Technology's a blessing and curse to students.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

The amount of technology helping today's college students stay in touch with family and friends back home can be a blessing and a curse, cautions Glen Sparks, professor of communication at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.

"Twenty years ago when students left for college, they realized they were leaving home to establish new friends and contacts," he says. "Today, some people never really leave home even though they are hundreds of miles away. The first thing many college students do when they arrive on campus is hook up their computers and cable television and use their cell phones to call their friends at home."

Technology, including computers, e-mail, and cell phones, gives students a way to "keep their relationships warm," relates...