Back to School with Technology: Then and Now

Back to School with Technology

This post is sponsored by Xfinity. All opinions expressed are my own.

It’s back to school time and I can’t help but think of the differences between when I went off to college as a freshman vs. a freshman heading off to college today.

Internet: Then and Now

For starters – and excuse me for dating myself – when I went to college there was no internet. At least not one that was publicly available like it is today. And don’t even think about talking about wireless devices or WiFi.

Today, every student has their own smartphone and likely an additional laptop or tablet. All wireless, all fully internet accessible. The only challenge incoming students have today is figuring out how and where to connect to the internet.

With Xfinity Internet service, this isn’t really a challenge at all. Have you ever seen those “xfinitywifi” hotspots popping up on your wireless devices? Those are free WiFi hotspots for Xfinity Internet customers. There are literally millions of them scattered across the U.S., and as long as you have an active Xfinity Internet service, you can connect to them for free. Even better, once you connect one time to the xfinitywifi network, your mobile device will auto connect to each new xfinitywifi network you come in range of.

Plus, since we all know that college students aren’t exactly rolling in the dough, these Xfinity hotspots can help reduce the amount of data you use on your smartphone, which can save you money if you have a limited mobile data plan.

Television: Then and Now

Flash back to my college years again. If you wanted to watch television in the dorms, there was one television in the common room, and whoever got to it first controlled what everyone watched. Oh, you could try to put a television in your dorm room, but you had to contend with rabbit ear reception in a building made entire of concrete blocks.

Fast forward to today and many college campuses including Oakland University, Wayne State University, Indiana University – Bloomington, Indiana Institute of Tech, IPFW (Fort Wayne) and IUPUI just to name a few near me, provide Xfinity On Campus as a value-add to students living in the dorms. Xfinity on Campus gives students access to more channels than traditional bulk services.

Oh, and that bit about fighting over the one television in the common room? Not a problem anymore because with the Xfinity Stream app, students can watch the Xfinity On Campus programming, including live TV, sports and more, in their own rooms on their mobile devices. Take that, Mr. Early Bird Gets the Worm guy!

Off Campus: Then and Now

Like I said earlier, there was no internet back in my college days, so I got along without. But I did have cable television and a VCR in my off-campus apartment. And yes, we still fought over who controlled the remote!

These days, you can easily get your own Xfinity services for both internet and television and do everything I mentioned above. Just remember to get your studying done first!

For more information on Xfinity, visit the Xfinity website.