Reilly's Ramblings

People not interacting often can be seen on Morningside Campus when you walk to class or the commons. Students are connected to their phones like it is a necessity.

Locally, this is not as big of a problem as it is society wise. Morningside College has the Morningside Activities Council, MAC, to help students stay on campus and interact with one another.

“MAC helps with the socializing problem on campus. They also spread the word about events that they are happening on campus as well. They are doing a good job of bringing students together for events,” Hailey Burrus, a fellow student at Morningside College.

MAC is a way for Morningside to help with the problem but not solve it completely. Socializing is a way for people to meet new people and interact with one another.

With the quick advancements of cell phones and social media, people are now focused on their phones more than ever. Phones make people not pay attention to others.

“Students are easily more distracted with technology and social media these days,” said Katie McClintock, a student at Morningside College.

Social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram help people attach themselves to their phones. Being online a lot will also help people be more open online than in person. Social media also makes it easier for people to hide their real feelings.

“The fact that conversation partners look into a screen instead of each other’s eyes, coupled with the fact that–more often than not–they don’t occupy the same physical space. This may make it feel less risky and uncomfortable to share personal feelings with another person,” said Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, authors of The App Generation.

It makes them distracted and not want to talk to them face-to-face. Social media is a problem because this is changing how people socialize with each other in today’s society.

“Technology will advance more and will make socializing not as important and more at their phones which means less face-to-face,” says Katie McClintock.

When someone is walking around or out in public, there is a possibility that they are on their cell phone and not noticing the world around them. Phones shouldn’t be playing a significant role like it is in students’ lives.

“Students use their phones more than ever which means that this helps them to ignore people when walking on campus,” said Dave Madsen, the head of the Mass Communications Department at Morningside College.

Is there a solution to the socializing problem? According to Dave Madsen, there is not a solution to this problem.

“People are used to doing everything on their phones all the time. Phones were not what they were ten years ago.”

Right now, there is a problem with no solution, and that is the challenging part that needs to be figured out before socializing is extinct. Socializing is a critical factor for society.

Without it, there is no society but just a group of people that are on their phones all the time. Society should not end up with people talking to each other online only.