Voices Being Silenced: The Impact of Overuse of Technology and Social Anxiety on Academic Dropout – A Literature Review

Abstract

There is no denying the positive impact that digital technology has had on humankind, including in education. As much as we have benefited, there has been increasing research conducted over the past twenty-five years concerned with its negative effects, particularly on child and adolescent development, both psychologically and academically. In what is referred to as an addiction, people of all ages all around the world constantly check their mobile phones for messages, posts to social media applications and more. For adolescents, using digital technology to communicate has become preferable over face-to-face communication – a change that may have directly affected their ability to manage their emotions amidst life’s changes and challenges, and to create and maintain healthy, real-world social relationships. In what can be called self-marginalization, adolescent voices have become more silent because of increased social anxiety. This lack of voice – and confidence – has led students to drop out of higher education institutions in the United States at rates that have remained high, particularly in the first and second years.