Is Being "Plugged In" Changing Campus Life? A Conversation

On page 495 in the text A Meeting of Minds begins an article published by the Student Affairs Online e-journal in 2002 entitled Is Being "Plugged In" Changing Campus Life? A Conversation. The article follows a conversation between University of Massachusetts students, Ethan Kolek and Meg Kluge, who have differing views about whether or not technology has influenced students for better or for worse. 

On one side of the argument is Meg who says, “Relationships mediated by technology don’t allow us to engage with a whole person—only what they write or what they say.” (p. 496) What Meg is saying is that our face-to-face interactions have been neglected in favor of interacting through media. In turn, students’ social skills are much less developed than they otherwise should be. 

However, Ethan counters Meg’s claim saying, “Anyone who works on campus knows that our students still date, still play intramural sports, still party together…” (p. 498) Ethan is not denying that students interact via social networking, but he sees it as more of an enhancement to communicating rather than a detriment.

Both Meg and Ethan make valid points. Media can both harm and benefit the social skills of students. In my opinion there is no right and wrong to the argument; it is a matter of balance. Avoiding technology altogether would be ludicrous, it’s everywhere we turn and quite frankly it makes day to day living much more convenient. The issue arises when and if face-to-face interactions are cut out completely; that is when social and leadership skills might decline. The key is finding a balance between the two. Its human nature to desire to be “plugged in;” we are social creatures, but there’s always something refreshing about leaving the phone at home and interacting with people without technology as a distraction.