Millennials are on their phones, deal with it.

To teach a social media class without the use of technology is like teaching a Biology Major without labs or microscopes. Of course theories are useful but without practice they are pointless. Without the use of technology in a social media class, the students will fall well behind their peers. We live in a digital world. Students should not go back to the 19th century when they walk into a classroom. Using technology in the classroom can prepare students for a future deeply rooted in technology. Students can also learn life skills through technology. Creating PowerPoint presentations, learning how to the differences of reliable and unreliable sources on the Internet,  online etiquette, and writing emails, are all vital skills students can learn in the classroom and master before graduation. Skills like coding, using Photoshop, Avid, and IMovie to enhance the social media experience would be completely lost. Today’s society is extremely interactive. With technology, students have instant access to information that can supplement their learning experience. This could create a more collaborative learning environment instead of a monotone professor droning on for an hour and 30 minutes.  Students come to college so they can prepare for work in the field. As communication majors, we are practicing and learning what it will be like to work in our desired field. How can we be prepared without the use of technology when much of our work or careers will require the use of technology? For example, graphic design students may work on real projects that require relevant applications that are accessed through their personal devices. Learning how to use these apps in the classroom allows students will prepare them for using the aps outside of it. The last reason we should be able to use technology in the classroom is that it saves the environment! Less paper means more trees.

Although, there are downsides to social media itself. The University of California, Los Angeles, Cooperative Institutional Research Program's annual survey shows that incoming students in 2014 reported the lowest level of self-rated emotional health since the survey began 49 years ago. The survey included responses from 153,015 first-time, full-time students at 227 colleges and universities.

 There is a link to social media and increased feelings of loneliness and detachment.  Social media today is about volume. It is all about how many friends you have on Facebook, and that those who have higher numbers are more popular. Facebook and cellphones can cover for the fact that they actually don’t have a lot of friends or people that they can talk to closely.

Although social media has many positive benefits of convenience and communication it contributes heavily towards people’s alienation toward one another and alienation from society.

An example of this could be adverting your eyes to someone in the hallway and using your cell phone. The fact that people have to hide behind screens is indicative of depression or inability to engage with another person.

This inability to engage in simple social situations carries into the professional world.

While there is a need for students to stay off their phones, there is also the need for professors to stay current in our social media driven world. Understandably for professors, the field of educational technology can be confusing. But let’s face it there is nothing worse than walking into a classroom with only a chalkboard and a professor that doesn’t use blackboard.

If a student is paying 5,000 dollars a year to attend classes should be able to reserve the right to use their cellphone.  According to Clay Shirky, a professor who has chosen to ban technology in his social media classroom “Allowing laptop use in class is like allowing boombox use in class — it lets each person choose whether to degrade the experience of those around them.” If you are paying for the class, it should be your choice on whether or not to downgrade your experience of the classroom. If a student is on Facebook rather than listening to a lecture, they are in college let them make their own mistake. Maybe if a professor is worried about using cellphones in class, they could give more interesting lectures and have more of an interactive learning environment.  Unfortunately I find that professors who ban cell phones are often the ones who read straight out of the textbook, admittedly for the past 30 years they have been teaching. As with any business it is important for professors to utilize every avenue possible when it comes to keeping current.

 Laptop and cellphone banning professors are helicoptering students, instead of letting us learn how to be like students. Many 18-22 year olds had their hands held through elementary, middle and high school. College is the time to make mistakes and learn from them, whether it is drinking too much or checking Instagram in class. Despite the fact our free time is spent smoking 10-foot beer bongs, we are old enough to vote and go to war.  So shouldn’t we be old enough to decide for ourselves whether we want to pay attention in class—and to face the consequences if we do not?

LectureTools is a great way to incorporate laptops in classrooms and allow professors to change along with modern technology. LectureTools is an interactive student response system and teaching module. LectureTools also allows students to take notes directly on lecture slides. This program is used at Michigan College among 400 other schools. According to the college’s website, students can anonymously ask the instructor's aide a question through a chat window during class, and others can see these questions and answers. Students can also rate their own LectureTools significantly increased class participation as well. LectureTools allows students to chat with an instructor, pose questions without raising your hand and have to speak up in front of peers. It also allows you to post your understanding of each slide, giving the professor valuable feedback.

While I agree that having my laptop or phone open means that I’m probably online shopping or checking Facebook, but that’s not the fault of technology, that’s the fault of the lecture. Lecture halls are the most impersonal settings of all time. If you want students to close their machines and pay attention why not them in a smaller seminar where their presence actually matters, and as a professor be engaging enough.

Yes, there is a significant chance that students who lack a certain amount of self-discipline or handwriting ability will not learn as much as those who take paper notes. But that’s our responsibility. What will happen when we get a real job after we graduate? Will our bosses have to disable our Internet or take our phones away? It seems the only way to learn in college is the hard way. Whether that means learning not to take Jägermeister shots after having tequila or not hooking up with that random dude. Spending your lecture watching “Breaking Bad” will affect your GPA. That’s what college is all about.

As a student I have found that I am not the best at multi-tasking. I have found myself in the middle of a conversation, turning to look at my phone and not knowing what the person I was talking to has said. How rude is this? I’ve completely shut down another human being for a screen. Although as a dumb college student sitting in a lecture, I have found that while online shopping the latest Nike sneakers is not the best decision, it is not completely detrimental to my grades. I am able to check a text message without having to miss any significant portion of lecture although it may seem rude to the professor. What is more distracting for me is the kid in front of me playing Fantasy Football every single class or the girl whose phone very loudly vibrates every three seconds. While multi-tasking for me might not come very easily, I would never take the opportunity away from someone else, even if their technology distracts me. My fellow peers are paying for college and I see lecture halls as their time as well as mine. In the business world, I may be distracted to my co-workers phone in the next cubicle, although I would never ask my boss to ban phones all together. The real world as well as the business world will be full of distractions. Whether it be from my own personal computer or other co-workers, it would be outrageous for my boss to ban either of those things simply because they are distracting. Adults should and are able to put distractions aside and be productive. I think it is time for college professors to start treating us like the adults that we are.  The only way we can learn to work without distraction is if we are put in that situation in college. College is about preparing students for the real-world and in the real world people have cell-phones and computers.