No technology, what a trip.

So the question was posed, could actually real life college students go a full 24 hours without using any of their precious technology? While the question seemed sorta silly to some as they asked if this really was a joke while others dreaded the thought of not being able to use their radio, ipods, laptops and other trendy items for the many hours that stretched ahead. So we all seem to laugh at it and go on our merry ways, not really thinking about how things might go down.

While some of us did stick it out for the 24 hours and I am sure a few of us maybe kinda cheated a bit (I wouldn’t blame those who did) and then some of us just gave in and I hate to tell you folks but:

I gave in.

Yep, you heard it right here from the horses mouth. I gave in to the temptation of media yet there are good reasons why I gave in. As my friends, lovingly I will assume, joke that they would text me every 10 mins just to say hi and taunt me with their use of the phone and while my parents joked and gave little support about going a full 24 hours and saying I could not do it (thanks mum and dad, maybe that’s why I failed!) did not make me feel weak in any way about giving in to the media and while they said that they could go the full 24 hours and would enjoy every moment of it, the whole thing did make me notice something.


I believe even if I had tried fully and was as devoted to any media outlet sources and much as they believe I am, I still would have given in. For those who didn’t give in then good luck sister and brothers but for me? I truly believe because media is such an important thing to us and in our lives that many people if presented with this challenge would have given in. Technology has become such a major part of my life and the lives of those in our generation that there is no truly escaping it. I tried to deeply keep myself disconnected from technology including any glimpses of it, any sounds of it, as if we were living in the days and times before all of these things were around. Yet there was no true escape from it, I could not stay at my own home for the son of my boyfriend was coming over and since the house is only one level and I did enjoy how I coined the term, Nathan really is “a child of technology.” While only being 7 some of his favorite hobbies are watching t.v., playing video games, and soon to be the computer as they bought him his own little mock version of a laptop. So I could not stay there so I went over my parents. The only place that did allow escape from the technology of today was my old room in all it’s dark no t.v., no radio, no nothing but boxes glory which left me feeling empty and alone.


Which again made me to think. Without these technologies or the very easy access of picking up my phone I felt completely alone and almost exposed. I worried what events were going on without me or things happening without my knowledge. It was almost frightening to feel like I was alienated from the complete world. This had happen to me before I had happen to misplace my cell phone and felt like a loony person for feel so alone that it was driving me crazy. I can do without the t.v. for I hardly, almost never watch it and while the computer is something I am defiantly in love with would be hard, and music being the biggest strain not to enjoy it is this lack of connection and communication that left the biggest and most terrible taste in my mouth. It was the complete and utter lack of feeling like I was connect to other people and my friends.
That is why I also believe that families were much stronger in those days before the telephone and radio. While needing extra labor force these families seem to be connected by a stronger bound because they only interacted with each other for most of their lives. It’s been proven that human feed off the need for other people which is why humans have formed packs from the very beginning of time. Yet, they had no way to communicate with other packs which cause them to have strong ties to each other and create a deeper bond. I found myself doing this also by trying to be in the kitchen, or as many rooms as I know people would enter without having to hear a t.v. blaring or a radio exposing a lonely heartfelt song.


It made me long to be around them a bit more and hoping they would interact with me to help keep me occupied and happy as the hours went on. But then it became too much. I lasted 5 hours and 30 min and let’s just say that was enough for me.


I’d just likely to also point out as a last thought that while in my car driving home I turned on the radio and did not even notice that I had done so before I had gotten all the way down to my street. It has been such a habit of mine that to turn it on seems only natural. I can only say that I began to chuckle as I turned into the drive way shaking my head every step into the house that was filled with sounds of the movie ‘Cars’ being enjoyed by Nathan in our bedroom.

Two Cultures

There have been many debates over the years that address the age old question; does TV really make man stupid? It’s hard to state whether or not the electronic culture has really helped in lowering the IQ of many Americans of today but it is safe to say that TV has become a powerful tool in controlling how many people think, act, behave, and the way we develop the inner ‘I’.
TV, movies, music and the internet have drastically changed the world we live in by helping up exchange and develop millions of new ideas. Yet, somehow it has seem to dominate our millions of years old written culture which has allowed for written government, religion, and life to flourish through out the planet.

These two important points were taken with keen interest by Neil Postman and Camille Paglia who were both addressed the importance of it to each other over dinner as well recorded.
Postman took up the side of the print culture claiming in his points that the very gift of the print culture has so many advantages to it. Such as it’s importance over the image culture created by technology. Postman also comments on law being able to be traveled in space and time due to the written word which is very true and one of the very intelligent points that he makes.
As stated above, without the written culture people would not be able to have a fully working preserved culture that can transcend time. Even if we find articles of cultures, if they were without a written culture its very hard to understand fully who these people truly are, but with the written word we can discover who and how they performed daily duties. This is how cultures and societies like the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians have been preserved for thousands of years.

While Postman talks about the need for written culture Paglia looks at how important image culture is to humans. She argues that humans are visual based creatures.
Paglia also goes as far as to point out that the image culture is: "Nature--violent, chaotic, unpredictable, uncontrollable--predates and stands in opposition to the ordered, structured world created by the word, by the law, by the book centered world of Judeo-Christianity" (234)
With this she means that print culture is what keeps us in line yet image culture helps us break free of the bonds that print culture has created to hold us down and in line by creating this ‘Judeo-Christianity’ culture that rules even our government.
It is interesting to see the points both use in their arguments over which is more important. That which stimulates us visually or what stimulates us mentally?

Yet, the best example used by Postman really gives a grasp on how much the image culture controls us while the print culture frees us. Postman comments that using the Print cultures of Propaganda art, Nazis were able to control the population of Germany by abusing these images and resources. Which as recorded is very true, with the use of German Propaganda art, Hitler was able to paint images of a superior race lying in wait to bring German back to its former glory. It’s easy to understand why Hitler used these forms of mediums to control the population, because people are so stimulated by images that using them to find a scapegoat of a hurt nation was easy for the budding dictator.

People respond to these and use the image culture for terrible means because the image culture is easy to be manipulated and constructed by others with little notice from bigger sources. The image culture can be formed and distributed to millions without anyone knowing because messages can be retorted to small catchy sayings and hidden truths slipped in without a nations knowledge. While with the print culture many books and articles are checked then re-checked and questioned before they are published before a large nation.

Yet, the print culture is not without fault either since many print cultures have used printed materials to control other people and to justify their practices even when they are inhumane. Such example would be cultures in Sudan who use their religious text to justify female castrations at birth or in the girls youth. Or using their religious text to justify the genocide of another culture or religion. Many leaders read these text and take them out of context and go on crusades because of the stimulation they received through life by print text.

With Postman and Paglia make both good points it’s easy to see that both of these “Two Cultures” are at fault for what both judge each other for. Both cultures stimulate and form the way people see the world around them and other people that populate it with them. So we can say one is more at fault than the other but we can not place blame on one and not the other. It seems that the debate will range on between the written word and the world of the TV in which medium is superior to the other as both mediums evolve into new forms.