Recently I was one of the many ill-fated students to have lost their AirPods on the Claremont consortium campus. It was somewhere upon my walk from the CMC hub to Pitzer’s Scott hall, when I realized my AirPod case had, quite literally, disappeared. Scrambling for next steps, I was kindly directed to post both on my class facebook group and - the real kicker - the 7C buying and selling group.
Frankly, I’ve always been daunted by such a page. Posts are made at seemingly light speed and prices range from “FREE” to “$10,000,000”. The real issue, though, is not with the 7C page’s variety of price points, nor with its speedily disorganized post system, but rather with the fact that it has become a kind of ‘lost and found’ for our digital age. We have come to equate 7C “buying and selling” with “lost and found” and I have never understood how these concepts can adequately map on.
Put plainly, the 7C buying and selling group has become an empty hoax - a choppy sea filled with lost single AirPods, charging cases, and apple pens that are randomly mixed amongst ‘for sale’ used text-books and vintage clothing. It is an unnavigable ocean that no boat can guide itself through, no matter the desperation or will power behind its sailor.
Nevertheless, with sheer disbelief and sadness fueling me, I crafted my lamenting post, priced my AirPods at - yes, you guessed it - $10,000,000 and waited. But, nothing happened. Instead, I met the cruel destiny that becomes of all 7C Buying and Selling (Lost and Found) posts: dismissal.
Indeed, upon scrolling through posts made before and after mine, I noticed that they were rarely answered and few ever received that satisfying ‘found’ ending. In fact, it was only upon finding my AirPods (on my 3rd walk retracing my steps) that I was forced to mark my pods not found, but SOLD...another empty lie perpetuating the void that is the 7C For Sale/Free Facebook group.
In an even crueler twist of fate, posts aren’t simply met with silence, but rather garner the ‘sad emoji’ reaction or the occasional ‘sarcastic joke’ comment from so-called ‘friends’ that belittle any lost item. Students are left with no alternate route of action, the 7C group has failed them - yet again - and their lost items will remain floating amongst that unnavigable ocean filled with disarray.
When speaking with a friend he objected: “It’s more of a marketplace for the transfer of goods” (yes, this was a CMC Econ. major ) and then he added, “It’s just an object-oriented exchange, don't be extra.” But I couldn’t help but wonder: Is asking for an organized, responsive, and specified Lost and Found “extra”? Is it too much to fight for a designated Facebook page that is made solely for ‘Lost and Found’ items amongst the Claremont community?
Comedy aside, it seems obvious that this community is in desperate need of a digital forum - facebook or otherwise- that includes all lost and found items on the consortium grounds. Importantly, if one already exists, please point me in its direction and I’d be more than happy to explore and push for its popularization. But, it is precisely the point that such a page - if it exists at all - is unpopular and, more likely, that it remains unused amongst the sea of students looking to find their lost items, that a new and improved digital lost and found for the 7C community must be created.
Thus, let us not succumb to the abyss that defines the 7C For Sale/Free facebook group, and instead pave ourselves a new path filled with organization, answered posts, and more importantly FOUND ITEMS.
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