Mom Criticizes Son’s ‘Diabolical’ High School Yearbook — ‘Laziness & Disrespect Is All This Is’
She paid $125 just to scan QR codes.
spxChrome, Dean Drobot | Canva Pro High school yearbooks are a longstanding tradition meant to give students a memento to look back on, with an actual handheld album filled with memories. Sadly, one mom found that her son’s high school chose to replace photos and memories with QR codes, in what has been called a "diabolical" and lazy move. What's the point of even buying a book if all the best images are virtual?
A mom criticized her son’s ‘diabolical’ high school yearbook for replacing student photos with QR codes.
In a TikTok video viewed nearly 170,000 times, irate mom, Brooke, gave viewers a glimpse at her son Rider’s yearbook. Since it was his senior year, she wanted to buy him a dedication page that highlighted all of his accomplishments.
However, after spending $125, she was shocked to discover that no dedication page made it to print, and her son’s senior portrait was reduced to the corner of a page along with some of his other classmates. He also submitted a senior quote to be included with his picture, which didn’t make it.
Even though her son did make the cut in a couple of group photos throughout the book, Brooke was stunned by the overall lack of pictures in the yearbook. Many of them had been replaced with QR codes that required people to use their phone cameras to take them to an online link of all the photos.
The school even replaced a memorial page for a student who passed with a QR code.
“If you want to see the Special Olympics pictures, you need to scan a QR code,” the mom says while showing viewers a page in the yearbook with “Special Olympics” in bold letters with a scannable barcode directly underneath it. “If you ain’t got a phone, you ain’t gonna see them.” Students also have to scan a QR code to see their prom photos since none of them are featured in the physical yearbook.
However, the one part of the book Brooke said “burned her up” the most was a dedication page for a classmate who passed away in a car accident (at least, a dedication page was what it was supposed to be). Instead of any meaningful photos that captured the classmate’s life, the page was, you guessed it, a QR code with her name written underneath it. And to add insult to injury, there was a halo around the code along with angel wings on each side. “We had plenty of time to talk to her parents and get plenty of pictures. There is no excuse for that baby to have a QR code in her memory,” Brooke said.
She couldn't help but feel duped, given that she spent $125 just to scan QR codes with no physical photographic memories.
Experts say photo albums are making a comeback, reinforcing this mom's complaint.
Commenters were just as outraged by the lack of effort from the yearbook staff as the mom was.“QR codes in a yearbook in the place of actual photos is diabolical,” one TikTok user commented. “Please tell me how long those QR codes are going to last? Because most people want to look back at their yearbooks as they get older, like 30 to 40 years down the road. This is insane,” another wrote. “Honestly they should have to redo this entire book and eat the cost!!!” another argued.
Some things never truly go out of style, and yearbooks are one of those things. Kids today have so few actual photographs they can hold in their hands as a physical memory that a yearbook is a welcome respite from what Print company Teo called the "digital overload" of their daily lives.
In a piece written for Duncan & Stone, Garrett summed up why there's been a resurgence in carefully curated photo albums over the last few years. He wrote, "Photo albums, especially those that are carefully curated and personalized, offer a tactile experience that digital images cannot match. The act of flipping through the pages of a photo memory book is more interactive. It allows people to engage with memories in a more deliberate and reflective manner. The weight of the book, the texture of the paper, and the act of turning the page is a sensory experience [sic] that digital screens cannot replicate. It's one thing to tap through a gallery on a smartphone, but it's an entirely different experience to sit down with a beautifully crafted album and journey through your captured memories."
Yearbooks serve as a personal time capsule, holding physical evidence of some of your best memories and biggest accomplishments that can fade over time. Classmates and teachers also write their own personal notes in your yearbook that make it such a cherished keepsake.
They are something that just cannot be replicated by technology. QR codes may be able to depict the photos, but they will never be able to document the milestones and events that made your high school experience so memorable. In a world where technology has seemed to take over every aspect of life, we are asking, please just leave our yearbooks alone. QR codes can replace restaurant menus, but not core memories.
Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
