Websters describes "classical conditioning" as: conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) is paired with and precedes the unconditioned stimulus (such as the sight of food) until the conditioned stimulus alone is sufficient to elicit the response. Although some may have disagreed with Pavlov's work with dogs as either being inhumane or irrelevant, classical conditioning is alive and well in today's society, especially through the tool that has become as much a part of our everyday lives as the food we eat or the air we breath--our cell phones. Through our cell phones we are being conditioned to respond to stimuli just like Pavlov's dog was conditioned to respond to the bell sound for food.

Social media is a business whose purpose is to get us, the product, into the hands of the consumers, businesses. They do this by getting our attention and conditioning us to be addicted to the newsfeed. Here are some more detailed explanations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jar4KgKxs

and:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGZvNbfrNag

Just like the bell would inform the dog when food was coming, the cell phone ding will let us know when we have received a text, social media like, email, update, etc. The dopamine that is released is very similar to the saliva that the dog would produce when knowing food was coming--classical conditioning at it's best.

How does that affect our students? Unfortunately many of our students are addicted to their phones and the dopamine it provides them. They are a generation of instant gratification and feedback. Attention spans are short and attention from their peers is becoming the primary goal--if they can't get dopamine from their phones during class, they will find it a different way, often causing disruptive behavior in class to get attention.

However, this conditioning also affects student's ability to relate to others. Social skills are declining rapidly and students are having more trouble knowing how to effectively interact with peers. Group work and collaboration are skills employers are desperately seeking but having a very hard time finding in graduating classes. Students have not had enough practice interacting with peers in order to learn how to effectively work with others.

As teachers, we will have to find a way to counteract the cell phone addiction effects on our students AND on us. In an ever-changing society, we must change with it if we are going to continue to help students become helathy members of society.

Thoughts?