I have just begun my semester as sophomore at an American college, and one difference that has surprised me the most is the overwhelming presence of laptops in my classes.

My professors in Italy strictly prohibited laptops in class, and even the visiting professors from my school in New York did not allow them. Personally, I never even attempted to bring a laptop to class because I know full well I will end up online shoe shopping or scrolling through New York Fashion Week news.

This is natural computer behavior though, and oftentimes, people have many tabs open looking at a million things, but, this is just distracting during a class. If you're surfing the web, then you are most certainly not paying attention to the lecture your teacher is giving in front of you about the federal poverty line in the United States.

To all the kids sitting on their laptops in class this semester:

1. You're wasting your own time

Why even show up to class if you're just going to text on your laptop for an hour and a half? Wouldn't your time be better spent skipping completely and studying or doing homework in the library?

I honestly can't fathom why you would sit in a room just to chat about what happened at the bar last night rather than your own comfy bed. Unless you're going to sit in class and participate and learn, why go at all?

If you have taken an economics course, then you know that the opportunity cost in this situation would be your time better spent hitting the books, but in the meantime, you also pay tuition to attend that lecture class.

2. You're wasting tuition

I think the most insulting part of people who sit in class and text on their laptops is the fact that they are either wasting 1. their parent's hard-earned money, or 2. they are wasting thousands of dollars worth of scholarship money that the school could have given to someone who actually cares enough to pay in class and take notes.

There really is no point in paying $200 a week for lectures which you sit through on Facebook, refreshing your email, or messaging.

This scenario is also ten times worse when it pertains to athletes or international students who receive questionable amounts in athletic and merit scholarships, because if you're truly at a university based on your GPA, then I find it hard to believe it was earned by pure intelligence when you sit through every class on Pinterest (@ the Financial Aid Office, you should look into this).

3. You're wasting your professor's time

While I understand there really is no thrill to learning accounting or the functions of plant cells versus animal cells for the thousandth time, it's just flat out insulting to sit in the front row of class and text the entire time.

I can tell you that I witness the same person in a certain class sit in the front row each time and not listen to a word the professor is saying, even with a highly intelligent professor and interesting lecture topic. Why did you even take this class?

4. You are a distraction to everyone else

@ the person in the front row again, I don't appreciate you furiously typing away when we are listening and participating in a lecture. The notes are always online anyway, so does the professor not suspect something, or do they just not care?

I also find it ironic that this person is one of two people I have seen bring a laptop to class, and the other person sits in the back, where no one can creep on the glow of the screen. Please move or put your group chat away.

5. Your grade will suffer

Unless you're conducting some shady business, there's no way you can completely comprehend and contribute to the class while ignoring all of the lessons.

In a lecture- and essay-based class that is only an hour and fifteen minutes anyway, is it really that difficult to answer your group chat after? Your GPA will thank you if you take notes on a legal pad in cursive instead (yes, that's right, cursive helps you retain more of the information you write down).