For those of us who weren’t blessed with the luxury of smartphones in high school, how scary was it when you checked your big girl college email for the first time? I know when I saw that extensive list of scholarship possibilities, club advertisements and warnings of early class assignments I almost gave up right then and there. What ever happened to the days when all I had in my inbox was a forwarded message from my aunt filled with cute pictures of cats?
There was one solution to controlling such a constant flow of emails on emails on emails: get a smartphone.
With a BlackBerry, iPhone, Droid or any phone with internet capability, students are able to weed out the important emails, and delete what they know they don’t need as soon as their phone goes off.
In college, life can become extremely inconvenient without that instant access to email; especially since all teachers and listservs contact the students specifically through email. If your class is canceled, you have an emergency meeting with your sorority, or you’re about to miss an important deadline—whatever the reason—having your email at your fingertips is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.
Sarah McCawley, an undecided sophomore, learned this the hard way when she was forced to wander the Denton Community for a good 40 minutes in search for her study program. She knew she was in trouble once she realized that none of her fellow students were in the building that she was told to go to.
After asking around and receiving a lot of misdirected advice, she finally showed up to her program; tardy and out of breath. “Everyone else was actually sitting there with their smartphones as I walked in late,” McCawley complained. “The instructor sent out a last-minute email with a change of location, but my dumb phone couldn’t get it.” Needless to say, McCawley became an owner of a nice new BlackBerry the very next day.
However, email isn’t the only way smartphones keep a college student’s head above water. With the addition of Facebook and Twitter apps, a continuous connection with social media can become an important part of everyday life. Personally, the fact that I get my Facebook notifications to my phone really helps me avoid spending too much time on the actual website, but these apps keep students connected to the world in general.
Once a smartphone is attained, it’s hard to let go of. Alex Contreras, a sophomore kinesiology major, recently lost her smartphone, and has resorted to a phone that resembles a tiny brick and lacks any connection to the internet. What’s the biggest annoyance for her? “Basically falling off the end of the earth,” Contreras said.
It may seem a bit shallow to be praising technology like this, but a college student needs organization or else they can fall into complete chaos. “I don’t have my calendar at the palm of my hand, and this phone doesn’t have reminders like my old one,” Contreras said. She explained how she basically has to cart her laptop around with her everywhere, and now signs into her email every time her computer is open.
So if you feel that you’re out of the loop, don’t think that wanting a smartphone is simply a bandwagon phase. Do yourselves a favor, and simplify your college experience!