jbfield190:

(via springbreaktour)

This image, and the reblogged tour swag image below, remind me that I wish someone would write a cultural history of Spring Break. Seriously. Basically, it seems as if long ago, it used to be a break in the middle of the semester, and college students would do this or that. Now it seems as if anything other than a classic trip to one of a handful of destinations, and a rigorously debauched week in the sun, is a failure and a disappointment. MTV was just starting to do its Spring Break broadcast stuff when I was in college, and I remember being on a perfectly nice spring break in Austin, TX, but turning on the TV and feeling as if I was doing it wrong. For a generation that has grown up watching Spring Break on TV, it appears that it has become almost like a secular haj. (The trip to Mecca observant Muslims are supposed to take at least once in their lives.)

The humor of the image above comes from the gap between the world of Spring Break and that of indie singer-songwriters If MTV, et al, had not so relentlessly commodified Spring Break, these ladies would not be able to make fun of it.

Well, there is a pressure to have an amazing Spring Break, which usually involves going somewhere cool.  Now, I don’t think spending loads of money to sit around and drink on a beach for the week makes an amazing break.  Doing alternative spring breaks is pretty popular.  You go somewhere cool, or do something cool.  Students are like that about summer, too.  They want to do something fun and impressive to come back and tell their friends about (now that just means lots a Facebook photos).  Of course, “amazing” varies among people.