my sorority, Tau Beta Sigma. We are a service sorority dedicated to helping bands and serving music as a whole. This thursday, I will go through the initiation ceremony to officially resume my responsibilities as Vice President of Membership. The whole process is very traditional and meaningful but the thing that surprises me the most is that technology has found its way into our rituals. Whole offices have been affected by the everyday advances in technology, their responsibilities warped into something entirely new.
My office, persay, hasn't been that effected. Rush events and education haven't changed drastically, after all. But offices like Secretary and Historian have been entirely transformed. The Secretary, whose job once consisted of taking notes and keeping attendance, now includes keeping track of all chapter going-ons, attendance, sending out a weekly reminder email, and much more. Basically all of these have something in common: a computer. Even for the election last thursday, the winning factor was the candidate's ability to make and manipulate a website. The Historian position also has been warped to include not only keeping track of the family tree and artifacts but also picture- and video-taking, scrapbook making, and electronically recording all historical information.
It's amazing how technology can find a way to creep into every aspect of our lives and change everything around, even century old rituals and traditions.
Computers and other forms of technology have made communication with others and 'bookkeeping' activities much more convenient. In my fraternity the members of our executive committee usually have computers out to keep track of attendance, to take notes, and to read notes of what to cover at chapter. It seems that technologies have made the process of organization much easier than its ever been with online calendars, documents containing important attendance information, dues, or even rush information. For example, our rush chair has created a google doc online where, as a member, you can post information of those who you would think would be an excellent candidate for joining the fraternity. This allows him to save time gathering information and makes for easy access to it all because its stored in the same convenient location. Technology has definitely helped the world in organizing information.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right that technology has become helpful in this sense as well as thank you for giving me something that might be helpful to me in my office :] It just strikes me as ironic that sororities and fraternities are built upon foundations of tradition and prestige and yet they still adapt so well and so easily, it's certainly a foundation that I am glad is flexible and able to cope with the changes of time.
ReplyDeleteFirst off congratulations on your title! and i think that your are absolutely right about how technology is interacting with old customs and rituals. it has also done the same in my fraternity. but not just in rituals but in all aspect of life technology is evolving so that it can be integrated. I think technology can adapt to anything, thats the blessing of technology.. or is it a curse?
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