If you are one of the few non-Luddite members of the WashU community, you own a cell phone. It’s in your pocket or your backpack, easily within reach, if not already in your furiously texting hand.

In the media today we all hear a great deal about the perils of modern technology. We now can be addicted to the Internet, Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the already existent perils like television, alcohol and drugs.

It’s one thing to become irate when you’re trying to drive to campus when the knucklehead in front of you sits at a green light because they’re blabbing on the phone. What about when you’re walking around campus and the person you’re holding a door for won’t hurry up because they’re also on the phone checking something on Facebook.

There was a day, not long ago, when students could keep in touch with their parents only via landline telephone and written correspondence. Current technology has enabled Washington University students to keep in touch with their families in a multitude of new ways.

Washington University will begin the installation of an interior cellular reception system within the Danforth University Center this week, hoping to alleviate network problems cited by many students.