Guided Response: Select two of your classmates discussions and reflect on their viewpoints regarding the key issues of focus. In your response, compare and contrast your own discussion with your classmates viewpoints, or offer any new learning that has occurred for you in relation to their perspectives.
Anika Guidry
Evans et al. (2010) noted that historically, college student development issues have mirrored the social constructs of the time. Select one of the key issues facing todays college freshmen from the list below and use any social or socio-cultural identity theory (or combination of theories) to justify your discussion of how college student development issues may reflect current social or cultural constructs:
Freshman often attend their dream college and begin to feel like they dont belong. When I visited a university in Texas with my cousin, I noticed many of the students we In groups laughing and conversing. I asked my cousin which group she thought she would fit in and her response was None, because just as in life I am a loner. Unlike her I like to fit in and have a sense of belonging. This is why I chose the nontraditional route for a higher education.
Amanda Baker
Week 4: Discussion 1
Evans et al. (2010) noted that historically, college student development issues have mirrored the social constructs of the time. Select one of the key issues facing todays college freshmen from the list below and use any social or socio-cultural identity theory (or combination of theories) to justify your discussion of how college student development issues may reflect current social or cultural constructs:
When I consider issues that students are facing in the 21st century, it generally revolves around the idea that students are part of a populace with a growing need to belong and be part of something bigger than themselves. They go out of their way to create an identity that may be nothing like who they are in real life or represent any of their actual interests. In fact, this identity is likely not even rooted in reality, but utilized as a sort of representative that is used for functions in social media and public appearances. It is no surprise with this sort of misrepresentation of self that students have a hard time finding where they do or do not fit and frequently feel they do not belong.
Many students view college as a way to reinvent themselves and distance themselves from parts of their personalities or self that they may not necessarily like. This reinvention period (especially in younger college freshman) can cause turbulence and stress for the student. Does this identity fit with the concept of student success? This sense of belonging that students desire can starkly oppose the rational approach of Chickering’s theory. The third and fourth vectors requires a certain sense of self to have been established in order to eschew the external motivators of relationships (i.e. peer pressure, not wanting to “upset” friends, or deviate from a group and it’s expected norms). At it’s worst, the sense of belonging in an erroneous placement will halt progress in these vectors. At it’s best, students are able to overcome a mindset of “popularity over all else” or “peer approval before everything” to achieve a healthy sense of self and then, a healthy series of relationships rooted in meaningful interests.
When this is achieved, the student is able to truly have a sense of belonging that comes with crossing over into an established, truthful identity and independent sense of self.
MY WORK BELOW TO HELP YOU COMPARE/CONTRAST FOR THE TWO PEERS WORK ABOVE.
College Students and Social Media Connectivity
Having read an article Is Social Media too Social for Class by Lin, Hoffman, and Borengasser, it became clear that an embrace of tools and technological appliances has had a high impact to humanity in the recent decades. These appliances report having impacted their daily activities such as their behavioral conduct and socialization among themselves and their surroundings. In the most recent days, vigorous innovations and the establishment of digital and social media technological appliances has availed an interesting pristine truth. This tool has provided an avenue through which people connect through the online networking for leisure hence sharing information, ideas, skills, and content (Lin et al., 2013). The establishment of Smartphone technologies has further steered the use of these technologies to greater heights. According to this trio, online networking has evolved from socializing to an intimate understanding of which one stands for. For instance, college students from across the world are increasingly using this tool to communicate, learn and collaborate thus creating, interacting and maintaining relationships as they establish their identities.
Article Critique
Digital identity is a term which has undergone scrutiny with scholars such as Crosby and Dalton highlighting that online identity is the composition of imagery presented by an individual via promoting and sharing of these images for oneself through the online platforms (Lin et al., 2013). Furthermore, Stroller explains that the growth of digital identity is a new phenomenon to the college students affairs online conversion yet their branding and online reputation paints the picture of a different thing that what this word stands for (Lin et al., 2013). Although there are various types of online identities namely true did identity, anonymity, and pseudoanoximity, most of the American college students embrace methods that seem erotic and explicit. When viewing these online technologies and what they constitute, one would associate it with the traditional theory of development hence developing a new approach of perceiving numerous fragments of identities.
Conclusion
It is without a doubt that majority of the American college students participate in the form of an ideal online game in which they avail some perfected images to accumulate the social media likes and other engagements after seeing and being viewed by others. With least researches in this sector, it is likely that this trend would prevail; hence more studies would help to provide clarity on the impact of digital platforms on the future generations.
References
Lin, M. G., Hoffman, E. S., & Borengasser, C. (2013): Is social media too social for class? A case study of Twitter use: Tech Trends: 57(2), 39
https://aect.org/docs/Itech-DIGEST-v3n2.pdf (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
