Picture this: You’re walking to class; you have three minutes to make it on time and then all of a sudden you’re bombarded by some random person trying to grab your attention and hand you a pamphlet of some sort.
You don’t want to ignore them because that would be rude. But at the same time, you really could care less about what they are talking about; you just want to get to class.
This is in no way a strange or rare occurrence on any college campus. In fact, this can sometimes happen on a daily basis at ASU, and can get quite annoying to most students.
Is handing out a flyer or pamphlet promoting an organization or a cause to a college student even beneficial?
“I remember a vegan pamphlet that was being handed out and I saw a lot of them being thrown away and on the ground,” Sean Benner, a physics junior, said.
Benner ignores the people who hand out flyers on campus.
He also finds it ironic that most of the flyers are thrown on the ground because it was a waste of trees to try to get their point across. In fact, the flyers did more harm than good.
Some students, however, try to be considerate of those handing out flyers.
“If they offer me something, I'll take it unless I'm in a hurry. If it's something that interests me, I'll keep it and look at it later. If not, I just throw it away,” Josh Phillips, a biochemistry sophomore, said.
But back to the question posed earlier: Can this literature actually sway a college student’s opinion?
Odds are you won’t stop eating meat just because a piece of paper you received on the way to your dorm room told you it was wrong to do so. You probably won’t change your religious views overnight either.
“Most people that get handed the pamphlet don’t give it a second thought. I don’t know the odds but I would guess one out of every thousand students are ever influenced by those pamphlets,” said Benner.
Phillips has a similar opinion to that of Benner’s.
“I think they are relatively ineffective at getting their point across because by this time, most kids in college already believe in what they want to believe in or don't care about it,” said Phillips.
Perhaps students would be more accepting of new ideas if they weren’t constantly being shoved down our throats. ASU campuses have a designated location for organizations to post flyers as long as they follow certain criteria.
Regardless of how many pamphlets and flyers are thrown on the ground, left in a classroom or in the trash, many groups are still persistent on campus and will try their best to get their point across.
I guess if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
Pass out flyers with Arselia at agales@asu.edu
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