The Best Tech For A College Night Out

So, you’ve moved away to College, living that dorm life and (hopefully) getting ready to go out and have fun in the local town, its bars and clubs.

The last thing on your mind right now is going to be technology, I know it and you know it. The thing is, there is plenty of tech that can be slipped into a pocket or handbag that might improve your overall night out in ways you didn’t even expect!

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Ok, this one is pretty standard as its probably the case that everyone reading this article owns a smartphone and has been taking it out with them for years already – but let’s talk about some of the different features and apps that make it ideal for toting along to a night out.

First, you have the camera, and pretty much everyone is going to know the bonuses of having this in a club – lets you capture moments, memories, and more that might otherwise be forgotten come the morning due to alcohol-related events having taken place.

It might be worth learning the best way to shoot pictures and video on your camera properly, just so that when the time comes to actually use your camera on a night out you don’t lose the picture due to blurry shots, wobbly footage or missing out on the perfect picture because you didn’t know how to best utilize your phones different camera modes.

And obviously, once the photo is taken you are going to want to share it with your friends and family via all the different social media apps out there – but answer me this. Have you ever been out with your friends, drinking, having a good time, posted something online or sent a message to the one person that you shouldn’t have sent a message to, and then immediately regretted it the next day?

I know that a lot of people reading this, and a good percentage of the person writing it has (though they would never fully admit it), so consider downloading an app that restricts your use of your phone until a pre-decided time. Something like Offtime, or Moment could help save you from posting embarrassing pictures, sending regrettable messages, or even just wasting your time staring at your phone when you should be living in the moment. These apps will still let you access whichever other apps you deem necessary – google maps, your phone, your camera, Uber, and so on, but they can save you from yourself whilst you are on a night on the town!

Speaking of Google Maps, you can only really use this staple of directions if you know where you are going, and if you are new to a college town or city and want to know where the best nightlife (or day life, whatever you enjoy) is to be had, then you are going to need some help finding it. Enter Foursquare.

Foursquare is a free app for iOS and Android that really does work as one of the best apps for a night out. Basically, a global community uses the app to rate and review different locations in your area, so you can find exactly what you need before you even leave your dorm. Couple that with Bar Chick, an app that gives you recommendations on where to go in your local area based on your criteria input, and you are never going to be short of ideas on where to go for your night out thanks to these apps.

Then, you have to consider that like most College students out there, you might not have that much funding to bankroll your nights out on the town. So, you might want to download yourself an app like Price Per Pint – it’s a great app that shows you all of the bars around you, and the prices of your favorite beers inside them. You can check out what’s available and plan your night on a budget if that’s what you want to do.

Alternatively, you could look into the likes of Happy Hour Finder – this is an app that maps out all of the different happy hours in bars around your areas, the offers you can expect, and when you can expect to find them. Combine it with the Price Per Pint app, and you are well on your way to enjoying a night out at a much lower cost than an unplanned one.

The thing is, when it comes to using your smartphone on a night out, you can quickly find yourself losing battery fast due to having location-based settings turned on, using your camera, messaging to catch up with friends – there are lots of different battery draining apps that you can be used at any one point on a night out.

So, make sure that you aren’t stuck stranded, out of communication options, or lost by investing in a portable charger.

Now, when it comes to portable chargers you need to make sure that you are purchasing something that is going to be reliable, reusable and compact enough that it isn’t going to be a nuisance to take around with you on the night out itself, and with all that in mind, I can heartily recommend Anker’s selection of different portable chargers as a great way to make sure that you have enough juice to use your phone at any part of the night.

Depending on the model you pick you aren’t going to have to sacrifice that much space at all and providing that you have a cable with you it will be easy to get yourself a full charge off of this portable charger at any point in the night provided the charger itself is topped up.

It might sound like a silly accessory to bring with you, but they have proven invaluable to me in the past when it gets to the end of a night out and you need your phone ready to go so that you can get your friends together, and get into that all-important Uber.

Whilst it’s true that there isn’t a lot of important tech you can lug around with you on a night out, there are certain pieces of kit that might have a long-lasting effect not just on your health, but your mental wellbeing too – enter the Flare Calmer Earplugs.

Don’t skip this section because I said earplugs though, I promise this isn’t the ramblings of an old person about loud music. The value of noise-canceling earplugs on a night out is pretty damn high; firstly, you are going to be able to enjoy the music in the club without white noise and other unwanted frequencies piercing your eardrums. This is because the Flare earplugs eliminate unwanted distortion in your immediate feel, which they claim reduces ear fatigue, noise-induced headaches, and overall stress levels. Perfect if you’re in a club with non-stop wooing attendees.

Then we get to the long term health benefits – experts have been advising for years that people should be wearing earplugs when they are in environments that have louder than average sound levels – you see it all the time on building sites, in professional musicians and those who work with loud, heavy machinery, so if a club is loud it stands to reason the same rules apply.

And, despite what you might think, these earplugs aren’t designed to drown out all sound – only lower it to a safe level whilst eliminating annoying distortion frequencies. Basically, what these earplugs do is keep your audible health higher, for longer, lowering your risk of hearing difficulties in the long term which will allow you to enjoy the music you love far into the future, right into your old age.

Added bonus to buying these earplugs for a night out; you can use them again in the library or dorm room when you need to be getting work done, and the drone of everyone else around you is becoming too much! Basically, they are a lifesaver for your hearing, and your sanity when you need peace and quiet.

Whilst we are on the subject of health, let’s talk about the health benefits of a night out. Now, that list might be short (especially if we add drinking and eating out into the mix), but at least two of the benefits include socializing and of course, dancing -it’s a viable source of exercise.

So, if you are watching your health and want to see just how much a night out dancing can impact your overall workout regimen then maybe a Fitbit is the way to go. It can chart your heart rate, the amount of calories you are burning and how on track you are to meet your performance goals for the day.

It might not be the stylistic accessory you dreamed of, but if you are struggling to find different forms of exercise that you enjoy, and often find that you enjoy going out into town and dancing more than anything else, it could be a decent, sustainable way to keep up on your exercise.

As for the perfect tech to take on a night out, that just about wraps up the main things we can think of to take along with you – we add any more to the list and it’s going to be a trouble getting them to fit into your pocket or bag to take around with you.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for different bits of tech that people should consider taking with them for a great College night out, then let us know in the comments below – if they are good, we will even add them to the article as well!