The State Post Bureau, according to an official, has made it a business to deliver the dirty laundry (literally) of college students to their homes. The postal service may have found a new way of making money, but should a national postal service stoop to such levels to make money? says an article in Shanghai Morning Post. Excerpts:

A country in which college students are too lazy to do their laundry cannot be said to have made much social progress. By sending their dirty laundry to their parents (to get it washed) the students may have found an easy way out of trouble, but they are putting their parents in trouble.

Not surprisingly, when news of students sending their dirty clothes home to get them washed hit the headlines, many of them denied doing so. If the students are to be believed, such service is not yet widespread on campuses. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding between reality and what some officials (or independent observers) say. Perhaps only a few individual students choose to send their dirty laundry back home to get them washed.

But we cannot be sure about that, especially because students' consumption behaviors have undergone major changes in the past few years.

It is also important for college students-given the criticism they face for their laziness-to rethink whether the life of convenience they have chosen thanks to the Internet is good.

As service providers, courier services and post offices cannot refuse to deliver packages with dirty laundry. So only students can decide whether they want to set a good example by doing their own laundry or become a target of ridicule by sending their dirty clothes to their parents to get them washed.

Students should do well to realize that the seemingly rich and convenient interaction and easy campus life they have become used to would vanish the moment they step into the real world. They should know that real college life should be one of real human to human interactions.