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Students Give Up Internet and Cell Phones -- For a Day
By Tandra Landers
Electronic Media from the entire class
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Cherry Saenger's Mass Communications class went on a 24-hour media fast as one of their recent assignments.
This of course means no electronic media such as cell phones, Internet access, television, Ipods, Palm treos, Madden, blackberries, DVD's, radios, or CD players.
To Heather Hahn, a member of the Mars Hill College basketball team, this was an assignment that proved difficult. Her cell phone was the culprit. She says she "should have just turned it off," but when she heard her customized ringtones, she couldn't bear to leave the calls unanswered. "I broke down and used my phone," said Hahn. She had to do the assignment again.
Hahn's phone has AOL instant messaging and Internet access. It also has text messaging, which almost everyone in the class takes part in. Class members use text messaging so frequently that the issue of carpel tunnel syndrome was raised because of the frequent movement of the thumbs. This didn't faze Stacy Young, saying, "By the time I'm 50 there will be a medicine to cure any kind of defect I have," causing a laugh.
Heather Hahn with the culprit in hand
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Hahn also mentioned how Facebook has become a part of her daily life. Before attending MHC, students are assigned MHC email accounts. Since Hahn didn't have Internet access until she relocated to the campus, all of her friends beat her to the Facebook. phenomenon. "I felt left out because I couldn't use Facebook," she said.
Now that Hahn has gained access to Facebook, she mentioned the infamous Facebook quarter jar located in her shared apartment. A quarter is added for "getting on Facebook more than twice a day…I don't want to say any names, but it's bad," she said. The money collected will be used for going out to dinner.
Young, a member of the MHC football team, has learned to multitask when it comes to electronic media. While in his room, Young will be "watching a football game, talking on the phone, listening to music, and singing along all at the same time," he said.
Although Young is a constant user of electronic media, he found this assignment easier to deal with than he thought. He recalls hearing his grandmother tell him to stay away from the "idiot box" when he was younger. Keeping that in mind, Young took his 24 hours to cook and spend time with friends.
Young refers to the media fast as a reality check. "Some people get bored and have to find someone to call or talk to," he said. Saenger mentioned that this generation of students is "constantly in contact with people". A few other students agreed, saying they go through the contact lists in their cell phones to find someone to call when they're bored.
Only one of the ten students in the class was bored when carrying out this assignment. No grade was given, but students were required to do journal entries of the experience. They received a "check mark" for completing those. Some even offered to do the assignment again for extra points, but this wasn't an option.
Mass Communications in action
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Taylan Batuk happened to be the most extreme in doing his 24-hour fast. He took the liberty of not only unplugging his computer, television, and turning off his cell phone, but he even unplugged his hairdryer!
The class as a whole agreed that this assignment provided relaxation in their lives. They weren't bombarded with emails, text messages, and phone calls all day. "People weren't telling me how to think," said Saenger, who participated in the assignment herself.
She feels as though her brain was less cluttered during the 24-hour period. "I read 100 pages in a book…usually it's about 20 and then I'm off doing something else," said Saenger. "I didn't care about what Britney [Spears] was doing that day," she said, which brought a laugh from the students.
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