As a ‘professional student’ I have seen a dramatic shift in media use among college students in the 10 years I have been pursuing higher education. I was an undergraduate in the early 2000’s and my roommate and I had dial-up Internet until my Senior year or so. At the time, we used the net primarily for email, music downloads and research using the library’s vast electronic journal databases (an advance those only slightly older marveled at as they reminisced about their hours ‘in the stacks’). How times have changed! What was once a great tool for boosting productivity has most certainly reached the threshold of diminishing returns. I am now online constantly—email, facebook, hulu, NYT.com et al. are delightful tools used to distract me from more pressing assignments. The pleasant ‘ding’ of the occasional instant message from intimate friends and family has been replaced by a constant stream of contrived witty repartee and updates about the mundane goings-on in the lives of rediscovered ‘friends’ once long forgotten. Regularly scheduled programming, once consumed ritualistically and communally, stimulating discussion of social and political implications, is now accessible on spontaneous private whim. As a graduate instructor, it has become quite difficult to find examples that are universally recognized among undergraduate students. Ironically, several professors have been heard appealing to the current crop of undergraduates that they need to watch more tv! Sadly, the invaluable note taking skills I developed as I filled spiral notebooks with a personalized record of the key points and structure of lectures are not being developed by the modern mac-wielding student. Students now insist that lectures be delivered via power point and the slides posted online. Any notes taken seem to consist of a few disconnected pieces of jargon pounded out on a laptop (such a joy for us TA’s to try and decipher during office hours!).
Of course, there are certainly many advantages to the brave new media world. I am able to tote around terra-bites of data and archival material in my pocket. In mere hours I can find almost any article ever written on a topic without ever leaving my desk. Inexpensive new software lets me do statistical computations which, only a few short years ago, required hours in the computer lab. Indeed, even as graduate student I am able to do research that would be the envy of eminent scholars of yore, all without missing a single episode of American Idol!
