Hahaha, I agree. I think alot of people or maybe their parents are convinced that a laptop is the answer to all problems and is necessary. Even worse, colleges that mandate that you buy their crappy laptops. Or even more worse, young kids in elementary school, or hell the laptop for every child crap, but that's another story. When most of the kids just use IM, Facebook, and Myspace all class period on their oh so helpful laptops, which are totally unnecessary in just about every class (yeah, I need my laptop in math).
I absolutely never needed a laptop in college. Obviously, there is tons of computer labs for doing what the class requires. Sure, a lot of people want one instead of a desktop, and that is fine as they are great for some people who need that functionality, but it doesn't magically solve any problem. I actually just hate the keyboards and the trackpads.