A Social Media Experiment

The article I just recently reviewed, “Student: Social media blackout eye-opening, ‘annoying’” really put the amount of time we internet dependants spend on the social networking services into perspective. Several students at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania viewed the blackout as an extreme inconvenience, where that updating their Facebook status’s had become a routine. A senior in the IT department at Harrisburg University, Jason Hyer says that seeing all the students on sites such as Facebook day in and day out is “surprising.” Hyer supports his surprised emotions toward the whole social networking on campus by stating that his fellow students “are paying for this education and just using Facebook the whole time.” Research has shown that students are not affected grade wise by the use of social networking in classrooms. However, the use of the week long blackout caused – for the students – a different atmosphere to grow in the classroom. The “experiment” was said to be used to show the students how much social networking had taken time off of their hands, time that could’ve been used to perhaps study or prep for classes. A junior at Harrisburg, Amanda Zuck found herself scrounging for whatever free access she could find to her Facebook during the blackout week. Zuck said that one day during the experimental week she borrowed her friend’s laptop which had access to a private network outside of the school just so she could update her Facebook status. “You can tell the good students who really care and want to learn by how little they are on Facebook in class,” Zuck said. Sherrie Madia, director of communication at Harrisburg believes that the blackout should serve as a warning to parents and their children about their transitions from the classroom to the workspace.