ADD

When I was attending Ivy Tech full time my last 2 semesters, there weren't many other students that were carting their laptops with them to class and using them. Maybe it was the over abundance of computer labs at Ivy Tech, and the ease of access to all classes, as they are encapsulated in one building. Maybe it was just easier to take hand written notes or no notes at all. Most people, my self included, spent as little time at the actual building as possible. And presumably like me, everyone just went home and did their work on their computers from the comforts of their own home.

That is not true at IU. In my first full semester at IU, it's seemingly commonplace for everyone to have a laptop, and for everyone to use them during class. I'd say about 40 percent of the people in my classes use laptops during lectures. The only class that I don't see anyone using one is my English class, and I think that's just because it's more of a casual atmosphere where we just sit around and talk about the readings. No real lecture time.

Now I bring all this up to set up 2 separate stories that confound my brain.

In my Soc class, there is a guy who sits close enough to me to see his laptop during class. This class is a standard lecture class with about 80 students, and there are lots of notes to be taken. Most people just use the old tried and true method of pen and paper, while some are using their computers to type out a word document. Not this guy though. He has a specialized note taking program. This program formats the page to look just like a standard college rule notebook. It has the margin lines and lines across to write on just like a spiral notebook. And the font. OH the font. It looks just like someone's writing it down with a pen. Not some snazzy blocked up symmetrical font, but slightly askew print. So, presuming his Macbook Pro only cost him about 1300, he gets to type out all his notes to make them look like he wrote them down on paper. If he had just written them down on paper, he could have done so for about $4.26. But he doesn't have to do the "I gotta shake my hand cause it hurts so much from writing so much so quickly" move that is so common with the rest of us.

This second scenario is even more baffling to me. In one of my other classes, this same guy always sits in front of me. As soon as his butt hits the chair he has his laptop whipped out and fired up. He always instantly fires up facebook and starts checking his chat bar for who he can chat with during class. He then also starts looking at pictures and random creeping. Once that has lost it's intrest, he starts looking at his own set of pictures, usually the same set featuring him and some random girl posing all kissy face and whatnot out at some bar. At first I thought he was just some sad dude that just got dumped and was reliving his days gone by with his ex. I don't know anymore though. This has gone on for 5 weeks now.

But that isn't the end of this guys laptop ADD. He also types out whatever goes on the power point. He's not listening, just typing out whatever goes up on the board. In between typing these notes and creeping on FB, yesterday he was also watching some NHL highlights from the 1990's. With no sound on. The highlights were spaced in between interviews that he could not hear. Unless he's a lip reader, he picked the wrong set of hockey highlights to be watching. Now when it was time to "take notes" on a new slide, he would begrudgingly pause his hockey highlights, switch over to his notes by popping out his widgets that show all open windows, select his notes, and then switch back. He was visibly annoyed by this as he clearly only wanted to be watching his silent hockey movie. Eventually he got the bright idea that he could just shrink his notes down to about half the size of his screen, and then move the youtube video box to the other side, so he could have uninterrupted viewing and note taking at the same time. Such ingenuity and brain power displayed gives me hope for this young man's future. If only he can find a career where he can somehow manage upwards of 10 windows on his laptop screen, frantically switching back and forth between them trying against all hope to hold his ADD at bay and keep his mind occupied at all times on anything BUT his schoolwork, he'll be set for life.

I'm not saying I'm the most attentive student in the world. I get sleepy and yawn sometimes. I fidget, though mostly due to the fact that almost every classroom at IU is retrofitted with some of the most godawful and uncomfortable seating. But I try to pay attention. I take notes when I feel they will help me. Partially out of respect for my teachers. Either they will recognize that I'm trying to engage in the class and not just show up to get attendance credit and this will hopefully work in my favor down the line, or I am just trying to get my money's worth out of the experience. Why pay, or have someone else pay, for all these classes if your just gonna creep on FB and chat with your friends online. You can do that for free, from just about anywhere in the world. You don't have to pay 800 bucks a class or whatever it breaks down to at IU to slump down in a chair, act completely disinterested in what's going on around you, and relive that night at Upstairs where you totally felt up that hot blonde with big tits and then threw up over the balcony.