Access Magazine

One Washington Square

San Jose State University

San Jose, CA 95152-0055

Dear Editor,

Cell phones, laptops, iPods -- they're everywhere on campus. Around every corner you see students talking on their cell phones, playing on their laptops, or listening to their iPods. More often than not, these students are alone.

These forms of technology are meant to increase communication but they are rapidly changing the college experience by decreasing the amount of student-to-student communication. College used to be a meeting ground where people would make lifelong connections that might help them later in life. New technology meant to increase the simplicity of communication actually seems to be hindering it on campus.

I propose to talk to students on campus who are using these technologies. I would like to ask them, whom are they talking to? Do they view campus as a place to meet people? Do they feel their technology is keeping them from actually talking with other students? I also plan to talk to the distributors of these new forms of technology to try and understand what they envision for their products. To get an idea of what life was like on campus before these technologies, I also propose to talk to former SJSU students. And finally, I would like to talk to teachers to get their take on the issue and to see where they think San Jose State University is headed.

I hope you’ll find this an appropriate issue to address in the next issue of Access.

I look forward to talking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Traci Newell