Students Real Use of Technology

No texting while skateboarding either!

Today is the perfect day to observe the way that my fellow classmates and other students around campus use technology. It is one of my busiest days of the week. My first class, Math begins at 10:50 followed by English at 12:15 then Biology from 1:40 to 4:20 in the afternoon. To start the day, a young man riding his skate board fell right in front of Starbucks because he was checking his phone instead of paying attention to the concrete benches that were right in front of him. He was also carrying a new bass guitar on his back without a case and when he fell he scratched it all. I could not help it but feel sorry for him, after I laughed. This was on my way to math class. As the professor is about to start the lesson two baseball players that are routinely late walk in texting. They both sit down, one of them puts in his head phones and listens to music and texting while the other baseball player just sits down and continues texting. Since we sit on the same row I felt the vibration of their phones every time they went off. As you can imagine their phones went off throughout the entire 50 minutes of class. This meant that not only were they not paying attention but I was also distracted from learning. As I walked to the cafeteria to get a quick snack before my English class I noticed that most students who were alone eating were occasionally sneaking peels at their phones to check for text messages. When I see this it crosses my mind that I do that and I make a mental note to avoid doing it. During my English class we are at a computer lab sit on the top row so that I am able to observe those using computers below me. Throughout the class period we are all able to stay on task with the exception of a girl is texting, but it seems like she is done with today’s assignment. All of my classmates are 20 years of age or older therefore, I saw them opening emails or opening applications online for those who were looking for jobs. During our 15 minute break all, and really all of the students, myself included sat on the couches outside the classroom and texted. My biology class is almost three hours long though so I do not blame anyone for using their phones of side tracking. By the end of my observations I was saddened by the decrease in our respect for the professors and by the lack of wanting to learn and truly get an education in order to get a better life.

Cell phones and Education.