14 DAY TRIAL // The White House has been getting more involved with social media, especially since Barack Obama has become president. After all, Obama has been one of the most active candidates on the then-new platforms.
After taking on almost all major Internet platforms, Obama has chosen to chat online with Americans via Tumblr.
Obama invited Founder David Karp to the White House where the discussion revolved around education and the recently signed executive order that seeks to lower student loan payments to help out struggling graduates who can barely make ends meet.
The mood during the session was light and fun and there were many rounds of laughter caused by Obama’s statements. At one point, he even mentioned one Tumblr user by the user name (haikumoon), and he even made a GIF with Tumblr’s young leader.
While many teenagers in the United States feel like there’s no use in having a college education since the tuition costs are so high and the students’ loans weight people down for decades, Obama advises kids not to drop out because there are very few jobs where you don’t need some advanced training.
The entire session was a bit ironic too, since David Karp dropped out of school to start Tumblr. To his luck, the company was successful and ended up being bought for $1.1 billion by Yahoo in May last year, but that doesn’t happen to everyone.
Much to everyone’s amusement, Obama compared the 27-year-old Tumblr leader to LeBron or Durant, because he managed to be successful without a college degree.
Of course, the tech industry is full of stories such as Karp’s. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and many others have never finished school because they dropped out to start out their companies. “If you can do it, more power to you,” said Obama, even though he tried to convince everyone to go to school, or, at least, to have a backup plan such as returning to school.
Even so, he stressed the importance of having some experience in the field and working to see whether one liked one topic or not before actually going to school for many years to get a degree in that area.
The discussion about education in the US couldn’t have had a better medium, because most of the users of Tumblr are in the age group affected by the recent legislation and swamped in student loans.