Loading ...The results are in regarding a story WebProNews brought you last week. Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania issued a social media ban across its entire campus for a week.
During the ban, WPN spoke with University Provost and Executive Vice President Dr. Eric Darr, who said the school hoped that students would understand what compelled them to use social media. In addition, the school wanted students to realize how often they take part in it.
Although students could access social platforms on their smartphones and off campus, Dr. Darr hoped that they would honor the academic exercise and try going without it for the week.
Could you do without Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and other social platforms? WPN challenged viewers with this question last month and received responses on both ends of the spectrum. We also went to a local university to find out their thoughts on this challenge as well as learn what they thought about the social experiment from Harrisburg University.
Our answers varied with one student saying, “I think it’s a brilliant experiment.” Another student said, “I think it’s a little bit of an extreme measure to shut it down completely.” One other student said, “It would be very hard for me not to use any social media.”
Although the university is still gathering feedback, Dr. Darr shared with us some of the results they have already received. “In general, everybody reported that they didn’t understand how influential social media was in their lives,” he said.
He also had a word of advice for others. He said, “Social media is here and is here to stay. Whether we are even aware of it or not, it has the potential to take over our lives.”
Incidentally, Dr. Darr told us that the university is planning another blackout and other events to raise further awareness about the impact of social media.
What is your impression of this experiment and its results? What impact do you think that social media has on society?
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Pretty dangerous stuff, this web 2.0 crap, like mass control brain wash, moving you around like puppets on strings, addicted to grandstanding, losing control of real behavior, resulting in obsessive behavior, cause of anxiety states. This kind od mass manipulation caused by social media insanity is more dangerous than any atomic bombs, climatic changes, medical pandemic or anything else before. No other drug on earth compares to web 2.0 . Escapism from what? Real world and cyber world will soon become a very explosive melting pot.
I agree with Dan.
Is there a difference between being addicted to SM and addicted to news?.
I think that there is a correlation and SM is based on the need to know right now what is going on around the world, news can increase anxiety, fear and stress, there is no one newspaper or news website that gives you “good news”, usually people look for those bad news so they can feel that their problems are of lesser importance than the problems of other people.
A few months ago I got an Email advertising a new website that gathers information about deaths around the globe i.e. 2 people die in a car crash, 9 dead when helicopter crash, 100 dead in… so on.
The more we are involved in those things the less we take care of our own problems and we get dormant about the real world issues that need our attention, my advice is to get rid of those things and start to focus on our own lives and by doing so try to make the world a better place to live.
I think a ban on TV is a better use of time than SM.
I tend to find social media pointless and irritating.
As a human being, I agree. As a business owner, I have to acknowledge and deal with it constructively. As a former college English instructor, I think that students who use cell-phones, Blackberries and forms of social media in the classroom are cheating themselves. And truthfully, if I caught a student texting or using a PDA or cell-phone in the classroom, consequences would commence, starting with marking the student absent rather than present. My policy of lowering the semester grade by a full letter after three absences would kick in a hurry.
Wow! It’s interesting but understandable that applications developed for college students would take over the lives of so many. It’s even more evident that some may need to get a life. But, Dan’s assertion that Social Media is here to stay should confirm the to the SEM community the need to get involved in Social Media. Businesses that do not get involved will get left behind!
Social media has no business being in our class rooms except where it is used as a teaching aid.
Our Younger generations are being subjected to non stop data streaming, more often than not, useless and distracting.
Students are in Schools or Universities to Learn their chosen course of study, not to be wasting time chatting on Facebook or Twitter. JMHO
Social Media taking up people’s time? Used to be called the telephone.
Saying that SM is dangerous is a bit alarmist. I have friends on different continents and in different countries and quite often would not be able to keep touch with everyone if I had to physically fly in to have a conversation. SM allows me to share photos and highpoints with people I consider worth having in my life.
The dangers of social media such as obsessive behavior would manifest in other ways if SM was not around. There is a different kind of ‘balance’ for the new generation and building a fear around it or pining for ‘better days’ is not really realistic or constructive.
Very nice work
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re talking about!