This is from a review of a new book about a new book by Arthur Levine and Diane R. Dean, “Generation on a Tightrope,” that looks at the current crop of college kids:
Technology defines so many things about them, Levine and Dean write, for good and bad. They are extremely connected, and yet isolated; while they are “in 24/7 contact with a tribe of friends, family and acquaintances via social media, they are more alone in many of the activities they pursue,” with only a third of undergraduates reporting that they attend college social and community events at least once a month. This connectedness/isolation contradiction makes them “weak in interpersonal skills, face-to-face communication skills, and problem-solving skills.”
Among the parties with whom they are in near-constant contact are their parents. “Unlike other generations that called home once a week, two out of five students (41 percent) are in touch with parents by phone, e-mail, text or visit at least daily,” the report states. “One in five (19 percent) is in contact three or more times a day.” That is reflective of a dependence on parents and other adults (attributable in part to coddling by said parents) that leaves many of them underprepared to enter the world on their own, and leaves many college deans and other officials telling the authors that “the biggest change on campus since 2001 is parent involvement — and sometimes intrusion – on campus.”
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3 Responses to Today’s College Students: Be Very Afraid
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I see kids in my classroom and their interpersonal and collaborative skills are diminishing and when high school and college students do get together there is some sort of substance abuse whether it be alcohol or something else because it makes you more social. Companies in silicon valley are even treating their workers for technology addiction. And college students are a minority of America’s kids and the most successful ones at that. What does the future hold for the rest of them?
Did my post disappear in thin air?
Fracking and Framing Frank. Get those 14 year old kids in the tobacco fields producing something people want. Solve the dropout problem by getting the kids to work early.
Farming.
Japan has an $11.00 an hour Minimum Wage and faces the same problem as the US with the Welfare Rolls exploding with young kids. Putting them to school longer doesn’t solve the problem. They need to go to work earlier, at the age of 14, for wages that will support employment.
Sounds barbaric but there are other countries facing the same dilemma of China and Brazil and a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor and potential outsourcing.
Soon the kids will be calling Mom and Dad from the basement while Mom and Dad pretend they aren’t there flaunting their Master Degree to their other unemployed friends on Skype and Facebook.