A small technological college in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania has banned social networking as part of a social experiment. Students and faculty alike have no access to facebook, myspace, twitter, IM, or any other form of social networking while on the campus. The blackout has had mixed reception among everyone on campus. Some find it extremely inconvenient, while others have embraced the ban saying it has allowed them to focus more on school and less on their online social obligations. Eric Darr, the provost of the college, has said that the blackout is meant for students to think critically about social media. This goal is obviously being achieved, for even student who are trying to cheat the blackout by using smart phones or accessing local wifi points are forced to the realization of how much social media has influenced their daily lives. Many classes have also tied their curriculum to the blackout, asking students to write papers about their opinions of the experiment.
Overall I found this article to be an interesting idea that truly shows just how much we have tied our identities to online society. I feel it also might yield valuable research data for many different areas of study ranging from Digital Media to Psychology. For the full article follow this link from Yahoo! news:
A Week Without Facebook?
Fascinating. Just out of curiosity, how many of you bristle at the thought? Who would totally find a workaround? Who would relish the break? It's one good way to understand how entrenched something is in our lives is to go without for a short bit...
ReplyDeleteI like the idea as an experiment but I don't actually believe the underlying argument that social networking sites are distracting students in any significant way. You could argue on the other hand that students are staying in at night more then they used to because they are socializing online. This would mean that they are getting to sleep earlier and less drunk. I have no idea if that is true but I'm just saying, sounds a little crack pot to me.
ReplyDeleteActually me and some buddys made the same kind of experiment. We stayed out of facebook for a week. Some actually said is was a freeing experience to not have to check that all the time and just not care about it. But others said they didn't like not knowing what was going on there. So the opinions about it were different.
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