One of the key components to many students’ college experience is a society – a place where everyone gathers for the same reason, where one person can find a multitude of others with similar interests. For some this is a new experience and for others, they know all too well how it works. While Trinity’s societies offer both a productive way for many students to spend their time and enjoy themselves while also offering their fellow students some of their many services, one cannot deny that there are some serious downsides to societies or “cliques” as they’ve recently become referred to. Can we honestly admit that we find no flaws whatsoever with the societies within our own college? Can we truthfully say that we could stroll into any society’s event without feeling even slightly intimidated and be welcomed with open arms, or worse, find it so aggressively welcoming that its borderline patronising?
What is it that creates such a hostile atmosphere for outsiders of almost any society and more importantly, why do we even care? What makes them so great that one would even be bothered by a group of presumably amicable people engaging in a common interest together? Is it that the “society” is inherently flawed, that one cannot engage in such a thing without becoming completely consumed by its members, what it stands for and its ultimate success over every other society? Or is it that we’re just simply jealous?
This year saw a massive increase in societies’ concerns of being “cliquey” and going out of their way to pave a friendlier path of membership for incoming freshers. Out of genuine concern for their already nervous approach to new experiences and a sincere desire to make their first few weeks of college easier or out of fear that rumours of their society being “cliquey” would decrease the amount of freshers signing up and therefore causing a considerable dent in their finances. Even walking around the stands, I noticed a friendlier vibe and an increased personal approach of society members to the fresh meat. This would have been a much appreciated addition to the somewhat stressful freshers week if it hadn’t appeared so obviously forced as was validated by the more audacious freshers who shamelessly sported a combined look of disgust and embarrassment for whoever it was that had just approached them with a comically toothy smile accompanied by an incomprehensible greeting that in one breath managed to summarise the entire ethos of their respective society.
One can’t help but be aware of the fact that out of the hundreds of freshers that sign up, only a sample will actually participate let alone benefit from the society so the majority only serve as another two or three euro. The fact of the matter is, societies are no longer clubs where everyone shares a common joy in one hobby or another, but they are businesses -ravenous, money hungry, success driven businesses that will stop at nothing to better their establishment.
Of course, this doesn’t stop, or even start, with the herding of freshers into their membership databases. In order for a business to run so successfully, there has to be some form of committee running it, and then the token group of members who, while they have no authority in the maintenance or running of the society whatsoever, are just as devoted as those who do. The argument of whether such devotion to a college society is a positive or negative consumption of time is one much debated. There are those who will defend it, arguing that such passion in students is admirable, that it promotes early involvement in the running of a business of sorts, that it’s a great way to make long lasting friends, indulge in a hobby or interest and provides a comfortable and welcoming place for all of those involved. Then there are those who aren’t so devoted to a society who will argue the opposite.
The negatives don’t necessarily outweigh the positives but they cannot be ignored and when, in most cases, they clearly are, devotion becomes obsession and every other aspect of your life is forgotten unless it is wrapped up in the safe bubble of whatever society it is that you have become attached to. While it may be easier to deny, there’s only so much that we can pretend we don’t see. After consulting some friends of mine before writing this article, some of whom are involved in societies and some who aren’t, an indication that my aforementioned concerns hold some truth became apparent. Those who have no involvement in a society whatsoever and who have experienced my absence from various occasions due to my merely minor involvement in a society strongly encouraged the writing of this article; those who are involved on a similar level to me also encouraged it but warned that I shouldn’t mention the name of any societies in particular so as to avoid offending members. As for those who are committee members… well they were not asked. I am confident enough in what their responses would be to know that my endeavour would be frowned upon, to say the least.
Throughout my first year in college, I have witnessed those who have become obsessed and those who have remained at a safe enough distance to enjoy without losing touch with the outside world. While it is safe to say that nobody became endangered in any way due to their involvement in a society, some aspects of their lives outside the society have been affected. The most typical situations being a general falling out with friends who are not involved in the society, a struggle in relationships where one person is a devotee and another isn’t, a serious strain on academic work due to obscene amounts of time spent doing one outlandish thing or another for the benefit of the society and most of all, a change of attitude towards themselves and everyone else who is in a lower ranking of devotion. This is probably the most noticeable. Everyone must have, at this stage, experienced a society devotee with a God-complex. While a certain amount of control undoubtedly needs to be maintained to keep things running smoothly, there is no need for the “attitude”. We all know what it is, the self-assigned role as Boss where everyone must obey everything that Boss says which is delivered with the just right amounts of arrogance, pretention and self-important grandiose to terrify anyone below them into doing exactly as they say without question while the mignon completely loathes them for their higher ranking and aforementioned “attitude”.
To be fair, this isn’t always the case with societies. Of course there are smaller and less intimidating organisations that don’t engage in such ridiculous behaviour when it comes to something so insignificant in the grand scheme of things as a college society. However, it is the larger ones that get noticed and recently, it seems, for all the wrong reasons. I sincerely hope that I’m not alone in the opinions that these devotees simply need to relax and not burn themselves out before they hit the real world and realise that they’re at the bottom of the food chain once again and that their four years of supposed superiority now means nothing.
Is it worth risking the loss of friendships, relationships, time and any shred of relaxation you may have previously possessed just to come out of college say you were an expert at devotion? Despite my great appreciation for all the positives that societies do provide, I think not.
