Internet Dependency May Become a New Threat to College Students

According to Shaibany, who wrote “Addiction to social media or drugs: Which is the bigger evil for youth?”, many of today’s youth who use social media are revealed to have the same symptoms as those who are addicted to drugs: irritability, uncommunicative, and disoriented from reality. He deems that these symptoms are just the beginning of what could be the start of a new epidemic in today’s society: “internet addiction”. Some common associations with the term addiction could be related to food and drugs, but in relation to media, the Internet could be deemed as a new form of addiction that can also be a danger to this generation of college students. But could one be absolutely entrenched in technology, perhaps to the point when it becomes a hindrance to their well-being? In my opinion, one can be heavily reliant on the use of media, however, I don’t agree with the fact that one could be “addicted” to it. The difference between addiction and reliance and the fact that addiction could be detrimental to someone’s life.

In my daily life, I rely on media to keep me updated on information; whether it pertains to my classes or to my social life, digital media is something that I cannot live without. For example, throughout my day, I check my e-mail to see if any of my professors sent any important announcements. In addition, I check Facebook and Twitter after class time to socialize with my friends and family. At face-value, I could be perceived as an individual who is addicted to digital media, however I believe I am not. The most important thing I stress is the fact that I don’t let the internet harm my life; indeed it does create a distraction sometimes, but I still have control over my usage by turning it off and putting it away. In the end, I believe I’m heavily reliant and dependent on my internet use, whether leisure or educational purposes, but I, along with many other college students, have enough sovereignty in our minds to know whether technology and media becomes helpful or hurtful in our lives.

In order to prohibit extreme detrimental habits of using digital media in class, perhaps professors could utilize technology in a way that keeps the student’s attention towards class related content. One idea may be the use of the program Nearpod, which is a program that delivers real-time lesson presentations to a student’s mobile device. Students ultimately use technology, but in a way that relates to the class and not their social life, hopefully keeping them attentive towards a lesson and not on Facebook. It’s possible that our devices could be helpful in class, but only if we use it in a way in which our minds are focused on something school related, even if it’s for an hour lecture.

Reference:

http://www.timesofoman.com/News/Article-22170.aspx

“Juvenile Violence Linked to Video Games and Television Indicates No Correlation”

The omnipresent argument concerning today’s youth focuses on the idea that video games could become detrimental to their innocent psyche.  A few decades ago, a similar argument was made; however, instead of trepidation with 8-bit video games, it was concerned with violent programs on television. It may seem like a logical conclusion to believe that children who play video games are more susceptible to violent behavior compared to children who watch television, however, other factors, such as individual personalities or lifestyles, may be the root of their evil – not the technology itself.

Video games would seem to have a greater effect on children compared to television because of the substantial interaction between the user and the product. The logic is simple: since children are heavily enveloped in video games, there’s a greater probability that they would be more susceptible to imitating the violence. However, according to Patterson, who wrote “Video Games Don’tMake Teens Violent, Shows Study”, children who played violent video games were not exhibiting hostile behavior compared to non-video gamers. He then concluded that playing these video games seemed to have a “cathartic” effect, in which some children were seen to have dropped aggression behavior. This proves that video games do not cause violent behavior among children, therefore showing no correlation between the two factors.

The Bobo Doll studies, developed by Albert Bandura, determined that children who watched violent episodes on television would likely exhibit violent behavior, such as punching the Bobo Doll. But one important factor that is overlooked is the fact that these experiments were conducted in a laboratory setting, leaving researchers to question whether children maintained their violent behavior at home. This begs the important question: do interactive technological mediums, regardless of their strength, cause children to become violent? Or does it have to do with other factors beyond the technological realm, such as their lifestyle at home? Indeed, Bandura determined a correlation between violent programs on the television and aggressive behavior, but results of children acting perpetually destructive in their daily lives because of television are inconclusive.

 Many of today’s youth culture is surrounded by violence, depicted not only in highly interactive mediums such as video games, but also passive mediums such as television. In a society in which technology is constantly involved in everyone’s lives, video games and television are not as effective in affecting media users as much as it did in previous years.

References:

Patterson, Sean. “Video Games Don’t Make TeensViolent, Shows Study”. 27 August 2013.

McIntosh, S., Pavlik, J.V.. Converging Media. (Bobo the Doll Experiment).