Almost every parent feels that a hostel life will be safe and more protective for their child. The supervised atmosphere combined with the strict regimen almost resembles the way your parents perceive you lived at home. Apart from this, many colleges make it mandatory for students to live on campus in their hostel.
However, numerous studies have shown that instead of having a positive impact on a student, a hostel like could adversely affect their overall development.
What Are Hostels?
Hostels, also known as dormitories or ‘dorms’, are part of Indian culture since at least the 7th century, whose proofs are found in the great Nalanda University of ancient India. These are shared accommodations, which are mostly built on the campus grounds for convenience to students. There are numerous rooms in a hostel and each room is shared between at least 2 or, as many as 6 to 8 students, at a time. Bunk-beds, common toilets and eating place are common features of a hostel.
Parents are mostly under the impression that living in a hostel will be better for their child, however, the truth is far away from it. According to a qualitative study, focused on exploring the impacts of hostel life on the personality and behavior of students, published in the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, although students living in a hostel tend to become more resilient in nature and character, the risk of drug abuse and depression amongst such students is also significantly high.
Perils Of Living In A Hostel & Leading A Hostel Life
These are some of the adverse effects and disadvantages of hostel life:
1. Less Facilities, More Cost
Believe it or not, your parents would have to fork over quite a lot of money to get you admitted to a hostel. Today, the college hostel charges are so exorbitant that a middle-class student would think twice about getting admission in there. Apart from this, the higher cost does not warranty the facilities you have at home. Dirty toilets, nauseating food, and slow Wi-Fi are still major issues students face in hostels.
2. Increased Exposure To Bad Habits & Bad Company
The hostel is the perfect place to forge deep friendships and learn a whole lot of new things too. However, as with everything else in life, there is a right and wrong side to this too and you can also easily get influenced to try a bad habit, such as smoking, drinking, drugs, etc.
3. Privacy, Forget It
If you are used to having a comfortable personal space around you then you will be shocked by the lack of it when you start living in a hostel. Sharing a single room between 2 and more people tends to do that to privacy.
4. Too Many Restrictions
Hostel life is mostly remembered for breaking all the kinds of rules and restrictions involved in living in it. From no lights late at night, to even banning outside food on the premises, there are some weird and highly restrictive rules regulating hostels today.
5. Food or Mess
You will begin to see a whole different reason why the dining hall in any hostel is called a ‘mess’. From sloppy bland vegetable to barely-there meat and chicken, the food in the mess will make you crave and even the simple dal-chawal of home seem like a feast.
6. Noise, Noise & Noise
With scores of young, energetic students living in confined space for such a long time, the decibel level is sure to increase. You can forget about concentrating on studies as easily as you did in the relative peace and quiet of your home.
7. No Room For Space
As much as your personal space and privacy gets restricted, you will begin to feel the suffocation of having to share almost every single waking moment with your roommates soon.
8. Break-Ins Leave You Broke
Theft is one of the most common problems reported by people living in a hostel. From a simple pen to your favorite watch, there is almost nothing that can’t get stolen in a hostel.
Is Co Living A Solution?
Co living is an innovative concept of shared accommodation living. In this, you need to move in only with your clothes, books and other truly essential things packed in one bag and the rest of your essential needs are already taken care of. This is almost like living at home, where there is more privacy, increased personal space and also gives more value-for-money.
Living in such a stress-free and comfortable atmosphere with other like-minded individuals tends to help immensely in positive growth of personality and behavior in the person, as compared to living in a hostel.
Final Thoughts
Well, Co-Living is truly transforming the way students live. By giving them homes that look like homes, taking care of all mundane task and most importantly letting them be a part of a group that shares a common interest, it truly ensures young minds support each other to nurture talent and promote interests. To know more visit www.colive.in.
