college without technology (#62445)

[Cindy]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/62445/

Based on the examples she used, it sounds like the question asker finds it hard to imagine experiencing college the way I experienced it. That makes me feel incredibly old.

Of course, if she really meant to go without all technology, including, say, lightbulbs, that would be different. But I graduated from BYU in 2003, and I never had any of the things she mentioned. I managed just fine with library computers and landlines and unruly hair, and I didn't think it was that weird of an experience.

Have things really changed that much in the past ten years?

[Unit of Energy]

I don't think that I could manage without my laptop, and I've only had it for the last year of my education here at byu. I nearly had a breakdown when I thought it wasn't turning on earlier tonight.

[Quiet Lamb]

http://theboard.byu.edu/questions/62445/

Based on the examples she used, it sounds like the question asker finds it hard to imagine experiencing college the way I experienced it. That makes me feel incredibly old.

Of course, if she really meant to go without all technology, including, say, lightbulbs, that would be different. But I graduated from BYU in 2003, and I never had any of the things she mentioned. I managed just fine with library computers and landlines and unruly hair, and I didn't think it was that weird of an experience.

Have things really changed that much in the past ten years?

Short answer: yes, yes it has.

[thebigcheese]

Absolutely. When I was a freshman (2005), I would venture to say that roughly 75% of students owned a computer and about 60% of those computers were laptops. Nowadays, it seems like 95% of students own a computer and 80% of those are laptops. Technology is getting more affordable. Thank goodness.

(I still remember my childhood days when laptops came with an enormous price tag. It was something you only dreamed about owning because you just couldn't afford it. Back in those days, you'd pay about $3000-4000 for one of those bad boys.)

[TheAnswerIs42]

I graduated in 2004. I had a computer and a cell phone, but neither of my roommates did. They borrowed my computer all the time. And when our landline phone went out, they gave out my cell phone number as the only way to reach them. "Is Nicole there?" "Well, I'm in Salt Lake right now, so . . . maybe you should walk over to our house and find out the hard way. I have no idea."

So, yeah. Lots of people made it through college just fine without that sort of technology. Or facebook or twitter or texting. Less than 5 years ago. I'm sure some still are doing just that right now.

[Digit]

Here's what Donald Knuth, author of The Art of Computer Programming and one of the big names in the field of computer science, has said about email:

I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address. I'd used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime.

source

[Dragon Lady]

I started college 10 years ago and bought a giant computer without even a USB port and I was thrilled about it. Except when I had to print by taking my 3.5" floppy up to campus. I didn't get a cell phone until 2 years later, and even then, the thing was massive compared to my current phone. So yeah, it was possible. But it's definitely a billion times different now.

[thebigcheese]

Yeah, cell phones have made big gains in the student population as well. I think they started gaining popularity among the younger crowd around 2003-2004, and it has only continued to grow. Nowadays, I'd guess that about 98% of students have cell phones. I got mine when I first started college, but I knew quite a few people who had them in high school.

[Yarjka]

I'm pretty late at adapting to technology -- I didn't get a cell phone until 2007, I was still using floppy discs until 2006 (or whenever the majority of computers on campus stopped having floppy drives).

On a related note, I remember using a typewriter to write papers in Middle School -- so that was 1995-1996.

It wasn't until a few years ago that I got the memo about not needing to double space after a period ... that just about blew my mind.

[Marduk]

I still do double space, Yarjka. I don't see how that's a technology thing.

[Dragon Lady]

I still do double space, Yarjka. I don't see how that's a technology thing.

So do I. Except I use technology to autocorrect my double-space to a single-space for The Heartless Siren's benefit.

[Katya]

I still do double space, Yarjka. I don't see how that's a technology thing.

The need to double space is related to the technology you're using.

[Hypatia]

Whoa, what's with this single spacing?

[Marduk]

I will double space every sentence everywhere, regardless of the medium I am currently using. I will not join the single-spacing, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging unwashed masses.

[Katya]

Whoa, what's with this single spacing?

When using monospaced fonts (on a typewriter, an older word processor, or a monospaced font on a current word processor), it's hard to differentiate between a word break and a sentence break, so typists were taught to double space after a period. Now that the truth of proportional fonts and kerning has been restored, you are free to cast off the apostate shackles of double spacing.

[Marduk]

That's what they said about using the metric system. My car gets forty rods to the hog's head, and that's the way I likes it!

[Imogen]

SINGLE SPACE FO-EVA!!!!!!!!!!!

[Katya]

That's what they said about using the metric system. My car gets forty rods to the hog's head, and that's the way I likes it!

Was your dad raised metric?

[Craig Jessop]

When I worked for a transcription company they required us to double space after periods and colons, even though we were using Word and Times New Roman. I think they might have converted the file once I submitted it, but still. I had to double space.

I hated it.

[Laser Jock]

I will double space every sentence everywhere, regardless of the medium I am currently using. I will not join the single-spacing, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging unwashed masses.

Don't look now, but regardless of how many spaces you type here it only shows up as one unless you go through some serious contortions.

That's HTML for ya.