College students are using their computers for a whole lot more than downloading MP3s and chatting with their friends on AOL Instant Messenger. Much to the delight of many parents, students are actually employing technology to stay in closer touch with their families.
Unlike a long distance phone call, e-mails and instant messages home do not cost a cent. And with e-mails, students and their parents do not need to be free at the same time in order to communicate with each other.
"I think that e-mail is a much more convenient way to keep in touch," sophomore Diana Fischmann said. "It allows me to sit down and write my parents when I have the time, and the same goes for them. We are not usually free to talk at the same time."
Fischmann e-mails her parents almost every day, and in addition talks to them on the phone about two or three times a week. She said that her emails home are generally to inform her parents of her everyday activities, including details she might forget to mention over the phone.
"I usually tell them what I've done since the last time I wrote them an e-mail, and I tell them how classes are going," Fischmann said. "But I don't really e-mail them about any serious issues."
While Fischmann does not talk to her parents on Instant Messenger, sophomore Traci Lee opts to talk to her father a few times a week through the chat program. The two have rarely talked on the phone since Instant Messenger replaced phone calls as a cheaper and more convenient method of communication. Like Fischmann's e-mails home, Lee's instant messages do not tend to touch on very serious issues.
"Usually it's just shooting the breeze," Lee said.
Still, Lee thinks using Instant Messenger to communicate with her family is worthwhile. "This saves him the trouble of having to call me back if I call him and leave a message, and it saves me the trouble of having to call him back if he calls me and leaves a message. We don't have to worry about whether we're both home at the same time to talk, because if we're both online and we're both active we can just instant message each other at no cost, and we can talk for as long as we want."
Lee talks to her mother on the phone at least once a week; the phone calls are supplemented by an e-mail every week or so. Lee does not use e-mail that often because her mother does not check her e-mail account very frequently.
"My mom's not up on the whole technology bit yet," Lee said.
Given time, though, that will probably change. More and more students and parents are using e-mail or Instant Messenger to communicate, and some students are even chatting with their technology-savvy grandparents online.
Many students say that e-mail and instant message communication with their parents enables them to talk more frequently, though the quality of computer communication remains debatable. Students typically just report on their days, saving any important questions for phone calls home.
One problem that junior Jason Dowling sees with online communication is its potential for excessiveness. Dowling never e-mails his parents because he lives nearby, so unlike many other students he is able to call home for free. He does, however, talk to his mother on Instant Messenger.
"I don't like it because I like to set my computer so people can see how long I've been idle for, so that my friends know where I am," Dowling said. "Then my mom will call me on a Sunday and ask why I went to bed at 5 am, since she can see how long I've been idle as well."
Still, Dowling does think that Internet usage as a whole is making it a lot easier for students - especially those who live far from home - to stay in close touch with their parents.
"It's a much cheaper way to communicate," Dowling said. "For me it does not make much of a difference, except in talking to my friends who don't go to school in the area. But for those students who are not from around here, it makes a lot of sense to talk to their parents online."
