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MySpace hasn't killed the high school yearbook

By Dalia Colon, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, May 21, 2008

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H.A.G.S. For as long as we can remember, "have a great summer'' was the classic one-liner on high school yearbook day. But for Generation Text, technology means never being out of touch with your peers. Why bother with a summer send-off when cell phones and social networking sites enable you to get the play-by-play on what your peers are up to?

Thursday was yearbook day at Osceola High School in Seminole. English teacher Laurie Sauble said that 517 of the school's approximately 1,600 students ordered the Osceola Everglade this year — a figure that has held steady throughout her 21 years as yearbook adviser, despite more high-tech ways of commemorating one's adolescence.

"I think one of the reasons it still matters is because with things like Facebook and MySpace, it's ephemeral," Sauble said. "It goes away. It changes. But when you look at the senior section in their drapes in the more formal pictures, you have frozen in time the way you were this year." Dalia Colon, Times staff writer

We chatted with seniors to learn how the tradition of signing yearbooks is holding up in 2008.

For Christina Craver, 17, $70 for a yearbook was too expensive. She plans to buy a $4 copy of the school's literary magazine, and have her friends autograph that instead. On the contrary, Craver's friend Amanda Maldonado, 17, buys a yearbook every year. "Your senior year, you'll have friends that dropped out or you'll have friends that went to another school. They may be in that yearbook, but they may not be in the next yearbook," Maldonado said.

Felix Caro, 18, is gearing up for Osceola's June 4 graduation. "I'm really pumped. I'm kind of nervous, a little bit," Caro said. He sees the yearbook as a sort of security blanket, something to cling to during the next unfamiliar phase of life. "Plus MySpace and all that doesn't have all the things that your high school did. The yearbook does." Caro expects to keep in touch with his friend Heather VanBuren, 18.

Faith Lane, 17, wanted a tangible souvenir from high school. "MySpace, that's for the future. But you want to remember some of the things that happened in the past, so that's why you need something hard, that you can touch," Lane said, reading a message from Brittany Gassoway, 18. Does she expect to see Gassoway after this year? "Probably not," Lane said. "It's the truth! Life goes on."

Mike Serafyn, 17, didn't order a yearbook " 'cause I didn't feel like spending all the money. And I'm not even in it," he said. But then he flipped through a copy belonging to Kyle McNally, 17. "Aaaugh! I am in it, dude," said Serafyn, scoping out a page that featured him as most unique. "Now I kinda wish I had one."

Ashlie Rice, 17 did not order a yearbook because she just transferred from Seminole High School. "All my friends go to Seminole, really," Rice said. The texting shorthand for "I don't know" crept into her message for Jessica Kirby, 18.

Kari Foland, 18, couldn't afford a yearbook, but she brought a Sharpie to sign her friends'. She always signs the same thing: Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. "My science teacher in fifth grade signed that in my yearbook, and it stuck with me ever since," Foland said. In lieu of buying a yearbook, she chronicled the year with photos.

When Logan Seidl, 18, asked Brad Schweikert to sign his yearbook, Schweikert seized the opportunity to get in one last jab at the Osceola faculty. "It's an inside joke because our first period teacher always says 'ideal.' He says that word every sentence, so it's pretty funny, actually," said Seidl.

Dalia Colon can be reached at dcolon@

tampabay.com.