Comment on Kathleen's Post

I was just looking through my team members' blogs one last time before I left for spring break (Ft. Lauderdale here I come!!) and just as she states the article of her article post caught her eye, so did her post catch mine. I cannot remember who, but someone else in my group also wrote about this same article, obviously Internet Curfews for College Students is a popular topic amongst us college students.

This slashdot posting talks about how students at a particular college in India will cut off from internet access during the night hours. It is stated that the internet has a negative impact on students' "academic performance, personality development, and extra curricular activities." Just as Kathleen's reaction to this curfew is that it is ridiculous, I must say that I cannot come up with a better word to describe my feelings about this as well. Not only is the internet an entertaining medium, it is also a great academic resource to have right at your fingertips that college students should have access to. I have absolutly no idea what the work load is like for the students at ITT Bombay is like, but I can only assume that they are kept busy with heavy work loads throughout the year. This being said, being a college student myself, I know that the evening hours are when I do most of my work, and the internet is a big part of that. Like this class for example, right now. It is almost 10 at night and I am on the internet doing work for class, not being distracted. If we were to have a curfew also, what I am doing right now would not be possible.

Also, just as Kathleen mentioned, having internet access shut off by a particiular time each night would be like putting a time limit on all assignments, even if they were not due until the next day. And how about online courses? Personally I love them and I love having the ability to do the assignments on my own time, and yes, sometimes that just happens to be late at night, but I'm ok with that.

Bottom line, I think this curfew idea is just crazy talk. Yes, being at school we are required to complete a lot of work to get good grades, but we are also here to socialize, hang out and party. The fact that we are on the internet late at night really shows no indication that we are bad students! I completely agree with all the points that Kathleen brought up, but her reasons are certainly not an exhaustive list, and I'm pretty sure that those students at ITT Bombay are going to come up with a long list of their own reasons as to why this idea is ridiculous as well.