Every morning students arrive on campus, open up a red bin and grab a copy of The Red & Black on the way to class.

But Monday, unknown to the campus, the bins were almost blank.

It’s 4 p.m. Sunday at The Red & Black. All the computers are frozen and the server is completely down for hours.

Walking in, I see my fellow colleagues sitting at their desks or talking in small groups looking totally lost. “We can’t do anything – the computers aren’t working,” said one of my editors.

My eyes got big and I froze – I had a writer coming in to read at 6:30. My mind started racing.

“If I can’t open her story I can’t edit,” I thought. “And if none of our computers work, that means no stories and no paper in the morning.”

Suddenly, I did what would seem unthinkable in 2009. I opened up the story on my Blackberry as a reference and then with pencil and paper, I started editing the writer’s story, all 363 words of it.

As I sat there looking at my messy hand-written notes on a piece of scratch paper, I thought “It’s funny how technology malfunctioning can bring our world to its knees in a matter of moments.” Then another realization occurred to me – as a society, we are far too dependent on technology for every aspect of our everyday lives.

Think about your typical day. Every morning, many students wake up to alarms set on their cell phones, check their schedules for the day on those same cell phones or PDAs and use their laptops to complete assignments and take notes. The list goes on.

But when one of those devices, such as a laptop or cell phone, suddenly doesn’t work, many of us, like myself and my colleagues Sunday night, become completely lost.

Part of me thinks that is pitiful. But part of me wonders if we are really to blame.

All of our lives, we have had the luxury of technology to assist us in our everyday tasks. It has become an unconscious part of our lives.

Don’t get me wrong – that’s not necessarily a negative thing and it’s no fault of our own. However, maybe there is something to be said for being “disconnected” from your laptop or cell phone for a few hours, or in some cases, a day or more.

Think back. At some point or another, your laptop or cell phone decided it wasn’t going to work and as distressed as you may have been, your world didn’t stop and life went on. When we are forced to be disconnected, it allows us to really step back and have a few moments to ourselves and appreciate the things we take for granted – like knowing where we are supposed to be at 3 p.m. or not having to retype an assignment you spent an hour on, with no notes, using just what you can remember.

It’s funny the things we take for granted without realizing it, and Sunday night was a very scary reminder.

Now fast forward. It’s 7 p.m. at The Red & Black and the computers are back up and running and everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

Fingers start clicking away at keyboards and a crisis has been averted – and you have your paper in the morning in time to catch up on news and complete the Monday sudoku.

- Tamara Best is the recruitment editor for The Red & Black.