SimpsonScarborough is the data-driven partner for higher education marketers. 

The other day, one of my coworkers shared a video on our company's Teams channel that was making the social media rounds. She posted it with just one word of commentary: "Savage." And it was. Posing as a brand anthem for a nameless corporate Everybrand, the video's voiceover goes for the jugular right away: 

A friend from college sent me a direct message on Twitter with a thought about this article on the coming disruption of college from New York magazine. 

In between Zoom calls yesterday with family and watching  The Fab Five 30 for 30, I remembered my first college visit. Specifically, April 5, 1993. I was sitting on the edge of a hotel room bed in Raleigh, NC, despondent. Chris Webber had called a timeout his University of Michigan Wolverines did not have, handing the national championship over to Dean Smith's UNC squad. I was in Raleigh touring NC State, one of four college visits my mom had meticulously mapped out that spring break. We also hit Clemson, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech — which my mom would tell me years later, "you weren't smart enough for Tech." She was right because moms always are. Thanks, mom.

Today is May the 4th. Which is either Star Wars Day or the first business day after May 1, depending on your priorities. While many schools have pushed the traditional enrollment deadline, most institutions are still monitoring their classes against this date. This makes every school one of three Luke Skywalkers. The Luke from A New Hope, who is feeling good but unsure about the new voices in his head. The Luke from The Empire Strikes Back, who is down a hand and processing some pretty troubling news. Or the Luke from Return of the Jedi, who is triumphant and partying on a distant forest moon.

Each morning the past several weeks have started the same for most of us. We climb out of bed, scroll the news websites, or turn on the TV and see how things have evolved over the few hours of sleep we got the night before. It’s a constant barrage of information and difficult to sift through alongside figuring out how to balance work, family, and your own sanity.  

You're reading your Google Analytics reports correctly. That's a 30-day dip in your website traffic — and it's accelerating. 

Ah, the internet. Way back in 1994, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric, and others pondered what it was and what it may become. Today, Al Gore's seminal invention (or Stanford's or UCLA's or MIT's – depending on who you believe really invented the information superhighway) is our main source of information. But, it's far from our main source of truth. Like most good things, the internet has been taken advantage of. Websites are procured by anyone who can afford a URL, and social media has enabled your Aunt Barb to overshare memes promoted by Russian bots. If that wasn't enough in the race to win the public's distrust, misinformation was lapped last week by a poisonous level of stupidity. 

I think I’m too stressed to write this article. I’ve been staring at my computer screen waiting for the words to magically come, and they haven’t. Then there's the fear of saying the wrong thing. Nothing feels quite right. I’ve probably been reading the news too much today.

College students and high schoolers have had their lives completely upended since early March, both socially and academically. The disruptions vary from suddenly moving home and shifting to online learning to missing their prom, graduation, and other adulthood rites of passage. It comes as no surprise then to see these audiences leaning deeply into social media and streaming TV while under quarantine.