Technology Causes More Stress for College Students - Essay Example

Technology Causes More Stress for College If one were to look back on the history of college in the United s, one will noticethat there was an era when these higher studies were looked upon as one of the most exciting chapters in the life of a young person. This was the time when he would be spending his first time away from home at an out of town or out of state university. He would also be practicing his independence. College life meant that he would finally be studying to enter their workforce of choice after completing their 4 year education in that particular field. Their time would be spent in the pursuance of their final academic achievement that would dictate the kind of life they would be leading in the future. All of these accomplishments were done sans tablet PCs, mobile phones, laptops, and the ease of research provided by the internet. No, they had to do everything the hard way. Spending countless hours in the library checking out possible reference books, jotting down hand written notes on index cards or specially dedicated notebooks, waiting for much needed reference books to be returned to the library for an overnight reading... All of these were the difficulties that previous generations had to face in quest to gain as much knowledge and information as they could in college. As a modern day student, one cannot fathom how hard it was for our grandparents to have completed their college education without the privileges that we have today. In fact, we have a whole generation of students who are now growing up without ever held an actual book. Most of them have not even spent any time in a school library doing research. Technology has made completing schoolwork much easier. All the information that we need is now within reach. Its all just a matter of tapping a few keys on the computer and reading information off the screen for typing into a word processing program. Indeed, technology has made life easier for the 21st century college student. However, the technology has not made the act of studying and researching a less stressful task for students. Instead, it has created a whole new level of stress that educators and medical professionals are only now coming to slowly understand. However, in order to understand how the existence of technology has managed to create a type of uncontrollable stress in the lives of the modern college student, one must first understand the meaning behind the word stress. Stress is the method by which a person reacts to the events that are unfolding in his life and can result in a positive or negative factor within the life of a person. Therefore, stress can be defined as the ability of a person to correctly respond or not respond to the constant changes in his life. Since the life of a college student is filled with constant changes and demands upon the abilities of the student, one can only imagine the kind of stress that each student is undergoing at any given moment in his college academic life. College life these days is less about having fun during that final stage of carefree teenage life before entering full blown adulthood. College students now face the real stress of having to deal with various facets of their personal and educational life that their parents and grandparents did not have to deal with in the past. Hardy (2013) explains that unlike high school assignments, the academic requirements of college students tend to easily overwhelm them because of the sheer volume of work required in order to complete class requirements. Just last year, the American College Counseling Association discovered that 37.4 percent of college students were affected by severe psychological problems that affected the way that they conducted their college lives (Di Meglio, 2012). Gregory Eels, Director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University explains that technology has a direct relation to these statistics because the technology that surrounds the students prevents them from developing an emotional maturity (Di Meglio, 2012). Technology has allowed students to master the art of multitasking but has also prevented them from developing the ability to concentrate on a singular task and completing it before moving on to the next. This multitasking lifestyle has cause a disconnect in the emotional response and abilities of the student, thus causing undue stress on the person. This disconnect is believed to have been brought about by the rewiring of the human brain due to the influence of the internet. Students who spend most of their academic life online tend to socialize via the same medium as well. Thus disconnecting them from the real world where they can relax and lessen their stress by interacting physically with people. They no longer connect with their peers on the same level as our parents and grandparents used to with weekend parties or out of town trips with classmates at the end of the school week. The always connected lifestyle has created a new social life for the 21st century students that has not always been a good thing for their emotional and psychological stress levels (Wu, 2000). Our grandparents and parents were capable of turning off school work when they wanted to because they could actually leave their school work in their dorm rooms. There were no laptops, tablet PCs, smartphones, or even internet kiosks from which they could continue working on their academic papers. When their generation decided to take a break from studying, they truly took a break from studying and left everything behind at their college housing complex. In 2011, only 52 percent of college students believed that their emotional health was “above average” due to the stress, depression, and psychological conditions that most college students enter their college life with (James, 2011). Known as the “Millenial Generation”, the current generation of college students are recognized as the most stressed out generation to have ever been produced in our modern times. 44 percent of them are irritable and angry, with 19 percent of them also suffering from depression (Huffington, 2013). It is bad enough that these college students are facing an insurmountable student debt once they graduate from college, but adding the unrealistic expectations of being financially stable or becoming the CEO of their own company by the age of 30, simply because of the cut throat job market that exists today, creates a level of stress that has never been seen by previous generations. Students with that particular kind of mindset find themselves deeply involved in the fast paced lifestyle that modern technology allows one to create for himself. With the advent of email, cloud computing, and smartphones, a college student can never truly get away from his academic requirements long enough to clear his mind and relax. The existence of these technologies have forced the students to become almost like automatons, forever connected to their academic requirements and constantly trying to fill in the gaps even while “relaxing” (Wu, 2000). The typical lifestyle of a regular college student includes activities that seem to be designed to keep them busy on a 24/7 rotation. With students trying to fit in athletics, part-time jobs, internships, volunteer work. committees, and social events, students easily have their days filled with their regular classes and nights overwhelmed by their extra-curricular activities as well. It is this type of lifestyle that has caused the advent of scheduling conflicts and multitasking among college students. They in effect, created their own stress by the way that they choose to live their lives. This type of crazy and stress filled academic life was made possible by the current crop of technological gadgets out in the market. 