Seenzoned

This term came with the digital age; it appeared in the urban dictionary sometime in 2016. Seenzoned is when you send someone a cyber message and you know it has been “seen” but you get no response. 

Young people of this generation go berserk when they are seenzoned. “It’s a death knell,” one of my students whined. “It means you are not important to deserve a reply.” 

I tried to appease her, “I get seenzoned often by friends and family and it does not matter. Perhaps they had no time to check their gadgets. Or even if they read my message, a no-reply does not affect our relationship.” 

Ooops, I spoke too soon. 

I was seenzoned by a student leader I never met, but whose online invitation for me to speak about writing in the big university in the south, where she is taking up education, I graciously accepted.  

Without asking for any fee or favor in return, I spoke virtually to over 100 students—most of them studying to be teachers—about why I write: to help instill values among young readers. It was a spirited and fruitful two hours of my time.

After my talk, the student leader wrote a message of thanks on behalf of the school and she committed/offered to send me some souvenir items, among which is a university t-shirt as soon as it is printed. She asked for my address.  

Six months later, the items she promised never came. So I messaged her and asked that perhaps they sent them to the wrong address? (Don’t get me wrong. The  items, for me, are inconsequential. But for future educators reneging on their commitment is dangerous; they will produce students who will emulate them.)

She replied that it was the club president, not her, who was in charge of such, but she will remind him. 

It had been three weeks, and there was no update from her. So I messaged her again, asking what had happened—wishing that as a teacher myself and a writer on grace, I could teach her and her schoolmates the value of commitment. 

Seenzoned. 

And that was like a death knell. My grief has nothing to do with feeling unimportant. It is about young people ignoring values. What happened? Commitment is a promise, a pledge, an obligation, a covenant, and according to son #3, who is a lawyer, “a contract.”  

Sob.

My prayer is that universities educating students to be teachers would emphasize the importance of moral values. Without them, the world of our children and their students would be in a state of meltdown.