South Carolina College To Start Offering Major In Social Media

Good news college students: next time your parents get on your back about spending too much time on Facebook, now you can say you're just studying.

Newbury College in South Carolina is planning to offer a new major in the 2013 school year: a major in social media.

Philosophy majors may finally be off the hook. Some students are taking up a major that will be sure to confound parents who are shelling out thousands for their kids' college educations: Social media. OMG!

Alas, this does not mean that everyone obsessed with their Facebook status updates is now eligible for an advanced degree.

But some students will be able to major in a new multidisciplinary degree at Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina. Surfaced by Bizjournals, the degree, as reported by the local Columbia, South Carolina, station WACH FOX 57, is apparently one of the first of its kind.

For those who think it's all Foursquare check-ins and Tumblr photos of cats, think again. "It's a blended major of graphic design, communications, business and marketing, psychology, and statistics," Newberry College's Associate Professor Tania Sosiak told the station.

It's also a smart way to entice entrepreneurial-minded students to stay in school. (And a great excuse to tell parents all those texts and tweets aren't a waste of time--they're homework.)

OK, I get that a lot of universities are trying to get today's kids to go to college. After all, when you have the likes of Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs dropping out of college and becoming mega-successes, a lot of kids today are thinking that they can just drop out of college too. But do you really have to resort to offering silly degrees like this?

I'm not saying that everyone needs to go to college, there are plenty of people who have made it just fine without a college degree. I'm just saying that maybe colleges should focus on the students who actually want a college education than try to woo the ones that have no interest in going to college.