1. Project Overview

• As a group, we are interested in how technology impacts loneliness within college campuses, specifically focusing on college students.
• This question relates to the topic of communication and how it is used or not used (talking only through technology, only in face to face, both, etc.)
• We became interested in researching this topic because we felt that it was an issue in the rising digital age and were wondering how positive or negative technology impacted emotion.
• Many college students use laptops for academic work, but phones are often used for different purposes (same or different?).
• Is technology used as an escape? Or as a distraction? Or as a pastime? Or for work/school? Or all the above?
• Another idea to this question is where does it apply? (in the lunchroom as an escape?)
• Another perspective could be seen (anti-social vs loneliness) -> one view wants to connect with people but has trouble or is maybe waiting for a friend, one wants cutoff communication with people on purpose

 

1. Scholarly Discourse on the Topic:
   1. A scholarly source that held useful information was the article by Young on perceived loneliness in college students. The article discusses levels of social contact, perceived loneliness, and perceived number of problems. To find this they measured information from 90 male and 38 female college students. They found that, low levels of social contact were not related to loneliness and that the possibility that a decrease in level of social contact could still be related to loneliness.
   2. In this article the authors were investigating the effects on social relationships and loneliness. They examine this by using scale surveys. For example, they used the “internet addiction scale” and a “peer relationship scale”. These scales are methods that can be incorporated into our research. The scales are a good base and a reliable questioning process to build off from to conduct our own research.
   3. In the last article, by Hardell, the specific use of phones as technology was researched. Although this article analyzed the effects of physical health, which is not what our question is on, it also researched psychological health. Recent, and coming, generations are the first to have readily available contact and exposure to technology. The author found the behavioral and mental effects this exposure has on children and adolescents through looking at reliable sources such as the World Health Organization and the Cancer Research Foundation.

Three articles:
Corty, E., & Young, R. (1981). Social Contact and Perceived Loneliness in College Students. Perceptual and Motor Skills,53(3), 773-774.

Yayan, E., Suna Dağ, Y., & Düken, M. (2018). The effects of technology use on working young loneliness and social relationships. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care,Perspectives in psychiatric care, July 25, 2018.

Hardell, L. (2018). Effects of Mobile Phones on Children’s and Adolescents’ Health: A Commentary. Child Development,89(1), 137-140.

 

 

• Data-Gathering Methods:
• Giving out surveys at dorm halls regarding technology and social habits, have them rank on a scale how much time spent on technology , how lonely they feel etc.
  • Will give us a sense of students’ social and technology habits, and help determine if technology impacts students’ mental health and sociality, leaves room for unexpected or more than one conclusion.
• Observation of social behaviors in environments around campus ( dining halls, Red Square) Are they with others? Are they on their phone/laptop?
  • May be slightly inaccurate but will give a good general sense of the social scene in these places, help determine if the technology correlates with being alone orin a larger group.
• Online survey
  • Will help reach a larger amount of subjects.

 

1. Predictions:

We predict that technology does have an effect on college kids and how lonely they are. That the ability to be on your phone and make the outsider view you as busy and connected with the world makes people feel like they do not need to actually interact with others around them. In high traffic areas like the dining halls kids are often sitting alone eating, but on their phones, which distracts them from contacting one another. We predict that the increase in technology and social media does cause people to isolate themselves because they get a sense on connection through technology so they no longer look for it in other people as much as they might have done without a smart phone in their pocket or a laptop in their pocket.

1. Work plan:

Week 5:

We are all working on the research proposal at the same time but have divided up which section of the proposal each group member will work on. Meena working on the project overview, Olivia on the Scholarly discourse of our topic, Merissa on data gathering methods, and Jennie on predictions and work plan. Submit our rough draft of research proposal on due date.

Week 6:

Post the survey questions onto the Wix site in class. Once data is collected examine the results and write up our response post to our findings.

Week 7:
Finalize our findings and prepare for our poster symposium.

We decided to keep most of our process as a group effort because we want to give everyone a chance at each step during the entire process but also allow for the ability to assign roles if someone really thrives at something later in our project.

 

 

Appendix:

 

Survey Questions

1. On a scale of 1-10 how often do you interact with technology per day? (1 being hardly at all, 10 being constantly)
2. What time of the day are you MOST on your phone?
   1. Morning
   2. Night
   3. Middle of the day
   4. All day
   5. No particular time
3. How much do you feel you rely on technology to interact with people? (1 being never, 10 being very often)
4. How often do you feel a part of a group of friends? (1 being never, 10 being constantly)
5. How often do you feel there are people you can turn to? (1 being never, 10 being constantly)
6. Do you have social media?
   1. No
   2. Yes, but I wish I didn’t
   3. Yes, and I’m unbiased
   4. Yes, and I love it
7. Do you feel unhappy doing things alone? (1 being no I don’t think about it, 10 being I refuse to do things alone)
8. How often do you feel you are unable to reach out and communicate with those around you? (1 being never, 10 being all the time)
9. Does technology and social media effect your perception of your own social life? (1 being no it doesn’t, 10 being it has a large effect)
10. How often do you feel it is difficult for you to make friends? (1 being never, 10 being all the time)
11. Do you feel that technology has in any way effected your ability to reach out to people and feel fulfilled socially?
    1. No, its actually enhanced it
    2. No, it makes no difference
    3. Yes, I interact with people less because of technology
    4. Yes, technology stops me from interacting with people and makes me feel worse because of it.
12. Do you use technology as an escape or distraction? (1 being no never, 10 being yes very much)