If you’ve scrolled through Twitter over that past couple of days, odds are you’ve come across at least one tweet with the hashtag #ThisPsychMajor. The trend has engulfed Twitter feeds this week, each offering a statement of how psychology majors are positively impacting the world.
The new hashtag is a response to a comment Jeb Bush made last Saturday morning suggesting that college students should choose more "employable" majors. The Florida governor stated, “Universities ought to have skin in the game. When a student shows up, they ought to say, ‘Hey, that psych major deal, that philosophy major thing, that’s great, it’s important to have liberal arts… but realize, you’re going to be working at Chick-fil-A.’”
You have got to be kidding me.
As a psychology major, I have come across a few people that get into the department for the wrong reasons. They think it may be easy or assume it’ll evolve them into some telepathic superhuman. However, psychology is a difficult field and vital to societal progression. It is a study of human behavior and mental processes that finds a way to work itself into every single aspect of common life and every terrain of employment. Psychologists are involved in medicine, sports, the legal system, advertising, the workplace, and yes, politics, Jeb Bush.
Seriously, if you’re trying to tell me that you’ve developed your campaign without any work, research, or consultation of some kind of psychologist, I don’t believe you.
Furthermore, psychology is a science, not a liberal art. While it deviates from the whole biology/chemistry deal, where pretty much everything is straightforward and has a reason for being the way it is, psychology is ever changing, and new discoveries are constantly being made about mental processes. It is the science of us and the way we behave. Isn’t that something worth researching?
Considering the #ThisPsychMajor trend, it’s obvious that I’m not the only one peeved over the belittling of my area of study and future career. Jeb Bush's popularity in the polls should expect a huge decline over his remaining time in the 2016 presidential election.
Because you know what else psychology majors are?
Voters.
