e-biquitous

Now that I'm back in the college atmosphere, I'm interested to see the differences of today's students. I'm not claiming that I graduated all that long ago, but the changes are still striking.

People are connected.
Yesterday I was walking back to my parking spot (my quarter-mile exercise for the day) and I followed behind a couple holding hands. Aw, how sweet, good ol' college sweethearts. But when I got closer, I found they were each talking on cell phones. What?! Now who could you possibly need to be talking to while walking with your darling? Is it your high school buddy, or maybe your roommate? jeese.

Every day is the same; everyone I pass has a cell phone, iPod, or some other electronic device in hand. It is uncanny, like some kind of trippy Motorola commercial or something.

The other way students are connected is through IM. I have a few friends that I keep in touch with IM, but my buddy list is woefully small compared to most of the students. I don't understand where they find 50-60 friends to populate their buddy list. They obviously pass their screen name out without a care, whereas I've noticed people my age are a little wary of giving it out. Personally, I believe IM will become much more pervasive and useful in the future. I've already used it effectively in grad school. I posted my screen name on the computer in the lab and I had a number of times when a student would IM me at 10:00pm to say the MIDI is not working, or ask to have me walk them through a complicated process. I'm looking forward to the day when an IM device is embedded in everyone and we evolve into a race that speaks very little out loud. That way, when I zone out when people are talking to me, I will be able to later review everything they say in my cache browser.

See, it's not that I have a problem paying attention, it's just that I'm ahead of the technology.