Speaker at Front of Class Distracting Students from Smartphones

EVANSTON, IL – According to sources from Northwestern University, students in a Biology 218 lecture were unable to concentrate on their smartphones when a well-dressed man began to show a PowerPoint presentation, write on the chalkboard, and speak in a loud projecting voice at the front of the lecture hall. The distracting exhibition reportedly continued for 50 minutes, creating an environment where those in the room experienced difficulty focusing on returning text messages and browsing Facebook, among other pressing activities.

“Honestly it was pretty rude,” commented one McCormick sophomore. “Here I am trying to pay attention to my trivia questions and this guy starts talking about molecules and cell membranes. And he’s not even being quiet about it; he’s literally trying to get the whole room to listen to him. It was obnoxious.”

Further investigation has found that this is not the first occurrence of Northwestern students being distracted from their phones by a disruptive presenter at the front of the classroom. Individual reports have confirmed cases of this phenomenon having taken place in low-level physics classes, economics lectures and literature discussion sections, among others. It has been speculated that this type of incident is actually greatly underreported, as many students have become fantastically adept at simply tuning these interruptions out.