How do I get off of Facebook and put my face into my books of education, so I can reap the long term benefits of having self-control? This should be the question of every college student that does not spend their education time wisely. In today’s society, media and social network seem to be the main focus of most college students with low self-control. For those that have low self-control there is less time used focusing on learning. Research on decision making suggest that if college students are left to their own devices they will choose to spend their time on guilty pleasures rather than class work. This paper will support Panek’s theory that, “interaction between the high choice media environment and user’s low self- control accounts for decline in learning among college students”(Panek, 2013). In the article Panek shows that students with low self-control choose immediate gratification and forfeit the benefits of waiting the long term. Panek (2013) noted, guilty pleasure appeals and take up a majority of the time that could be spent on learning. He says, “guilty pleasures appeals to one desire for immediate pleasure rather than one’s belief that they should partake of a product or experience so as to obtain long-term benefits” (Panek, 2013, p.563). Panek used a review of literature on temptation and self-control and self-control and media choice to prove his hypothesis. Panek, (2013) suggested that the college students that overuse are aware of the overuse of leisure because they have no self-control. Panek (2013) admitted that because of the small population that they interviewed, that their research does not definitively establish the reason for the decline.
After reading this article I am incline to believe that this research adds to the body of work that is done to show that media environment and users self-control may account for a decline in