Sundays used to signify a day of rest, reflection, and worship—now, for college students, they signify 11:59 p.m. deadlines and endless Canvas notifications. The constant pressure of online grading systems and classes keeps students in a state of perpetual stress—even at Christian colleges, where Sabbath-honoring should be prioritized. Said religious universities ceaselessly stress the significance of worship, emphasizing that weekly chapel requirements are no substitute for Sunday service, while hypocritically following the oppressive secular model of interminable technological attachment.
This issue alludes to a larger problem pipelining down from the workplace into the higher education setting: hustle culture. In an article on the detriments of hustle culture, Jennifer Mathis from Brigham Young University points out the issue of technology in the workplace by stating the following: “Everyone expects everyone to be available 24/7 because you have your cell phone and your laptop with you always.”[1] But this is certainly not just a workplace problem.
Fellow Minding the Campus contributor Suzannah Alexander shared with me her perspective as a former grad student and mother of four college-aged children. Noting the presence of online submissions and weekend due dates for both herself and her children, she pointed out two notable issues with the current technological system in universities.
First, she stated that for college students, such as her own who work on weekends, their job removes the ability to utilize weekend free time assumed to exist for the completion of assignments due on those nights. This forces students to use all moments of rest such as lunch breaks and very late nighttime hours to hastily complete that looming Sunday night 11:59 p.m. assignment.
Second, she mentioned that the expanse of information inevitably attached to education and the internet adds a considerable amount of stress to students. She stated, “There is a constant pressure to keep up. Even when you’ve done everything required, it feels like there is something still to be done.” I am intimately familiar with the exorbitant amount of stress a student experiences when they open their course’s Canvas tile for the first time and discover the plethora of the semester’s assignments all lined up in a neat row. This pressure is even greater for an online class, where such a system gives students the false impression that they must be continuously plugged in and pumping out assignments to be productive in the course.
On the topic of online courses, another detrimental expectation of continuous technological availability is added in the online classroom setting. In the syllabi of all online classes I took throughout my undergraduate degree, there was always a highlighted section entitled “Back-up Computer(s),” which stated the following:
If your computer freezes/crashes, your internet service provider shuts power off to your usual location, and so on, you should have a Plan B. Relying on only one computer is asking for trouble. Online students should prepare for access to two or three computers during a course.
Such a statement is asking a lot. It places the responsibility of technological failure on the student, indicating that concessions associated with assignment completion and submission will not be made for such uncontrollable circumstances. Consider the wake of the two major hurricanes that recently wreaked havoc in southeastern United States, hurricanes Helene and Milton. Such a policy adds incredible stress to already stressful situations such as these when the priority should be the safety of individuals rather than the completion of their homework.
Technological accessibility has provided students with a wealth of academic accessibility, but at what cost? The door has now been opened for an endless supply of peer-reviewed journal articles, literary commentary, documentary videos, and other learning aids; however, this same door also allows for the ubiquitous expectation that students be continuously plugged in.
Young adults are constantly warned of technological obsession through the overuse of social media, and yet, they are also trained to be ceaselessly available to respond to emails and submit assignments regardless of the date or time. This does not trivialize the threat of social media; however, it would be of great benefit to students’ mental health if educators and curriculum designers, particularly in Christian universities, abide by the Biblically derived idiom, “Practice what you preach.”
[1] Jennifer Mathis, “Escaping the Hustle Culture,” Marriott Alumni Magazine, https://marriott.byu.edu/magazine/feature/escaping-the-hustle-culture
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