An original version of this article was published in MxMIndia, a media news and opinion portal from Mumbai, India.
My big takeaway from 2022 is that social media and pandemic have launched a joint and effective assault on classroom learning.
When I look at some social media content from younger folks, I see so much creativity and social awareness, sensitivity and inclusion. The ability to connect dots is better than ever before, thanks to the enabling technology. So why do I see a tendency of disinterest in learning in the so-called new-normal environment?
It’s nearly three years since the pandemic struck and lockdowns were clamped, and well over two since online-everything was presented as a quick fix. The quick fix may be exactly what the doctor ordered for the social media generation born after 1995. Many people in this generation seem to be much more comfortable interacting with their smartphones than interacting with real people. In general, I have observed a decline in voluntary classroom participation.
A second observation is a high level of comfort with not meeting face-to-face. I have observed this trend among the general public over the past couple of years, where clinical caution appeared to morph into a general lack of enthusiasm in meeting people face-to-face. A big litmus-test revelation came through pizza. I invited the class to the college for a pizza lunch, just so that everybody gets to know one another, mingle in a “f2f” environment, and in general, have some fun. The office manager organized the pizza delivery, the space, the napkins, all the paraphernalia was set. As it turned out, we received exactly two RSVPs out of a class of 25.
My experience teaching an online asynchronous course—where students access assigned reading and videos at their own time over the week, rather than assemble in a class at the same time—revealed sometimes confusing, often surprising outcomes. In the absence of ready communication, it became difficult to assess a student’s position in understanding. In cases where the student took the initiative to approach us with questions and on ways to improve their understanding—and there were many such instances—it was easier on us. It eventually dawned on us that the learning over this difficult time has been anything but exemplary—raising many questions about the efficacy of our methodology. Of course, I, self-critically, only refer to what I observe as problematic. There are many sparkling exceptions.
So, I repeatedly ask myself why youngsters don’t find it interesting enough to sit through classes, complete assignments, and harness their faculties in an academic environment. Is it because a class is not the real challenge and social media offers more real-life learning? Is it because they have grown skeptical of what we teach because they are learning from alternative channels that truth lies elsewhere—channels that have found enough legitimacy to be politically mainstreamed? Is it possible students are surrounded by online webinars that are more interesting than classes that seem to simulate the technology but not the interesting-ness?
Or is it because the same technology is making them less fascinated by information and insight, since they have all the ready answers online, literally at their fingertips? Whether that is information or not, true or not, seems irrelevant. What seems more important is, they have answers. The challenge is not information. The challenge is to get new answers.
One hypothesis I offer is that the social media accommodates the semblance of thought-provoking dialogue, debate, and dialectic to younger folks who did not feel earlier that they participated enough in the society. When all the conversations are happening outside classrooms, they take away the fascination of intellectual discourse in classrooms. I’ve noticed a dramatic difference among students not just in the US, but in India, too, before and after the arrival of social media.
It is hardly surprising that the quick fix is quickly becoming the new normal even after the health threat dissipates. It seems convenient for teachers, extremely comfortable for students, and of course a continued bonanza for ed-technocrats. The boxes are checked. What slips through the liminal spaces between seems to go unnoticed—for now. What began as an innovative solution in a crisis has become a continued exercise of lowered outcome expectations, and a flatter learning curve. And eventually, this crop of graduates will join the economy and the marketplace where the expectations haven’t changed.
In late 2020, in a newspaper column, I had expressed skepticism about the idea. As Facebook, Twitter, Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft brought in an extended work-from-home policy that year, I had flagged the trend, pointed to the “human challenges,” and in general, was uneasy—even in the face of what was reported at that time to be an uptick in work productivity.
While I hope that trend has continued, our experience with college students—before they become the workforce, that is—has been that social media and the pandemic have worked in tandem. Finally, the younger generation understands something more than their teachers, outside the classroom environment. We need to ensure that this doesn’t lead to a widening trust deficit in academic learning. And that’s yet another reason higher education needs to see whether a new methodology of academic learning is needed.
Happy New Year 2023!
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