The Voice

Sometimes we wonder who gets the most attention in class- the professor or the cell phone.

We’ve all seen it- students pulling their cell phones out of their pockets or purses every five minutes to check the time or to see if they have any missed calls. Or students who are so intrigued with the oh-so-popular text messaging that they spend the whole class period frantically pushing their cell phone keys while they miss out on taking notes. And then, the minute class is dismissed, half the students in the class immediately grab their cell phones and “glue” them to their ears the whole way to their cars or dorms.

How did cell phones make the switch from “only emergency usage” to an essential gadget that we “need” in order to get through life? Our schedules, acquaintances and lives lie on the keypads of our cell phones nowadays. Sure they’re great for emergency situations such as when your car breaks down. But how disrespectful is it when a student’s cell phone goes off in the middle of class, and the professor is forced to assign a pop quiz to all the students. You can’t even go see a movie these days without someone’s phone going off during the best scene.

Excuse us, but whatever happened to cell phone etiquette? Not that we’re not all guilty of bad phone manners because surely we all are, but how would you feel if it were your cell phone that was going off during an important lecture, or what if you were the speaker and heard phones ringing off the hook?

As soon as many students move out of the dorms, they say goodbye to landlines and hello to a better cell phone plan. Are landlines on the route to becoming obsolete? Would we really rather take the risk of not having service or having bad reception in an emergency situation just to pay more on a cell phone plan to have unlimited text messaging and 1,000 extra minutes?

The choice is yours to purchase a cell phone, but keep in mind that there is cell phone etiquette to follow. Either leave your cell phone in your car or dorm room while attending class, or make a conscious effort to put it on silent mode (this means no noise at all– not even vibrating). Text-messaging during class definitely won’t pull your grade up, and surely the rest of your class members won’t think too fondly of you when they’re interrupted by the latest Black Eyed Peas tune and then get assigned a pop quiz because of you. If you’re in public, keep in mind that other people are around you, so keep conversations friendly, short and soft.

Lastly, why not try to walk across campus without your cell phone for a change? It might be nice to remember the “life-before-cell-phone-addiction” days when you were actually able to pay attention and look people in the eyes when you say hello to them.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 18 2005. Filed under Our Voice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry