With the recent addition of CyRide’s NextBus service, Ames’ public transit system has made a great leap forward. Now, by sending a text message, calling a telephone number, or by navigating the Internet with a smartphone, patrons of CyRide can find out how much time (approximately) they will have to wait for another bus to come by. Launched last week, the service is already popular.

The NextBus technology capitalizes on the prevalent amenities that go along with living in the year 2013. Nearly every student has a cell phone. A good many of those have smartphones. The new service connects users to a highly presentable form of the information contained within the time tables available on all CyRide buses.

It is a dangerous line, however, between convenience and necessity. It may seem hysterical or irrational to suggest that having such a convenient way of accessing bus schedule information could lead us into a kind of intellectual trap where we lose the ability to read maps and patiently wait when a bus doesn’t appear, but consider the effects of unthinkingly using other technological advances.

How many of us have caught ourselves using the shorthand that appears in text messages — “lol,” “omg,” “g2g” and such — in everyday conversation?

How many of us don’t write in cursive because, using computers to type so often, we forget what it looks like? How many of us think that cursive is sloppy handwriting simply because, unaccustomed to reading it past the great learning experience of third grade, we are unfamiliar with it?

How many of us have no idea what a dark room is because photography is now a matter of using a device with electronic sensors rather than film that has to be submerged in a chemical solution?

How many of us think it’s difficult to read an analog clock because the digital display of numerals on phones and computer screens is so much more convenient?

You get the idea.

There is a lot to be said for being able to unfold a CyRide map, find the route you want to use, the day you want to use it, the stops where you want to board and disembark, and successfully getting from Point A to Point B on time. Indeed, learning how to do all that is a rite of passage into a more independent life. CyRide is a well regulated, regimented public transportation system. The people in charge of CyRide have made the proverbial trains run on time. Situations where a bus doesn’t materialize or gets woefully behind and isn’t supplemented by another are very rare.

Although the NextBus service is certainly convenient (and we’ll probably end up using it every now and then), we have to wonder how long it will be before future student bodies think of it as necessary rather than handy.

College should be a time of learning independence, of making mistakes and correcting them. Ames isn’t very big. It’s not scary, and the people are friendly. Call your mom, go to class, ride the bus, and accept the possibility that you’ll get lost. Everyone does. The good thing about getting lost, though, is that it’s when you’re lost that you have an opportunity to find yourself.

Confronted with the pressures of balancing class, work, activities, and relationships, the greatest of a college student’s vices might be his or her attachment to devices.