Anisa Jibrell – General Assignment Reporter
Hopping onto the endless web of social media channels has indefinitely become a college essential, but the social media regime has its hiccups that students of Southern are all too familiar with.
“I think a lot of what you see on the internet is just for show,” said Susan Bowes, senior computer science major. Popular social media outlets like Instagram and Snapchat allow users to share their surroundings with friends an infinite number of times
Miranda Martinez, junior liberal studies major, expresses her frustration with the way some college students go overboard and use their social media platform as a means to overshare.
“I personally don’t care about what someone ate for breakfast,” said Martinez, pointing to herself. “I couldn’t care less.”
According to psychologist, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett’s, developmental theory, he describes emerging adulthood, between the ages of 18 and 25, as an age of identity and exploration when young adults are freed from the throes of their parents’ rules and are shaping their identity. Micro-blogging social media sites like Twitter serve as avenues that allow college students to have a voice and form their identities during this exploratory phase. For many, twitter has a self-esteem-boosting value, for others, a social hindrance.
Katie Sarno, senior psychology major, agrees that some college students are more inclined to share with strangers as opposed to going out and making new connections.
Sarno said, “It’s just easier than going outside to meet people. You don’t feel like you’re being judged because you don’t know them.”
From tweets to emails to Facebook posts, with this unlimited number of social media options at their fingertips, college students find it increasingly more difficult to stay on task as their academic obligations and this social media overload go head to head.
“This happens to me all the time,” said Martinez. “ I’ll be typing up a paper, and I’ll stop to go on Facebook or Instagram to see what’s going on, and then two, three hours later I’ll only have a paragraph.”
“Sometimes I find that I feel like I’m trying to get a drink out of a fire hydrant,” said Dr. Heidi Lockwood, philosophy 
associate professor at Southern, expressing her efforts in dealing with the massive influx of social media content. “I imagine students must feel the same.”
While unhealthy social media habits may prove to be deterrents to academic success among college students, Lockwood works to incorporate social media in the classroom as an unconventional way to keep students engaged.
Despite its distracting properties, Lockwood said, “Social media is a very flexible tool for increasing engagement and broadening the choices that students have for ways to engage with the material.”
Lockwood permits students to use Twitter to engage in discussions– or to engage in passive media such as a lecture or film– by tweeting at the course Twitter feed. However, she said that it should be used judiciously.
Lockwood said, “Not every truth can be reduced to 140 characters.”
Lockwood said these methods are particularly helpful for students who are uncomfortable speaking up in class, who don’t listen passively, or who are unable to attend a class discussion.
“One of the advantages of social media,” said Lockwood, “is that it encourages the students to think for themselves creatively, which is a good skill to have in the kaleidoscope landscape of the job market today.”
Photo Credit: Jason Howie
