No smartphones allowed

Nieuws | de redactie

9 april 2015 | Kiyohito Yamasawa, the president of Shinshu University is waging war against the smartphone. At a speech for 2.000 new freshman at his college he told them to either ditch their smartphone or quit university. Smartphones are “nothing more than poison to intelligence, personality and creativity.”

At the start of the semester for a new cohort of students, Yamasawa urged them to “read books, talk with friends and make it a habit to think by yourself.” The words of the university president have gained attention in Japan as people think Yamasawa underestimates the influence of electronic devices in college education nowadays. 

In The Asahi Shimbun, an associate professor of Kwansei Gakuin University said that a university without the use of smartphones is unthinkable. ““As education facilities are aggressively introducing electronic whiteboards and PCs, smartphones tend to be subject to criticism. The stance of schools toward computerization embraces a contradiction.” 

A student of Shinshu University said that Yamasawa – who was previously engaged in developing mobile phones – should know better than simply banning electronic devices. ““The president must know well about both the merits and demerits of smartphones by himself,” the first-year student said. “It is inappropriate to force on students his idea that smartphones are just a bad thing.”