Walking out of a lecture because of a video? Stop being entitled brats

I get it, we pay £9,000 a year to be here – so it’s fucking shit when you do spend a whole lecture watching a video. But regardless of that, the way students acted in the PIED1601 lecture yesterday was embarrassing.

We watched a video in at least one or two lectures in every module in my first year – in fact, we watched the exact same video that caused the Yik Yak storm back when I was a fresher.

We, however, acted like adults and actually sat through the lecture, albeit many of us on our phones or laptops – and I bet we could give a far better summary of Marx than you can. No-one learns anything when you walk out – not to mention the fact it’s just fucking rude.

Yesterday’s well-publicised lecture

I would like to see you give a lecture to 300 people on a topic that might not actually be your field of research, or area of specific expertise. At my mum’s wedding I had to speak in front of 250 people on a topic that I was an expert on for only 10 minutes and it was the scariest thing I have ever done. Ball’s in your court – could you have done it better?

As someone who suffers from anxiety, speaking in front of that many is people truly terrifying – I spent weeks beforehand rehearsing, editing, practicing – and still, on the day, I stood there in front of 250 people shaking, dropping my note cards, and stuttering. However, unless you know me well you probably don’t realise the fact I suffer from anxiety.

To stand up in front of that many people and to be shot back down – imagine how that feels. I don’t intend to speak on the behalf of other people – I don’t know what is happening in their life or their mind – but neither do you.

So maybe think before you spend an entire lecture anonymously criticising someone. There’s a fine line between light-hearted banter and malicious bullying, and it was crossed yesterday.

If you’re dissatisfied with a lecture, bring it up with the lecturer or the course leader. Fill in your course evaluations. Talk to your course rep. Don’t complain about it on an anonymous platform, get your act together and be accountable for your actions.

It’s great that you might be the next David Cameron, but you might want to learn some courtesy before you pursue a career in Politics. Your behaviour fulfilled every stereotype of Politics students – over-opinionated, self-satisfied, thinking you’re going to be running the country in 30 years.

That said, I guess you’ll fit in perfectly to the House of Commons.