Technological Like Me

Disclaimer: I may have answered many of the questions that you gatekeeping professors are asking me to cover in this blog post in the form of a long-winded rant about the various ways that the iPad stresses me out, which I posted about a month ago. However, it would probably be a good idea for me to write out my final verdict on the iPad, which is this:

To me, the iPad is nothing more than a glorified netbook with a fancy touch screen. It may even be less practical than a netbook because typing and multi-tasking are much more difficult on the iPad.

For most of the semester, I felt that I had to justify owning such an expensive piece of technology by trying desperately to incorporate the iPad into my everyday life. This meant that for the first few weeks of school, I attempted to take notes exclusively on the iPad, I tried to listen to music exclusively on the iPad, and I turned to the iPad as an Internet source before I did a computer. In the process, I found the iPad to be more of a burden than a blessing. My incessant guilt inspired in me a strong sense of determination to make use of the technology that I was given, but eventually I reached a point where I was merely carrying the iPad in my book bag and taking it to classes with me without turning it on for days at a time.

When I was consistently taking notes on my iPad, I found that my note-taking was easily and often distracted by the technology at my fingertips.

Scenario #1: My professor is giving a lecture, and as I take notes on my iPad, she casually mentions Ermengarde of Anjou. I'm not sure if that's a person or a food or an activity, so I exit my notes to Google my professor's mysterious reference. Wikipedia has 5 different Ermengarde of Anjou pages, I pick one, which describes Ermengarde as "a member of the comital House of Anjou." What the hell is this "Anjou" that keeps coming up? I Google "Anjou," and recipes calling for anjou pears come up. I am curious about this fruit, which I've never heard of. Is it just a regular pear? It is something new and exotic that I need to know about? What's the deal with anjou pears? According to Google images, they just look like regular pears. Disappointing. I Google "exotic fruit," and spend the rest of class reading about jackfruit and the African cucumbers.

Scenario #2: My professor showing a slide show about Hildegard of Bingen. The iPad believes that this woman should be named "Hilda regard of binge." Every time that I go to enter "Hildegard of Bingen" into my notes, I am afflicted by the odious auto-correct. I spend so much time correcting the auto-correct that I miss a third of the slides in the slide show.

Scenario #3: My professor is giving a three hour lecture about the atomic weight of alkali metals. Five minutes into the lecture, she has lost me, and I'm not sure that I can be found. Goodbye chemistry notes, hello Stumbleupon!

Interestingly enough, I have found that when I pull the iPad out in many of my classes (other than Reading w/ the Digital Human), professors seem to assume that I am doing something studious and useful with my iPad, that I would never be engrossed in a Facebook message or carried away on a Stumbleupon frenzy with my iPad. No, surely I must be taking very technologically advanced notes and while looking up scholarly articles relating to their lectures with my $500 state-of-the-art touchscreen tablet. However, when I take notes by hand in my notebook, should a professor discuss the tragic life of Edgar Allen Poe and should I scribble a cartoony raven squawking "Nevermore!," I will almost always be met with a look of disapproval or a hushed "That's very nice, but please not in class," should the professor catch a glimpse of my doodle.

All of that being said, I have found that the iPad is very useful to me as a planner/calendar. I particularly like the Easy Task app for making lists of homework assignments and when they're due. Also, I've used the iPad three or four times when I've forgotten a book for a class at home and needed to access a text quickly. It's also useful when I'm in class with Dr. Cotton, and he wants to know what year an obscure poem was published or whether or not the Oxford English Dictionary contains a definition for the word "goose" used as a verb. Basically, the iPad has made me the go-to girl for looking up random facts when my professors forget or want to know something. At this point, I have given up on trying to justify owning this fancy piece of technology, which has been most useful to me as a planner/list-making device. While the iPad does come in handy as a planner, a notebook, an Internet source, an MP3 player, and probably many other things that I don't often use it as, I am still unable to come to terms with the fact that before I had the iPad, I had a planner, a notebook, a computer, and an MP3 player to do all of the things that the iPad does. Perhaps the iPad is supposed to be like the Walmart of organizational/technological/entertainment devices, as the iPad puts music, notes, books, the Internet, games, a planner, and more all in one convenient tablet, but even after a semester with the iPad I'm still far from comfortable with giving up my paperbacks or my Gameboy or my moleskins. Maybe I'll be a little more willing when I can access Wikipedia without exiting my notes or when I figure how to turn off auto-correct.