Tufts' in National Spotlight with 'YOLO' Essay Question

Somerville's hometown university, Tufts, has been getting national attention for asking its undergraduate applicants, "What does #YOLO mean to you?"

YOLO, of course, is an acronym for "you only live once." It became a "new teen buzzword" in 2012, though it seemed to gain more momentum once decidedly non-teens, like Katie Couric, latched onto it.

In its application for the class of 2018, Tufts posed several short essay questions to applicants, one of which dealt with "YOLO."

Here's the question:

The ancient Romans started it when they coined the phrase "Carpe diem." Jonathan Larson proclaimed "No day but today!" and most recently, Drake explained You Only Live Once (YOLO).  Have you ever seized the day? Lived like there was no tomorrow?  Or perhaps you plan to shout YOLO while jumping into something in the future. What does #YOLO mean to you?

Well, that set the Internet ablaze.

Huffington Post, Salon, Good Morning America, The Atlantic, and Business Insider were all among the media outlets that have reported on Tufts' essay question. (And yes, you can now add Somerville Patch to the list, I suppose. Maybe one of next year's essay question will ask about irony.)

For teens and parents out there: Is YOLO still a thing, or is it passé by now?

What do you think of Tufts' essay question? Is it thought provoking or gimmicky?