What ever happened to the good old days of skipping tipsily into Novack to check Blitz on your way to Frat Row, or of sneaking upstairs in a frat to blitz your crush on some brother's computer? Nobody proximity blitzes anymore. As if I didn't feel old enough already.
But, seriously, it is a fact that cell phone usage has been on the rise at Dartmouth since the Class of 2008 arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on campus, and some might even say (ruefully or otherwise) that it has overtaken the beloved Dartmouth institution that is Blitz. I guess some things change, even in Hanover. If you don't believe me, take it from Julia Baxter '06, who said she was "shocked when I came back up to see how prevalent cell phones were." Upon arrival to the Dartmouth campus her freshman year, Baxter said she quickly learned that cell phones were just not "cool" up here.
"It was the first week of my freshman fall, and I was walking on West Wheelock Street talking on my cell phone. I heard yelling and honking on the street and I noticed that this guy was leaning out of a pickup truck screaming at me, 'Get off your cell phone!'," she said. "I was completely embarassed, and I hung up abruptly mid-sentence," she said. Not only Hanover residents objected, either; a week later Baxter's roommate got reprimanded by an upperclassman.
"My roommate was on the first floor of [Chi] Heorot, on her cell with her long-distance boyfriend. A drunk brother came in, chasing the dogs," Baxter said. "He saw her on the couch and because he couldn't see her cell phone under the hood of her raincoat he asked her, 'Are you talking to the dogs?' 'No,' she said, 'I'm on my cell phone.' And with a look of utter disgust he skulked away, saying "It would have been better to say you were talking to the dogs.'"
I guess some people just have to learn the hard way.
I remember my own arrival to Dartmouth and being indoctrinated into "Blitz culture" like it was yesterday. My high school friends used to make fun of me, and the gleam I got in my eyes when I tried (unsuccessfully) to explain them to them why BlitzMail was not to be confused with "e-mail." I even tried to explain to them the sound that your Mac makes as you get new mail. (I was really cool as a freshman.) Blitz is definitely something that only Dartmouth kids "get." Even after all of my attempts at explanation, my best friend from high school, Trinity College senior Michelle Peters, described blitzing as "a term used to describe an online practice that is neither generic e-mailing, nor generic IM-ing as us outsiders know it, but rather an exclusive and odd form of communication only known to its users, that seems to perform the same functions." When I told my high school friends that I didn't have that many Dartmouth kids' phone numbers, because "no one at Dartmouth calls each other, you just Blitz," they became more than a little worried about whether I even had Dartmouth friends. A legitimate concern.
Alas, the days when you could distinguish the freshmen from the more seasoned students based on who had an oversized Nokia glued to their ear and who didn't are gone. One can see students chatting away on their sleek, razor-thin cell phones in dorms, on the Green between classes, in Food Court and in frat basements -- basically everywhere. I'm just as guilty of using cell phones as anyone else (except mine isn't razor-thin). In a generation famous for multi-tasking, cell phones are often just more convenient.
From Dartmouth professors to Dartmouth athletic coaches, everyone has noticed the shift in communication methods here on campus.
"I certainly see an increasing number of students pasting cell phones to their ears while walking to and from classes, as well as after hours," English professor Louis Renza said. "I've not had much trouble with cell phones ringing in my classes, although it has happened, of course. Solitude, in which to think one's own thoughts far from the madding crowd, has become an antiquated, even 'quaint,' state of affairs."
Catja Carrell '08 has noticed the changing communication patterns on the Dartmouth tennis team. Some of her younger teammates own BlackBerries and one owns an iPhone, she said.
"When I was on the team my freshman, sophomore and junior year people used their cell phones pretty much only to call their parents. When we go back the hotel room, we would check Blitz on our laptops," Carrell said. "But this year, some of the underclassmen on the team used their gadgets and were constantly checking Blitz and going on Facebook. They did that to the point that they got admonished by our coach."
In the words of Henry David Thoreau, "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but an improved means to an unimproved end."
Or are they? There are those who would disagree with that statement, such as BlackBerry-owner Matt Cohn '08.
"I've had it since Christmas break junior year, and for the most part, I use it to check Blitz, not to respond to it. I'm completely dependent on it--moreso than even my computer, probably. The blitz terminals are only useful for long responses. But for the most part, I depend completely on my BlackBerry. And everyone thinks I'm a huge douche bag until something needs looking up. Then I'm a useful, huge douche bag." In response to those (a.k.a me) who believe that BlackBerries and the like are just another form of flexing your corporate muscles in order to attract unknowing freshman girls, an art perfected by the scrawny but well-employed brothers of Psi U, Cohn said that BlackBerries are used by non-corporate types as well. "An actor needs connection to the real world, too -- and my mother and her partner were getting BlackBerry Pearls, and I'm on her phone plan. So why not? Now it is more important than wearing pants," he said.
Jon Smith '08 said he has also grown attached to his BlackBerry. "The number of freshmen with BlackBerries is pretty strange, since upperclassmen told us we didn't even need cell phones upon our arrival," Smith said. "I have a BlackBerry, so I can't say I hate those people, but honestly, mine is more a holdover from the corporate side of things. I can't understand freshmen needing immediate access to Blitz, but it is convenient, and now that I have it, it would be something I would have trouble giving up."
So what is the answer to this problem? Should we just sit back as Blitz becomes more and more antiquated and accept that the times they are a-changin'? Do I need to trade in my Nokia for a sleek phone with a multi-function touch pad? Can Blitzes and cell phones co-exist in prominence on the Dartmouth campus? Alex Cook '09 seems to think so.
"Blitz culture is alive and well. But I also think that cell phone culture is alive and well. People that adore Blitz still get their Blitz and people who adore cell phones still get their cell phones," he said. "I think that you can use your cell phone to complement your Blitz communications. I see it as a tool that bolsters your ability to get in touch with your friends rather than impairs it. I think it's a positive change."
Cook said he thinks objections to cell phones have petered out.
"I remember when I first got here people were like, 'Oh, the '09s brought cell phones.' But I really don't hear much of that nostalgia anymore," Cook said.
As we seniors prepare to head out of this place, and new hordes of Smartphone-carrying freshmen will flood in, maybe it's time to put aside our Blitz nostalgia the way we did our hometown honeys. Maybe it's time for me to get an iPhone.
