Research Blog #9: Argument and Counter Argument

My argument is that there are many factors contributing to the steadily increasing reports of anxiety among college students but that all of them can be linked to the privatization of higher education. The first reason I will be looking at is the increased financial burden students are now facing and how it is linked to privatization because it has caused tuitions to increase over the years leading students to have to work multiple jobs and even take out loans. The second reason I will be looking at is the heightened academic pressure students are now feeling and this is linked to privatization because students feel an added pressure to do well to in order to be competitive in the job market and pay off their student debt. And finally the third factor I will be looking at is dependence on social media and it is linked to privatization because many students no longer have free time to interact with peers  due to this academic pressure and financial burden. Therefore students no longer get to experience the social growth that is expected to happen in college and have to rely on social media for interaction and this  can be causing college students to not develop the skills necessary to cope with the social pressure of university life.

A counter argument is that we are now living in an age of anxiety, and that this increase in anxiety isn't just being experienced by college students but worldwide. This argument theorizes that it isn't the stress the students are experiencing in college that is causing an increase in reported cases, but it is in fact a worldwide. I disagree with this argument and will be using the study "The age of anxiety?" as evidence against this counter argument because the analyses of this study suggest that any increase in anxiety in the USA and Canada may be limited to students.