Social media is both a blessing and a curse for students studying abroad. It allows us to share our experiences with our friends and family and to see what they’re doing at home. However, it also gives us a serious fear of missing out on the experiences people from home are having. I’ve never felt these effects as much as I do now during Final Four season.

Basketball isn’t very popular in Hong Kong so I haven’t been able to find any bars or other places showing the March Madness games. Social media is a godsend because it means I can still follow along closely. Through outlets like Twitter, I get minute-to-minute updates of how the game is progressing.

It means that I can wake up during my long weekend trip to Malaysia and see that Syracuse University is up by four in the final minute-and-a-half of the Elite Eight game against UVA. It means that in the regular season when Syracuse beat Duke, I was already reading a full recap of the game by the time my dad texted me about the win five minutes later. When I told him I had already heard, he said, “of course you knew, you’re only 6,000 miles away.” That’s a really amazing and powerful thing.

Social media also means that I get to watch the final seconds of each game (and the Syracuse students’ reaction) from seemingly every possible Chuck’s vantage point when every senior I know posts it to their Snapchat MyStory. It means that my Instagram is chock full of pictures from Castle Court after the game and practically half of my Facebook friends are changing their profile pictures to include a new March Madness frame each week. Most of all, it makes me wish that I could be on campus to experience the craziness firsthand.

I don’t mean to sound selfish. My study abroad experience has been absolutely incredible. I’m having an amazing time and learning so much. In reality, I wouldn’t change it for anything. However, each time I see another picture or video or read another article about the atmosphere at SU right now, it makes me really sad and jealous that I can’t be there.

In exchange for the once-in-a-lifetime experiences I’m having here, I’m missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime experience at Syracuse. Being at school at a time like this is incredible. I’m sure the electricity everyone is feeling right now is something that only happens during very special occasions. Few things have the opportunity to connect people like sports do. Consider the fact that I can feel twinges of that electricity all the way on the opposite side of the globe.

We’re currently scrambling to find a place to watch the game this weekend. I know that we will be able to figure something out and the experience of watching the game (at 8 a.m. on a Sunday) with my abroad friends will be really fun, but it can’t compare to Chuck’s or Castle Court. At least, for better or for worse, I’ll get to see what those places are like through every social media platform that I have.

Claire Moran is a junior broadcast and digital journalism and international relations dual major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. She can be reached at clmoran@syr.edu.

Published on March 31, 2016 at 9:10 pm