<p>In an emergency situation, such as a loved one having surgery during a class meeting, one option would be to arrive early, sit in the back on the aisle and inform the professor. “I will of course have my phone on silent, but please excuse me if I leave the room for a moment to answer a text or phone call regarding my loved one.”</p>
<p>When my D and I went on accepted student visits a few years ago, we noticed all kinds of texting, internet surfing, eating, slurping drinks loudly in class. It really turned her off to those schools. She attends a top conservatory, and I just asked her if this stuff happens there. She said absolutely not, but things are more formal there. She does say that kids text and play games on their phones while dining with others in the dining hall, and even that bugs her, she thinks it’s rude. While she did study abroad, she said she had a group of friends that had an agreement in place: The first person to use their phone during the meal had to pay the bill for everyone!<br>
I agree that this rude internet surfing and phone use during class is much more prevalent than we old timers think. The OP’s tone at first was a bit accusatory, but what he is saying is right on target.</p>
<p>^^^^^ spatial comparison deficiency syndrome-- so prevalent! Will meds help? ;)</p>
<p>I hear what you are saying and there is some truth to it. You are also saying what every generation says about the generation which follows them: they are rude, disrespectful, etc. </p>
<p>“Kids! I don’t know what’s wrong with all these kids today!”-from Bye Bye Birdie</p>
<p>or my favorite:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Interesting side note about the above quote:</p>
<p>“My kid suffers from spatial comparison deficiency sydrome. He suffers from the inability to determine when the garbage pail is full, resulting in my constatnly having to tell him to take it out. Sad but true”</p>
<p>I love that one! So that’s why my kids, while they are brainiacs, can’t figure out when to take the garbage and recycling out? I wonder what disease causes them to not realize when the toilet in their bathroom is really, disgustingly dirty.</p>
<p>why are people having such a hard time conceding that he or she does have a point? bringing up the “what’s the matter with kids today” thing is irrelevant. technology TODAY is probably having a profound impact on young folks. any K-12 teacher can probably attest to this, and distracted parenting is an issue…</p>
<p>I do not know whether college students are more materialistic or more/less special. But I do agree with the out-of-control laptop/phone use in class. It is highly disruptive, but some profs are powerless because of school policy/teaching evaluations. So the more strict professors may be penalized by the laptop/phone lovers.</p>
<p>To the posters who said that the student had anxiety controlled by the phone and/or the student who was waiting for bad news, I have to say this: If the student has a legitimate reason to use phone/laptop in class, go to the DSS center and make arrangements. To the person waiting for the bad news, sorry, but you are selfish. As selfish as someone who may feel entitled to smoke in class so that they can cope with bad news… As selfish as the person who go to the public park with the out-of-leash dog that “is friendly and does not bite”.</p>
<p>yeah, and those leashless dogwalkers are usually texting/talking on their phone while walking their dogs! distracted and couldn’t care less. annoying!</p>
<p>I agree. When you’re socializing with others or you’re in class, the expectation is you give your friends/Professor & classmates involved in class discussion/presentations your full attention. Most folks I knew in my parents’ generation would be livid if their kids did the equivalent of texting/playing computer games back in the '70s & ‘80s(i.e. visibly reading newspapers during lecture to the point of blocking students’ view and annoying the Prof/instructor*). </p>
<p>Some friends/colleagues have complained this comes up even in dating situations with folks as old as their mid-50s. IMO, anyone who insists on paying just as much/more attention to their cellphone rather than their date for anything outside being on-call for a job or an emergency family situation was “raised in a barn”. </p>
<ul>
<li>This actually still happens as in a stint as a substitute instructor for a friend’s Western Civ course at a community college, I had to ask a handful of students…some of whom were older non-traditional students to either put the newspapers away or leave.</li>
</ul>
<p>When I taught high-schoolers in Sunday School, this was a problem for me too. At first, I’d tell them not to play with the electronics during class, then to turn the gadgets off, then to put them under their chairs. At each step, a few more kids would comply, but there were a couple of girls who wouldn’t give up until I’d confiscated the phones. </p>
<p>OP, are you under the mistaken impression that college is the only place where young people are glued to their devices when their attention should be elsewhere? I regularly see people texting at work, at church, at restaurants, and behind the wheel of moving cars.</p>
<p>I’m happy to know I was an awful person because I wore Uggs and a North Face (and sometimes the OP’s dreaded ‘spandex pants’) or occasionally browsed other things during class. My dad would be thrilled to know he’s an awful parent too!</p>
<p>Fast forward to full-time employment (yup OP, I found a real, well-paying full time job) and living on my own in a major city (yes OP, I didn’t move back home with my parents) and I see very similar behaviors from individuals of all ages. My co-workers–of all ages–try not to fall asleep during boring meetings, they doodle, they eat, and they have side conversations. If I worked in an industry that allowed cell phones, I’m sure they’d be texting under the table too. These aren’t behaviors that are limited to anyone single age group.</p>
<p>I also dread spandex…but not for associating it with “materialistic students”. It’s from having lived through the era of cheesy hair metal where spandex-clad metalists were singing cheesy love ballads. </p>
<p>Thank goodness grunge/pop-punk replaced cheesy long-haired metalists jumping around in spandex. :D</p>
<p>However, it IS relevant to point out that every generation seems to bi$tch and moan about the next generation and how the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of them. It’s just so…predictable. ;)</p>
<p>This was one thing elementary/middle school aged kids in my age group in the '80’s used to tease and embarrass our older siblings/neighbors who were high schoolers back then. </p>
<p>Then again, they have tried coming back with "But you enjoy listening to someone who asks “Do you have the time, to listen to me whine?” or songs called “Self-esteem” and folks who "dress ugly and stylishly(a.k.a. Big hair, spandex, 80’s fashions).</p>
<p>Everyone old enough to master the touch and swipe move is distracted all the time with texts, emails, tweets, redit, facebook, google, snapchat, you tube, Angry Birds…</p>
<p>Adults, in my opinion, are just as guilty as our teens are.</p>
<p>Want to complain about annoying multitasking behavior in public? How about adults who appear to be talking to themselves wandering the grocery store aisles? (Actually talking loudly on their cellphones, usually about someone’s surgery.). Even worse, strangers who look me in the eye while they answer their cell phones, so it appears that they are enthusiastically saying,“hello” to me. Those are behaviors that are uniquely adult. </p>
<p>I have no doubt that much of what the OP observes is real. But I really do not worry about these sorts of things. The rules of the universe never change. There is no short cut to success, and fooling around on a computer during lectures will have it’s natural consequences. Rude behavior will always define a person in others’ eyes and they will avoid them accordingly ( or perhaps cut them no breaks when grading their tests/papers). Basically the concept that you will reap what you sow is still alive and well. I don’t see that ever changing.</p>
<p>I simply believe that today’s generation is a bit more immature than previous ones, but the world will educate them in due time. Parents do put up with a lot more today, myself included. Not sure why that is, but i suspect it may be our own reaction to the parenting styles of our parents. While we put up with more today, I would suggest that we also spend a lot more time with our children than our own parents ever did.</p>