Students of the University, how do you talk for so long on your phones before going to classes? I can’t help but notice the strange and oddly irritating habit of gluing one’s cell phone to his or her ear while walking to class. It has become beyond reasonable to regard the “Hey!” one hears while strolling past another on the sidewalk to be directed at oneself instead of the unknown person in the caller’s ear.

I’m not saying one should not talk on their phone at all. Believe me, I’ve many a time needed to call someone about something important. But to those of you who talk nonstop to the same person everyday between classes – what do you talk about? What do you have to say that is so urgent? Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems to me perhaps it would be more cordial to say a “hello” and give a smile to a random passerby.

There’s something a little sad about glancing around our campus and seeing hundreds of students swarming around, alone, with a cell phone placed at their ears.

Even worse are those phones with the ear pieces that give the caller the illusion that he or she is talking to him or herself. Are you just asking for me to think the words you say out loud are being directed at me?

If you are one of these “phonoholics,” I ask you this: What does your phone bill look like? I can’t imagine what the figure must be after talking all day long. Perhaps you are on a better plan than I am, but if I talked for that long on my phone, the phone company would have a field day with my bill.

It’s as if our cell phones have made us all slaves to them – another addiction not unlike one to alcohol or drugs. Phones make us needy, to the point where many of us feel we must call someone after our professors end class.

Never mind the fact that we might leave the class conversing with another classmate. Instead, we immediately search for the phone deep within our pockets and dial out the first number that comes to mind.

I hereby challenge each and every one of you to go one day without using your cell phone. I’m not against technology, or even phones in general.

But for just this one day, it might be nice to say “hello” to that one shy girl in your class and not converse on the phone with the friend you’re going to see in your next class anyway.

- Jessica Burghaus is a sophomore from Snellville majoring in pre-journalism and magazines.