<p>"SINCE the very first bunk bed, roommates have annoyed each other. They leave their clothes all over the floor; they host overnight guests unannounced. Big deal. You tell them to pick up their stuff; you work out a sexile schedule.</p>
<p>But housing officials say that lately they are noticing something different: students seem to lack the will, and skill, to address these ordinary conflicts. We have students who are mad at each other and they text each other in the same room, says Tom Kane, director of housing at Appalachian State University, in Boone, N.C. So many of our roommate conflicts are because kids dont know how to negotiate a problem. …</p>
<p>Administrators speculate that reliance on cellphones and the Internet may have made it easier for young people to avoid uncomfortable encounters. Why express anger in person when you can vent in a text? Facebook creates even more friction as complaints go public. Things are posted on someones wall on Facebook: Oh, my roommate kept me up all night studying, says Dana Pysz, an assistant director in the office of residential life at the University of California, Los Angeles. Its a different way to express their conflict to each other.</p>
<p>Dissatisfied students rarely take up an offer from a resident adviser to mediate, Mr. Pysz says. With mediation you have to have buy-in from both, he says. We dont have a lot of mediation. We have a lot of avoidance. </p>
<p>It’s not just that kids haven’t learned to communicate face-to-face because of technology. Technology is tying kids closer to their parents and parents are interfering in their kids’ lives more than ever, and it’s not helping.</p>
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<p>It’s amazing the way the new communication technologies are changing so many fundamental aspects of our culture and society. In a few years, sociologists and anthropologists are going to have a field day studying the radical changes that the internet and cell phones brought to the way Americans and humans in general interact with one another, and how that affects relationships.</p>
<p>College isn’t only about classroom learning; it’s also about social learning. If these students don’t learn to face these problems in a dorm when there is no money on the line, how will they do it in the working world? They can’t expect their parents to ask for a raise, or Facebook their bosses for a raise.</p>
<p>Avoiding an issue is better than fisty-cups. The grey area takes too much time out of my life and certainly noone wants fisty-cups. Time is money. I would rather send them a message and avoid the issue. Also public shaming happens all the time in the media, we just call it “breaking news”.</p>
<p>I could not agree more. Way back in the '70s, I hadn’t been in my new freshman dorm room more than 10 minutes before my new roommate (he moved in a day before me) actually challenged me to a fist fight (we were both from rough neighborhoods and I think he’d watched one too many prison movies) after I moved his gigantic footlocker from my side of the room. Rather than back down, I agreed, matching the loud, angry tone in his voice, but I told him I would only fight him outside, not in the room. He asked me why did we need to go outside, and I told him that I didn’t want his blood all over the walls and the floor because I’d have to clean it up, and I didn’t feel like cleaning on my first day. Yes, it was a bluff -I did not want to go outside and fight - but it worked. The rage left his eyes, he calmed down and backed off. We didn’t have a problem the rest of the year. We actually got along. True story.</p>
<p>I think actually you can ask your boss for a raise on Facebook these days. You know before people employ you, they can and actually do a Google search on your name? Often times a Facebook page is the first thing they rely on to get some insider info on you. Not to mention cell phones and easy communication are a MUST in today’s technological world. Nobody walks down Wall-Street without one, either messaging or checking the web.</p>
<p>Slightly aside but are any of you familiar with the recent RealID conflict? I was personally in favor of it. I think it’s a matter of time before the world goes virtual anyways.</p>
<p>Blizzard Entertainment recently tried to implement a system where real names would be used to post on their internet forums, a step towards virtual anonymity reduction but it did not have a good public reception and was dropped because people were afraid their bosses would find out they played video games. You’d be surprised how well alive the internet actually is, even in the workplace.</p>
<p>The true meaning could be that, the average college roommate is not the best person to network with anymore. Thus social interaction is unnecessary.</p>
<p>Personally I’ve been constantly paired up with engineers… I’m a bio major. There’s almost no connection; they literally speak a different language and live with different schedules… Not at the undergraduate level at least. Graduate school is a better place where one would see interdisciplinary things.</p>
<p>If roommates actually could work together within school itself (much like a work setting) maybe this concept of conflict management would be useful. But the extent of such an ideal work setting is too low. </p>
<p>If you and me were to have a conflict right now… I’d wouldn’t want to resolve it. I’d just leave a message, get up, and walk away from my keyboard.</p>
<p>Well, that’s all I have to say… To sum it up, I’d rather spend my time actually talking to people I deem worth talking to (ie professors, colleagues, higher-ups, classroom peers). Close friends and acquaintances appreciate the “instant messages”, :), xoxo, and kthxbais. Roommates have the potential to fall under either category.</p>
<p>Even if he was the worker was your brother that was currently attending an important conference in Los Angeles? I’d hope you’d have some more formal social interactions with your own brother, let alone one you sent off to do your job.</p>
<p>But then again, we’re diverging from the original topic… conflicts. Go to hell and firing would certainly be my choices if I had a conflict too. Serious topics involving money, I’d take them seriously. If I’m going to give away $10000, I’d better be knowing why and what reasons I’m giving it out for. If I like the reasons, it’d be in my best interest.</p>
<p>I’m sure billionaire Mark Zuckerberg deals with such interaction all the time. haha. It all depends on the situation.</p>
<p>I’m sure if he knew even a smidget of what type of boss he was hired for he wouldn’t ask in the first place unless it was in person.</p>
<p>Look at Google’s workplace <a href=“http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/[/url]”>http://www.google.com/intl/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/</a> (such BLASPHEMY and un-productiveness and unideal work-setting… I know I would fire those workers playing fooseball at my company in a second, they should be focusing on their job!!! right?), that’s an example of a company where it might actually work. But hey what do I know? I don’t speak for Google.</p>