The proliferation of cell phones in modern society has been felt everywhere, from the roads to subway cars to concert halls and movie theaters. Brown's classrooms and lecture halls are no exception.
A decade ago, students would never have recognized the sound of a cell phone cutting into a lecture or breaking up a discussion. But Gus Crothers '07 said HI 135: "Modern Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity," has regularly been interrupted this semester. "I can say that probably in every lecture you can hear a cell phone, but that's the case in every big lecture class I have," he said.
Crothers said he did not think his professor should do anything "but set a good example by turning off his cell phone, which he made sure to do after his phone went off in one of the early classes."
Alana Firl '07 said she has heard cell phones ring in each of her courses this semester except her 8:30 a.m. physics class. Firl added that she was extremely annoyed by students comparing ring tones in one class.
"I'd like to see all cell phones collected and burned," she said.
According to Christine Rosen, a senior editor of the technology journal New Atlantis, "What we're seeing on college campuses and classrooms, we're seeing in many public spaces." The author of a recent article, "Our Cell Phones, Ourselves," said she's observed "a Jekyll-and-Hyde thing that goes on with cell phones, because those of us that have them like to think that we use them thoughtfully in public space."
"In fact, our use is quite the opposite - most people do pull out the phone and start talking," she said.
When cell phone owners tell researchers both that they use their phones conscientiously in public spaces like classrooms and that they are horrified by others' behavior, "it's what sociologists call the actor-observer paradox," she said.
Rosen added that "some of (the rude behavior) is here to stay ... but I like to think that the pendulum will spring back towards the manners end."
Professors at Brown have tried different strategies to minimize cell phone disruptions in class.
Assistant Professor of Political Science Jennifer Lawless has a unique approach.
"I tell them at the beginning of class that if their cell phones goes off, they have to take the call," Lawless said.
Lawless said the method had been a good deterrent, as the only phone that has rung was her own.
"I did not take the call," Lawless said.
Professor of Biology Kenneth Miller, who teaches BI 20: "Foundations of Living Systems," which typically enrolls 300 to 400 students, said he has an effective way of preventing cell phone disruptions. On the first day of class, "I invited all the students to join me in exercise" by standing up to turn off their phones, he said.
"I would say most classes would not have a cell phone go off, but in the ones that did, you can immediately spot them, you know, ripping through their backpacks," Miller said.
Associate Professor of English Daniel Kim, who teaches EL 61: "Introduction to Modern and Contemporary Literatures and Cultures," a large class required for English concentrators, said he thinks in big classes students try to be more careful about turning off their phones.
Kim said he doesn't see cell phone disruptions as too big a problem because "every time it's happened they're just so incredibly mortified that it doesn't happen again."
