Technology and its Impact on College Students

Technology has recently taken hold in culture, having a wide range of effects. Across the world, technology and its disruptive consequences are on the rise. Any world, population, and area of human life are affected by technology's negative effects. The technological aspects that have led to these cases have been observed to revolve around new technological advancements such as the internet, social networking platforms, video games, auction sites, smartphones, and computerized gadgets. Despite the importance of technology, the majority of students are often found in the midst of a squabble, which has an effect on their emotional, social, physical, religious, and psychological wellbeing. Although exploration has been conducted to determine the effect of technology broadly, a lot of questions remain unanswered regarding the negative impact of this to the human population (Siddiqui and Singh 24).Technology has been defined as the scientific innovation and rise technological edge in aspects that revolve around human stay on earth. The negative impact of technology are effects that emerge as a result of the use of a given scientific innovation. As such, the impacts are on the environment, people’s health, social life, and climate of among other aspects of human population. The negative effects are felt majorly by the youth, social media and smartphones which are a branch of technological advancement possess core negative effects on students. In America, statistics show that 3-10 million of students are gadget obsessed and exposed to technological addiction and social degradation (Eberendu 20). Children who are witnesses to this menace have been shown to undergo emotional and psychological torment which may affect their moral development and performance in school.The present study will investigate the negative effects associated with technology. This will include the unemployment, erosion of moral values and addiction to online games, effect on student performance, environmental issues, family problems, and pollution. Research relating to this issue will be analyzed to ascertain the available information and create a synthesis of effects as per the global technological trends. The present study will answer the questions: a) how are students distracted by social media, and their smartphones? b) Does it affect them and people surrounding them? c) Are there pros and cons of social media and social media? More specifically, the research will delve into the addiction of college students to these forms of technology, impacts and treatment methods if any.Analysis of Student’s Addiction to TechnologyTechnology in the recent times is considered as a true addiction with a myriad effects on the victims. In this case, students suffere sseverly and therefore they get distracted from their academic life. As a result, they prone to advanced and soficscated technological elements such as the social media, internet, smartphones, and video games (Eberendu 23).Impact of Social Media and Smartphones on Students and Pople aroundTechnology has brought more harm than good especially to students in the current generation. Considering social media which is has attracted many students across the globe, a number of challenges emanate from it. Social media such as twitter, Facebook, Instagram, all social networking sites have gotten students glued to their laptops and phones most of the time (Kubey et al. 366). Firstly, social media has distracted students from their studies since they waste much of the time that would have been used to understand abstract concepts. As such, such students devote most of the time in chatting with friends online at the expense of revising their books. In addition to that, some of the students especially in class do not concentrate to what the teachers are teaching, instead they are on social networking sites. Also, social media corrupts the moral fabric of the students. This occurs when students have more freedom of access to an extent they engage with friends in pornography, drug and substance abuse, cybersex, and finally truancy. In this regard, they drop out of school due to more social distractions to their normal academic lifestyle (Han et al. 840).Furthermore, because most of the student want to try everything they get in social media through imitation, most of them develop fluctuation in moods. The constant mood variation is accompanied with lack of self-control and this resulted to suicidal cases among students. Such students develop psychological disorders due to continuous use of social media which is stressful and leads to poor performance in school. According to several researches done on college students, cases of internet gaming disorders, gadget obsession, and video conferencing were many. Such are have been registered as addiction cases that have compelled the institutions and the people around the victims to seek for psychiatric services. In the same view, students tend to multitask, checking social networking sites while studying hence they show reduced academic performance (Eberendu 24).Social media has also led to laxity among students which has consequently resulted to poor focus on learning, creativity, and information retention. This is evident when students are able to use social sites to provide answers to their assignments. The growing in popularity of social media and the speed at which most of the information is always published has affected most students due to a lax attitude towards proper grammar and spelling (Han et al. 833).Younes and Al-Zoubi (45-78) studied the connection between exposure to technology on children and their development. The study aimed at establishing the association between the negative acts seen in childhood and their replication in adult life. Indeed, most children tend to behave and acquire the behavior that they observe from a number of technological aspects. The study involving 124 participants found out that exposure to video games as an aspect of technology in the family contributed to development to adult perpetrators among the respondents. This revealed that the moral stability of the students was affected leading to adaptation of violent behavior as a positive value in them. In the study, violent behavior was cultivated by constant use of war-like video games by children as they grow and cyber-bullying. Such exposure corrupted and affected the innocence of children and led to a number of teens suffer from suicidal cases due to cyber-bullying, social isolation, and lack of social skills. Younes and Al-Zoubi (45-78) concluded that technological exposure led to high chances of violence among the students in the future and this interrupted their social life in the society.Smartphones are believed to the source of interruption and distractions in class. Students with phones hardly concentrate and they tend to interrupt the teacher by receiving calls, chatting, and excess social sites. In addition to that, most of the students take selfies or pictures of themselves and post in social sites and these are among the unacceptable practices in classes (End et al. 56).Social media and mobile technology affects both the students and the people around them in a number of ways. For instance, the people around them especially the parents and the siblings incur cost of restoring the corrupted minds of the victims after technological addiction. Additionally, social and moral degradation does not only affect the students but also teachers and parents. This occurs when best students become a disgrace to their teachers and parents thus it becomes a social responsibility and burden to people who are close to them. Furthermore, the teachers are affected the