By Steve Fuller
When college students write a paper, they type it on the computer. When they need some information, they look on the Internet.
Computers are a way of life for BYU students and other college students across the nation.
Gone are the days when BYU students were lining up around the card catalogs in the Harold B. Lee Library.
Gone are the days of typing important term papers on a typewriter.
Former BYU student Yvette Mitchell last attended BYU during the 1981-82 school year.
“We always typed all our papers on typewriters. Computers weren”t really around at all then,” Mitchell said.
Even in the last few years, the computer landscape has changed greatly at BYU.
Brent Wells, 24, senior, from Fountain Valley, California, majoring in music education, remembers when things were different.
The availability of free e-mail accounts through Route Y has been a recent arrival to BYU.
Wells said when he was a freshman, Route Y did not exist. To use e-mail, students had to have their own private account, or set one up with BYU.
Gina Blake graduated from BYU in 1995.
“When I started at BYU, I did all my homework on my word processor. By the time I graduated, I had a computer, but not when I was a freshman,” she said.
While some BYU students complain about lines at computer labs or BYU”s network occasionally being down, there is a general consensus opinion that computers have made students” lives much easier.
Marissa Adsero, who graduated from BYU in 2000, said it is sometimes hard for her to remember what life was like before computers.
“I can”t even remember what I did when I couldn”t look up information on the Internet,” Adsero said.
Wells shares this sentiment.
“I couldn”t imagine having to type my papers on a typewriter,” he said.
