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
3 comments:
I can totally relate to the "falling asleep with the TV off" thing. I can hardly ever fall asleep without the TV off and for this assignment I absolutely hated it! I could barely go to sleep! And I had the same issues, I felt trapped with my family, who also were not helping me with my project, until I forced them to. Its like everywhere you go these days, music, television, everything is around us blaring and taunting us to use media. If nothing else this assignment defintely taught all of us how badly our society is overwhelmed by tons of electronic media and it is only going to get worse or some consider "better" by the years to come. I would like to see kids from class of 2020 try this experiment, it will most likely be impossible.
I totally relate to the silence thing. It was surprisingly noticable all the time. It was almost like it was there to remind you of how bored you were. And I also felt like whereever I went I was being taunted by people using their cellphones or watching tv. It was so much more noticeable as a sort of outsider. It definitely makes you think about how dependent you are upon media. Yet, it is so comfprting when you can finally use it again.
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