Thursday, April 22, 2010
Students Addicted to Social Media
University Communications Newsdesk, University of Maryland: A new study out today from the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland, concludes that most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world. "I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening," said one person in the study. "I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation, for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin." via Inside Higher Ed
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8 comments:
This seems unsurprising, having worked in education I'm used to seeing students who can't bear to be parted from their electronic toys, even for a little while. Even when told that they'll have them taken away they still try to sneak a look at them at any chance. That does seem to fit with addictive behavior, along with the additional bits that the article describe. If it is their main means of communication and source of news then if they're prevented from being on it all the time the feelings of loneliness will quickly follow, and to a teenager that is probably one of the worst things that can happen.
This doesn't surprise me at all. My generation is very dependent on having everything instantly and in our hands. Between ipods, smart phones, laptops, and all sorts of other devices, media is always available. I know if I had to give up all forms of media for 24 hours I would feel very lost. I love having the ability to check the news at any time of day to know what is going on in the world and to check facebook and twitter to know what friends all over the world are doing. While it is sad that we have become addicted, it is not always for the worst. Knowing what is going on in the world is av very helpful skill and makes things such as giving aid to disaster areas that much faster.
I was watching the news the other day and there was a segment on how grade school kids are unhealthily addicted to texting and their phone. To the point where kids were slipping with their phone resting on their leg so they would feel it vibrate. The interesting solution from the two women discussing this was that parents should work together to enforce a cell phone/texting curfew. This way you would know that all your friends are in the same boat (having to turn their phones off at 9pm) and you weren't missing out on anything.
Maybe I am addicted to e-mail. I think the cause is when I was working for a company. Most of the correspondence with clients and distributors overseas was done by e-mail and fax. Especially because the business is really on time, once I came back to the desk from other work, the thing I did was to check e-mail.
I don't think this is a habit only for me. There must be many people who unconsciously open e-mail account as soon as they sit at the PC.
This article is completely unsurprising. However, I find that one aspect of the study makes some false assumptions that I think hurt the results as a whole. The study is supposed to be about Social Media, and this comes with the connotation of being technology based. When i think of social media, I include interactive things, with which conversations can occur. So I question the inclusion of music, IPods, and television in this study because those things are not new to society (new being the last 10 years). Music is always around, influencing people. Television has been there for ages. I think these things are media, not necessarily social media, so they don't fit the description. They complicate the study, adding a level of isolation that I think pushes many people over the edge. And the article notes that television media rarely influences us any more anyways! I think this study could have been more specific in its analysis.
I believe that this is very true. And it is much to the detriment of face-to-face human interactions. Because there is something very impersonal about typing something into your phone or computer, people are willing to say things that they would not be willing to say in person. Moreover, often this is in a public forum.
Having said that, I believe that these social media sources also provide communications lines that were previously impossible or very restrictive. You can now keep track of “friends” that you have made on Facebook, while being constantly updated on what is going on in their lives by “following” then on Twitter. Connectivity is never a bad thing in and of itself. However, like everything, if something is overused, it becomes bad.
While this is an interesting article, I just have to nitpick one thing. This is NOT addiction, it is dependence. The words mean very different things, and have very different connotations. Addiction includes dependence, but will also show PHYSICAL signs of withdrawal as well as mental ones. These students were not going through physical withdrawal, they were not feverish, throwing up, nor did they have rigors, pain, muscle spasms, headaches, or anything like that. They were described as anxious, jittery, miserable, craving, and antsy. Those are signs of DEPENDENCE.
Okay, I'm done with that rant now. On to the article! I think it's fascinating that this is a required class. At CMU, we're not only encouraged to be online much of the time, we're practically required to! We find out about crew (which, even though it's not supposed to change less than 24 hours in advance, can change the day of), homework, class schedule, etc. Most of my non-drama teachers won't accept anything that is handwritten--it has to be typed. My generation is DEPENDENT on media, but we're also strongly encouraged to be that way. Not to mention that for many college students, social media are their only links to home. Whether it's calling their parents, or checking a friend's facebook status, it's a way to stay connected even while far away.
I think that having all of this social media around us all of the time, has certainly become more of a crutch than it has an aid. As the students in the article admitted, several people feel unconnected without it which leads to a dramatic increase in how long people are willing to put off work. Most people will tire of other things on the internet but, with things like this, they are more prone to do it for longer periods of time though. I commend all of the people that I know who have deleted their facebook accounts. I might do the same with mine in the near future.
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