Once upon a time, college students spent hours in the library researching information for their papers before sitting down to handwrite (or manually type out) their findings. Fast forward to the ‘90s, when computers appeared in classrooms everywhere and the Internet gained popularity as a research tool. Students have since opted for laptops to take with them to class and to study but although new models with better features are introduced each year, tablets may soon take laptops’ places on campus.

While doing group work in class recently, I noticed I was the only person in my group using a laptop while the other members were comparing the features of their tablets. After that day, I started paying more attention to the technologies people were using and I became aware of the fact that more and more college students are choosing tablets over laptops – or at least to supplement them.

Although many of the tablets currently on the market are expensive, people – even college students on limited budgets – are buying them. HP TouchPads, Samsung Galaxy Tabs, Motorola Xooms, the brand new Kindle Fire and, of course, iPads, are flying off of shelves and into the hands of college students. Why? They are smaller and weigh less than traditional laptops, can serve as eReaders for digital textbooks and are far more discreet when being transported in a backpack (or on your person).

Like all technology, the price of these tablets will go down with time once more tablets are competing in the market but do you think they will eventually replace laptops completely?

Jessica Seals is currently a senior at the University of Memphis majoring in political science and minoring in English. At the University of Memphis, she is the secretary of the Pre-Law Society, the philanthropy chair of the Phi Kappa Phi Student Council and a member of Professional Assertive United Sisters of Excellence (PAUSE), Golden Key Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Sigma Alpha Lambda Honor Society, and Black Scholars Unlimited. She also volunteers to tutor her fellow classmates and hopes to attend law school in the near future.

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