As students swipe through social media, they see their peers pushing for titles like “best eyes”, “best hair” and “best laugh” in the yearbook. While senior superlatives have been around since the 1920s, some students have recently begun to add a new element to them with the use of social media campaigns.
Yearbook advisor John Ciluffo has been involved in choosing senior superlatives for around 24 years. While he only noticed the campaigning about two years ago, he has not noticed any positives or negatives of it. Participation in the voting has remained relatively the same.
“I think campaigning takes away from the superlatives,” Ciluffo said. “I think it should be random. I feel like it should be where you just sit down, look at the categories, think about your classmates and just pick the first person that comes to your mind.”
Seniors this year, like Birdie Tabaczuk ’26, took the liberty of using her social media platform on Instagram to campaign for best smile, with hope that her classmates who are undecided about their vote in the category choose her.
“Campaigning can make superlatives more fun and interesting,” Tabaczuk said. “If multiple people are running for the same superlative, and then we all get to find out who actually ends up winning it.”
Past senior Henry Doyle ’25 won his “life of the party” superlative based purely on his classmates’ opinions of him. He was happy when he received the news that he had won because he won based on people’s original opinions without external influence.
“Campaigning is fine, I just think it’s not as exciting to get a superlative verse just letting people come up with it themselves,” Doyle said. “I don’t think superlatives should be a competition. I just think it should be fun and decided by what the senior class collectively thinks.”
Tabaczuk, however, believes campaigning does not take away from the meaning of superlatives but adds to their spirit.
“Senior superlative is a very special thing,” Tabaczuk said. “Campaigning can help make sure people who don’t want a superlative don’t get voted, but it should not be criticized how it is won because, regardless, it is fun and important.”
