At the beginning of this semester, I really couldn’t conceive of ever needing an iPad – sure, I figured it would be nice to have, but beyond just needing something to blow extra money on, there didn’t seem to be much point.  And yet, I must admit that over the course of the last few months I’ve grown quite fond of the tablet.  What’s more, prior to this class I wasn’t all that interested in the news.  I think from outside a journalist’s or news junkie’s perspective, news tends to seem like a continuous report on everything that’s wrong with the world, just a giant negative spin cycle on society – or, as my dad fondly refers to the nightly news, “our daily death and destruction count.”  Having the iPads in class not only transformed my opinion of tablet computers, but of journalism in general.  The tablets present the news in such a streamlined and easy-to-use manner, it’s hard not to get attached.  I find myself pulling it out between nearly every class (and sometimes in class – hey, it’s not my fault Theo lectures get dull…) to check Twitter, Flipboard, NPR, or whatever.  And by being more or less forced to actively engage with the news, I’ve actually grown more interested in it.  I believe it was Schudson who wrote about the feeling of ‘connectedness’ people get from partaking in the news, and I can’t deny that I’ve experienced some of that, probably in part because of the iPad – if nothing else, keeping up on current events makes for more interesting conversations with people in daily situations.  At this point, I can’t deny the value in owning an iPad, but I’m still not really inclined to spend my own money on one; they’re still pretty expensive, and I think I could probably get more bang for my buck on something else, or donate some of it to a worthy cause (say, helping get radiators for needy Norwegians).  So it looks like I’ll be saying goodbye to my iPad for now…then again, Santa will be here in only three weeks…