Yearbooks fade as networking sites propagate

University of S.C., College of Charleston among schools to shutter program

Remember the yearbook — that hardback tome of embarrassing images, corny poses and cherished memories?

Depending on your age, you might not. Thanks to technology cultural shifts and the immediacy offered by social-networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace, this annual tradition might be dying out among the college crowd.

The University of South Carolina, the College of Charleston, Bowling Green State University and the University of Arizona are among those across the country that have shuttered their yearbook programs in recent years.

The College of Charleston closed the door on its yearbook, The Comet, this past spring because of waning interest from students. After selling about 145 copies in 2005, yearbook sales dropped to about one-third that amount in 2006 and 2007.

Tiffany England, former editor-in-chief of The Comet, believes one reason colleges and universities are seeing the downward trend is because students associate yearbooks with the intimate setting of their high school days.

"You are acquainted with most of the people at your high school because it's smaller," she said, "but you aren't with people in your college because of how large the population is on campus."

Still, Clemson University's TAPS yearbook has triumphed where its peers have struggled. Now in its 100th year of publication, the Tigers' yearbook has been named most outstanding university yearbook in the country the last four years by the American Scholastic Press Association.

Megan VanBenschoten, student life editor of TAPS, said Clemson students still cling to the tradition.

"We go everywhere. We are at every event and concert, we want to capture everything that happens," she said. "We try to get students' perspectives on things, and they are always wanting to take pictures or give quotes."

Brandi Moss, a representative for Herff Jones, which publishes yearbooks for several Lowcountry schools and colleges, said the drop off seems more prevalent at the college level. In fact, some of the middle and high schools she represents have seen increases in their yearbook sales.

"We have evolved by going digital," Moss said. "We allow schools to create their pages online and we supplement their yearbooks with CDs filled with images. It keeps things modern."

C.E. Huffman, student media advisor at the College of Charleston, attributes his school's decline in yearbook sales to generational interests. The popularity of yearbooks peaked in the 1970s and '80s, before the Internet came along, he said.

"Students are not interested in things of the past," Huffman said. "They want to see what is right here, right now. Yearbooks don't allow them to do that."

That's why Facebook is so important to the college set, Huffman said. It allows students to post digital pictures immediately after sporting events or homecoming, and they don't have to wait until the yearbook is printed.

"It's a cultural shift to electronics," he said, "and (Facebook) allows them to manipulate their own pages, personalize their pictures and make it their own."

But England said computers aren't perfect and one glitch can wipe out hundreds of stored images. She remains nostalgic for the feel of those glossy pages chronicling days past.

"I sold tons of yearbooks to alumni last year." England said. "People will realize how important yearbooks are eventually. Twenty years from now they will be calling in their orders."