Abstract:

The research was done with the purpose of determining the influence and impact of social networks and internet on the academic and professional formation of university students in the Marsh University Center (CUCIENEGA for its acronym in Spanish) of the University of Guadalajara (UdeG for its acronym in Spanish), in its base stablished in the city of La Barca, in the state of Jalisco. For this research it was inspected the use of Internet and social networks by students in their academic life. There were 20 students selected from the last two semesters of the Agribusiness Bachelor’s degrees, to whom a poll was applied considering the next variables: gender( male or female); labor situation (employed or unemployed); age; marital status; internet access inside or outside home; daily minutes spent online, tools used to navigate the internet (Facebook, twitter, whatsapp, video games, reading magazines and/or newspapers); reading habits; knowledge of the economic, political, social, and cultural situation in their community, region, state and country; activities developed favoring their own community, state and country. The data were analyzed with the Student´s T-test with a statistical confidence level of 95%. The interviews were applied to 17 men and 3 women, showing the next results: only 6 out of 20 students had a job at the moment of the research; 2 out of 20 were married and had an average age of 21.75 years old. Additionally, 100% of the students use the Internet daily, in spite that only 3 out of 20 have internet at home and the rest (17 out of 20) use internet cafés; a daily session takes about 130 minutes average. 40% of students use Facebook, 90% Whatsapp and videogames and 30% Twitter, only 4% use the internet to access and read scientific journals referring to their career’s topics and/or newspapers that keep them informed about their community, region, state and country. A serious issue is that 90% of students expressed not having any interest on using the internet for reading or checking journals, magazines, books or newspapers. The variations found are basically due to environmental conditions; location of their community and/or state (Jalisco – Michoacán) and family discipline. Thereby, it is concluded that students don’t hold any sense of commitment and responsibility towards their community, state and country; along with the fact that they grow up feeling rejected by them. Thus, it is necessary to implement effective mechanisms and/or strategies that make students realize the enormous richness of using the internet and social networks correctly in their professional and personal education. It is also prevailing to implement linking strategies that relate in a real way the university with the professional development and accompaniment of the students and their accomplishments towards their community.

Keywords:

Internet, social networks, commitment, social responsibility.