20 years ago, or during that period in time when our grandparents and parents were the ones struggling to complete their college degrees, these types of technology were not only unheard of, but also unfathomable. Their academic life allowed them to take a break between research projects, and encouraged real time socialization among peers because they had to get together in one place in order to interact with one another. Funny how those who did not enjoy the technological innovations meant to make our academic lives easier had the most time to spend removing stress from their daily lives. For some inexplicable reason, the always connected 21st century student has become stress riddled even though his academic life has supposedly become much easier to deal with. Students remain constantly connected with one another in the information age through text messaging, emails, video calling, and the like. But instead of lessening the stress that one feels, the technology instead created a new type of stress that the students seem unable to handle by themselves (Wagner, 2005). But perhaps it is not only the desire of college students to excel academically in order to ensure their chances at a good job after graduation that has caused the high levels of stress that these students feel. Technology has invaded the lives of these students so deeply that they have no escape from other factors that could also be causing them undue mental and emotional stress. Take for example the case of the student with a set of helicopter parents. During the time of our parents and grandparents, once a college aged child leaves home for college, he is effectively disengaged from parental supervision. Thus allowing himself to grow into his own person and deal with his academic requirements at his own pace. Without the threat of his parents constantly looking over his shoulder to check on him. However, the “Millenial Generation” of students no longer have this sense of having the umbilical cord cut-off from his parents because of the technological aspect of our modern lives. These days, it is no longer uncommon to have a parent say “hi” to their child via text messaging, keep in touch with his college activities via Facebook or Twitter, and emailing the child just to “touch base”, all of which are forms of controlling the child and reminding them that they are at that academic institution for one purpose alone, to learn, graduate, and get a job. Such types of parental surveillance makes a student afraid to disconnect from his academics for fear that somehow, his parents will find out that he took some time to rest and he will be held liable for his actions in one way or another (Wagner, 2005). College campuses used to provide students with a way to get away from the watchful eye of their parents. Allowing them to breathe and discover who they are and what they really want to be in life. But that is no longer the case since “helicopter parents” can now continue their supervision via technological control. Let us make one thing clear before I continue with this discussion. College students do not view technology as an enemy or a cause of stress. That is, not when they are not using it to complete their academic requirements. Students actually enjoy using technology and the multitasking advantages that it offers them in terms of being sociable. That is a different story altogether. There is a misconception that the “Internet Generation” prefers to be constantly wired in to their gadgets while keeping up with friends and family. Although it seems like they are forever connected to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other internet based trends, and that they surf the web, Skype, and listen to music all while completing their academic requirements, the reality is that not all of them do these activities simultaneously, and neither is it true that they all prefer to conduct themselves in this manner on a daily basis (Levy, Nardick, Turner, & McWatters, 2011). In reality, the current generation of college students aged 18 and above have real and serious concerns about the way that technology have invaded their lives and how it confuses them and causes them undue concern in terms of how these technological advancements are supposed to truly fit within their lifestyles. In the real world, and provided people truly take the time to talk to these students, one can easily learn that they are actually frustrated by the way that the internet activities take up too much of their time and is considered by some of them to be addictive behavior. Due to the fact that everything from the wide screen TV set in their living room, all the way to their smart phones are constantly connected to the internet, they feel a sense of being pressured into remaining in constant touch with family and friends. Even though they appreciate the constant sense of being in touch with one another, they would still prefer to have face to face contact with these people so that they can have the relaxation that comes with physical interaction. Let us remember that college life is really fast paced and hectic for most of these students. By disconnecting from the gadgets, they are allowed to slow down and enjoy a slower pace of life similar to that experienced by their parents and grandparents. The disconnection allows them the opportunity to truly tune out of their other problems and concentrate on healing themselves at least for a short time by allowing themselves to enjoy a different activity altogether that did not involve having to be online or updating a status in one of the many forms of social media (Levy, Nardick, Turner, & McWatters, 2011). Needless to say, students actually understand and recognize that technology has caused them to have undue stress in their academic life. They also know that if the technology is allowed to become a major factor in their lives, it will cause a negative effect upon them. Therefore, they must take it upon themselves to control or limit their exposure to the stress that the technology creates. Only by learning to control the technology will they truly be able to claim that they are finally free of the stress that technology has created in their lives. References Di Meglio, Francesca (2012). Stress Takes Its Toll on College Students. Bloomberg Business Week. (Available Online) Hardy, Marcelina. (2013). Stress. lovetoknow. (Available Online) Huffington, Arianna. (2013). Millenials Coming of Age As Americas Most Stressed Generation. Linked In. (Available Online). James, Susan Donaldson. (2011). College Freshmen Report: Students Are Stressed And Depressed. ABC News. (Available Online). Levy, David, Nardick, Daryl, Turner, Janine, & McWatters, Leanne. (2011). No Cellphone? No Internet? So Much Less Stress. The Chronicle of Higher Education. (Available Online). Lewin, Tamar. (2011). Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. New York Tiimes. (Available Online). N.A. (2013). 1 in 5 Undergrads Is Constantly Stressed. NBCNews.com. (Available Online). N.A. (2010). Study: Students More Depressed Now Than During Depression. USA Today. (Available Online). Wagner, Stephen. (2005). Stressed. Pomona Online. (Available Online). Wu, Joanna. (2000). Rising Stress Levels Alarm Health Educators. The American Institute of Stress. (Available Online). Read More