Every year at Paducah Tilghman High School there are two homecomings: football and basketball. Each time around there is an elected court of seniors that makeup the homecoming candidates for homecoming king and queen. These candidates are elected by the senior class, then king and queen are chosen by the student body from sophomores to seniors.

The main factor to being elected for homecoming court is how well your name is known throughout the school. Harris Ali and Kylie Caruthers have based this claim off the recent election where 4 cheerleaders were nominated, ex-cheerleader, and pep club leader. All of which are students who widely advertised their names across social media to be elected. The American Psychological Association did some research involving voting habits and humans are “cued by yard signs and political ads” (Christopher Munsey).

While homecoming court is a friendly competition within Tilghman it can be unfair since the base structure of election is a popularity contest. This claim doesn’t take away from the people who were elected because no one is undeserving of being on court, but the opportunity can be taken away from students who aren’t as out going or well known as the students who tend to be elected. Psychological science.org published an article and “Ledgerwood and Callahan found that when it comes to decisions that are distant and abstract, peer group opinions carry a lot of weight.” The weight of a well known name is heavier than one that is just read off a banner.

A large part of being elected comes through social media as well. Students promote themselves through personal social media accounts by making banners including pictures of themselves and their marketing statement, “Vote (first/last name) for homecoming court 2023.” While social media has become a vital part to our generations daily life, but not for everyone. Social media promotions are another disadvantage to the students who don’t have as large of a platform.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/06/vote

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