I recently was in Salt Lake City to attend and present at a conference with a few of my colleagues. I won’t bore you with the details of the conference, but it was a pleasant trip and a good conference. We didn’t have much time for extensive sightseeing, but we managed to mosey around downtown a bit while in search of local fare to fill our gullets with.

I often hear some of my colleagues complain about “kids nowadays” and their students constantly farting around with their smart phones in class. To combat this they implement a variety of classroom electronics rules and policies in an attempt to divert student’s gazes away from their shiny “Google machines”. This “Google gaze” used to bother me, but then I thought about “why” it bothered me.

I think it mainly bothered me because I had spent three hours preparing for this one hour lecture, a lecture that I was sure my students would find quite educational and enlightening, and yet, some preferred what their smart phone had to offer. So the “why” turned out to be about me, not them. About “me” lecturing about what “I” thought they “should” be interested in. Strangely enough, a 20-year old college student may not be interested in what a 44-year old college professor has to say.

Faced with this revelation I decided to step off the stage, shut my mouth, and let the students and their interests guide the course. Strangely enough, 20-year old college students are very interested in what they are personally interested in, and will choose to engage with real people rather than their phones when not being bored to tears by some 44-year old college professor who thinks he knows what they are interested in. Go figure.

The conference I attended was regarding college education, which meant that there were college professors presenting to other college professors (poetic justice). I found some of the presentations to be engaging and interesting and some of them not so much. What I found most interesting was the number of college professors gazing at their smart phones while being lectured by other college professors. If only their students could have seen them.

My phone is not so smart, so even when a presentation is boring the shine off of my shoes, I’m forced to rely on old fashioned doodling to keep from slumping to the floor in heap of disinterest. Doodling…Googling…two sides of the same coin I suppose.

My son called while I was listening to what I’m sure was a riveting presentation had I not been doodling. Thankfully, I always put my phone on vibrate, because nobody can hear a phone vibrate. Although nobody can hear a whispering, hushed voice in a small, quiet room exclaiming, “I can’t talk right now” I did have the common courtesy not to answer.

After the presentation I called my son to see what he wanted or needed, because when he calls he either wants or needs something, and quite often mistakes wants for needs. He answered, and I said, “Hello, need something?” His response caught me off guard, “No, just calling to see what you’re doing, and how the conference was going.” Surprised, but still skeptical, I waited for the follow-up need or want to come as we chatted, but it never came.

Could it be that a seventeen-year-old boy would call his dad to just talk? It was an enjoyable visit that didn’t include me having to come up with any defensive arguments against a need or a want, or any cash for a need or want. I’m still not convinced that I wasn’t being softened up for an upcoming need or want, but as it currently stands, a son called his dad just to talk. Kid’s nowadays.