The day I turned off my cell phone

When I first found out that I had to try to go 24 hours without using any of the various types of technology that I use on a daily basis, all I could think was, "There's no way." Luckily for me, my parents had decided that for Thanksgiving we were going to drive up to our newly built house in West Virginia. The house is on twenty acres of land somewhere among the mountains of Hampshire County outside a town called Romney, and there is no land line phone, internet, or any sort of tv (cable of otherwise) there yet because it was just completed a few short weeks ago. I figured this would be the opportune time for me to give the assignment a try, and made sure to bring a couple books with me because I knew I would probably be doing nothing but reading.

When we first arrived, I turned off my cell phone (surprisingly I was the only one in my family who got service at the house...I guess it pays to be IN the network) and tried to psych myself up for a loooong day. I thought I had made it pretty easy for myself to succeed, but sadly that wasn't the case.

One of the first obstacles I encountered was the fact that (unbeknown to me) my brother had brought along his PS3 and an assortment of video games. After finding this out, I realized it has been silly of me to think that he wouldn't want to find a way to keep himself entertained for the couple of days we were going to be there. I decided that I would just stay away while he played and find somewhere to read quietly. Not a few minuted after I had settled down with my book, music started blasting from downstairs. The house is medium-sized, but the living room is completely open and the ceiling is essentially the inside of the roof. Basically, even when I was trying to seclude myself in a room upstairs, I could still hear everything that was going on throughout the rest of the house. Now, I know I could have rounded up my parents and brother and explained to them my assignment and asked them if they might try to help me out with sticking to what I was supposed to be doing, but instead I totally caved.

After about an hour of trying to ignore the music my dad was playing and the sounds of my brother playing NCAA football in the next room, I just said to myself "screw it" and went to play Need for Speed: Pro Street for a while. I know what you're thinking. That day in class when Joel Breton came as a guest speaker and asked everyone what their background in video games was I said that the only game I played was Guitar Hero. So big deal, I lied. For me, I think some of the only times I tend to play video games are when there is NOTHING else to do. In the end, the very reason why I thought it would be easier to deprive myself of technology (meaning the fact that my location made using the phone, internet, etc. almost impossible) became the reason why I gave up on the assignment. I just couldn't bring myself to sit and read for the entire time when I knew that there were other options for entertaining myself.

On the other hand, even thought I didn't make it, during the 24 hours I did end up doing a lot of other things that didn't involve playing video games. My brother and I built a bonfire outside the house by burning all the scraps of wood that the builders had left, and I eventually ended up finishing one of the books I had brought. I don't really want to put the blame on anyone besides myself, but I do think that had I been completely alone I would have done much better with avoiding the things I was supposed to be avoiding. Maybe if I hadn't thought so much about how awful it would be to go without all these things I would have realized that in reality it's not as hard as we all might say it is.

Oh, and just in case anyone was wondering, I didn't think about checking Facebook once during the 24 hours. For me, that's a success. When I did get home and check it, here's what I found.

Two Cultures - Television vs. Print

Camille Paglia, professor and author of many controversial media-related books and essays, and the late Neil Postman, chair of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at New York University, met to discuss their opposing perspectives on the age-old books versus television debate. Postman, an avid supporter of the book speaks nostalgically about a time when literacy and intellectuals were highly valued, while Paglia is in favor of the television and the significance images play in our daily lives.

Both professors made many excellent points, but I found myself at times a bit perplexed by the metaphors used by Paglia in her arguments. I found that I identified more with her perspective, but some of the things she said seemed less statistic-based than the information Postman brought to the table. Paglia is very up-front about the way television influences our lives. When Postman brings up the way that news reporters switch from a story about 5,000 people who died to an airline commercial, Paglia counters that there is no way we can extend our compassion to those people. It seems harsh, but not very far from what my thought process might be when watching the news. We are faced with so many pieces of information all at once that there is no longer any time to stop and get emotional over a particular news story. Paglia does not seem to show remorse for her opinionated views, she simply presents the harsh truth about the media within American culture today.

Postman's argument that television fosters a lack of emotion within us may be true, but, as Paglia says, "If you fully responded emotionally to every disaster you saw, you'd be a mess." I think that both Postman and Paglia are (obviously) totally biased in their views, and, as Paglia frequently mentions, it is due to their generational disconnect. I have a harder time relating to Postman because he grew up in the time before television. I can't imagine life without television, and although I enjoy reading and appreciate the value of the written word, I still think that television defines our culture as much as literature and intellectualism defined the Founding Fathers.