The first discusses "senioritis" as anomie (sociology nerds rejoice!). If you're like me, you probably know someone who has faced senioritis: I didn't think it was real until it hit me this fall (don't worry, I bounced back pretty quickly). If you've never heard of anomie, don't worry, I hadn't either until this year, but it's a fascinating concept. Fastforward to paragraph 4 if you can't handle the suspense.
Anomy and the Dreaded Malady, Senioritis
“I’m so burnt out!” This phrase, indicative of senioritis, is commonly heard from fourth-year college students during their last year of formal schooling. Emile Durkheim’s concept of “anomy” is the sociological basis for the fictitious disease “senioritis,” with symptoms including expressions of frustration and lack of motivation towards schoolwork and other activities. I will discuss Durkheim’s thoughts on moral regulation, anomy and its negative effects, then I will discuss the modern phenomenon of college “senioritis” and show why senioritis is a modern instance of anomy.
Many college seniors struggle with unhappiness. Durkheim shares the secret to happiness in his essay on “Suicide:”
No living being can be happy or even exist unless his needs are sufficiently proportioned to his means. If his needs require more than can be granted, or even merely something of a different sort, they will be under continual friction and can only function painfully ([1897] 2012:255).
Expectations are very important for determining our level of effort, the things that we strive for, and the way that we interpret daily circumstances. If our expectations are incompatible with our capabilities, then we will not be able to fulfill our desires and will therefore be unhappy. What blinded him to himself was his expectation always to find further on the happiness he had so far missed…Weariness alone, moreover, is enough to bring disillusionment, for he cannot in the end escape the futility of an endless pursuit. ([1897] 2012:262)
Durkheim continues on to say “Inextinguishable thirst is constantly renewed torture….Human activity naturally aspires beyond assignable limits and sets itself unattainable goals ([1897] 2012:256).” Since individually instinctually strive for lofty things, we can only really be happy and avoid the torture and suffering of an “inextinguishable thirst” if an outside force limits our aspirations. Durkheim states, “But how determine the quantity of well-being, comfort or luxury legitimately to be craved by a human being? Nothing appears in man’s organic nor his psychological constitution which sets a limit to such tendencies ([1897] 2012:256).” Man needs society because he cannot limit his own desires. Individuals must be morally regulated by society in order to have realistic expectations and have an enjoyable life.
Though freedom from regulation may seem ideal, it actually leads to a harmful state. When society fails to regulate individuals’ aspirations, individuals will eventually realize that it is impossible to achieve the things that they desire or thought that they should strive towards. After a long period of striving, individuals may take a moment to analyze their endless yet futile attempts to do well, and realize that their goals are entirely impossible and that they don’t know what they should actually be striving for. With the realization that goals are unreachable comes negative results such as discomfort, distress and anomy.
Anomy is a condition where the absence of moral regulation from society causes deep distress because humans naturally aspire to achieve beyond realistic limits and do not develop appropriate goals. As an extreme example of the detrimental effects of anomy, one of the three types of suicide is named “anomic suicide” because of its close relationship to the concept of anomy. Anomic suicide results from an individual’s intense desire to escape suffering because of a lack of regulation from society and leads the individual to voluntarily end their life.
One situation in which individuals often strive for unrealistic goals is in college. College students face many demands and recommendations. They feel pressure to achieve good grades and do things such as hold leadership positions, be involved in multiple extracurricular activities (for example Greek life and sports teams), have time to hang out with friends, get enough sleep and exercise, keep in touch with family, and participate in religious activities. Particularly for students attending competitive schools or seeking to enter prestigious graduate schools or jobs, the “expectations” that they strive to fulfill are entirely unrealistic and disappointment is inevitable. For the vast majority of students, there are simply not enough hours in the day to do all of these things well. Every student simply cannot be good at every part of the college workload and “experience.” Therefore, students must either decide not to pursue or prioritize some aspects of the “ideal college experience” (but as Durkheim says, humans naturally strive beyond their natural limits) or they will end up trying to do everything well and eventually fail and become distressed. This distress will cause them to question why they participate in and strive for all of their goals, and leads to disillusionment and deeper unhappiness.
One can never truly be happy when they are striving towards unfeasible goals, because even if they get relatively closer to their goal, they will always be far away from completion. Durkheim describes the misleading and upsetting nature of striving towards unreachable goals: “Even the glances behind and our feeling of pride at the distance covered can cause only deceptive satisfaction, since the remaining distance is not proportionately reduced ([1897] 2012:256).” After three years in college, students have generally participated in numerous group projects, done research projects and papers, held a leadership position on campus, possibly held a job, participated on a sports team or done other activities while going about their everyday life. When senior year begins or progresses, students become disillusioned as the list of tasks for classes and organizations goes on and on, in addition to the new list of chores in order to prepare for the next step after college, continuing on to either graduate school or a job. The transition period of the beginning of senior year through graduation is a time of planning, deadlines, anticipation, stress, and apprehension about the next phase of life. Though this transition adds extra tasks and pressure for students, senioritis can be experienced before senior year, depending on the individual and factors such as their level of ambition, skill, involvement and pressure from family and friends.
