I would like to share with you all the absolute panic that radiated through my body last Friday. My 9 AM class was cancelled, as we had a take-home exam instead. I indulged in a half-hour of extra sleep and made some oatmeal in my microwave to avoid walking all the way to the dining hall. I didn’t even get dressed. This take-home exam was online, so I sat at my desk, unplugged my laptop that had been charging all night, and opened it, expecting the screen to light up. But it didn’t. I tapped the mousepad. Nothing. I typed on the keyboard. Nothing. I held the power button. Nothing. Did it not charge? There was no red bar on the screen that shows up when it’s dead. What is going on?
I texted my friend who had a different 9 AM and explained the situation. My heart was racing. This was the only time I had in my day to take this exam. By some absolute miracle, she didn’t need her laptop for her class and said I could borrow it. I threw on a pair of sweatpants, pulled on shoes, and ran to the dining hall. I grabbed her laptop and ran back to my dorm, yelling “thank you” and “I owe you so big” behind me as I exited. I took the exam with my friend’s laptop and eventually figured out how to turn my laptop on. (I still don’t know what the problem was, but it’s working, and that’s good enough for me for now).
My campus recently had two weekends in a row with part of or all of campus without power or WiFi except for three buildings that had generators. Both the blackouts and my laptop having a breakdown got me thinking about how reliant we are on technology. Of course, there is a difference between wishing you could scroll through Instagram in your bed and using the bathroom with only a flashlight to help you see, but walking into a campus common building, (one of the three places with power and WiFi) I saw every seat filled with more people scattered on the floor, cords connecting phones and laptops to chargers.
I’m not saying I’m a saint here. I was there for the exact same reason as the rest: to use and charge my phone and check my email to see if any of my professors gave extensions. I had realized that I could do literally none of my homework without WiFi, as I had online textbook readings, responses to write, and even my statistics problem set had to be uploaded online to get credit. We as a society have become so reliant on technology that students can’t do much at all without WiFi.
My point is not to say technology is bad. In fact, I love technology. I’m typing this article on my laptop. I use my phone all the time to listen to music, text my friends, or just to mess around. After two weekends of blackouts and a panic-inducing technological misunderstanding, I just started thinking, and I wanted to share my thoughts on this.