Text Messages

    There is a trend which has been taking off exponentially over the past couple years. And no, I am not talking about Cougar basketball supporters or WSU incoming freshmen. I am talking about a tool widely used by the youth, but whose value is just beginning to reveal itself to the general public. We sent 75 billions of these this past June, compared to barely 7.2 in June of 2005, according to CTIA – The Wireless Association. I am referring to Short Message Service, better known as text messages. Text messaging has reached such a pinnacle in our society that is has become a verb. As text messaging continues its' rapid adaption into our society, it's time we begin to develop guidelines of use for etiquette, safety, and begin to realize the potential in these 160 characters.

    We can all agree that it's rude to speak on the phone during dinner, conversation among friends, or class. But the level of inconsideration committed by texting during these situations has not seemed to be formally established. We can easily give examples of individuals whom text in situations where speaking on the phone would be considered overwhelmingly disrespectful. We need to remind ourselves that while we may not be generating verbal noise; our actions may be just as distracting.

    Beyond text messaging regulations due to simple courtesy is regulation due to safety. A recent Nationwide Insurance survey of 1,503 drivers found that nearly 40 percent of driver's text while driving. This comes at a time when the cause of accidents from text messaging is increasing. While hard numbers are difficult to obtain, this disturbing trend has had emergency room doctors issue a warning in July against texting while doing other activities due to a rise in injuries and deaths in emergency rooms derived from texting. Law makers, as behind as they are on a number of issues, have already begun to take action to prevent further tragedies stemmed from texting. States such as California and Washington have made it illegal to text while driving.

    Law makers are not just concerned over the dangers of texting, but also the financial cost. A couple weeks ago, Senator Herb Kohl sent a letter to our top four national wireless carriers asking them to justify the significant increase in text messaging prices. Consumers are now paying more than 20 cents a message, compared to 10 cents back in 2005. It's also worth noting that all carriers are increasing the rates simultaneously, a behavior inconsistent with a competitive marketplace.

Senator Kohl has reason to be concerned; text messages experience an astronomical amount of mark-up. One character in a text message is equivalent to one byte. So every text contains up to 160 bytes of data. If 160 bytes costs twenty cents, then 1MB of data would cost $1,310.72. Meaning one song download over the air would cost somewhere around $5,242.88. All while the cost of a text message to wireless carriers is virtually zero.

Perhaps we have become so reliant on text messaging that we'll simply stomach these rates. Text messaging has become integrated to the point where presidential candidates use them to announce running mates, American Idol uses them to collect votes, Universities such as WSU use them to communicate with staff and students and many individuals text more than they actually talk on their phones. According to Nielsen Mobile, the average American sends about 357 text messages a month, while making 204 phone calls. Teens send about 1,742 in a month.

As law makers continue to shake out the logistics around the laws and pricing of text messaging, let's exercise caution and courtesy in using this increasingly popular communication tool. Kthxbye.

Be Crimson, Go Green

Open up a newspaper and look at articles making national headlines. You'll probably see lots of Palin, some news on hurricanes threatening along the Texas coast, a few things on McCain, and even a piece on Obama here or there. What you won't see these days is an issue which is on everyone's mind, just not at the forefront due to its lack of entertainment factor or instantaneous consequence. I am speaking of Global Warming. As WSU continues to push toward sustainability and recycling, it would be inspiring to see the student role models and WSU representatives lead by example. It would be appropriate to see the Greeks take the lead in going green through accountability and competition.

Global Warming is an issue which cannot be ignored. We are disrupting our planet's environmental equilibrium in a manner never before witnessed in the billions of years Earth has been in existence. Although much damage has been done, it's important to take a "better late than never" approach when it comes to Global Warming. And the biggest change that can be taken to lessen future damage to our biosphere is not what the government or corporations can do, but what each and every one of us can do on an individual basis. Which is why it's disappointing to see a demographic often referred to as campus leaders fail to make the change to going green.

As Ms. Wellington pointed out in a Letter to the Editor on the 29^th, it does not appear as if certain members of WSU's Greek community are taking the initiative to go green seriously. If our dining halls, campus facilities, and housing have special disposal areas labeling the sustainable items, our proud Greeks should go with the trend and make an effort to recycle more. It might even help if the houses were inspected on a consistent basis to determine the level of recycling occurring at each house.

This takes us to the incentive which often brings out the best in us, competition. Having a collection and evaluation of the aforementioned inspections would result in a quantitative and comprehensive rating scale where we could determine the house most effective at going green. An award, media recognition, and other forms of compensation would be suitable awards for the achievement of such a task.

A quick glance through the webpage of WSU's Pan-Hellenic Council and Interfraternity Council show more than outdated content, but also a lack of any initiative toward sustainability and recycling. In a period where WSU's attempts to go green are reflected in a LEED certified CUB and a massive campaign emphasizing recycling and decomposable materials attached with the slogan of "be crimson, go green", let's have the student leaders and Greeks take charge. So lead the way Greeks, because the rest of the student body has already embarked on the road toward sustainability.

