Michael Gabriel ’28 is a history major. Besides writing and editing opinion pieces, he contributes an issue of his Willy and Mary comic almost every edition. He is a big baseball fan, likes the outdoors and is always happy to talk to anyone about anything. Contact him at mdgabriel@wm.edu.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
With the recent introduction of the digital Tribe Card, I’ve begun to feel sentimental about my physical card. I know only the incoming freshmen have been required to set up their digital Tribe Cards, but with many of my friends in the other grades also making the transition, the future doesn’t seem too bright for our little plastic friend. That said, let’s go back to a time before I knew what a Tribe Card was.
It was the summer before my freshman year, and I was getting ready for my job as a camp counselor when it hit me. Shoot, I forgot to take my photo for my school ID. I quickly got my phone out and had my dad snap a photo of me. I was in my kitchen, so the lighting was really warm and made my face look red, not to mention that my hair was also a mess and I hadn’t shaved. What resulted was quite a horrendous photo, but I was in a rush, so I just submitted it.
Fast forward to freshman orientation. It was Late Night at the Rec and we had all been waiting for ages for our school ID card: the Tribe Card. When I finally got to the table, I gave them my name, they filed through the boxes, pulled out my card and handed it to me. It was then when I saw how warped my already poor picture had turned out. I laughed. I laughed even harder when I saw some of my friends’ pictures: cropped prom photos, blurry senior portraits, impromptu photos in front of the kitchen fridge, you name it. Some were stretched length wise, others were stretched width wise and some were even stretched both ways (don’t ask me how).
I remember my freshman hall’s Orientation Aides showing us their Tribe Cards, worn down and yellowing. You could see that they too had issues with their pictures. It became, unintentionally of course, one of the best ice breakers. “Oh, let’s see how messed up your photo is. It can’t be worse than mine!” Whatever the photo looked like, we all knew that we were more or less stuck with that picture for the rest of college because no one would want to pay another fee just to change the picture. Now with the digital cards, all you have to do is go into settings and change your picture. It’s as simple as that, and there goes one of the easiest ice breakers.
For practicality’s sake, the digital card makes sense. People always carry their phones with them anyways. It’s just one less step. No one has to awkwardly fiddle with their wallet as they fail to grab their card. It’s seamless. But you’d be surprised how much you can talk about while you reach for your card in Commons Dining Hall or The Rec. It’s a small window of time, but day after day, those little chats with other students or school employees can become something bigger. Obviously, no one is stopping you from making small talk if you tap in with your phone, but it’s the need to fill that awkward silence that usually pushes people to break the silence and talk. It’s a little thing that you’d probably never think about.
The last point I’ll make is just the concept of keeping things in your life separate. A lot of people will have their bank cards on their phone’s digital wallet and their dorm key in an attachment on the back of their phone. Even before the digital Tribe Card, people would carry their physical cards on the back of their phone. This way, all they would have to carry around with them all day was their phone. It’s a catch-all for their life.
Now, when I walk around, I usually carry my wallet, my keys and my phone all separate. Pretty typical. However, sometimes I’ll leave my phone charging in the dorm or forget my keys in my bag, and those little changes in my routine end up changing my entire day. I find value in being able to leave the dorm with just my wallet and keys. If I were to transition to the digital card, I would lose that freedom. I would need my phone to eat at Caf, get into my dorm or even get into the Flat Hat office in Sadler. As you can probably infer, I want to maintain that freedom.
If you’ve read any of my past pieces, you may have gotten the impression that I am a little stuck in the past. While I don’t necessarily disagree with that assumption, I will say that this situation is a little different. The physical Tribe Card is by no means perfect, and at the end of the day it is just a piece of plastic, but I can’t help but think about the little things that made it special. I think it is vital that we don’t ignore the little things in our lives, because however small they are, they can still have significant impacts on our lives. Whether you keep your physical card or make the jump over to the digital one, remember that.
And to the physical Tribe Card, goodbye old friend. You will be missed.
