October 24, 2014

Is there love off line?

Baltimore Sun - Towson University professor Andrew Reiner is concerned that the desire to be "liked" online has bled into the real-life interactions of some of his students. He wants to change that.

Reiner, a lecturer in English in Towson's Honors College, says students sometimes pretend to send text messages when they are alone out of fear that if they are not constantly connected to their smartphones, they will be seen as losers.

Students in his classes often seem hesitant to disagree with each other, he says — a development he attributes to their need to attract as much approval in real life as they get online. And he believes their careful curation of their identities on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter has made it difficult for them to connect with their peers on a deeper level...

In his course "Alone Together: Finding Intimacy in the Age of Facebook," Reiner, 50, is asking students this fall to explore whether technological advances and social media have left them more isolated from each other and less able to connect in real life.

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