The iGeneration

The distinction between iGens and their predecessors is most often talked about in terms of their relation to digital technology. Where most millennials can recall a time before the ubiquity of iPhones, social media, and—for the eldest among them—the internet itself, the iGeneration is made up of “digital natives” for whom a life without the ever-present connectedness of digital devices can be difficult to imagine. This is a profound generational shift.

In his book The Gutenberg Elegies, literary critic Sven Birkerts captures the sweeping nature of this shift when he describes how most iGens “will never in their lives have the experience that was, until our time, the norm—who will never stand in isolation among trees and stones, out of shouting distance of any other person, with no communication implement, forced to confront the slow, grainy momentum of time passing. The rules that have [always] ruled individuals… are suddenly, with a finger-snap, largely irrelevant. This is more astonishing than we generally admit.”

Whether one sees this change as the welcome progression of technological advancement or as further evidence of Western culture’s ruination—and Birkerts certainly falls into the latter camp—it is impossible to deny the radical shift that has taken place in recent years, one that has implications across the cultural spectrum, including in higher education.

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The amount of time Americans spend on smartphones doubled between 2013 and 2016 to over five hours per day. Teens now spend, on average, roughly nine hours a day using screen-based media, most of that time on mobile devices. This means that the members of the iGeneration spend more time on their smartphones—a device that was introduced to humanity just 10 years ago—than they do in school, with their families and friends, or doing any other waking activity. Such accelerated change is bound to have widespread effects. The question is: what are they?

“All screen activities are linked to less happiness, and all non-screen activities are linked to more happiness,” she writes. “Eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are 56 percent more likely to say they’re unhappy than those who devote less time to social media. Admittedly, 10 hours a week is a lot. But those who spend six to nine hours a week on social media are still 47 percent more likely to say they are unhappy than those who use social media even less. The opposite is true of in-person interactions. Those who spend an above-average amount of time with their friends in person are 20 percent less likely to say they’re unhappy than those who hang out for a below-average amount of time.”

“Background decisions are decisions that the society makes for the individual, and the individual never really has to think about,” Jethani says. “And foreground decisions are decisions that the individual consciously makes for himself or herself. The argument is essentially that the more background decisions a society makes, the more stable it is, because there are more shared, assumed norms. And the more foreground decisions in a society, the more destabilizing and anxiety-producing it is. I think the iGeneration—they don’t know it because they don’t have anything to compare it to—but they’re growing up with levels of anxiety that are completely unfamiliar to those who are older, because so many more decisions are thrust on them at a younger and younger age about their own identities, about society, about culture and values that just didn’t exist before. So the level of anxiety is enormous. Then you add into that the digital realities of constant connectivity, and it’s not a surprise, unfortunately, that we see escalating rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among young adults.”

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Most behavioral studies continue to rely on survey data about what people do and how they feel, connecting the appropriate dots between the two. But in recent years, advances in brain science have allowed researchers to observe the interactions between the brain and technology—both in real time and over longer periods. In his groundbreaking book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, technology writer Nicholas Carr gathered the leading research in the field, shedding crucial light on the social and emotional phenomena being observed in recent studies.

But the brain doesn’t just create new neural pathways to accommodate new behaviors; it also allows unused pathways to atrophy. “The vital paths in our brains become… the paths of least resistance,” explains Carr. “They are the paths that most of us will take most of the time, and the farther we proceed down them, the more difficult it becomes to turn back.” In this context, the rapid proliferation of digital media use takes on a new significance, explaining the addictive nature of smartphones. As our brains have created and used the neural pathways necessary to surf the internet, other pathways related to deep reading and in-person interactions have atrophied, making it more difficult for our brains to engage in those kinds of activities—and easier to simply hop online. “It’s not just that we use the internet regularly, even obsessively,” says Carr. “It’s that the net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli—repetitive, intensive, interactive, addictive—that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions.”

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The Montreat College campus is so nature- filled and picturesque that “digital media” is hardly the first thing one thinks of when setting foot on campus. The Montreat Cove looks much like it did when the college was founded over a century ago. And yet the iGeneration students on Montreat’s campus are facing the same challenges faced by students on college campuses all around the country. In talking with them, the number one challenge posed by digital media immersion becomes crystal clear: distraction.

“I hate this, but last night I was trying to do homework and I kept being distracted by Snapchatting,” says Montreat senior Jordan Devan. “I was just so distracted. For five minutes I would do my homework, and then I would just look at my phone. That constant turning on and turning off of my mind and focus—I could have gotten it done in 20 minutes, but it took an hour.”

It’s a common tale. “So today I was trying to do homework, but I also had a movie on, had some art going on another screen, and then I was also playing a game on the other screen,” says senior Josh Isiguzo. “The homework could have been done in one hour. It wasn’t a lot. But it took me five hours to complete because I was just doing everything at the same time.”

Distraction is also a challenge in the classroom itself. “The presence of phones in the classroom is a huge distraction,” says Montreat Business Professor Hub Powell. “25 years ago faculty believed that technology would strengthen student engagement due to increased access to information, but in fact, it is generally a distraction.”

“Smartphones in the class are a problem all the time, especially in the larger Gen Ed classes,” says Bible and Ministry Professor Don Shepson. “I start every class by saying, ‘Take your earbuds out and put your phones away.’ That’s my pre-class mantra. ‘I’m letting you know these are my expectations.’ I think maybe the only way I could successfully win that battle would be to have a basket outside the classroom door that says, ‘Put your phone in here.’ But this generation is so tied to the device. It’s such a personal thing. It would be like asking them to take off their shirt, or something silly like, ‘I’m sorry, but you can’t have your shoes in class.’ So I haven’t done that, but as faculty we’ve had conversations about it.”

The ongoing challenge has caused some faculty to go ahead and go fully tech-free in the classroom. “I’ve had a complete ban on technology like phones and laptops,” says History Professor Benjamin Brandenburg. “That’s a rapid shift in the past few years that is quickly becoming best practice. I fully expect students to use their phones for research and to use the knowledge available on the internet when they’re outside the classroom, but not in the classroom. I think that change has been accepted, and a lot of students are surprisingly at peace with a complete technology ban. Some students actually enjoy not being tempted to look at their phones.”

The challenge of distraction applies to students’ social lives, as well. “It’s harder to communicate these days,” says junior Madeline Sides. “When you’re at a table, everyone wants to pull out their phones because they’re afraid they’re going to miss something. I think people have lost their social skills.” Sophomore Joseph Akpome concurs, “When you are with your friends you may pull your phone out instead of talking to each other or doing something good. That’s a huge negative factor.”

Outdoor Education Professor Dottie Shuman has also seen changes in her students’ behavior. “When I first came here in the 90s, students would just hang out in my office to talk about anything,” she says. “I called it ‘plopping.’ I thrive talking to students in one-on-one situations. But now students hardly ever come by. I’m not sure if it’s because of technology, but it seems instead of asking questions in person, students look up answers or send me an email. They don’t make the effort to come by my office.”

Adam Caress is the director of communications for Montreat College.