The cellphone is the best and the worst thing to ever happen to college students. Cellphones allow students to freely call or text home whenever they need to – whether it be for money, being homesick or just to say hi to a missed pet. But cellphones also cause major distractions in a classroom setting.

It is simple: when a professor’s policy is to keep your phones off and out of sight for a 55-minute or an 80-minute lecture, then you put your phone in your backpack or pocket. It is not that hard to comply and unplug for that long. Instagram, Snapchat, text messages – they can all wait until the end of the class.

Maybe the distraction is when the phone chimes or vibrates for a notification, and when you hear it or feel it in your pocket, the immediate reaction is to reach for your phone. The solution to that is even easier: put it on silent. If you cannot hear or feel it, and it is also out of sight, there should not be a problem.

If you really need to use your phone for whatever reason, just leave the classroom and “go to the bathroom” to send that crucial text or see why your Twitter is blowing up. It will help both the professor and other students in the class.

Not using a cellphone during class also comes down to respect. In a classroom, it can be distracting to the professor to see two or three heads staring down at their crotch instead of paying attention to the projector screen or whiteboard where there might be crucial notes for the upcoming test. At the same time, it is also distracting to other students who are actually trying to pay attention to that professor or notes. When one student does not pay attention, generally there are three or four other students who are not paying attention, as well.

Using a cellphone in a small classroom setting is even worse. A student might be able to get away with using a cellphone in a large classroom, like Lanigan 101, because it is harder for a professor to individually look at all 100 students in the lecture. But in a small lab classroom, that has a max of 20 students, it is even more disrespectful to be on your phone. Not only is it even harder to hide your phone, but those 20-student classes usually are higher-level classes or more important toward major or minor classes. Those are the classes that also have practical information and teach you more than a 100-level class might ever about a specific topic.

As college students prepare to enter the “real world,” which includes longer meetings and other important events, they have to get ready to not be on their cellphones all the time. During an important meeting with a CEO, that person who is on their cellphone scrolling through Facebook is not going to look as good as the person paying attention, taking notes and making strong suggestions. 

If a student cannot stay off their cellphone for 55 minutes, how are they going to use their cellphone in a limited capacity during a stereotypical nine-to-five job?

Photo by Alexander Gault-Plate | The Oswegonian