For campus students juggling lectures and hustles, the smartphone has become classroom, library and office — all in one pocket
By Purity Wambui
When people see students with their phones, they assume the worst. TikTok. WhatsApp. Endless scrolling. Parents reach the point of frustration: “You’re on that phone again!” What they rarely see is the fuller picture. For campus students across Kenya, the smartphone is not a distraction from work. It is the work.
One small device. Many big responsibilities.
The school day begins on the phone. Morning lectures on Google Meet and Zoom are accessed through links shared on WhatsApp group chats. Students in hostels and students back home in the village attend the same class, connected through the same screen.
After class, the phone stays busy. Assignments are typed on WPS Office, references searched on Google, concepts clarified through YouTube. Lecture notes arrive as PDFs. Screenshots fill the gallery — not selfies, but study material.
“I use my phone to record the lecturer when the network is poor,” says Ann Toniah Akothee, a fourth-year student. “At night I listen back and write my notes. My phone is my teacher.”
The hustle runs on the same device
Campus life is financially demanding. The Higher Education Loans Board disbursements are rarely on time, and parents do not always have enough to cover everything. So students supplement. Many run small businesses entirely through their phones.
“I post shoes on my WhatsApp Status every morning,” says Jackson Kituu, a fourth-year student. “Customers message me directly. The profit pays for data and food.”
Others have turned to online writing. Purity Ngusa, a third-year student, writes articles for clients and receives payment via M-Pesa.
“I write 500 words for KSh200 using my phone,” she says. “It covers my data and other essentials.”
Video editing on CapCut, graphic design on Canva, selling second-hand clothes on Facebook — all of it happens on the same handset that was used for the morning lecture. For these students, the phone is not a shop separate from the classroom. It is both, simultaneously.
What the phone makes possible
The advantages are real and tangible. Portability means the classroom travels everywhere — on a bus, in a queue, even in the fields. Financial independence, however modest, matters deeply. Students who earn from their hustles do not have to wait for a transfer to buy data or a meal.
The skills acquired along the way — video production, design, writing, customer management — are practical and marketable, often acquired faster through necessity than through any formal module.
The weight of working on a small screen
None of it is without cost.
Data bundles are the most persistent pressure point. They are expensive, they run out quickly, and the consequences of running out mid-session can be serious.
“Last week my data finished during a continuous assessment test,” says Fiona Wambui, a third-year student. “I missed ten marks because I could not submit in time.”
Storage is another constant battle. Phones with limited capacity fill up fast with downloaded notes and lecture recordings. Students delete personal photos to make room for academic files. Typing long assignments on a cracked screen, with a processor struggling under multiple open applications, is slow and physically tiring.
Then there is the challenge of focus. A customer message arrives during a lecture. A class link appears in the middle of a sale. A parent calls asking for help with chores while a student is mid-session.
“Put that phone down and come cook,” is a sentence most students know well.
TikTok and Instagram do not help. A quick Google search can vanish into an hour of unplanned viewing. The same tool that enables productivity enables distraction in equal measure.
Making it work regardless
Despite the pressures, students have found ways to adapt. Hotspots are shared when one person has data and another does not. Screenshots of notes are circulated through group chats. Informal support networks have formed around shared limitations.
The phone that confuses parents and frustrates lecturers is, for thousands of campus students, the most essential professional tool they own.
It is their classroom, their library and their source of income — fitting neatly into a pocket, and carrying rather more than most people imagine.
Purity Wambui is a third-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication at Chuka University.
