I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them.

[mountaineer]

I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and write about living without them.
Here’s what they had to say.
by Ron Srigley
Dec 26, 2019

A few years ago, I performed an experiment in a philosophy class I was teaching. My students had failed a midterm test rather badly. I had a hunch that their pervasive use of cell phones and laptops in class was partly responsible. So I asked them what they thought had gone wrong. After a few moments of silence, a young woman put up her hand and said: “We don’t understand what the books say, sir. We don’t understand the words.” I looked around the class and saw guileless heads pensively nodding in agreement.

I extemporized a solution: I offered them extra credit if they would give me their phones for nine days and write about living without them. Twelve students—about a third of the class—took me up on the offer. What they wrote was remarkable, and remarkably consistent. These university students, given the chance to say what they felt, didn’t gracefully submit to the tech industry and its devices. ...

Without their phones, most of my students initially felt lost, disoriented, frustrated, and even frightened. That seemed to support the industry narrative: look how disconnected and lonely you’ll be without our technology. But after just two weeks, the majority began to think that their cell phones were in fact limiting their relationships with other people, compromising their own lives, and somehow cutting them off from the “real” world.  ...

Entire article at Technology Review

[Smokin Joe]

People connect with a device, but don't take the time to say "hi" to the person next to them.
They are less aware of their surroundings.
Effectively, their focus on the device disconnects them from their environs and those around them.

[mountaineer]

Visit a college student union.  Tables full of kids staring at phones, not saying a word to anyone else.

[Cyber Liberty]

This sounds like a good teacher.  Thank goodness we still have some like that.

[Gefn]

I’m so glad I went to college before cell phones, last century. College was the best years of my life.

[Smokin Joe]

I’m so glad I went to college before cell phones, last century. College was the best years of my life.

Me, too. Even before personal computers and laptops, (I didn't have a calculator until Sophomore year, they were few and expensive before then). I like the information at your fingertips sort of thing, but life was definitely different in the days of landlines and snail mail and hard copy books.
Even the first decade in the oil patch, I recall driving 70 miles to a phone to give the company geologist in Denver a morning report. The world moved at a little slower pace, people had time to chat,and there was a world to see for those who took the time to look and appreciate the wonders Our Creator has made.

[mountaineer]

I’m so glad I went to college before cell phones, last century. College was the best years of my life.

Same here. "High tech" at our school meant you could go to a library carrel, don headphones and dial up a class lecture - using an actual dial like this:


We actually spoke face-to-face to our friends, and created lifelong relationships.

[catfish1957]

Same here. "High tech" at our school meant you could go to a library carrel, don headphones and dial up a class lecture - using an actual dial like this:


We actually spoke face-to-face to our friends, and created lifelong relationships.

Ahhhh, the days of real dialing phones.

Here is what the phone looked like at my grandparents out in the country.  No charge?  Mrs. Simpson who chose to ignore longs and shorts of the party line ring code.  My grandma used to fake calls to friends to bait this mouth of the south. 

[Gefn]

The computer science majors walked around with Punch cards.

I miss the 80s. I don’t miss the big hair.

[Free Vulcan]

One thing I see with 'Gen Z' which are up to high school age is that they like both the 'analog' and 'digital' world. My nephew is if that generation, he lives up in liberal Minneapolis.

He loves games and activities, and he and his friends will do everything from the multiplayer video games to old school Dungeons and Dragons, Monopoly, and all sorts of other board games. They even stay on the hunt for the newest board games.

Alot of them are pretty conservative. There may yet be hope.

[thackney]

I’m so glad I went to college before cell phones, last century. College was the best years of my life.

I am so glad I went to college before everyone carried a camera and video recorder around everywhere.

[catfish1957]

I am so glad I went to college before everyone carried a camera and video recorder around everywhere.

I am so glad I went to college before security cameras were everywhere.

[mountaineer]

I am so glad I went to college before security cameras were everywhere.

Yes, there's that, too. 

[catfish1957]

Yes, there's that, too. 

Yep, our dorm was nicknamed "Animal House", for apt reason.