The Influence of Technology on College Student Values

Values are a set of moral and ethical behaviour that a person develops during his/her life. Each generation has a little difference in values based on the cultural trends. Popular culture and history have an important role in developing the values, attitudes, beliefs, and view of the world for an individual.

In today world, technology being part of the popular culture plays an important role in shaping values of the college students. The young generation is more attached to the technology as compared to the older one so a greater impact of technology on them. New smart devices and access to the internet have changed the world entirely and made it a true global village.

Time is an important commodity for everyone. How technology influences the values of the college student depends on how they spend their time. Spending more time in social activities rather than screens will affect students differently as compared to the ones who spend more time on technologically developed tools.

1. Community and Relationships

The meaning of social interaction has changed with the technological revolution. As compared to the previous generation, college students prefer to create a community using cell phones, computers, game consoles, and digital players resulting in an online social network.

With no time to plan a meetup with friends due to busy life, online interaction and communications has replaced the social gatherings. It helps student in their identity development and build lasting relationships with their peers.

2. Integrity and Technology

A key developmental process in college students is developing integrity. Integrity is understanding, comparison, and effort to match personal behaviour with socially acceptable behaviour. Matching the social values with personal values is also known as congruence.

Many college students have accepted to exhibit incongruence because there is a difference in their individual values system and the rap music they use to listen. This is one example of an effect of technology on integrity.

3. College Students, Media, and Technology

What a person sees, plays an important role in his/her choice. For example, ask a child what he/she wants to become, he/she will tell you options of teacher, farmer, firefighter, and doctor etc. because he/she has seen these people only.

A college student is exposed to more things on media that can affect him/her. Technology has revolutionised media as well. Media can be restricted to the type of content only on television. With the internet available, there is no restriction on college students.

Exposure to everything on media (online or TV) such as natural disasters, terrorist activities, drug mafias, sexual abuse, and wars can play a role in dismantling the values of college students and young adults.

Conclusion:

Technology can influence the values of college students in both ways. It can have a positive and negative affect. We need to play our role in developing an awareness in students about the challenges and opportunities that come along with technological advancement.

This will help college students to decide better and move in the right direction.