Is helicoptering making kids less able to socially adapt to new situations?

[GeorgiaGreek]

Is it possible that there are the same number of kids having trouble adjusting to college and making friends, but forums are more available and popular for them to seek out help?

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaGreek

Is it possible that there are the same number of kids having trouble adjusting to college and making friends, but forums are more available and popular for them to seek out help?

I think it is this. I was pretty miserable my whole first semester of college. I'd had the same really good friends for 10+ years. I'd been involved in lots of activities in high school. I got to college and knew 3 people on the whole campus. I was kind of lucky that one of them was one of my best friends from high school (male) and his roommate, who was my boyfriend at the time. They kind of showed me the ropes around campus. But, that first semester, I was still pretty miserable because I missed my female friends a lot. The ones who knew your whole life story and loved you anyway. I missed the privacy of having my own room to just "be" when I wanted to just "be". I was on a pretty big campus (25,000) and felt pretty isolated, like I didn't have a niche. That did all change when I joined my sorority.

I think Hypo has adjusted faster than I did but her dorm floor is pretty tight already. My dorm floor wasn't like that. The texts I got that first night though... they broke my heart! "I'm really overwhelmed and I don't know how to make friends." She got over it pretty quickly though

ETA: I just changed jobs last year, after 11 years in the same department with the same group of people, some of whom became really good friends. The first few months in my new job were tough too. I think it takes time for most people when you take them out of their comfort zone and put them in a new situation.

[33girl]

There have ALWAYS been kids whose parents were a zillion miles up their ass and didn't give them time to have a free moment. I think the technology anod other things are honestly more to blame. I mean...we didn't have cable TV in our dorm rooms, we HAD to go to the TV room to watch anything more than the campus cable access. Single rooms were VERY rare...basically you got stuck with your roommate and that was it. 2 large bathrooms for 60 girls on a floor. Now almost everything is "suite style." You never need to go into a large common area, and many parents/kids demand single rooms.

Kids have been watching The Real World for umpteen years and see those idiots playing to the camera and saying "I love you!" and acting like best friends 20 minutes into the first episode. They think that's what living with others is like.