Students of this new age in the university can't help but wonder what school would look like if there were no phones, and to be honest, I must say that it'll certainly feel different, but then beyond that we must come to the understanding that it's not something everyone is strange to, because there are people who went to school during the age when phones hadn't found their way into our country or when phones hadn't been invented at all. And for such people it'll actually be easier to relate, for me, although there was a time I didn't have a phone during my undergraduate days, and I can tell the difference between the difficulties that are present to me.
In our generation today, smartphones have been a blessing to the world; they have eased communication, information sharing, and much more, to name but a few. And in the event that such is the case, then students will have to do more or face-to-face interactions, since there are no other ways to communicate, like we have on phones with chatting applications. Meetings that are usually held online will have to now be held by students gathering themselves after lectures and building stronger friendships. And that's not to even talk about group assignments that would also need physical interactions, since there are no means to share ideas over the internet.
But then, we can also say that learning will improve, because students won't get distracted by the different things that are on the phones that usually serve as a distraction to students, like games, social media, and the likes. Rather than that, those students will now have to face their studies, pay more attention, and use available resources that aid learning, like the library.
But then beyond that, in my opinion life won't be easy, because you'll need to visit school every day to get information going on, unlike how if a lecture as been cancelled, you can easily find out via WhatsApp awareness message by the course representative, now you'll get to the campus before you realise the lecture has been cancelled, not to forget how phone has been a tool that made getting information and doing research much fast and efficient than going through hundreds of books to get information.
Although my undergraduate days' experience shows we can ultimately survive without a phone, with a lot of challenges and difficulties, I remember missing concrete information during my undergraduate days because I didn't have a phone. There were times a lecture had been moved to an earlier or later time, and I was unaware. This can be dangerous because at one time I even almost missed an exam because the time had changed to an earlier time. Thankfully that day I went to school early, so I'll cross-check things with my colleagues before the exam kicks off.
Overall, assuming phones don't exist, school might have been different from how it's today, but it'll make the campus more socially connected with less form of distraction. But we can't forget how it'll make schooling less inconvenient. But overall, that doesn't mean the phone is the problem; it's all down to how you use them.
All photos are generated using ChatGpt.