more since such students are a nuisance to others in class. They phone calls, class pictures, and corrupted morals distract not only the attention of others but the lesson as a whole. Therefore, the frustration on the running of the school programs due to technologically addicted students is a problem affecting majority of the people and not only the victims (End et al. 55).Pros and Cons of Technology and Social MediaThere are a number of pros and cons of technology and social media to students. To begin with, the pros of technology revolves on the current innovations in the field of education. Most of the students are able to learn at their own pace due to the presence of platforms such as Podcast and vodcast. These platforms are able to store data and lessons or discussions held for review at a later time. As such, those who did not have chance to understand can do so at their own time. In addition to that, video conferencing has helped connect students and their tutors on an internet enabled academic chart platform. In this regard, the students are able to hold class conferences and online classes at the comfort of their rooms without distance being a limit. This helps to save time that would have been used by students to move say at evening and hold a class discussion with their teachers (Burns 810).Technology has also enabled student to stay connected with others across the globe. This has made sharing and analysis of experimental data done in modern technological laboratories efficient. As such, online services such as WI-FI and internet has made students share vast information, carry out research, and stay alert in class. This is accompanied by installation of programs that aid student practical and mathematical manipulative skills. Software such as MATLAB, BBC, downloadable Java game and SMS text messages, and e-book reader have played a significant role in ensuring students have access to all that they need in their studies hence boosting their confidence, self-esteem, and understanding of abstract concepts.Social networking on the other side has helped students increase their ability to collaborate and share information faster (Burns 806). They can communicate about meetings, discussion groups, and academic materials easily and within a short period of time. This increases their teamwork ability and productivity. Also, the students due to constant exposure to social media are able to develop business related activities and thus developing their carriers as they connect with many industries online.However, the cons of technology and social media revolve around the addiction practices portrayed by majority of students. Most of these technological components are always limited by power. In this view, they cannot be used in places without power or during times of power rampage. Furthermore, constant use of technology causes internet, online porn, and video gambling addictions. Addictions come along with physical, emotional, and psychological torment which are harmful to the students or the victims. These are expensive to treat since they amount to internet disorders that may led social withdrawal of the victims from the public. Consequently, poor performance are registered for students and this is detrimental to college students (Andreassen 180).Also, Wang (20-48) in his study gives the effects that people face for constantly using technology. The negative effect include emotional and mental disturbance like anxiety, delusion, and phobia. Furthermore, the study showed that many incidences included lack of sleep, anxiety, loss of appetite and even depression among people exposed to technology. Also, physical health concerns including self-harm were reported showing the extent of psychological trauma experienced by the people witnesses. All these symptoms are collectively termed as neurosis, which occur due to a person being convinced that he is sick after watching or looking up a strange disease on the web. Another problem addressed by the study is the loss of eyesight and hearing. This was revealed to occur when people constantly use headphones and straining looking at the computer for a long period of time.Recommendation and Treatment for Technological AddictionThe constant use of technology and social media has resulted to addiction that has led to a number of negative effects. Though technology use is not easy to control, students can apply several methods to aid them. The school curriculum should be reviewed so as to include courses on the dangers of exposure or addiction to technology and social media. In this regard, students have to sensitized on the how to control the use of technology and all evils associated to it. These includes gadget obsession, online pornography, excessive use of internet, and video gambling. Also, strict rules should be placed on student’s use of social networking sites at school, class and home. This will ensure controlled use of the dirty sites that aimed at degrading the social and moral fabric of the learners in the society (Andreassen 178).Addiction can also be treated by the medical experts (addiction therapists). In this regard, clinics can be opened to help wean students off the mobile gadgets and internet. As such, those students who have been deeply devoted to cyber-reality can be helped to interpret their real-life emotions (Wang 19).ConclusionConsidering the use of technology, the negative impacts are looming into a myriad sectors of human life. The literature outlines the negative impact that has affected the economic sector in terms of forced unemployment, environmental challenges in terms of pollution, health effect, social, moral, and education challenge. These negative effects adversely have affected the society and a number researches done on the same is a key element in the current times. In the recent times, the research on this topic has been getting a blow due to constant technological changes that tend to outsmart the negative effects of technology. In this regard, the challenges of integrating research in such fields counter challenges due to the quest of each country to run to sophisticated high-tech measures that are beyond research and analysis using ordinary and existing literature. Therefore, these inconsistencies have to be addressed for a comprehensive study in this topic. Also, the topic of study needs to be streamed lined into specific areas of technology for more defined and specific impacts.Works CitedAndreassen, Cecilie Schou. “Online Social Network Site Addiction: A Comprehensive Review.” Current Addiction Reports, vol. 2, no. 2, 2015, pp. 175-184.Burns, Shari M. and Kevin Lohenry. “Cellular Phone Use in Class: Implications for Teaching and Learning a Pilot Study.” College Student Journal, vol. 44, no. 3, 2010, pp. 805-810.Eberendu, Adanma C. “Negative Impacts of Technology in Nigerian Society.” International Journal of Business and Management Review, vol. 3, no. 2, 2015, pp. 23-29.End, Christian M., Shaye Worthman, Mary B. Mathews, and Katharina Wetterau. “Costly Cell Phones: The Impact of Cell Phone Rings on Academic Performance.” Teaching of Psychology, vol. 37, no. 1, 2010, pp. 55-57.Han, Insook, Won Sug Shin, and Yujung Ko. “The Effect of Student Teaching Experience and Teacher Beliefs on Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Intention to Use Technology in Teaching.” Teachers and Teaching, vol. 23, no. 7, 2017, pp. 829-842.Kubey, Robert W., Michael J. Lavin, and John R. Barrows. “Internet Use and Collegiate Academic Performance Decrements: Early Findings.” Journal Communication, vol. 51, no. 2, 2001, pp. 366-382.Wang, Victor CX, editor. Technology and Its Impact on Educational Leadership: Innovation and Change: Innovation and Change. IGI Global, 2012.