Issue 12, Fall 1996

William A. McEachern, Editor

Caught in the Web

The Internet has tremendous potential, but it also has some drawbacks. According to the Washington Post, a growing number of students are spending too much time either surfing the Internet or chatting on discussion lists. At the University of Maryland, a new campus support group called "Caught in the Web" has been formed to counsel students with a problem of excessive on-line use. Alfred University in New York studied the background of 76 students who flunked the fall semester last year. Thirty-two of them said they had spent excessive late-night hours on the school's computer system. They were mostly freshman, male, and, notwithstanding their academic failure, considered bright.

Some universities are limiting the time students can spend each day or each week on campus computer, though the limits appear quite generous. For example, the University of Maryland limits students to 40 hours a week on campus terminals. Some freshman orientation programs now include warnings about overuse of the web. In my day, card games were the activity of choice for students looking to waste a lot of time.

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