A recent study was done and the findings were shocking!! Students now are more stressed than people during the Depression!!! This is my fifth year in university, and I think I can honestly say I've been stressed out. I've dealt with depression and other stressful things throughout my academic career, but I would never even think to compare how I feel to the Great Depression!!
I do believe that in today's society, university students are held to a much higher standard than our parents and grandparents were. It was typical for our grandparents' generation to perhaps finish high school, then delve right into the work force. For our parents, things were a bit different. University was more suggested and was viewed as very prestigious. Students would take five classes and would graduate in four years. For our generation, university degrees are being handed out like candy. It's more of a social norm to attend university after finishing high school. However the expectations are different. More students are paying for university on their own, and the cost of tuition and living are skyrocketing. Speaking from a personal perspective, in my 5 years of university I've never had to take out a student loan. I do not borrow money from my parents, and my parents are by no means well off (they are teachers). The only way I can afford to put myself through school and afford living away from home is by working two full time jobs while I do my undergraduate degree. It seems as though it is the norm for students today to take more than the typical 4 years to finish a degree, and a lot of sources attribute this to the fact that students are needing to work throughout the school year, just so they can pay for school.
Do you agree that we are more stressed than our grandparents were? Why do you think it is? Do you think the increased tuition is the problem, or perhaps the technology take-over?
I totally agree that we are more stressed out than our grandparents. Not to say that their lives were not stressful, but is seems now more than ever there is so much pressure on our generation to go to university after highschool. I came to university even though I had no idea what I wanted to study, but I felt the social pressure that since I was "only working" I needed to do something more with my life. Now that I am in school the stress comes from things exactly like what you said, technology letting me down. I have a USB stick that recently stopped working and I am left stressing about what to do because I had so much information on that one little stick. It amazes me that something so small can have such a big impact on my life.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have exteme respect for you being able to put yourself through school by working two jobs. I don't know how you do it!
I completely agree with you. I think our parents and grandparents had it easier than we do when it came to schooling and jobs right after. I think it's very impressive that you pay for school on your own, work 2 full time jobs and go to school. I would not be able to do that, I struggle doing a part time job and going to school. I think we're more stressful because it's not easy to go out and get a job like the way our grandparents had it and because expectations have risen by parents and society itself. I think increased tuition and technology take over take part in the problem. Tuition is so expensive and not all families help their kids pay for school, thus they struggle to pay for school or student loans. It's stressful going to school and working. Technology take over consumes so much of our time, we get easily distracted and theres so much means of technology in today's society that it's hard to not be distracted.
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