Our generation has been described as “wired.”
Walking down the street, it’s painfully obvious how
accurate that description is: Person after person sports
an iPod or a Bluetooth earpiece unit.
We all can plead guilty to whipping out our phones
and making calls, or checking voicemails and text
messages the minute we go on a precious five-minute
class break. As soon as class is over, phones come
out of bags and pockets before we even get out of
the door.
It’s no secret college students live on tight budgets.
Seeing so many people with cell phones makes me
wonder who pays for them, and how, especially when
new models frequently appear on the market. When
the Motorola Razr came out two years ago, it cost
$499. Six months later, it was $199, and at the end
of 2005, it cost a mere $99.
The Apple iPhone is undergoing the same process.
Apple store lines made national and local news when
the iPhone started selling for up to $599. Apple
recently dropped $200 from the original price and is
offering $100 credits to their first iPhone buyers after
customers complained about the huge price drop.
Although $399 doesn’t come close to covering one
month of rent, some students don’t mind the cost of
being early adopters. Obviously, no phone should
come without music, photography and Internet
capabilities. Besides, looking cool is more important
than whether phones cause cancer.
A 2006 Pew Research Center survey reported that
32 percent of 18 to 29 year olds said they cannot live
without their cell phones, and 67 percent said they
always keep their phones on. The numbers have no
doubt increased in the past year, which is bad news for
teachers, so here are some valuable tips for frequent
cell phone users in or out of the classroom:
• Put your phone on silent.
It’s not enough to set it on
vibrate. You’ll get dirty looks,
especially on the fourth floor
of the James Branch Cabell
Library.
• Wherever you are, don’t
be obnoxiously loud. It’s a
little thing called common
courtesy.
• Annoyingly overplayed
songs make for even more
annoying ringtones.
• There are never good
reasons for bathroom phone
calls. It doesn’t matter how
good your reception is, but
at least wait until after you’ve
washed your hands.
• Step out of the club or
turn down the music if
you’re going to talk. You
can’t expect to be heard over
the racket.
• Just because you have some
spare time to talk to someone
doesn’t mean you should. Be
mindful of your minutes.
It’s a little challenging for college students to keep
up with cutting-edge cell phone technology. Between
the ever-fluctuating prices and the wide variety of
models to choose from, you have to put up with a
heck of a lot to get what you want.
But at the end of the day, it might be worth it. I
mean, you never know if you’ll have to check your
e-mail in line at 7-Eleven.