Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech researchers recently orchestrated a study of student cell phone use on Tech’s campus for the spring semester in 2005.
Students in the Kappa Omicron Nu Honor Society conducted the study. Peggy Meszaros, the director of Research Center for Information Technology Impacts on Children, Youth and Families, helped with the study as well.

Meszaros proudly stated, “This is the largest college student cell phone study ever done. We are pretty sure about that.”
What also made the study unique to Meszaros, was that it looked at a connection to family.

“The girls in their frequent calls were primarily to family (and) parents,” Meszaros said. Male counterparts were usually talking to friends.

The survey was conducted using paper and pencil during classes with the teacher’s permission.
568 students responded, yielding a 50.2 percent response rate. Students majored in 52 departments. And the mean age of students who responded were about 20-years-old, according to the study’s summary.

Observing students consistently talking on their cell phone compelled Meszaros to conduct this study. When asked, students would invariably tell her they were conversing with a family member.

This made Meszaros wonder about Identity Formation and Attachment Theory, and think, “how much are young people today relying on their parents to answer every question, to make decisions for them that years ago college students were making for themselves?”

Meszaros then started to notice students coming with their parents to advising sessions and their parents accompanying them to interviews.

Meszaros feels that these “Helicopter Parents” are hovering over their student’s every decision.

Meszaros linked students consulting parents for every decision to their frequent calls made home to Mom and Dad.

Mary Williams a Tech Graduate Student studying Human Development is Meszaros’s graduate assistant and helped conduct the survey.

Williams felt one of the key elements of the survey was asking students what features they would prefer to have on their phones.

“I know that we got a lot of really good suggestions on how to make the cell phones better,” Williams said.

Williams thought it was especially interesting when a representative of Motorola inquired about this section of the survey. It shows that cell phone companies are really interested in what the college student wants.

Williams plans to help Meszaros conduct the survey in the next year.

“There are so many more new features to the phone,” Williams said.

She also noted that questions are going to be revised to make the survey more relevant to recent cell phone advancements.
Williams concurs with the idea that cell phones give students a chance to become more connected to their families.

“A lot of kids in college are not close to their parents geographically,” Williams said. “If I did not have a cell phone I would not talk to my mother half as much.”

Williams illuminated some of her experience noting that there are students who are too attached to their parents through cell phones.

“I have a friend who gets her mom to call her to make sure she gets up for class every morning,” she said.

Kimberly Ware, an associate director for Career Services, provided some insight on students and their parents becoming co-involved, in effort to help the student acquire a career post college.

“We have heard, on the other side from a couple of employers, of parents wanting to come (with their students) when it comes to the final offer,” she said.

Ware has not observed students being accompanied by parents to preliminary interviews that Career Services may coordinate.

Ware noted some unusual behavior when students submit their resumes.

“What we have observed are parents showing up at Career Fairs,” Ware said.

Ware said parents will submit resumes to companies at the fairs for their children because their children are too busy to do so themselves. She does not believe this is a good practice.

“The term most people are using right now is helicopter parents,” Ware said about parents who are too involved in students’ lives. Ware believes the act of parents “hovering over” their children may be a trend of our particular generation at this time.

Ware thinks most students are too concerned with consulting parents because a fear of failure and making a mistake.

“Believe it or not, you can make a mistake and survive,” Ware said.