Personal Responsibilty in College

Personal responsibility is the idea that the person recognizes they are solely accountable for the choices they make in their lives. It seems that society is entering an era where people are not held accountable for their actions therefore resulting in a lack of personal responsibility. As we have become better educated in society, it seems our personal responsibility has diminished. Personal responsibility is very important however it is going, by the way side, in colleges today. Diminishing personal responsibility can be seen in today’s society, all of us are looking for the fastest way from point A to point B many times regardless of the cost. In addition we are led to believe that all we truly need is that piece of paper stating that we have a degree. It seems this growing lack of personal responsibility has in no way ignored the area of higher education or the college student.

As a college student; this is the time in your life that you are finding yourself in a world of people. You are trying to improve yourself and become a valuable individual in our society. Today society trains us at an early age that to be successful in life we need a college education. “Society wants to identify intelligent people early on so that it can funnel them into careers that maximize their talents. Society wants to get the most out of its human resources. College is, essentially, a four-year intelligence test (“Live and Learn- Why we have college,” 2011). A good example of just needing the piece of paper is that many employers will teach you everything you need to know about the job once hired; however, they require the degree even if it is in such fields as English, Sociology or Child Development. Since all the employer looks for is the degree, this point to the degree requirement not the type of education earned.

The pace of today’s society has changed. Today’s society is moving faster than ever and wants immediate gratification. We as a society are becoming less patient as technology improves. A good example of this is "As we drum our fingers on the desk as a weather map takes a few seconds to download, from data received half an hour ago from a satellite in space, we ask, 'Why is this taking so long?'"(“Journalist discusses 'faster' society,” 1999). From computers to cell phones to cars and even the fast food drive thru are becoming the norm for our society, faster is better. The Internet has given students a quick and easy way to locate information from anywhere and at any time. Technology is a huge benefit for college students when compiling data; however, it has also made the ability to plagiarize someone else’s work easy and extremely tempting. If one wishes one can purchase or find free essays to use making college work a piece of cake. Cheating unfortunately has become a way of getting the degree for too many college students.

In the past personal responsibility was a highly