A week without technology – A Vanguard writer goes where no college student dares

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Written by: Dan Caponetti

It’s true that technology makes our lives easier, but are we addicted?

Advanced technology is an enormous part of the Bentley education and is an essential part of every student’s life. We are the fourth “Most Wired Campus” in America, according to the Princeton Review and PC Magazine.

Technology here ranges from a personal laptop to laundry machines capable of texting students when their loads are finished. It is involved in every class; students complete nearly every assignment with the aid of a computer.

Technology helps people research, study, communicate, socialize, and even eat at Bentley. Is it possible to live here without technology?

I decided to find out by giving up all modern technology for a week. I did not use my laptop, cell phone, iPod, or TV. The only form of technology I allowed myself to use was the library computers which I used to complete school work. The fact that I had to make this exception before I started only helped to suggest that I was addicted. It was a very trying week. I had not thought of myself as a technology addict, yet I was debilitated. I found that not only is it difficult to live at Bentley without technology, it is nearly impossible.

My difficulties parting with technology are shared among many students here.

In conversations I had with Bentley students concerning technology, about 1 out of 3 said they could not be without their cell phone for longer than a day. One mentioned she would not last an hour as she reached for her phone to check a new message. A freshman remembered a time she lost her phone while doing laundry. The student described her experience, saying, “I never freaked out to that extent before. I was in tears. I didn’t know what to do. Finally my friend told me, ‘Its fine, you can just get a new phone.’” This student was a new, international student at Bentley who described her phone as a way of being with her family while she was away from home. Without it, she said she felt lost.
A study done by Alloy Media and Marketing, a market research firm, shows that college students spend about one-fifth of their day using a computer. If you are a student at Bentley, this is not a hard task to accomplish. There is always a computer to use between your personal laptop and the hundreds of other desktops found in academic buildings across campus. If your laptop is broken, computer services will replace it with a loaner until they repair the original. Just about everywhere on campus, including desks, cafeteria tables, and lounge chairs, is computer friendly with Ethernet ports and outlets nearby.

Technology has become a significant part of our culture that demands its own set of norms and rules to follow. Living without it for any extended period of time would be challenging, if not impossible, for just about any student here.

This is not to say that it is necessarily a bad thing. Technology significantly contributes to the quality of education here. My suggestion would be to try living a little without it and find out how dependent you are. Then, if you think it would help, spend a little less time using the computer, watching TV, or texting. You might find your life a little less distracted and a little more peaceful.

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