Two Observations About the UT Campus

I had occasion to be in Knoxville twice last week, and I drove down the Cumberland Avenue strip to downtown both times. I observed a couple of things that caught my attention. One is that just about every student one sees on the University of Tennessee campus is either talking on a cell phone , listening to an I-Pod or texting as they walk to class. When I was a student in the late '80's and early '90's you saw the occasional student listening to a Sony Walkman, but cell phones weren't common back then. Texting didn't come along until much later. At my age the distraction seems rather dangerous, but then I was invulnerable in my twenties, too.

The other thing I noticed is that every student I saw was using both of their backpack straps, as one would wear a backpack on a hike. That was considered bad form in my day, and everyone carried their backpacks slung over one shoulder with one strap. I always thought of my backpack full of books as a rather formidable weapon, should the need arise, but you sure couldn't wield it as one if it were on your back rather than on a shoulder.