Well, the first week of classes is now done for me. All in all, it was a good week. I’m going to like four out of my five classes (the one I’m not going to being crazy about is introduction to art – but this was to be expected). I ran into some old friends, which was nice, and made a few new ones. However, the week was not without its negatives.
One of the major negatives was in one of my upper division history courses. It’s a fairly small class – probably 10 students or so – and we’re in a small classroom, as well. At most, the people in the back of the room are 10 or 15 feet away from the professor.
The negative was some fellow sitting to my right, attempting to induce broken thumb syndrome by texting on his cellphone throughout the class. It was frustrating for a couple reasons:
- In such a small room, it’s fairly distracting, because the constant sound of his thumb zipping over his cellphone produces a surprisingly large amount of noise.
- It’s the principal. He’s in plain view of the professor, obviously paying no attention whatsoever, texting every 2 to 3 minutes, and being noisy about it, no less.
This is one of those things that I honestly just can’t wrap my head around. I can’t imagine keeping my flip cellphone (if I owned one) open, on the table, throughout a class, and texting on it constantly. In plain view of the professor, too! It’s extremely rude, both to the professor and to people who are – gasp! – trying to actually pay attention to the lecture.
Have people always been like this, or is this lack of respect thing something new that my generation has latched on to? Perhaps I’m viewing the recent past through idealistic glasses, but I can’t imagine college students in, say, the 40s or 50s, acting like that.
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I can’t imagine college students in, say, the 40s or 50s, acting like that.
I guess you’re too young to remember passing notes throughout class, or whispering to the person next to you (and telling them to tell the next person to do the same, over and over until the person the message is intended for receives it).
But yea, as long as I can remember it’s pretty much always been this way. Of course if, like me, you went to Catholic school, you know the musclebound penguins they call “nuns” would sooner beat you to death than allow that.
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Well, no, I remember the note passing and the whispering from when I was in elementary school. But I didn’t think such things went on 5 or 6 decades ago. Guess I was wrong.
And no, I didn’t go to Catholic school. Thank God. (Pun quite fully intended!)
That is, by the way, I’ve ever heard nuns called “musclebound penguins.” Wonderful description.
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Have people always been like this, or is this lack of respect thing something new that my generation has latched on to?
From my father’s school tales I know that although they were severly punished at school (1945-1953) he and his mates must have been a pain in the neck for teachers. The difference is: They weren’t impolite or disrespectful, they just made a lot of nonsense (like agitating the bull on the field next to the schoolyard so that he broke through the fence and started chasing the children…)
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“Well, no, I remember the note passing and the whispering from when I was in elementary school. But I didn’t think such things went on 5 or 6 decades ago. Guess I was wrong.”
It’s like Marty McFly going back and finding out his mom wasn’t as perfect as she claimed to be. Though to her credit, she wasn’t using a cell phone.
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Zeitlos: Yeah, that makes sense. I can see people of earlier generations causing trouble, just not being so damnably disrespectful. So many of the students in my classes just think they should be able to act however they want, whenever they want.
Joshua: Amen to the cell phone bit. They’re very handy when out of town or travelling, to be able to get in touch with someone quickly, but I’m a bit tired of seeing them practically glued to the sides of peoples’ heads. I know a few profs on campus who have outright banned them from their classes, because people wouldn’t stop talking / texting while in class.
Also… you’re one of the few people who would bring up Marty McFly in a thread such as this.
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I hate when I see people which are always doing something with their cell phones…
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Funner: Yeah. Sometimes I want to tell them that there’s a world outside of that little thingy stuck to their ear.
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Pingback from The Cellphone Plague · System 13 on February 28, 2008 at 10:13 am
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This day amnd age you would think that people would start to get used of cell phones being constantly used. Everybody has one, and everybody’s life these days almost revolves areound them. Which in my opinion is quit silly, but im 1 out of 100000 people.
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Slack3R: I’m quite “used to it”, I just don’t particularly like it.
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