Cool with the College Crowd

My college alumni magazine, Macalester Today, ran a fascinating article about how college students use technology. Back when I went to school, my main goal was to get as far away from home as possible. I wrote letters home from Minnesota, calling only for emergencies (Mom, it’s really freeeeeeezing here, I need a heavier coat). Today’s college kids talk to their parents—willingly—several times a day!

Cell phones are near appendages. Texting is big. One student confessed to writing 200 text messages per day. (On one of those ridiculously tiny keyboards?! What do they say to each other all day long?)

More than 90 percent of the arriving freshman class had pages on Facebook and had spent the summer checking each other out. The upper classman answered questions and otherwise sought to make the freshman feel at home before they’d ever laid eyes on the place.

All this technology has posed intriguing questions. Being in constant contact with parents and hometown friends may delay the development of independence that was a rite of passage for older generations. With their ears full of cell phones or ipod earplugs, do young people experience the bliss of an inspiration that comes on a silent walk? One student interviewed for the article talked about a camping trip where he and his friends were so anxiety-ridden when they discovered they were without cell service that they couldn’t enjoy their spectacular surroundings.

As proof that Macalester is still home to the counter culture, there’s a new movement afoot. Kids are committing “Facebook suicide”—taking down their profile pages. Some are claiming that the new cool is to be cell phone-free. Somehow, I doubt it will catch fire the way bras did in the 60s.