In the current period deemed the “information age,” communication is a platform that’s constantly changing and seemingly incomparable to the mid-2000s. Supporting my theory, I conducted a weeklong literary analysis of my communication over many platforms. Unsurprisingly, the bulk of it sourced from my iPhone and the internet. With my experiences as a child, and as a cadet in Army ROTC, I can generalize with the college population to recognize the positives of technology and the evident flaws.

To support my concept that the practices have evolved from my childhood to my freshman year in SU, I procured data over a week on all the different sources of information. The highest percentage came from texts and social media on my phone. In the past 10 years, things like sending letters and flip phones have been seen to be much less prevalent in American society due to the Smartphone. I have had fond memories of struggling with texting on my Motorola flip phone – millennials will understand.

Though my generation is submersed in the age of technology without limits, the Army ROTC program emphasizes “old-school” literacy. For example, I am required to understand the phonetic alphabet used to pinpoint coordinates or specify a certain group by a set of letters. Another wide teaching topic taught is the art of reading and navigating with topographic grid maps. Nowadays, any college student with access to a smartphone could easily open the maps app and find their desired location without any trouble. Knowing how to read and navigate with a map may not be of the highest priorities for many students, but I believe that having an alternative to the smartphone will help in the long run.

Is the information age producing millennials who will excel with whatever life throws at them? More specifically, are smartphones really making us smarter, and preparing us for life’s situations as we become independent i.e. college? Leadership and social skills can only be developed by taking physical action. Though we are all working towards degrees, there is a “people” side to almost every job. To conclude, phones have unlocked all kinds of possibilities to make college students’ life easier and more enjoyable, but the fact of the matter is there’s not an app for everything.

Zachary Kubala, aerospace engineering major, class of 2021