The scene is a common one at the University of Toronto: students, anxious and scattered, pack into study spaces, naïvely hoping to slog through a gruelling, last-ditch review session.
Despite finishing the occasional reading (or even practice exam) between YouTube videos, one piece of lecture content - quite tragically - tends to "totally slip the minds" of most U of T students: hastily-taken, zoomed-in iPhone photos.
According to a new study out of Rotman, these photos get "completely erased" from students’ memories, which is unfortunate, according to business professor and self-styled time management "guru" Geoffrey Hebb, as "the pictures not only act as a replacement for studying but also as a one-to-one substitute for paying attention during lectures."
Hebb and his associates were "shocked" by what they found - and worry that students are placing too much faith in not only their phones, but, more dangerously, themselves.
"Why these students would trust themselves to responsibly review material is beyond me," Hebb said, gnawing on a pencil. "We met a few of these guys during the review process, and take it from me," Hebb said, drawing closer, "they are beyond desperate and good as dead. Warm corpses."
It's a sorry state of affairs. With Reading Week upon us and many midterms already completed, what was once a promising series of “gallery-ready” photographs depicting “potentially important” slides is now destined to be another artwork lost in the annals of history.
Hebb claimed that most of the blurry portraits currently sit next to other forgotten Camera Roll gems, like a “neat-looking” sunset from two years ago and "several lock screen screenshots" taken on accident that will somehow never be deleted.
Photo Credit: Sammy "Moneybags" Edwards
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