When University of Florida administrator Jeanna Mastrodicasa was a student living in a dorm at the University of Georgia, she had to dial collect to call home. And she didn't do it all that often.

Fast-forward two decades, and you find college students like Tiana Johnson, 18, who talks to her mother every day, "maybe every couple of hours." The two also exchange frequent text messages. And they're connected through Facebook.

So much for going away to college and finding your independence. The umbilical cord is now wireless.

With affordable cell phones and instant, 24-hour social tools like Facebook and Twitter, technology makes it easier than ever for parents to hover, and the college years become just an extended version of high school.

Researchers in academia call this phenomenon the "electronic tether." And they are concerned.

"When a student and parent are calling and texting all day, what happens is the kid has the parent in their head, so there is not that liberation there once was in college to just make your own decisions," said Middlebury College psychology professor Barbara Hofer. "There is not a lot of independent decisionmaking going on.

"It's a serious concern in terms of who they become in the workplace and in society."

Mastrodicasa, assistant vice president for student affairs at the University of Florida, researches the relationship between technology and "millennials," the generation born after 1980.

A few years back, she surveyed 8,000 college students across the country. The findings point to a generation that is far closer and more dependent on their parents than previous generations.

"It's the whole parents-trying-to-be-friends [phenomenon]," Mastrodicasa said. "There are a lot fewer secrets now between students and their parents."

Hofer did a similar study of 1,000 undergraduates at Middlebury and the University of Michigan. One in five students surveyed said they have sent papers to their parents, usually via e-mail, for proofreading. The students, and not just freshmen, reported communicating with their parents roughly 13 times a week through e-mail and cell phone.

One of the students Hofer surveyed said his mother had the syllabi for all four of his courses. His mother checked in daily: Did you finish this reading assignment? Is your essay done?

"This is a kid that is not becoming the self-regulated learner that college is supposed to create," said Hofer, who teaches a course on adolescent development and a theory called "emerging adulthood."

A better term might be delayed adulthood. It refers to the developmental phase between 18 and 35 when people want the rights of adulthood but do not assume all the responsibilities that go with it.

Hofer has found, by following up with students after they graduate, that they lean on their parents even after they have a diploma.

"We're already hearing stories about graduates who say, 'I can't accept that salary offer until I talk to my parents,'" Hofer said. "Or they actually bring their parents to the job interview."

Sure, some of this is anecdotal. But the survey results say a lot. Parents today often seem to want to experience college through their children, Mastrodicasa said.

Or at least to control what their children experience.

Shannon Colavecchio can be reached at scolavecchiosptimes.com.