Computer technology, especially email, IM, and the Internet, has becomean increasingly important-and often overwhelming-aspect of our daily lives.Most Tufts students rely on this technology to keep them in touch withfriends and family and informed of the happenings of the outside world.Whenever students begin to feel claustrophobic inside the Tufts bubble ofacademics and Fight for Your Right (To Party) rallies, they can simply clickonto Netscape or Internet Explorer to reassure themselves that yes, Gore andBush are still battling it out, and the yes, the Yankees and the Mets willface each other in the World Series for the first time since 1956. Ourcomputers are out portholes to the non-Tufts universe.
Sophomore Sarah Brasslett decided to let Daily readers into a day of herlife as a technology addict. She begins her day by waking up to the soothingtechno beats of Air on her CD player alarm clock. She said, "Then I showerin the technologically advanced showers of West." Can you feel her sarcasmhere?
Brasslett continues her morning by checking email and seeing who IMed herthe night before. "My computer is on 24 hours a day so I don't missanything," she said. She even admits to checking her email at least tentimes a day. She also uses her computer to check the weather, read news, andfind information about Boston events.
Other Tufts students echoed Brasslett's sentiments. In reference to theimportance of email, fellow sophomore Kevin Coyne said, "That's pretty muchthe first thing I check when I come in the room." He added that email isespecially important in maintaining communication in long-distancerelationships.
Coyne's roommate, Chris Cao, took an even more extreme stance on theimportance of email, ranking it right up there with sleeping. He said, "IfI'm not checking my mail or online, I'm asleep."
For Brasslett, IM is just as important to her as email. "I use IM, ICQ,and MSN Messenger because I have friends on all three, so there is alwayssomeone to talk to and distract myself from my work. I even use it to talkto my roommates when they're in the other room."
Her comments highlight the most essential function of IM: it serves as apowerful means of procrastination. Coyne agreed with her when he said, "I'mon the Internet everyday, procrastinating."
It is a widely accepted fact that students hate doing work and lovecomplaining about it and avoiding it. IM is the perfect vehicle for both ourcomplaints and our procrastination. Why actually finish our work when we cancommiserate with our friends, over IM, about how much of it we have to do?Plus, IM is amazingly distracting. The sound of a new IM message coming inis music to the ears of a student entrenched in an economics paper or a chemlab. We need that distraction to get out of our own heads once in a while.
Both Brasslett and Coyne cited the similarly distracting power of MP3s.Now that Tufts computer services have increased the network's bandwidthcapacity to accommodate heavy Napster traffic, students can more easilydownload new MP3 files. To most students, searching for new music online ismuch more enjoyable than say, reading IR, so MP3s serve as another tool forprocrastination.
"The [music from] the computer is [often] the center of our room," saidCoyne. Brasslett added, "MP3s are vital. They save you so much money. Ifyou have a party you can entertain friends with your eclectic musiccollection."
However, computers are more than just entertainment centers. They alsohave academic advantages. Brasslett's notes for her Astronomy class, as wellas links to other astronomy websites, are available online. She said, "Ithink eventually we'll move to having all of our classes online."
Computer technology is also being used in some Tufts classrooms.Students in German 33, Contemporary German Issues on the Internet, use acentral computer in their classroom to design webpages together. ViolaManteufel, a sophomore enrolled in the class said, "[For] all our homework,we're supposed to look up research online."
Tufts students' interest in understanding the Internet is evident in thepopularity of the now-extinct Comp 6 course, Computing on the Internet.According to Computer Science Professor David Krumme, Comp 6 and othercomputer science courses are so popular that the CompSci department doesn'thave enough professors to teach all the classes. He said, "The departmenthas been forced to cut some things back and some things out." Comp 6 was oneof the courses cut.
Professor Krumme said that some students took Comp 6 to satisfy mathdistribution requirements while others took it out of an overall interest inlearning about the Internet. "[Students] learned the nature of themechanisms that are used to make the Internet work," he said. He added,"They learned to be more knowledgeable and sophisticated Internet users."Students interested in similar courses can check out Comp 10 and Engineering47, the replacements for Comp 6.
Although Brasslett hasn't taken any computer science courses at Tufts,she appreciates the importance of being able to understand how our computersoperate. A virus attached to a file she downloaded recently destroyed hercomputer. She lost all the information on her C-drive, including her MP3s,email, and IM.
"It was really horrible because my computer died and I could not check myemail," she said. Although her computer is up and running again, she isworking on restoring it to its old glory. "I'm still in the process ofreformatting my C-drive," she said.
