Illustration by Ben Ashin

Over 20 years ago, cultural analyst, Ali G, questioned the benefit of technological advancement and in 2025, I find myself doing the same. We watch the most basic things become modernised, streamlined and upgraded, including the written register, which is now ‘SEAtS’, the app used to register student attendance. 

“Allows difficult attendance anywhere.” 

According to the SEAtS website, it is “simple” and “allows easy attendance anywhere”; however, in my experience, it is inflexible, unreliable, and easy to forget. In every one of my classes, we have taken a paper register because SEAtS cannot adapt to room changes. I always need to be prompted to sign in, and sometimes, when I actually remember to sign in, my phone cannot connect to the seats system.  

Causing us to lose more than our temper?  

More importantly, the passing of the register is a chance for connection. Call me intimacy-starved, but I think so many of these modern improvements are at the cost of communion. Passing the register and meeting someone’s eyes with a smile is a thing of the past. SEAtS denies us the opportunity to engage with one another, and that is pretty wack, innit.