Computing

After breakfast, you’ll probably head to class, or return to your room, or look for a computer lab. If you’re like most students at St. Olaf, you’re likely to use a computer every day. Some of you will check e-mail or instant messages even before you go to the bathroom. Many of you will download music or play games on your computers. In many classes, you’ll find the syllabus online, and you’ll be involved in discussions that require you to use a computer. In other classes, too, you’ll use a computer for research, and for writing and revising papers. You’ll do a lot of thinking on your computer, but if you’re normal, you won’t do a lot of thinking about your computer. Maybe you researched different brands and models when you bought it, but after that, it’s probably just a box and monitor in your room.

Computers keep us connected, in more ways than one. They connect us to friends and family, to websites and file sharing, to games and work and, sadly, to pornography. But they also connect us to the electrical grid, and that’s by design.