Decade Of Change For College Students: Less Religious, More Diverse And Lonely

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/07/college-10-years-changes_n_7201460.html

Tyler Kingkade

Posted: 05/07/2015 7:43 am EDT Updated: 3 hours ago


In this photo taken Monday, April 20, 2015, the Bell Tower looms over students on campus at The University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

America's college students have become less religious, more stressed and overwhelmingly in favor of marriage equality over the past decade. Campus life has grown more complicated, with soaring complaints of sexual violence and students so captivated by social media that they're hanging out less with friends. And, with many students now burdened by a lifetime of student loan payments, graduation no longer provides a tidy passage from school to career.

For The Huffington Post's 10th birthday, we looked at how life for college students has changed over the past decade, digging deeper than last year's look at how pop culture has changed on campus since 2005. Here are some of the big developments:

College Students Are Less Religious

UCLA's massive annual Cooperative Institutional Research Program survey shows a growing number of students have no religious preference -- a trend that extends to religious schools. The survey typically includes responses from about 150,000 first-time, full-time students at more than 200 colleges and universities.

The number of freshmen who select "none" for their religious preference increased to about one in four in 2014, from about one in six in 2005. At the same time, the proportion of students at Catholic colleges not identifying with any religion rose to 14.9 percent in 2014 from 10.6 percent a decade earlier, the survey showed. At other religious colleges, the number nearly doubled, to 17.4 percent.



more at link

[yeoman6987]

1. Less religious more sexual assaults loneliness

It seems the vacuum is a place for everyone to hang out and chat. Obviously in the past the churches on campus was a place to fellowship and before social networks students hung out at student centers. It seems like having a go to place that would be welcoming and entertains might be in the best interest of the schools. Because what is going on now is not working.

[cbayer]

2. I'm not sure you can make a correlation, but the picture

this article paints is pretty bleak.

Religion played virtually no role at my college. There may have been some small groups, but hanging out and chatting took place in many venues, none of them religious.

You touch on social networking, and I wonder if getting your socialization through the computer might have a negative impact.

[yeoman6987]

3. Oh I definitely think social media is negative at least partially

Kids are so consumed with acceptance that seeing how many "likes" or retweets your post gets means something and if the post doesn't get desired number....disappointment creeps in. Same with something as small as how many birthday wishes a person gets compared to friends. Heck how many friends a person has could have an affect on a persons psyche. Yep social media is a double edged sword for sure.

[cbayer]

4. Agree. When I see groups of college age kids out, they are often all

consumed by their individual devices and not even speaking to each other. It all feels so different than when I was in college.

Facebook repels me for the reasons that you point out. My worth is not determined by how many people "like" me or post pictures of me or whatever else they are doing on there.

I've just been rewarded with two amazing grandchildren, ages 7 and 9. It will be interesting to observe their social development over time.