It was chaos.

Students arose in the morning to find something was missing. Not just an ordinary thing like a backpack or a textbook, but something that connected the students with the rest of the world.

Cell phones disappeared. Not just one. All of them.

Inexplicably, our technological babies went missing.

At first, there was no communication because of it. Campus came to a halt.

Most were late to school. Many never left their beds. Others hopelessly walked around lost, dialing fake digits in the air.

The students who did make it to class found themselves confused and angry.

Female students cried because they couldn’t get their Chocolate fix for the day. Male students felt alone without their Sidekicks. Even the professors could Alltel something was amiss.

Class began with silence. Not even the sound of texting buttons could be heard. Without their cell phones to distract them, the students were actually paying attention to the lectures.

Amazingly, something incredible occurred. Instead of playing Angry Birds and other games on their cell phones, students engaged in academic discussions. Healthy debate ensued and seminars went off without a hitch.

Poor recordings of popular hip-hop songs didn’t interrupt professors. Vibrations never shook the bags of students. The only digging in backpacks was for pencils.

Despite an initial utter confusion, mostly everyone settled in.

The best type of cell phone etiquette struck campus: No phone at all.

The loss of cell phones meant students were encouraged to congregate with each other on a personal level.

At the end of the day, many students said the loss of cell phones created an improvement in campus atmosphere.

Walks down the malls of campus changed. People looked each other in the eye and smiled, as if to say hello. Some exchanges included a greeting, despite the two people have never met before.

A vibrant campus overrun with interpersonal relations where an exchange of ideas occurred like never seen before.

Students talked about real-world issues in mass congregation because none of them could call for rides home. A dialogue continued into the night with discussions of politics, sociology and philosophy.

No one was ever interrupted by a cell phone.

Eventually, the students made their way back to their homes, and most even forgot they had been without their phone for a day.

The students reflected on the day before heading to bed. It had been nice to be without their cell phones. They weren’t necessary in an academic environment.

Then, the students fell asleep.

They woke up the next morning to find their phones had returned.

Simultaneously, their phones all rang. And, as if in unison, despite better intentions, every single student answered the call.

The distraction was back.

-Ty Thompson is an creative writing graduate student. Call him at … just kidding … Reach him at cosythews@yahoo.com

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec.