Spring Break Gets Tamer as World Watches Online
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ March 16, 2012
KEY WEST, Fla. - Ah, Spring Break, with its copious debauchery, its spontaneous bouts of breast-baring, Jager bombing and après-binge vomit.
In this era of "Jersey Shore" antics and "Girls Gone Wild," where bikini tops vanish like unattended wallets, it would seem natural to assume that this generation of college student has outdone the spring break hordes of decades past on the carousal meter.
But today's spring breakers - at least some of them - say they have been tamed, in part, not by parents or colleges or the fed-up cities they invade, but by the hand-held gizmos they hold dearest and the fear of being betrayed by an unsavory, unsanctioned photo or video popping up on Facebook or YouTube.
Late one March evening at Rick's Bar on rum-soaked Duval Street, college students alternated Jell-O shots with iPhone shots.
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Ah, at last: the second wave of electronic awareness. Users are moderating their behavior based on past experience, and next (dare we hope?) they will think about the information being gathered by others, and how it's being used.
Bill Horne Moderator