While labeled clothing, monogrammed accessories and colorful key chains are traditional ways for students to express themselves, one of the newest trends is laptop stickers. The usage of these stickers is a personal marketing tactic of sorts, allowing students to proudly display their likes and dislikes, current interests, sentimental stories or future dreams.
Everyone has a story, and laptop stickers allow for a brief look into the expansive, detailed and hardly-noticed lives of those around us.
Kristen Sale, junior in the College of Business
Sitting at a table in the basement of the Alumni Memorial Union as an advocate for the Gonzaga-in-Florence study abroad program located in Florence, Italy, Sale was anxiously awaiting the next interested student that she could persuade into sharing her experience with the program.
“My favorite story is the symbol of Florence. I just came back from a semester abroad,” Sale said. “It’s my home, I miss it a ton.”
Sale’s sticker collection is pulled together by images out of magazines, online purchases or gifts from friends. As a traveler and entrepreneur, she proudly displays her interests on the back of her MacBook.
“My favorite sticker is probably from the Good Life one,” Sale said. “It’s from Buena Vida Coffee in the Kohler Center. I also really like these innovator ones. I have a lot of work that I do in the Kohler Center for the entrepreneurship on campus, and it’s the entrepreneurship center that we have and I do my start-up and everything there.”
Sales’ stickers aren’t permanently stuck on. Instead, she pressed them under her hard-shelled laptop cover so she can constantly change and rearrange her evolving interests.
“I don’t like things that look like everyone else has. I like them to be kind of different … I use it as a way for me to express myself and my interests,” she said.
Karolina Sobieski, sophomore in the College of Health Sciences
Like Sale, Sobieski was at a table. However, the subject she was advertising wasn’t as far-reaching as Italy. Sobieski’s goal was to inform students about Ignite, a faith group at Marquette that meets every Wednesday during the Chapel of the Holy Family.
Sobieski keeps the back of her computer relatively free of decoration, save for two large stickers from her favorite book series, The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan.
“I got one of the books, and they came with the stickers. I love the series, and I’m not ashamed to show it. So, I put them on my laptop,” she said.
“The cover is my favorite,” Sobieski said. “I just love it … and I’m kind of a history nerd. So I saw this online and I (had) to get it. It’s so cool, and different from what I’ve seen before.”
Kris Rubinstein, sophomore in the College of Communication
Casually conversing with a friend near the entrance of the Brew Bayou, Kris might have one of the most intriguing and innovative sticker traditions.
“I never really got into laptop stickers until this year. I went to a coffee shop with my girlfriend, and we got a free sticker. From there, I was like, ‘let’s go to every coffee shop in Milwaukee and keep getting stickers from there.’”
Besides collecting free stickers, Rubinstein has also purchased some online. He aims to cover his entire laptop in stickers.
“Whenever I get a sticker, I’m gonna keep adding it on. I don’t want to see any of this laptop … I’m just going to collect them all,” he said.
Madeleine Mathias, sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences
Mathias, a native of Eau Claire, said that she picked up on the trend while back at home.
“I’ve collected them over the years and they’re from all the places that I’ve traveled,” Mathias said.
The first sticker she collected was from a 5k she ran with a friend in eighth grade. She also has a few of her favorite quotes in both English and French.
“My favorite is the one with the quote, ‘Don’t speak unless you improve the silence,’” Mathias said. “I try and live by that quote and not talk too much.”
“This French one is from Mont Saint-Michel where I stayed over the summer in France. I really like this one because I liked that it had both English and French, the two languages I speak.”
Mathias likes that stickers serve as an outlet for self-expression, almost as an art form.
“Stickers are all about the art. They’re a way to show your own personality on a computer,” she said. “Computers can kinda be boring if you don’t put anything on them … Putting stickers on them gives you an opportunity to show yourself.”
