Driscoll Catholic, a microcosm of humanity itself, exemplifies common social norms, and the attitudes possessed by the plurality of 21st century citizens. Today, the pace of daily life could be measured in gigahertz; people race through their days, electronically managing their relationships with hardly a friendly wave or nod to current events, but instead focus on contemporary fads.

On the current January agenda at Driscoll, Bishop J. Peter Sartain is scheduled to celebrate a liturgy Jan. 31 in honor of Catholic Schools Week. Also being held that week, a food drive for Humanitarian Service Projects will be performed in our spirit of service. In continuation of the Highlander traditions of excellence, seniors Maggie Writt and Lauren White were recently named to The Daily Herald’s 2007-2008 Leadership Team. Extra curricular activities are also in full swing around campus. Young actors, singers and dancers were recently cast in the upcoming spring musical, “West Side Story,” hitting the stage from March 12-March 15. Winter sports are in mid- season form, with the Lady Highlander varsity basketball team off to one of their best starts ever, opening with a 14-2 record and the Willowbrook Thanksgiving Tournament championship. With the myriad of these highly anticipated events flooding the Driscoll Catholic campus this semester, one would think that these events would be the prominent themes in most face-to-face conversations, but that notion may just be wishful thinking.

In the “real world,” The New York Times recently christened Apple’s iPhone “The Invention of the Year 2007,” simply stating that this gadget is… “Not a phone, it’s a platform. It’s a genuine handheld, walk-around computer, the first device that really deserves the name.” Lev Grossman, staff writer for The Times posed one very true, yet controversial statement in writing, “One of the big trends of 2007 was the idea that computing doesn’t belong just in cyberspace, it needs to happen here, in the real world, where actual stuff happens.”

Of course, members of today’s society want to have these brand new toys and play with them too, and the Driscoll community is no exception. Talk of the iPhone and other “time-saving” apparatuses like, the T-Mobile’s Sidekick LX, have swept through the halls, becoming topics of many e-mails, texts and phone conversations amongst Highlanders.

Driscoll Catholic students, like many of their peers, feel that developing technology allows them to more easily build relationships. The issue at hand, however, is the quality of those relationships and the role that cell phones, instant messaging and web portals, like Myspace, play in the networking of communication between teens.

“Texting saves a lot of time and allows you to say things that you would have a hard time saying to that person’s face,” explained junior Kelly Weber in a recent survey.

Furthermore, in another recent student survey conducted at Driscoll Catholic, 100 percent of the students polled claimed that text messaging was their primary means of communication.

Generation X is undeniably the most technologically advanced group that has ever roamed the Earth. Previous generations, like the Baby Boomers, seem to be stunned with the continual advancement of expertise in the field. Susan Labaschin, who holds a doctorate in the field of communication and is chairperson of the English department at Driscoll, defines the generation gap as “just fascinating!”

“My mother opens her e-mail once a week, whereas I and other members of my era look at ours constantly! For my children and students, e-mail is too slow; they have text messages. I just can’t help but wonder where my grandchildren will be technologically.”

“But thanks in large part to the Internet, this generation [Y] is much more aware of the world,” added Sharon Jayson of the USA Today, in a human resources article.

She continued, “61 percent of 13- to 25-year-olds feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world, suggests a survey of 1,800 young people.”

With a fine education, like that received at Driscoll Catholic, genuine human interaction and a bit of old fashioned brain power, true individuality and depth can quite possibly be restored to the human soul and the way we relate to each other.