Bored in class, many students spend class time texting instead of listening to professors, according to interviews with many students.
Jackie Donahue, 21, a junior business management from Northfield, Vt., said she texts during class “because professors’ teaching styles don’t keep you completely engaged during class, I get bored so I feel that I have to text.”
Donahue is not the only one at NU that texts during class.
” I text because classes are boring and when there is nothing to do you might as well just take out your phone because you’re not going to learn anything anyways,” said Lori Baldassara, 20, a junior business major from Manchester, N.H.
“You might as well just do something productive and text other people, they’re probably going through the same thing as you sitting in class doing nothing,” Baldassara said.
According to Verizon Wireless online, “In 2005, more than 500 billion text messages were sent and received worldwide, by 2010, it is projected to be more than 2.3 trillion.”
Caitlin Lundy, 20, a junior criminal justice from LaFayette, N.Y., said she texts “all the time, it depends on if the professor is boring me or if I’d just rather be texting people than be in class.”
“I text more when there is a slide show or a movie going on rather than the lecture, so it varies,” Lundy said. Some students get in trouble for texting “because they make it obvious, I make it not obvious.”
Some professors at NU have a problem with students texting in class while others do not notice or seem to mind.
“In the past, not this semester, I haven’t had any problem with texting,” said Najiba Benabess, assistant professor of the business school.
“I have had students not necessarily texting but using their computer and I let them use it to take notes and so on, but they use it for something else,” Benabess said.
“(Texting) definitely distracts you and you can’t pay attention as well, but some of the info that the teachers give is just unnecessary,” Donahue said.
Students such as Lundy said that if the classes were more interesting and could keep her entertained she would not have to occupy herself in class by texting.
“It’s understandable, but if they don’t want us to use (our cell phones in class) then I think they should change their teaching styles to engage us more and have a higher level of participation,” Donahue said “If I’m bored in class there is no way that I’m not going to text.”
Baldassara explained, “Sometimes it’s not even worth paying attention in class. I guess it makes sense not to use your phone, but (the teachers) have to be able to teach productively about what they want us to learn and engage us more in the classroom.”
According to Benabess, the absence of electronic devices in the classroom would be less of a distraction.
“I think in class they should not use any electronic device; that’s in my opinion,” Benabess said. “It’s just going to distract students, they can use it after class or while they’re having lunch or whatever but in the classroom they shouldn’t.”
Students text many different people in class – some even text each other in the same classroom, said Baldassara.
“Sometimes I text people that are in the same class with me or sometimes I text my mom and say good morning, it all depends on the time of class,” Lundy said. “It’s just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, I like getting a text back and feeling important.”
Donahue said, “(I text) friends, family, anyone who texts me I usually respond back too. I just get bored and I don’t see the harm in taking five seconds to text someone back and it’s usually not an important conversation but it’s something to take up the time until class ends.”
According to Nielsen, a media research firm, “for anyone who doubts that the texting revolution is upon us, consider this: The average 13- to 17-year-old sends and receives 3,339 texts a month – more than 100 per day.”
Lundy explained that in class she always sees other students using their phones and that “their (cell phones) are not fully turned off, maybe silent or quiet or on vibrate, but they’re all on.”
“I would probably say 75 percent to 80 percent of kids have their phones out and are using them or they have their laptops which is an alternative (to texting)”, Donahue said.
“All of us have our phones on because no one is going to shut it off for class, because no one really cares,” Baldassara said.
“I see students doing it (texting), I mean this is the new generation and I think everybody is using it, even facility are” using their cell phones, Benabess said.