featuresi<strong>College</strong>chelsea mann argues that advancedtechnlogy has made the collegeexperience more virtual and isolating<strong>College</strong> as America used to understand it is coming to an end.From my opinion as a current college student at <strong>Hamilton</strong>, I blametechnology. Cell phones, ipods, and social sites like Facebook andYoutube are destroying the sense of community on the college campus.I know, because I’ve watched students’ infatuation with these deviceslead them to choose the company of their computer screens andearplugs over that of the physical eyes and ears of their friends. Howare students to be activists when technology prevents them from beinga student body?One obvious sign of the resulting fragmentation caused bytechnology is in dorm life. <strong>The</strong> dorm lounges around which sociallife used to revolve are now quiet and abandoned today. Where arethe students? <strong>The</strong>y’re on the phone. <strong>The</strong>y’re surfing the net. <strong>The</strong>y’redownloading music. <strong>The</strong>y’re texting their friends. <strong>The</strong>y’re everywhereindividually, but no where collectively.It is because of technology that college as America used tounderstand it is coming to an end. Once upon a time, the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defined college as “<strong>College</strong>: a group of personsconsidered by law to be a unit.” Unhappily ever after, however, collegebecame more appropriately referred to as i<strong>College</strong>: a group of isolatedindividuals virtually connected and considered thus by law to be a unit.So welcome to i<strong>College</strong>, an institution founded by technologicalcomponents that have wreaked havoc on the relationships amongstudents. In order to fully understand its impact on college social life,we will analyze a couple of bricks that went into the establishment ofthe i<strong>College</strong> that prevails today.Contributor number one: Facebook.com, the anti-social network.As a sophomore, I conducted a survey for an article I wrote for <strong>The</strong>Spectator entitled “<strong>The</strong> <strong>College</strong> Facebook Frenzy.” According to itsresults, 31 percent of the 281 participants reported checking Facebookup to six times a day, with a smaller handful admitting to nine checksper day. I was no different; the site lulled me beneath its spell. I felt as if Ihad become the Internet mother to a community of Facebook childrenwhose status I was constantly compelled to check. When I’d look at theclock, I’d realize that, during the time I’d spent on Facebook, precioushours had passed during which I could have been attending to moreacademic work or to actually connecting with friends in person.According to the free-thoughts survey section, <strong>Hamilton</strong> studentsreasoned that the opportunity to stay connected with friends throughFacebook outweighed the consequences of using the site, such as itspotential to hinder academic success or career opportunities. <strong>The</strong>rewas no awareness that “friending” on the screen detracted from thesubstance of the relationship and potentially left people more friendless.This is what is to be expected from the assumption that viewingrecent photos, statuses, and wall posts of friends on Facebook qualifiedas a substantive relationship.At the end of the day, Facebook and other social sites like Youtubeand Myspace have done more than “poke” its users. <strong>The</strong>y have turnedus into addicts, snoopers, and hermits. So collegians are less likely to becollegial—they never congregate. <strong>The</strong>y may be on the same page, butthey are never in the same room.Contributor number two to i<strong>College</strong>: ipods, out of tune with theworld. Although I love music, I don’t love when ipod listeners choose itover my company. Perhaps if I owned one, I’d feel differently. But as ofnow, I would never want one. Living unplugged has enabled me to seethat a student’s ipod fever is more than musical: it’s socially isolating.This is not to say that I am always against them. When I exercise, I oftenborrow headphones to help motivate my elliptical workouts with fasttempomusic or pop in a CD to pass the time on long plane rides or caroutings.During my time at school, though, I have noticed a startlingnumber of students going about their day with white earplugs attachedas if they were an accessory intended to be worn until bedtime. At times,I wanted to ask my peers, is this really necessary? Must you really listento music while walking to and from class or eating in the dining hall? Iam starting to miss the opportunity to talk to people on my way to classor to the stranger standing behind me in the food line. Just last semester,I encountered a boy from my Sociology class listening to his iPod whilepreparing a salad next to me in the dining hall. He proceeded to strikea conversation with me without removing his earplugs. Awkwardly, Istruggled to recount my weekend in a loud voice, competing with theGreen Day music blasting from his ears.<strong>The</strong>re are many more ways in which students can be consideredrude for plugging up their ears. On countless occasions, I have said“bless you” when students sneezed in the library to receive no thankyou,or shouted their name while they were walking up ahead to receiveno response. Why no answer? <strong>The</strong>y couldn’t hear me. <strong>The</strong>ir ears wereplugged. But how was I to know their hooded ears were hiding a pair ofiPod earplugs? For all I knew, they were ignoring me. If only studentswould unplug their ears and let me in.Technology is the reason why college campuses have lost theircentrality in the broader place of society. Students have become so busybehind the screen that they’ve faded from the public scene as activistson campus. If students continue to capitulate to technology’s spell,the world as America used to understand it could come to an end. Inaddition to i<strong>College</strong>, we could have an iWorld on our hands.36 the continental | spring 2008
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