Lecture in Labovitz

"Damn this is nice," I remarked to my friend as we traveled up the new, white stone staircase.
"Yeah that's because the business school alumni are the only people that make any money after they graduate," my friend retorted as we strode past the wall-mounted flat-screen monitors on our way into room 118 of the Labovitz School of Business and Economics.

We took our places towards the back of the lecture hall, sliding into our black computer chairs while simultaneously grabbing our laptops out of our backpacks.

The room was bustling with people performing the same procedure: Backpack on table, coat on back of chair, remove and stow iPod, settle into chair, remove laptop, start laptop, throw backpack under table, check text messages, make small-talk with neighbor, time permitting.

As a Poly Sci major, I found the number of laptops (and other miscellaneous electronics) in use during class surprising. 80-90% of the class had laptops open during lecture and pretty much all of those laptops were on Facebook.

The fashionably dressed brunette in front of me already had three facebook chat windows open, which she was rapidly typing in between checking her email and downloading and opening notes off of a class website. A true businesswoman.

Class started with a YouTube video on Business Ethics that played on two huge screens mounted above the blackboard. The identical screens each measured 6-8 feet in height and the video quality was surprisingly good.

After the video the professor attempted to start a discussion as most of the class returned to Facebook. My attention returned to the brunette's Facebook. In addition to her business-like multitasking skills she was a world class stalker, rifling through friends' (or enemys'?) pictures with an admirable speed and efficiency. Girls sure do like taking pictures of themselves. Her profile had over 1,500 picture tagged. Ridiculous. She now had four chat windows open. Her class notes were long gone.

Just for kicks I tried to search for her profile. No dice, although my feeble effort drew a chuckle and condescending head shake from my friend. I put away my laptop and resigned myself to a notebook and pen. Doodling would have to do for now.