Stop whining about students and smartphones

I read many blogs, articles, and tweets about student learning. A constant stream of boring crap that I am reading is about how today's generation of students is becoming more dependent on technology.

Let's me examine a few bull-crappy ideas that I have read later, with more to come. I will call the Luddite version "In My Day"

In My Day:
Students text each other after class. They fail to make plans beforehand. This hurts the students by not getting them to schedule, they are too whimsical, too capricious, too dependent on tech for instant gratification.

Reality:
Get over it. Weren"t you ever late? Didn't you ever change plans? Didn't you want to know where your friends were?  The ability to find your friends in a crowd is sweet. You don't have to stand under the Department Store Clock on 5th Ave waiting for 45 minutes when your friend can text you that he will be late.

In My Day:
Students did not multitask. You did homework in a quiet room without distractions.

Reality:
Crap and double crap. Teens hate homework and almost need distractions as a treat to the torture of studying, in my case, English Literature.  I would put on Styx, Kansas, and The Eagles while I read and wrote my papers on stupid 17th Century English poetry. I still hate it and would not read it if I had to!

In My Day:
Students did not rely on the internet to google topics. They, blah, blah, blah...

Reality:
Wikipedia & Dictionary.com rock!  I google search so many things every day I can't count. My students carry the complete knowledge of the world in their pockets and are adept at using it. I would put them up against the best students of 20 years ago and they would win just using their phones.

Why is this last point so important? Students may not be memorizing as much, but they are accessing way more. And let's face it, when will anyone be without their phones and the internet? Not often enough to worry. Though please do not be stupid enough to think that a smartphone will help get you to the top of a mountain in Alaska (I love that episode on Alaska State Troopers).