10/24/11

Former SLU Prof To Discuss Research On Student Internet, Cell Phone Use

This event has been postponed; check back for a re-scheduled date and time.
CANTON - St. Lawrence University Class of 1981 graduate Jennifer B. MacGregor taught a First-Year Seminar course in which she required students to "unplug" from the Internet, cell phones and other electronic communications for two weeks. She'll discuss what she learned from that experience in a presentation called "I Text, Therefore I Am: The Computer-Mediated Identity" on Wednesday, November 2, at 7 p.m. in Eben Holden on campus. The event, part of the Contemporary Issues Forum, is open to the public, free of charge.

MacGregor is a former St. Lawrence psychology instructor, and the course she taught was titled "Identity in the Internet Age." While "unplugged," students were required to keep a journal, detailing their thoughts and feelings about being unable to communicate in the ways that many have come to rely on day-to-day. Through her research, she asks: Should we question our own reliance on the internet for identity creation and social interaction?

MacGregor is an Independent Scholar of the Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley.

Contemporary Issues Forum website