The High Cost of Text

Note: This blog post will be cut significantly before being published. I am at nearly 1000 words, where the limit should really be 600 something. But as the author, I am having a difficult time deciding what needs to go. I will speak with my editor, but this is my article in its full, unedited glory. Check the edited version in an upcoming Evergreen, shoots!

    Emails have replaced letters. Text messaging is used more than phone calls. We no longer purchase CDs, but obtain them through the internet in various methods. We spend more time streaming videos off YouTube and other sites than we spend in front of a television. Typical newspaper classified advertisements are far outnumbered by the listings on sites such as Craigslist. We are in the midst of a technological revolution, and it's time we being this change to the realm of which college students are vocal, but previously powerless to do anything about. It's time we shake up the textbook industry and develop alternatives to killing trees and our checking accounts.

    The current situation college students are in is quite troubling, based on simple economics. There is a significant and inelastic demand for textbooks, which cannot be adequately combated with piracy and secondary markets because they are updated every couple years. Rarely do we see someone with the authority over consumers to buy a product from unregulated and meager vendors, except from our professors. An Evergreen article on the 2nd cited that students spend, on average, nearly $1000 on textbooks in a year. That's over a quarter of what is typically spent on tuition. Technology was supposed to assist in bringing down costs by bringing the content online. Instead, online material simply complements the traditional text, and costs a significant amount to access, independent of the book. Worse yet, the odds are pretty good that books purchased this semester will not be bought back for the next because a new edition is en route or the bookstore is overstocked with the book in question. To top it off, the access codes are nontransferable and good for the semester only. None of this is the fault of the Bookie or Crimson & Grey; it's the publishers, who take a cut of nearly two thirds.

    Now, there are obvious ways to ease the cost of traditional textbooks. You could check chegg.com, buy the international version, borrow a sample copy, purchase the electronic version, use the library, or even find out which books are absolutely necessary before shopping. But these methods only place buckets under a leaky roof. We need to repair the water holes. It's time we change the textbook industry.

    Enter door number one, the Amazon Kindle. The Kindle is an e-book reader which has been flying of the virtual shelves of Amazon since its inception a mere 10 months ago. The Kindle is a powerful device, with a high resolution and paper like screen, wireless connectivity, and thin design; it is a wonderful first generation product. Reading text off a machine may seem cumbersome and counterintuitive initially, but so was the idea presented by Apple of storing music in $500 bricks which you could not put music in or out of without the assistance of a computer. An e-book reader cuts out the middle man, the shipping costs, and, theoretically, most of the publishing costs which goes into a typical textbook. Yes, we'll probably see DRM (digital rights management) on the books, so you can't transfer books onto your friend's Kindle, and we'd still see online access codes for a lot of classes, but it's a step in the right direction. A new version of the Kindle is rumored to be in development with a lower price tag aimed at college students, it would be wonderful if WSU and colleges embraced this format.

    Door number two is even more interesting and potentially staggering. Door number two explores the domain of open source. Imagine if electronic copies of textbooks were available for free and capable of consumption either on a laptop, tablet PC, high resolution phone such as an iPhone, or, preferably, on a Kindle. Maybe there would be advertisements in between chapters to support server and hosting costs, but probably not. If scholars were willing to contribute and donate small amounts of their time in the interest of accessible knowledge, in an environment where information could be modified at a moment's notice, we could produce high quality text in a controlled environment. Look at the success experienced by Firefox and Wikipedia. We check Wikipedia before we do the Britannica, and most individuals are aware that Firefox is superior to Internet Explorer. Open source is generally the accepted method in producing high quality products with individually low resources.

    Finally, behind door number three, we see what may be the most obvious and effective method in lowering textbook prices: get rid of them. According to The Daily Herald, one Utah Valley State sociology professor has removed textbooks from the curriculum. After requiring his students to buy a nearly $100 textbook, the students couldn't sell the book back because a new edition was out. Dr. Ron Hammond now assigns reading material from articles and original research found in the library or the web. He also redid all his quizzes and exams because he had no test bank which accompanies textbooks. While the jury is out on the effectiveness for the students academically, it certainly encourages students to develop their research skills and lightens their financial burden. While not feasible in many cases, it would be fascinating to observe if this technique could be implemented in classes in which it is possible. And if embraced by enough instructors, it would transmit a cordial message to the textbook industry that tripling prices in a two decade period is unacceptable.

    Times have changed. If we are truly fed up with the treatment towards students by the textbook industry, we need the assistance of our faculty and administrators. Current solutions such as those proposed by ASWSU in making buy-back easier just add another bucket under the increasingly leaky and deteriorating roof. What wasn't possible a few years ago is on the horizon. The only question is, will WSU lead the drive to innovation, or will we follow other universities as we transition from physical text to the digital.