"The Smell of Success"

After being asked to go 24 hours with no electronic media, I honestly didn’t think it was going to be as hard as people were making it seem. Reading “The Longest Day,” by Danna L. Walker, made me realize that there are plenty of things to do that doesn’t involve electronic media and that these students were simply over-reacting. I planned to start my 24 hours on Wednesday November 21st. I wanted to stay up real late on Tuesday night so I would be able to sleep as late as possible. When the clock struck 12:00, I turned off my television and my phone. I saved all my reading assignments for the 24 hour period, so I began to read for one of my classes. After a few hours passed, I tossed and turned until I finally fell asleep. Falling asleep with no Television was far from pleasurable.

I woke up at 12:30, ate lunch, and began my drive home. Sitting in the car for 45minutes with no radio was mind-numbing. Watching people sing along to the radio tempted me to turn mine on, but luckily I continued to concentrate on my driving. I got home, opened my front door and realized the television was on. I plugged my ears and screamed to turn it off. I began to tell my mom about the assignment. She proceeded to tell me that she knows she wouldn’t be able to do it and didn’t think there were many people that could. What she said made me even more determined. I went straight up to my room and continued to read. By 6:00, I was so bored I didn’t know what to do with myself. My whole family was downstairs, watching television, so I had to stay upstairs and be anti-social. The only way I would come down is if they turned the television and the music off. Thankfully they did.

To make a long story short, I was extremely irritable all day because I was constantly listening to myself think. If anything, the silence is what made the 24 hours so dreadful. In conclusion, I leaned a lot from this experiment. Even though I found it difficult to follow through with the requirements, it was easier when I was by myself rather then when there were people around me. This proves exactly how much our society is caught up with electronic media. It seemed that everywhere I went I was haunted by some form of media. I couldn’t go anywhere because music plays in the background of almost every shopping mall, grocery store and gym. I had to stay home and rely on my family to deprive themselves as well as entertain me. My 24 hours of no electronic media was dreading, yet successful. I need to be honest, the minute the clock struck 12:00, I turned on any and all forms of electronic media I could find

Couch Potato v.s. Book Nerd

The authors, Neil Postman and Camielle Paglia argue the advantages between print and television. Postman states, “Television lacks emotion.” In television you view the emotion the character is feeling while books describe the emotion. I think it is easier to interpret how a person is feeling by reading it rather than watching it on television. The book describes how the character is feeling in explicit detail. Postman states that reading teaches us to reason. Reading, unlike television, gives the reader the opportunity to use their imagination and re-read a section in order to get a full understanding of what the author is trying to describe.


Postman states that reading teaches children to sit still. In other words, since people aren’t born with the ability to read, it must be taught and once it is taught, it has the power to educate. Paglia and Postman agree that literate people, such as teachers and writers are not as physically active as others. Even though the two authors agree, in order to be fully engaged, both television and reading requires you to sit. Postman argues that the written word is a symbol system. Even though the written word lacks images, a scenario explained in a book is often imagined in one’s mind. The negative images people see on television often causes them to misunderstand what is actually happening. Reading a text can easily be understood by simply re-reading it. I agree with postman that entertainment images should be replaced with important written content.