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REMEMBER WHEN Lite-Brites were the coolest new gadgets money could buy?

 What about when watching a VHS was much coolerthan reciting the ABCs and DVD wasn’t even in ourhome entertainment vocabulary?

But with technology advancing to unoreseenheights and becoming a substantial part o everyday communication and interaction, it comes as little sur-prise that educational institutions around the nation are

 jumping on the technological bandwagon.“Since 1982, technology has become increasingly 

more important in a student’s education,” said JohnGorsuch, director o the Ram Shop.

With the help o Fred Brooks, a pioneer in computerscience, UNC-Chapel Hill established its computerscience department in 1964. Te department considersitsel the second reestanding, Ph.D.-oering computerscience department in the nation.

Tough the department initially attracted muchattention, time took its toll, and both the dot-com busto the 1990s and ears o job outsourcing took prece-dence in the minds o prospective majors, resulting in

dwindling enrollment.“Computer science was a really hot major in the

1980s and ‘90s, but then there was a big drop nation- wide,” said Steve Weiss, a proessor in the departmento computer science. “It was a hard major that got you agood job. Ten it just became a hard major.”

However, Weiss explained that enrollment has onceagain begun to increase and that, despite statistics andgures, technology on campus and throughout society in general is an important aspect o daily lie.

Figures show that the technology industry hasbecome a multi-million dollar business, impacting virtu-ally every American household.

In act, more than 22 million adults in the UnitedStates currently own iPods, while the number o Ameri-cans who own computers is even more staggering at 70million households, or 62 percent o the population,as reported by the 2003 U.S. Census Bureau. Tis is anearly sevenold-increase rom 1984, when computeruse seemed like a luxury reserved or a segment o thepopulation.

Tough the 1990s were certainly characterized by 

tech rocks

“ET, phone home”? Try “ET, text home.” And we may not have spaceships

that whip whatever we most desire out of thin air a la “Hitchhiker’s Guide to

the Galaxy,” but phones booths are definitely out of style. And when lightning 

strikes, let’s all just hope it’s not attracted to your wireless connection....

by amanda younger • design by kelly giles • photos by danielle verilli

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these new options, some staples o Chapel Hill andCarrboro have opted to remain more traditional andhave said they have not elt pressure to compete withthe latest technology.

Schoolkids Records on Franklin Street is one suchexample. Employee Katie Underwood said that thebusiness doesn’t eel the need to carry the latest MP3innovations among its inventory.

“We really haven’t elt any pressure…people stillcome here because we have the latest stu,” she said.

While Schoolkids Records continues to be a hotspoton Franklin Street and a popular destination or UNC-CH music lovers, such places are less and less commonas students seem increasingly enthralled by MP3 tech-nology.

Te Apple products, particularly iPods, carriedby Student Stores attest to this desire or the latesttechnology and the convenience these items provide

to students. In 2005, the university ranked in the top10 colleges or iPods sales, selling approximately 1,600units.

Nevertheless, while the notion o technology otenprompts students to think o retrieving assignments viaBlackboard, checking e-mail, scanning Facebook.comor the latest news or listening to music, it is cellularphones and telephone communication in general thatseem to be both the greatest concern or students andthe area o most rapid change among ofcials.

John Streck, IS assistant vice chancellor or tele-communications, explained that some o the greatest

changes in technology are ound in something that mosttake or granted: making a simple phone call.

While the land line, handset method o calling isprobably the quintessential image to come to mind

 when a person thinks about making a phone call, it isthe cellular phone that has become the dominant acili-tator in this type o communication.

“Te cellular phone has taken a air amount o busi-ness and trafc rom the handset,” Streck said. “Tey have gradually been pushing to being digital rom thehandset or the last ve or seven years.”

In act, Streck explained that in a recent survey con-ducted by the university, the students’ top technologicalconcern was cellular omnipresence throughout campus,particularly in buildings.

Such concerns have prompted ofcials to examine a wide range o solutions or models that can be ollowedto ensure that the campus is able to unction in an ever-

changing, increasingly technological world.Regardless o the context in which a person is speak-

ing about technology, be it cellular phones, the Internetor iPods, it is undeniable that innovation in this eldhas changed the landscape o both social interaction andour everyday experiences as students, as exemplied by 

 Weiss’ brie, yet proound statement.“We don’t say ‘Do you have e-mail?,’ We say ‘What’s

your e-mail?’”&