this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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Because your enrollment in a class is not without consequence. If you are doing poorly due to being distracted by your phone, you are creating harm for other students and the lecturer/professor. Thinking that you are free to behave however you wish just because you are the customer is an extremely consumer-minded Karen-esque mindset.
How are you harming the other people in the class? I'm assuming here that you're being reasonably discrete, have the volume off (or have ear buds in), etc. You not paying attention doesn't really harm anyone else.
Taking a seat in a full class to fuck around on your phone could fit that bill. Someone else might have wanted to be in your seat. In this scenario, your actions in that class could have repercussions beyond just the classroom.
Think of it this way .. if you sign up at a karate dojo, there are a ton of rules and norms you'll need to follow. And those rules and norms will be very different dojo to dojo. That's an understood expectation. It's similar to college. The professor is empowered to dictate the structure and norms of their course.
And sure... The professor will dictate their expectations on day 1. If you don't like the structure, you have 2 weeks to change the course with no penalty.
Lower class participation, impact on grading curves, and distracting behavior all have an effect on others.
The second would be a net benefit on the rest of the class, no?
No, I don’t think being assessed relative to subpar students is a benefit. You’d get a better letter grade, sure. But likely a worse education due to “lowering the bar”, which is what you paid for. Educators often can’t grade on absolute scales because the pass/fail ratio of the students factors into their own performance assessment.
Grades don't indicate the quality of your education anyway, they indicate your performance in a class. If someone else does poorly and that benefits your grade, the quality of your education hasn't changed, only your grade.