Response to 'Facebook Addiction'

By Chad Raphael

To the Editor:

Calliopi Hadjipateras raises the important issue of students distracting themselves and others by using Facebook in class ("Facebook Addiction Persists"). She illustrates this with an anecdote about "half the class" using Facebook during my course last spring. In her story, "Professor Rafael goes on about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repositories" but "the poor guy doesn't know that half the class is more interested in the latest FB status updates than hearing what he has to say about the U.S. losing the equivalent of two Rhode Islands every year due to development."

Of the 27 students enrolled in my course last spring, only a handful used laptops and none used cell phones in class. I know well the rapt expression on the face of a student who is lost in Facebook and the under-the-desk thumbing of students texting on their phones. I was quite aware of the one student who was indeed a chronic Facebooker in class, and I addressed the issue with that student outside of class, as I do with all students who have this problem. Thankfully, it was not shared by half the class.

In addition, in the class we spent   discussing the controversy over nuclear waste, I said nothing about the loss of land to development, which is a separate issue. My name is spelled "Raphael," not "Rafael."  Ms. Hadjipateras' name was also misspelled. The best way to confirm whether a professor knows that students use Facebook in his class and how to spell his name is to ask him. Unfortunately, Hadjipateras never asked me a question for her story.

Still, the question of how to stop Facebook use, or anything else, from distracting students in class is important. And I am indeed responsible for providing a context in which students can focus and learn, as are the students. I hope that students will feel more comfortable telling each other to put down their laptops and cell phones when they are harming each other's ability to learn. Why not just ban laptops from my classes, as some of my colleagues have done?  I don't like depriving the vast majority of students who use their laptops responsibly of a useful educational tool.  And the few students who still don't know how to regulate themselves can't learn self control if they don't have a choice.  

Chad Raphael

Associate Professor

Communication Department