Unfortunately for college students, record text-messaging speeds and award-winning MySpace pages don’t look especially impressive on a resume.
When the test grades dive, it’s time to examine how many hours have been spent talking on a cell phone, text messaging, and updating the MySpace page in the past week. Chances are the hours spent on gossip and general nonsense far outweigh those spent with a cracked open textbook.
I personally think MySpace and cell phones are a college student’s worst enemies.
Communication through the latest and greatest technology has become an obsession, and has little benefit in the long run. Yeah, it’s great to keep up with your friends; that’s part of the college life, right? Both MySpace and cell phones are excellent forms of communication. However, there is a point where all this new-fangled technology does more harm than good. Moderation is the key.
Heck, as much time as students have a cell phone glued to their ear or in their hands text-messaging at the speed of light, you would think they were married to it. Every waking hour, (and most of every sleeping hour, too) is spent with a cell phone within reach.
This includes the classroom. Even when the student is in class, and knows that they cannot answer their phone or respond to a text message, the phone still remains on the desk, on vibrate, or in a pocket, on vibrate, so that the student knows he or she has someone trying to talk to him or her.
Even when the phone is on silent sitting atop the desk, it still lights up, drawing the eye and the attention. This serves no purpose but to distract the student from the message in the classroom, and often serves to disrupt the instructor as well as other students in the room.
From my perspective, MySpace is no better. How much value is really in a personal MySpace page? Is there enough to justify checking the site several times daily? I would be willing to bet that most students check their MySpace page several times as much as they access their online classes with the university.
What’s more, a MySpace account can now make or break you with an employer, depending on the content. Many employers have started checking MySpace or googling a prospective employee, trying to get a feel for what the person is really like.
Now think back to that MySpace page. Is it really something you want the person who might hire you to see? For some reason most employers will not look favorably on the message to a buddy that says: “Yeah, that ______ party last night really _______ rocked! I was totally smashed and had no idea where I was when I woke up this morning. Way cool!” Forgiving my poor surfer dude imitation, you get my drift.
What we need to keep into perspective is why we are in college in the first place. Remember that little thing called an education? Is it starting to come back yet?
We (or most of us) are in college to earn an education, and therefore a successful place in life. Priorities become very important when faced with the challenge of juggling school and at least one job, if not two.
In the big scheme of life, cell phones and MySpace don’t even enter into the big picture.