Karl and His Smart Phone

Every month I team up with U.S. Cellular and share a little about my Samsung Galaxy S8 Smart Phone. This is one of those posts.

Several of you have been asking how Karl is….well, good. He made it back to Houston and happily his school is up and running. Luckily his school didn’t have damage. He did say that his school is already over capacity with kids so no kids from other flooded areas will be coming into his district. He is teaching at a school that has a high poverty rate. 60% of the kids are Hispanic 20% are Black. He said that as a white man, he really sticks out. So far, minus the hurricane, he’s had a very good experience.

When Karl was home for a bit as we were talking I asked him about his laptop. He told me he didn’t bring it with him when he left. That REALLY surprised me! He said, “Mom-I use my phone for pretty everything except writing a paper.” That was new to me….but I guess it’s a trend. Smartphones are getting more and more powerful, allowing people to do much more than with cell phones of the past. Smartphones have taken the place of many traditional staples of college life and make living in a small space much less complicated.

Some of the trends you’re seeing towards mobile technology include:

Music:
Streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify make it easy to create playlists for any activity such as exercising or studying. More than a third of smartphone owners stream music through their smartphone.

Reading:
Students can use their phones or tablets to download everything from textbooks to their favorite novels, which will lighten their backpacks on the way to class.

Television:
According to recent U.S. Cellular survey, 59 percent of smartphone users watch video using their devices; up from 48 percent just three years ago. Keep up with a favorite series using services such as Netflix and Hulu is very common.

Games:
75 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to entertain themselves. Apps on devices can range from a simple round of Solitaire to complex games like Monopoly.

Everyday tasks:
Save space on a nightstand and wake up in time for those morning classes by using the alarm clock feature on a smartphone. Students can even track sleep quality and snoring through free apps like Sleep Cycle, which will analyze your sleep patterns and wake you at the perfect moment.

I guess having a phone is a lot more than I ever dreamed. I think too often I’m used to “doing things the old way” and don’t look towards new technology. It’s good I have my kids around to keep me up to date with all the things there are to do with my phone. I will admit that I have started using the alarm clock feature for lots of things….I have a bus alarm so that the childcare kids don’t miss the bus plus several other alarms to keep me on my toes.