Always There (Almost) Always Ignored

I spend probably 60+ hours a week on the DePaul campus, most of which is spent in either the Schmitt Academic Center or the Student Center. Throughout my day to day rushing to class and to work and to volunteering and back to class and so forth, I am constantly passing corkboards overflowing with flyers and posters. Each day there is probably at least a dozen new ones, but do I notice? Do my fellow DePaul peers notice? My money is on no.

Student Organizations, departments, and employers alike utilize this real estate to draw in folks to their communities and events — but the effectiveness of it is likely not what they would hope.

This past week I took some time to meander around where there are large areas of boards with flyers. I watched as student after student after student walked by without looking at the board once. Despite being surrounded by the chatter of students, the squeaking of wet shoes, and the remnants of music spilling through headphones, there was an eery silence coming from these flyers. It was almost haunting. They hang there day in and day out hoping to be noticed and they are more likely to get swept off the board in the traffic that ensues between classes.

The flyers themselves create a sense of community among one another. Pockets of sports flyers here, pockets of service flyers here, and pockets of religious flyers here. Now, one could argue that is the person putting up the flyers, but it speaks to the greater impact the flyers are having on the space. They themselves are the cause for these groupings, bringing together vastly different areas, and yet does anyone even notice?

Regardless of where I set up camp to examine the world around these flyers and posters, there were hardly any human interactions whatsoever. No eye contact. No pointing. No conversation starters. Yet, without fail, each day there are new posters that go up. These ordinary posters take up physical space in so many areas of DePaul but they rarely take up space in the minds and conversations of those at DePaul.