It is not too far into the second semester and already students are able to feel a change in how the rest of the school year will be. The days are narrowing, and time quickens it’s pace as we progress through these soon to be final hurrahs of a school year.

Gone are the days of easy off campus lunch, there is now a more perfected security system around gates. Something new has come as well, something we have never seen before. It isn’t a civilization on Mars or new breed of french poodles, but personal wifi access for every student.

This new wifi speaks something about how students should trust the school more. Or maybe it’s about how we shouldn’t be so quick to assume an ulterior motive in the hearts of administrators. At first glance you think “Hey, this new wifi is just a ploy to monitor everything we do.” We’re screaming about the monitoring, then suddenly the conversation turns to censorship and then human rights, “1984!” we cry.

What if the school really just wants to give us our own wifi? Maybe they figure, hey, there are so many students already using our wifi networks, why not just give them all a network to use? So many others schools already do this, by the way.

It would definitely please some parents, the ones that have been complaining about the lack of practical uses for phones. We should be happy, maybe now we won’t get yelled at for having our phones out during class. This could be the start of the integration of student smart phones into the education system.

We are not a lavish private school; the district cannot give us all iPads to use, but they can allow those who are fortunate enough (although they may not see it) to use the tools at hand. Think about it, these little guys are so useful and packed full of potential, and yet we are told to neglect that fact and shut them down for the seven hour chunk of our day devoted to educating us. Seems a little counterproductive to neglect such impactful recourses.

The new wifi is not to control you. They may techincally have the capability to monitor what you are doing on your phone, but who even cares. The administration has far more important things to do than sit on a computer watching you look up flappy bird cheats like some kind of jr. NSA.

If you really are concerned about your privacy, don’t use the wifi, it’s as easy as that. Look up your risqué photos on your own data plan, you’ll probably be making Mr. Lord’s job easier. The truth, not so cold or hard, is that the new wifi exists so that every student will have a specific account to access when testing comes around. It’s to make everyones lives easier. Now that it has, we can all sleep a little better tonight.