Practice responsible texting
Issue date: 4/10/09 Section: Opinion
Remember a time when cell phones weren't part of our everyday lives? When we had to remember the phone numbers of friends and crushes while passing notes in class about the new gossip of the week?
Those days are long gone. Now, the easy accessibility and affordability of cell phones has also spread the addictive habits that come along with them, which can become quite pricy if abused.
According to The Denver Post, a 13-year-old junior high girl was reprimanded by her parents for racking up a monthly cell phone bill of almost $4,800. The reason? Over 10,000 text messages during that month - all while her family's plan did not include any text messaging benefits, meaning the family was charged for each incoming and outgoing text message.
After taking a thorough look at the bill, her parents found out that a bulk of those messages came during school hours. After doing the math, they calculated that more than 300 text messages were sent and received within an eight-hour period every day for the whole month.
Her parents claimed she once excelled in school, but tumbled from As and Bs to Fs in one month. After smashing her cell phone with a hammer, the girl's grades have picked up and the phone bills have drastically dropped.
This instance should provide a wake-up call to all students who struggle with the text messaging addiction that plagues our generation.
Unlike the 13-year-old, most students are old enough to know better than to text message so much resulting in that high of a bill. However, many students are probably unaware of the negative side effects applied when it comes to grades.
If it comes to the point where several minutes of class are being spent text messaging during lectures, it's safe to say that that student is not getting the most out of his or her classes. Not to mention that not too many teachers would condone typing buttons on your phone during class time.
Put yourself in your professor's shoes. If you were giving a presentation for class or an organization, you would want to have everyone's full attention. Looking up and seeing your audience clicking away on their cell phones wouldn't be an encouraging sight for anyone, student or teacher.
College students are held to a higher responsibility level than high school and junior high students, which is why we are allowed to bring cell phones to class. That probably won't change - and it shouldn't - but students need to be more aware of the responsibility that comes with having a phone in the classroom.
Those days are long gone. Now, the easy accessibility and affordability of cell phones has also spread the addictive habits that come along with them, which can become quite pricy if abused.
According to The Denver Post, a 13-year-old junior high girl was reprimanded by her parents for racking up a monthly cell phone bill of almost $4,800. The reason? Over 10,000 text messages during that month - all while her family's plan did not include any text messaging benefits, meaning the family was charged for each incoming and outgoing text message.
After taking a thorough look at the bill, her parents found out that a bulk of those messages came during school hours. After doing the math, they calculated that more than 300 text messages were sent and received within an eight-hour period every day for the whole month.
Her parents claimed she once excelled in school, but tumbled from As and Bs to Fs in one month. After smashing her cell phone with a hammer, the girl's grades have picked up and the phone bills have drastically dropped.
This instance should provide a wake-up call to all students who struggle with the text messaging addiction that plagues our generation.
Unlike the 13-year-old, most students are old enough to know better than to text message so much resulting in that high of a bill. However, many students are probably unaware of the negative side effects applied when it comes to grades.
If it comes to the point where several minutes of class are being spent text messaging during lectures, it's safe to say that that student is not getting the most out of his or her classes. Not to mention that not too many teachers would condone typing buttons on your phone during class time.
Put yourself in your professor's shoes. If you were giving a presentation for class or an organization, you would want to have everyone's full attention. Looking up and seeing your audience clicking away on their cell phones wouldn't be an encouraging sight for anyone, student or teacher.
College students are held to a higher responsibility level than high school and junior high students, which is why we are allowed to bring cell phones to class. That probably won't change - and it shouldn't - but students need to be more aware of the responsibility that comes with having a phone in the classroom.
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