If this trend doesn't scream tech age to our generation, I don't know what does. Think back to middle school, even high school, when you couldn't get in touch with a friend during class to share a secret about your newest crush or that Sandy actually wore pink panties with her off-white pants to school. In those days, we had to use paper and pen to translate our feelings to our friends, wait until classes changed to share it (or risk getting caught by a teacher by passing it a few people over to your BFF sitting a few rows down), then wait again for your friend to read and respond. Now we bypass the wholepen-and-paper thing for immediate correspondence: class texting.
This wonderful tactic is both useful to share gossip and life saving when it comes to a boring two-hour lecture. No longer must we worry about being caught passing a piece of paper folded like a paper football ' or one of the other thousands of creative note-folding shapes we learned over the years ' across the room or waiting until classes change to slip it into a passing friend's hand. We whip out our phones, put our little thumbs to work and ' voila! Instant communication. Text friends across the room, across campus or sitting behind you. Talk about your professor. Make fun of that annoying student in the front row who objects to every comment. Pick a bar to meet after class for some after-class relaxation. From what used to be a 10-minute session writing a lengthy note to a friend, we now can spend an entire class period texting andcommunication with everyone from our best friends to our parents.
Thinking back, I can't believe I used to waste so much time writing out a note, folding it into the perfect shape then waiting sometimes an hour or so before finding its recipient. Now I correspond with many people at once, sometimes sending mass texts to people in the same class with a funny comment about a professor or plans for the evening. Gosh, paper notes are so 20th century.
-Caitlin Price
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Caitlin Price
