It’s 9 a.m. and the students for an introductory biology class get ready for lecture. As the lecture drones on, half of the class will inevitably end up on Facebook, distracting the other half.
College students are more “hard-wired” and “plugged-in” than ever before, complete with a host of gadgets to make their lives more accessible and streamlined. Members of Generation Y lead busy, exciting lives, full of classes, extracurricular activities, jobs and a bustling social life.
Technology manufacturers keep up with consumer demands and compete constantly to bring us the latest and greatest. But what exactly are the gadgets of choice for today’s young socialites and how do they fit into George Mason University’s academic community?
“It’s about simplifying your life,” said Angela Davenport, operations supervisor at Patriot Computers. “The trend this year is integrating all aspects of your personal life like social media, news and shopping. It has to do it all.” The motivation behind the technology trend creates more devices integrated with social media and easy use for consumers.”
Here is what students had to say about the ongoing Mac vs. PC debate, the technologies they utilize, customer service and how their laptops, smart phones and eReaders make it easier to stay organized during the school year.
eReaders
“I was running out of storage space for my books. I have almost 200 books [on it]. Plus I save money every time I purchase a book, so it has almost paid for itself. The only thing that it is missing is the ‘new book’ smell.”
Elizabeth Palmieri
junior
global affairs
eReaders
“I figured it would at least take up less room. I soon realized that Kindle uses arbitrary formatting that messes up the pagination of whatever I’m reading, which means I can’t cite them when I’m using it for school work.”
Martin Bonica
junior
history
Smart phones
“My iPhone can do pretty much anything I need. Instead of having to carry a laptop, iPod and a phone everywhere, I can just use my iPhone.”
Mac v. PC
“I don’t have to deal with someone over the phone. There’s too much that can go wrong on a PC. A Mac is just foolproof.”
Kate DeNardi
junior
government and international politics
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