24

Twenty-four hours without media; a terrifying thought. However, I almost succeeded in the assignment. Circumstance allowed me to use previous engagements to eliminate most of that time, during which I was not allowed to enjoy the luxuries of media anyway. An invaluable tool to today’s society, cell phones, the Internet and TV keep us connected. Without them, we are alone.

Last weekend I spent four days in Chicago for the American Model United Nations (AMUN) conference. The annual conference hosts over two thousand students and is debatably a big deal. Not only that, the times that you are required to be in session are grueling. From 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (with hour breaks for meals), for three days, I sat in a room with delegates representing a host of countries debating world issues. During these simulations, under AMUN rules, I was not allowed to use my laptop, much less listen to my Ipod or the radio. Knowing this I set about making my 24-hour media fast a little easier. On Sunday, November 21^st, 2010, I left media behind.

At 7:30 a.m. I woke up, turned my alarm off, put my cell phone in a drawer, and started my stopwatch. From that moment on, I was to be media-free. Because I was in conference and had I left my cell phone in my room, I couldn’t fail even if I wanted to. During those thirteen and a half hours, the only withdrawal symptom was fleeting anxiety. I hoped no one was trying to contact me, that nothing had happened. I felt completely isolated from everyone except those in the room with me. However unnerving this was, the time passed quickly and distractions from the committee made me think less and less about it.

Ten O’clock finally rolled around. Without a phone to contact my friends I turned to Jesse, my partner, to get a hold of them for me. I am unsure whether this is a loophole or if I am cheating. Hindsight is 20/20 but at the time I thought it was okay. Once Jesse had rallied the troops we set out for a night of partying. During which there was much more to focus on than TV (girls, drinks, friends.) We stayed in the hotel instead of going to a bar or club, so TVs and music weren’t an issue either. Once in the hotel room where this gathering was happening, someone grabbed the remote for the TV. I tackled him, removed the remote, and successfully avoided failing, while providing amusement for those in the room.

At around 2 a.m. I retreated to my own hotel room to sleep. I started my nightly routine getting ready for bed (shearing off my clothes and landing face first into my pillow). I then proceeded to set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. After I did I realized my mistake; I set the alarm on my cell phone. Ready to scream and completely disappointed I sat and thought about how much I rely on that little device. It tells me who is doing what (via twitter and text), allows me to contact nearly anyone whenever I want, and even tells me when to wake up every morning. Even with conference and the debatable cheating I was unable to last 24-hours without media. I had failed.

From the beginning I knew it would be nearly impossible to stay away from media for twenty-four hours, especially without having something else to keep me occupied. If I hadn’t used AMUN as a crutch for success, I doubt I would have lasted an hour. It seems the question is the same one we have been discussing all semester; is our reliance on technology good or bad. I will stick by my argument and say it is only a tool. The way we use technology can be good or bad, but it is our responsibility to decide just that.

Take my failure; setting my alarm on my cell phone. Why is this bad? I use my cell phone because I can set a multitude of alarms, use different ring tones, and take it anywhere. I don’t have to worry about calling down for a wake up call, or using the provided alarm clock radio in the room. Many times I have tried and failed getting up because those devices aren’t familiar to me. My cell phone, however, is consistent. I can rely on it to get me up on time. It is a tool. To ask us to spend twenty-four hours without a tool we use the most is like asking someone to build a house without a hammer. Technology keeps us informed, entertained and moving down the path we want. Whether that path be a news junkie or a TV slug is up to the user, not the media.

“The medium is the message,” Federman reminds us. The programming isn’t the point. It is the social changes we see as an effect of the introduction of the technology. Because we rely on media so much, our social circles have shifted, our activity level has lowered, and we are more prone to entertainment then information. We know a little about a lot, instead of a lot about a little. These changes are too recent to fully understand the consequences, for better or for worse. What is not debated is the fact that media is an integral part of life for the majority of this country’s population.

Moreover according to Walker my generation is full of, “savvy, articulate, emotionally attached and educated consumers of electronic media.” Though we are consistently bombarded with media and advertising, because we grew up with it, we see through it, “millennials don't actually think much about it.” This is an invaluable point. We can swim through the mess of information to get where we are going, something I believe a lot of scholars (read: old people) miss. They are not indoctrinated into media as we are. My generation has always had (as far as remembering is important) the Internet, television, and when we came of age to own a cell phone is right when they came out, so we had those too. We are test group A, and it is far too soon to say whether our reliance on technology and media is negative or positive, only that our experience has been vastly different than our parents. Our patterns of social interaction and daily living have little in common, on a surface examination, with the patterns of our elders. Change is rarely welcomed, fear runs rampant through our society and this is just another rash of it.

‘Build a house without a hammer, because hammers make it easier to bruise your thumb.’ Technology is a tool. It makes society more productive, more immediate and more connected. I can’t live without it, neither can most people, so what? We are using a newly available tool to its greatest extent, consistently finding new ways to do so. Through which we seek improve our society and ourselves. Fear is always associated with change, sometimes rightly so, but sometimes not. We need to not jump to conclusions and watch as technology continues, like it has in the past, to dictate how we move forward as a society and a species.

Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? Retrieved from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/MeaningTheMediumistheMessage.pdf.

Walker, Danna. "The Longest Day." The Washington Post 5 Aug. 2007 Page 2.