THE VOICE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011 5} =-or TOday s student e way we learn, communicate and protect our privacy is Wong, Angela Luong, Amethyst Chan and Ann Lo demonstrate how many students spend their lunch talking on their cell phones rather than each other. | JEN ST. DENIS photo alle & Tevet has tts Ltmtts ' phone usage expands, so does the lack of social etiquette and human interaction :NIS hen Langara stu- dents experience bad cellphone be- haviour they don’t get even. ition, theatre arts stu- scarraga hid a class- intly buzzing phone ing tile in the Studio ‘d calling her phone ‘v five minutes before 3 to find it,” said Es- r that, the classmate one off during class. Sam Harkness was pretty sure he could say anything to a friend who was constantly texting, and one day he tested his theory. “T decided to say something like, ‘Oh, so my mom got knocked up,’ and she’s like ‘Oh yeah?’ and I said, ‘Yup, ’'m going to have a sister or brother soon,’” said Harkness. It wasn’t true, but his friend was so busy texting, she didn’t notice the outrageous lie. Some Langara students are so fed up, they’re ready to surrender friendships with particularly ob- noxious cellphone users. Brett Wil- lis, a theatre arts student, confis- cated a friend’s phone. “T left her for two days without the cellphone just to see what would happen to her,” said Brett Willis. “She doesn’t talk to me any- more.” Languages student Veronica Church has witnessed “shocking” cellphone use while riding the bus. “IT don’t know why people find the need to yell into their cellphone when other people are all around them,” said Church. Other students have made rules for themselves to avoid falling into the bad habit of constantly check- ing their phone. “My boyfriend and I have a rule that we don’t text when we’re with each other,” said Brenda Wheeler. According to an article on wise- geek.com, if you want to avoid irri- tating your friends and being the target of revenge pranks, follow these rules on cellphone etiquette: When you do take a call in pub- lic, lower that booming voice. Avoid discussing sensitive sub- jects in public. No one needs to hear about that stubborn ingrown toenail or be a third party to your raging fight with an ex. If you’re talking to a friend face- to-face, be present. Let that call go to the answering machine or ig- nore the text. If you’re taking yourself out to dinner, your phone is an accept- able companion. But if you’re out to dinner with friends or on a date, do them a favour and put the phone away. Put your phone’s setting to si- lent while in class or in a restau- rant. In a dimly-lit room avoid us- ing your phone, as it’s distracting to see your screen light up. Don’t use your phone as a status symbol]. Put it in your pocket or bag. You can stroke it every now and then if it makes you feel better. More than 1,000 cellphones are acti- vated each minute. There is one cell- phone for every two people in the world. An iPhone has more processing power than the North American Air Defense Command did in 1965. Source: startacellphonebusi- ness.com new tersetbooks age on Amazon’s servers and then delivers complex web page as a single unit to the ‘ire,” said Baker via email. Thomas Rizco, a Langara anthropology tudent, believes the iPad has an edge over indles and other tablets, pointing to mar- eting as one of the reasons. “If there was an iPad coming out, I think verybody would know,” Rizco said. “But for indle... if they can’t market it, what’s the oint?” Other students, like second-year arts and cience student Erika Pablico, use smart- hones to help with scheduling. “T sometimes use Calendar for classes and ) put in my exam dates,” said Pablico. Some popular educational apps for the 2ad 2 include eTextbooks by CourseSmart nd scheduling tools like myHomework. Bizmosis Inc.’s iTranslate provides French, panish, Italian and German translations on- creen and out loud. Some post-secondary institutions, includ- ig UBC and SFU, have school-specific apps with news feeds about special events and weather forecasts on campus. EBooks are another tool which don’t re- quire a tablet device for access. Langara’s li- brary offers over 40,000 titles electronically, says librarian Alison Curtis. The Vancouver Public Library also offers eBooks. Online information and news man- ager Christina deCastell says there are tens of thousands of titles available with just an internet connection. Amazon recently began the Kindle text- book rental program that allows students to save as much as 80 per cent by renting their textbooks from the Kindle store. After downloading the Kindle reading app to a PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet a long list of rental eTextbooks are available. The number of choices will continue to ex- pand as technology moves forward. Tradi- tional education and teaching techniques are evolving into something new, and today’s stu- dent has the opportunity to decide which tools work for them. KYLA JONAS photo Photo-imaging student, Nick Collins, surfing on the photography lab’s iPad for class.