Tech Talk
No smart phone: Jeffrey Dahdah
Smart phones are not as much of a necessity as everyone thinks. For one, a “dumb” phone can still take phone calls, send texts and do things like set alarms just as effectively if not more simply. It’s true — your phone does not need a touch screen to work, even in 2015.
In fact, I would even like to suggest that they are better, especially for college students. I don’t have the money to buy a new phone every time I drop one or, frankly, the common sense to buy a case. Instead I use the unbreakable Samsung Gravity. These “dumb” phones double as weapons to throw at people, items to play catch with at concerts or tools to get frisbees out of trees. I have never seen a dumb phone’s screen crack from any fall, much less a 1-foot drop.
They are also simply cheaper. They cost almost nothing now, and you don’t have to worry about paying for data. If you really need Trivia Crack or Instagram, then get an iPod. There is wifi everywhere: your house, campus, most restaurants, etc. Unless you really need to check Twitter while skiing or google the names of the Baldwin brothers while waiting in line at the DMV, you don’t need a smartphone.
Yes smart phone: Noelle Johansen
I was a sophomore in college when my cell phone betrayed me. At the time, I had some Samsung touch-screen model — one of those ambitious near-hybrids with some internet aspirations but no real functionality. I still remember the fateful fall night. I turned on my laptop to an email that made my heart stop. It was a call for a journalism student to travel with the college of science to Texas and write about the experience inside the zero-gravity simulator — for free. It usually costs around $17,000 — and tour the NASA facilities. The email had been sent two hours earlier to a long list of journalists, several of whom had already responded with interest.
Brief backstory: I was 17 before I gave up the dream of becoming an astronaut.
I wanted to cry. I may have cried. I shook my fists in the air, and then at my dinky dumb phone that couldn’t store more than 50 photos, let alone receive email updates with once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
With a smart phone, you won’t miss out on experiencing zero gravity. You can take thousands of photos with memory to spare. You can Skype with your friend in Istanbul. You can share hilarious group texts with your roommates but remove yourself from other annoying group conversations. That is, if you’re using iOS 8. You can download the SNL 40 app and watch any Saturday Night Live sketch you’d like. The opportunities are endless. Having a “dumb” phone in this day and age is like choosing public school over Hogwarts.