Ellington

Whether it’s a backpack casually placed on top of the desk to hide a text message, a crossed leg to mask the Facebooking or a quick bathroom break to check for new e-mails, the point is the same: to stay connected during classes, during work — all the time.

Like most college students, UW senior Nathan Bilbao is plugged in. He carries his smartphone with him everywhere, and spends up to 12 hours a day on his laptop, sometimes with a flat-screen television connected for full-sized viewing pleasure.

“Too much time on the Internet,” Bilbao said of his tech habit. “I don’t even want to know how much time … I [would] guess maybe five to 12 hours a day. … Whenever I’m on breaks, I’m on Youtube looking for new music. … I’m always on, always connected.”

Although it can be a distraction, the Internet and social-networking sites are valuable tools, said Kathy Gill. The senior lecturer in the Department of Communication compares them to the invention of the printing press.

“It’s what we call democratization of the content, creation and distribution system,” Gill said. “It’s this huge, huge change that affects power structures; it affects globalization in the sense that the world just keeps getting smaller because we can get a tweet from around the world, [or] a video from around the world in the blink of an eye.”

Gill teaches a class on the influence of Twitter and uses technology to her benefit, integrating Youtube videos into her curriculum and asking students to look things up on their laptops to further discussions. She also encourages her students to text message questions to her or contact her through the class Wordpress blog.

“What I’m trying to do is help my students see how the world around them is changing and how they’re going to communicate for their employer,” Gill said. “But also how they’re going to communicate for themselves.”

Bilbao agrees that having multiple points of communication is beneficial. When his laptop broke, he was able to use other devices to stay connected.

“I was using my iPhone to do my Physics 121 homework. Although it sucked because the physics department’s websites aren’t really mobile accessible, I could still zoom in, read all my lecture notes,” he said. “I could do and complete all my homework on my phone, which I had to do for three weeks.”

While smartphones and laptops can work as both tools and distractions in class, they also offer students easy ways to stay in touch with family when they’re away from home.

To stay updated on one another’s lives, Bilbao syncs his smartphone calendar with his parents’ calendars so everyone knows how and when to get in touch.

But the convenience of such tools can be addicting and quickly became an integral part of Bilbao’s life. When his laptop and phone were stolen during finals week, he bought new ones within 24 hours.

Bilbao said that he feels “slightly disgusted” by how much time he spends online every day.

“I could be doing more productive things,” he said. “I would rather be learning a new skill and taking some other course, like rock climbing, learning how to belay, but I choose to spend time on the Internet.”

When senior Michael Fyrqvist’s laptop was stolen, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“When I was at home, I used to spend time on Facebook,” he said, “but without a computer, I would do my other hobbies that I used to always do, like play the piano or read or something. … I wasn’t glad that it got stolen, but I kind of feel like I spend time doing other stuff instead of going on Facebook or surfing the Net.”

Although he had to reorganize his schedule and spend additional hours at the library and in computer labs, he found himself benefiting from his new sense of focus.

The future may hold more of a need to be aware of time spent using technology for work.

Both Hu and Bilbao acknowledged that they feel almost obligated to have smartphones that are always connected for their intended career fields — business and human centered design and engineering (HCDE) respectively.

“[There’s] this movement to always [being] connected, always on. And that’s this huge transformative implication for work,” Gill said. “As more and more people are information workers of some form or another, that line between ‘this is personal time’ and ‘this is work time’ gets really fuzzy in this always-on world.”

On date nights, senior Yena Hu’s boyfriend sometimes asks her to leave her phone at home so that they can enjoy a meal without interruptions.

Phones, laptops and social-networking sites can keep people connected, Hu said, but she also worries about the paradox — being so plugged into her smartphone that she is actually ignoring the friends in front of her.

“I try not to be the loner in the corner with her Blackberry,” she said, “because I know how much it bothers me when people are on their phone a lot in social situations.”

Look in tomorrow’s lifestyles section for part two as reporter Lael Telles disconnects for a week without technology.

Reach reporter Lael Telles at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.