“Senioritis” is a fictional disease that describes an unpleasant phenomenon felt by many fourth-year college students. Senioritis has become a widely-accepted term among students and it is often discussed. Even seniors who are not disillusioned with school may use the idea of senioritis as a scapegoat as a way to justify being lazy. US News and World Report describes different types and various symptoms of senioritis while providing tips to combat this malady (McMullen 2011). Several definitions of senioritis are given in the article “5 Tips to Battle College Senioritis (McMullen 2011).” They include "a general apathy toward school work that is developed after years of schooling at an institution," feeling “overwhelmed by the pressure to both succeed in class and prepare for life after college,” and students who have come to prioritize spending time with friends over work (McMullen 2011). The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines senioritis as “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2011).” The dictionary also states that the first known use of senioritis was in 1957, several generations back (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2011). A USA Today College article entitled “Diagnose your Senior-itis” classifies types of senioritis as differing by the student’s answer to the question “What are you doing next year?” on levels of definitiveness and impressiveness of plans and the level of marketability of the student’s degree (Wall 2011). When students are expected to do everything well and realize either during the school year that this is impossible or that graduation seems to continually loom far in the distance, they may stop trying and start whining about school.
Most seniors face pressure from parents, peers, graduate schools, and employers to be involved in many different activities and areas and to do well in all of them. Rather than regulating the individual’s expectations, societal forces encourage unrealistic expectations that will inevitably lead to distress. Eventually, lots of these students realize that they are either not doing as well in classes as they would like, not spending as much time with friends as they want to, they don’t really enjoy time spent on their extracurricular activities, or they are simply tired of always being tired. With this realization can come distress and general indifference towards school, and a sense of general distress like “anomy.”
When discussing anomic division of labor, Durkheim says “a state of anomie is impossible wherever organs solidly linked to one another are in sufficiently lengthy contact ([1893] 2012:240).” This means that he believes the depressing state of deregulation cannot occur when individuals are connected to each other. I disagree, because through complaining with friends about the demands and unrealistic expectations of senior year can lessen distress, it cannot guarantee that one will escape the distress of anomie.
Clearly, senioritis is a detrimental challenge faced by many fourth-year college students. The realization that one’s goals are impossible to achieve causes distress and devastation among students. Senioritis is a modern instance of anomy. College students are told by friends, family, popular culture, and that they can “do it all,” but the simultaneous achievement of all these goals is simply impossible. Society’s “organ,” the college institution, fails to regulate students’ goals, and therefore by the end of four years in college, students experience the distress of senioritis as a result of striving towards unattainable goals.
Though senioritis does not generally cause anomic suicide (as Durkheim discussed), results may include undesirable things such as lower grades, high levels of emotional and physical stress, and a variety of unhealthy coping mechanisms (with negative effects). The only currently known cure for senioritis is graduation, but what happens when individuals face the next round of unrealistic expectations after college? Are we really content to simply acknowledge the fact that many college seniors experience disillusionment and distress that cause a lack of motivation towards the end of college? What can we do to stop this detrimental cycle?
The dreaded malady “senioritis” is a clear 21st century example of the concept of anomy, as originally discussed by Emile Durkheim in the late 1800s. When students finally realize that they cannot actually “do it all” like they have been told throughout their lives by family, friends, schools, and popular culture, they experience the anomic distress of senioritis. We must find a way to encourage more realistic expectations among college students so that they can finish their senior years well. If students are given healthy perspectives through the moral regulation of society, they can graduate with good grades and more importantly, happiness and energy to continue on to the next phase of life after college.
REFERENCES
Durkheim, Emile. 1893. “The Division of Labor in Society.” Pp. 220-242 in 3rd ed. Classical Sociological Theory, edited by C. Calhoun, G. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff and I. Virk. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Durkheim, Emile. 1897. “Suicide.” Pp. 255-264 in 3rd ed. Classical Sociological Theory, edited by C. Calhoun, G. Gerteis, J. Moody, S. Pfaff and I. Virk. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary. “Senioritis.” Web. Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 24, 2012. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/senioritis).
McMullen, Laura. November 18, 2011. US News and World Report. “5 Tips to Battle College Senioritis.” Retrieved October 25, 2012. (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2011/11/18/5-tips-to-battle-college-senioritis).
Wall, Elizabeth. April 18, 2011. USA Today College. “Diagnose Your Senioritis.” Retrieved October 25, 2012. (http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/blog/diagonose-your-senioritis).
