When Alexa Kuchler changed her Facebook status a few weeks ago, she had responses sent to her inbox and written on her wall. She was Facebook chatted and called on her cell phone within the hour ¾ all by her mother.

"I sometimes feel overconnected," she said. "But it's part of my life."

Kuchler (freshman-mathematics) is just one of many college students who find technologies such as texting and Facebook changing the way they communicate with both their parents and peers.

In the past few years, the popularity of these technologies has skyrocketed. According to statistics Facebook published on its Web site, the number of users has grown from 1 million in 2004 to 175 million in 2009. Even more dramatically, CTIA - The Wireless Association reported the number of texts sent annually increased from 57.2 billion in 2005 to 600.5 billion in 2008.

Kuchler said she enjoys being able to stay connected with her family despite her mother's occasional "excessive" responses.

"I love that my mom can text," she said. "I talk to her all the time."

Kuchler, who is also friends with her mother, aunts and cousins on Facebook, said she enjoys keeping in touch and doesn't feel they invade her privacy.

"They don't creep on my pictures and try to find out what I'm doing. My aunt always asks me to pillowfight and throws snowballs at me," she said, referring to Facebook applications.

Alex Sam (freshman-finance) said he agrees technology is now an integral part of his life, although he said there is a downside to increased levels of connectivity. Several members of his extended family have recently added him on Facebook, he said -- a consequence of the recent boom in new users.

"I have to change all my privacy settings," he said. "If you don't accept them, they ask questions."

Sam said he also gets texts from his mom, often using shorthand. While he appreciates the sentiment, he said the constant contact is getting in the way of his college experience.

"They're invading what's supposed to be the best time of your life," he said. "I can't have fun in college always having to watch what I'm putting on Facebook. This is our time to be independent ¾ away from mom and dad."

Still, Sam said he couldn't imagine college any other way.

"Technology makes life so much better. I don't know what they did a decade ago," he said. "All of my friends use Facebook, and I couldn't live without my phone."

S. Shyam Sundar, co-director of Penn State's Media Effects Resarch Lab, said these technologies are allowing students to communicate at a new level.

"People can maximize their social, cultural and educational experience," he said. "In general, it's a positive force."

The Media Effects Research Lab has done numerous studies on Facebook and other social networks. Sundar said these new digital relationships mirror existing face-to-face relationships, albeit with their own social norms and accepted behaviors.

"This technology is moving at such a fast pace people are learning as they go," he said. "The rules of proper etiquette are beginning to be defined."

Privacy is one of the biggest issues with Facebook, Sundar said. With parents and others "invading" the network, he said students are finding it harder to hide their personal lives, including all the debauchery that entails. He added, however, students are not the only ones affected by this availability of information.

"One Dartmouth professor shared in her Facebook status that she was preparing for a lecture by taking information from Wikipedia," he said. "This information inevitably got out, and there was -- as expected -- a huge backlash from parents and the administration. Stories like this and others serve as examples to help others define boundaries within their networks."

A researcher for the Media Effects Lab, Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch (graduate-mass communications), conducted a study on how Facebook works as a social tool and said the results showed Facebook had its own particular norms.

"Usually, the more you share, the response you get back from others should match the level of intensity," she said. "On Facebook the strong outpouring of emotion was viewed as excessive."

Oeldorf-Hirsch said she believes this is because Facebook is a tool used in existing social networks, connecting people who already know each other and making it easier to share information and content.

"Facebook is a social support network allowing users to reach out to their friends," she said. "It's not a venue for emotional responses, but to share information. I can post things I find interesting and share it through my network."

Fellow researcher Dawn Ziegerer Behnken (graduate-media studies) said Facebook has had a ripple effect on other technologies as well.

"People are taking more pictures now," she said. "Facebook provides a venue to share photos you'd otherwise have to carry around in your wallet."

Behnken, who has teenage children of her own, said she is also a "Facebook parent," although she joined the service several years ago. She said in the past four months she has suddenly felt less alone.

"When I first joined, I thought it was dumb and I only had a few friends," she said. "Now people from my childhood are finding and adding me -- it's becoming more appealing. It's fun to see how things have changed."

Sundar said while these technologies have their benefits, there is a downside to excessive cell phone use.

"In some ways, it makes one less social," he said. "It depersonalizes interactions with other people."

Peter Crabb, an associate professor of psychology at Penn State Hazleton, specializes in how consumer technologies impact social behavior. He said he has noticed definite changes in student behavior over the past few years.

"It's all about technology," he said. "Your average college student is interacting through electronic media, but not face-to-face."

According to a 2008 Nielsen study, the average teen sends and receives more than 1,000 texts a month. Crabb urges students to limit their time spent texting and on Web sites such as Facebook and to be aware of the impact these technologies are having on their relationships.

"You don't have to have heavy authentic face-to-face conversation all the time," he said. "But frivolous online communication is too much."

Crabb also criticized the "electronic tether" that now exists between students and their parents, saying it interferes with a student's ability to become independent and autonomous.

He said he is concerned this preference for digital, often text-based communication is having a harmful effect on students' interpersonal skills.

Talking to both faculty and administrators, Crabb said they have noticed students are having difficulty making eye contact when having conversations.

"It's a skill set to be able to look someone in the eye and have a conversation with them," he said. "If students aren't practicing, they're going to lose that skill set. They're going to have problems with their face-to-face relationships, which are always the most important ones."