Department of Sociology

Although Georgetown’s campus may not be entirely wireless, Georgetown students are constantly wired — and not just because of that steaming Red Eye from MUG.

The convenience of the Internet is helpful — even essential — in today’s fast-paced society, but some skeptics assert that our dependence on the Web has become a vice. For many students in our generation, it’s hard to imagine a world in which they couldn’t almost instantly look up the name of an actor they saw featured in a recent movie, quickly do research for a paper due in three hours or e-mail happy birthday to a best friend studying abroad in India.

Labeled the “Net Generation” by author Dan Tapscott a decade ago, today’s youth have grown up in a world where computer skills are taught hand-in-hand with learning how to read. Yet with this paradigm shift has come a new set of issues and controversies, and because many are so deeply entrenched in their net savvy, they may not even notice.

“The question becomes the appropriateness of interaction with each medium — there is a shift in acceptable rules for interaction with technology whether by phone, mail, e-mail or text,” says Christine Schiwietz, a professor in the sociology department.

Schiwietz asks questions that would make etiquette grandmaster Emily Post squirm: “Do you still send formal hard-copy invitations for graduation or weddings? What about social gatherings that are [now] acceptable via Facebook? If not on Facebook as a college student, one inadvertently misses out on significant social parties. What about asking somebody on a date — call, text, send real flowers, electronic flowers or e-cards? Or even [when] breaking off a relationship, should one text, call, Facebook?”
Aside from the dump-by-text, most college students are blithely accepting of this cultural shift. Even many parents have managed to keep up with the rapidly evolving virtual world, some texting lovingly, “plz call me! R U OK? <3 Mom.”

In today’s digital whirlwind, many have felt the need to access information at the click of a mouse. The relevance of these sites is irresistible to students like Alex Henderson (COL ’12), who says he feels they are “excellent tools to make knowledge very accessible for people who have a casual curiosity.”

The urgency for the latest news has caused an exponential increase in the popularity of Twitter and blog-style journalism, but this boom of instant information has been met by critics of its accuracy and accountability, as many a Wikipedia-bashing professor has reminded students.

“The Internet is a great invention. We need to use it intelligently, rather than as a quick way to get knowledge. Information is not the same as knowledge,” says sociology professor C. Margaret Hall.

Although this e-literate youth tend to look down on parent generations when it comes to computer know-how, many aren’t far behind in the technological revolution. During the recent “Snowpocalypse,” many Georgetown professors revealed their own agility with the Web by e-mailing assignments, mandating reflection blogging and even holding office hours through video chat. The moves prompted one student member of the Facebook group “Overhead at Georgetown” to post on the group’s wall, “I mean, if I wanted to go school online, I would have gone to the University of Phoenix.”

As some yearn for more human connection in these tech-heavy times, recently published data assert that most young adults are consumed by the new applications of social media on the Web. About 85 percent of college students actively use Facebook, according to TechCrunch, and the average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on the site, according to Facebook press Web site. Some students at Georgetown have felt the repercussions of this media-reliant age.

“It is a little bit baffling sometimes. My roommate will sometimes tweet something when I don’t even realize she’s in the apartment, and that’s the first words I’ve heard from her all day even though we’ve been in the same apartment for hours,” Katherine Kaiser (SFS ’11) says. She and her roommate are usually very close, but Kaiser still marvels at the pervasiveness of technology in otherwise normal relationships. “Sometimes, it’s inauthentic communication.”

“Most people vaguely know students who hole up in their dorm room on their computer talking on instant messenger for hours at a time,” Henderson adds. While many students cite Facebook, e-mail and text messaging as dependable media for networking and keeping in touch with faraway friends, they find it a problem when modern technology takes its toll on one-on-one interaction.

“I think it’s great, but how much people rely on Facebook to meet new people can be bad sometimes. I’m old-fashioned — I would rather have face-to-face interactions than [ones] over the Internet. I would rather call than text … but I still do use technology a lot,” Dave Janhofer (COL ’12) says.

The allure of these new technologies multiplies in the form of beneficial social networking sites that aim to connect and unify subgroups.
“Group work and organizing people interested in the same social issues have been facilitated a great deal. This creates more clarity in establishing grassroots social movements and other informal interest groups,” Hall says.

Take, for example, the new online startup, a Hoya-centric “blog hub” founded by Laura Sortwell (MSB ’10) and Jessica Lioon (MSB ’10), a former Hoya copy editor. Their Web site is self-described as a place where users can “have the intellectual-but-fun conversations that might normally occur over a coffee in Midnight Mug or a pitcher at The Tombs.”

Sounds good, but many people see virtual communication as a means of connecting with people that will never amount to as much as in-person interaction does. A primary reason for this is due to the ease of creating an identity that is an inaccurate representation of the user, which can ultimately lead some to create false self-representations.

In recent years, this creation of virtual identities has begun to play a role in the Georgetown experience, especially in the freshman experience, whether through CHARMS or pre-NSO stalking.

“People totally mask themselves on CHARMS,” says Michael Kiritsy (COL ’13) about some of his friends and their experiences with the roommate finder. “‘Oh, you’re from Florida, too?’ ‘Oh, we’re so compatible!’ Meanwhile, they now can’t stand each other. There is a difference between IM-ing and actually living with someone, dealing with a living, breathing, snoring human being.” He notes that of the roommate pairs he knows who did not opt to use CHARMS last summer, all will room together again next year, whereas the virtually matched roommates aren’t so lucky.

The new virtual element adds complications to more than just friendships. The game of love has instantly been changed by the new means flirting, and students sometimes dwell over the implications of text conversations laced with smiley faces, or whether the fun of a weekend hookup should be continued via casual but coy Facebook wall posts.

Yet, for all the time many Hoyas spend stalking classmates on Facebook or harvesting their farms on Farmville, there is something to be said for the implications that online social interaction has on the world. Whether Skyping with a friend in Nepal or texting the girl sitting next to you in class, the world is moving fast, and with each new online application comes another link in the chain that is pulling every body on the planet closer together.

-Written by Sarah Amos

http://guide.thehoya.com/node/393