Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Study examines social media’s impact on student mental health, interpersonal activity

In today’s fast-paced society, social networking has evolved beyond cell phone calls and text messaging and proliferated onto the Internet. Most teens and college students now have at least one account on the sites Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr or other popular forms of social media, like Google Chrome and LinkedIn.

A new mtvU study in collaboration with the Associated Press and the Jed Foundation reported that 90 percent of college students sampled said they visited at least one social networking website in the past week.

The results held that the new era of incessant communication can cause friction and mental uncertainty for students.

“For college students, constant digital communication carries an additional layer of complexity, often leading to misunderstandings, confusion and uncertainty,” the text of the study read.

The study goes so far as to suggest that the very nature of communication has shifted in the era of social networking, with a majority of students reporting that they had had a fight without physically speaking to another party.

“Nearly 70 percent [of surveyed students] have had an argument exclusively via text message,” the study states.

This study was released as part of the Half of Us Campaign by mtvU and the Jed Foundation to examine “how technology is impacting college students’ emotional health,” according to the campaign’s website. The Half of Us Campaign “is designed to improve emotional health and prevent suicide among college students,” it states.

The study also sought to examine how students use social media in the categories of seeking help/suicide, misunderstandings/conflicts, being connected vs. feelings of isolation, and stress and happiness. The study sheds light on how social media tools have become the most common form of communication among young people.

Beyond a shift in the parameters of possibility for how young people argue, the study found that students have changed how they empathize and console each other, as well. Nearly four in 10 students reported they had “ask[ed] for help with a serious personal issue or let a friend know they are upset via text message.”

The mtvU study certainly indicates that in-person interaction likely has the most positive effects on student well-being, in addition to highlighting how digital communication can be confounding based on its ambiguity.
“At least half of the time when college students read emails/text messages or posts on social networking sites, 48 percent report that they are unsure about whether the sender was serious or joking.”

The study also illustrates how social networking has changed how people keep tabs of one another, and some would likely argue for the worst. “Sixty-one percent of students say they have found themselves frequently tracking someone’s social networking site,” the study suggests.

With the capability to link together individuals from all over the world, social networking tools have, however, have helped 85 percent of students feel more connected to others, the study states. However, the results also show that one in seven say that, while they may be more connected to those around them, they are also further away. This seventh stated that “social networking sites increase feelings of isolation.”

The study also suggests that, with the constant presence of social media, young people are changing how they spend their time. A majority of students reported spending two to six hours online per day, and “one-third are online for more than six hours daily.”

To understand the prevalence of social networking usage at the University of Massachusetts, 20 undergraduate students were randomly selected and surveyed about their social networking usage. All but one of the students stated that they possessed at least one active social networking site account. Seventy-five percent, or 15 of the UMass students, answered that they checked their online social networking accounts daily, while 40 percent of those that admitted to using their networking accounts daily admitted to actually checking the account more than three times a day for updates and messages.

The number of “friends” the individuals surveyed had in their social network site ranged from 0-900. On average the students had about 343.05 friends on their friends list. Most individuals stated their reason for keeping a social networking account was “to keep in contact with people.” One student said, “I was forced to make one,” while another simply stated “pictures.” Long gone are the days where direct face-to-face communication is the main form of communicating with others. Social networking websites and tools are here to stay.

Jessica Bonheur can be reached at [email protected].

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  • M

    Milan MoravecOct 26, 2010 at 6:19 pm

    Won’t someone think of the mental health of students at UC Berkeley? When UC Berkeley announced its elimination of baseball, men’s and women’s gymnastics, and women’s lacrosse teams and its defunding of the national-champion men’s rugby team, the chancellor sighed, “Sorry, but this was necessary!”
    But was it? Yes, the university is in dire financial straits. Yet $3 million was somehow found to pay the Bain consulting firm to uncover waste and inefficiencies in UC Berkeley, despite the fact that a prominent East Coast university was doing the same thing without consultants.
    Essentially, the process requires collecting and analyzing information from faculty and staff. Apparently, senior administrators at UC Berkeley believe that the faculty and staff of their world-class university lack the cognitive ability, integrity, and motivation to identify millions in savings. If consultants are necessary, the reason is clear: the chancellor, provost, and president have lost credibility with the people who provided the information to the consultants. Chancellor Robert J Birgeneau has reigned for eight years, during which time the inefficiencies proliferated. Even as Bain’s recommendations are implemented (“They told me to do it”, Birgeneau), credibility and trust problems remain.
    Bain is interviewing faculty, staff, senior management and the academic senate leaders for $150 million in inefficiencies, most of which could have been found internally. One easy-to-identify problem, for example, was wasteful procurement practices such as failing to secure bulk discounts on printers. But Birgeneau apparently has no concept of savings: even in procuring a consulting firm, he failed to receive proposals from other firms.

    Students, staff, faculty, and California legislators are the victims of his incompetence. Now that sports teams are feeling the pinch, perhaps the California Alumni Association, benefactors and donators, and the UC Board of Regents will demand to know why Birgeneau is raking in $500,000 a year despite the abdication of his responsibilities.

    The author, who has 35 years’ consulting experience, has taught at University of California Berkeley, where he was able to observe the culture and the way the senior management operates.

    Reply
  • R

    ryanOct 26, 2010 at 8:01 am

    Please edit this. I couldn’t get past the first paragraph. Also, Chrome is a browser..

    Reply
  • D

    Derrick NorrisOct 26, 2010 at 12:27 am

    Social networking sites can be used in a positive manner as well as social media is a very powerful tool that can be used to connect people. The problem with social media now is that sites like facebook and myspace dont seem to care about user privacy. Perhaps you should look at MyCube (the worlds first social exchange), Diaspora or The Fridge(for picture) all of which are going to launch soon and promise enhanced privacy control

    Reply