Well my friends, it’s over.  As you may have read, GregT7 gave me his cell phone and ipod for the ten-day turnoff.  Today, I walked into 7th period, handed his phone and ipod back to him, and asked, “Now what?”

He surprisingly took both pieces of techology and threw them in the waste bin.  He said, “I don’t want this soma any more.”  We all watched amazed as he returned to his seat.  “I’m free, Mr. D,” he smiled,  “I’m free.”

Wait, that wasn’t Greg; that was me.  And it wasn’t an ipod and phone; it was my beard and long hair.  And I didn’t smile and say, “I’m free;” no, I wept like a little baby all through the night.

Anyway, Greg is probably texting right now, in fact.  And that is fine.  But I am hoping his awareness of what he is doing is a bit expanded.  GregT7, is it?

Here’s my final question for all of you: Now what?  What have you learned about yourselves and about these technologies?  How are you going to apply what you have learned to your life?  Will anything change?  Perhaps, it’s like a diet for your mind.  Don’t just think about yourselves.  Think also about your future children, if you hope to have them anyway.  Might you limit their use of certain technologies?  Why or why not?

Great job, class.  I hope this was a worthwhile experiment for you.  Take care of yourselves.  You are all unique and wonderful people, and I have enjoyed sharing this year with you.

Mr. D

Yes!  Great stuff, people.  I have thoroughly enjoyed your coments.  We even gleaned a wonderful question from Mr. Porter.  (Mr. Porter is the district tech guru for us teachers–that’s right, one of the Littleton Public Schools administrators.)  Thank you for your comment, Mr. Porter.  I am glad it is on the post started by Mr. Andy.  That’s where I want to focus Assignment #7…   

There are only two more assignments left.  Are you going to make it, class?  Five hours more–that’s it.  The tech turnoff ends tonight at midnight.  Can you make it?  Has it become easier or more difficult over time?  Do you feel empowered or weakened?  What new habits, if any, are formfing?  Of course, only those of you who have succeeded thus far will be able to answer those questions…)

OK, here’s the assignment: Go to Mr. Andy’s post about different types of technologies.  Read his questions, and then read the next few comments that follow, up to Mr. Porter’s question, at least.  As you will find, MorganC3 and GregT7 started an excellent debate.  React to it or to any (or all) of the questions. 

I have a few things, myself, going through my head, but I want to see what you guys do with the issues all these writers brought up.  So I will hold my tongue–or my fingers, as the case may be, until you have all reacted.  Go for it.

(–Well, I’ll guess I’ll say this one thing as a kind of curve ball reponse fr now: Don’t you think that this tech turnoff experiment helps you qualify or refine your responses to these questions?  That is, could you achieve any type of a nuanced approach to these media without having raised the question of how they affect your thinking and habits?)

Mr. D

PS. If, like JonN7, you have already responded to the debated questions, then your assignment is already complete.  Well done.  Of course, you may write more if you like…

great stuff, guys! the 2009 tech turn-off has been fun to watch.

this is the previously-mentioned Mr. Andy writing, and i hope Mr. D won’t mind my taking the liberty of writing another post like Mr. Rhys did.

i must admit that i have a general gripe with how Mr. D frames this project: in my opinion, he does the project a disservice by lumping all “tech” together. when we put television, radio, games, the Internet, and mobile communication under the same umbrella, we’re ignoring some big changes that have been occurring in the past couple of decades: most importantly the “read/write” nature of the Internet, as opposed to the one-way, receptive nature of previous industrial-era media.

in fact, many argue that newer networked technologies are facilitating the emergence of a new folk culture where we can all create and distribute our own work, comment-on and deconstruct other cultural products, and provide real-time, “word-of-mouth” feedback. indeed, at our best we are able to express our most creative selves, and exercise our most critical thinking in this setting.

don’t get me wrong: i think we’re wise to question our total “screen time”, and i spook myself with how difficult it is for me to be away from my computer for too long… but i would draw a line, maybe arbitrary in some respects, but also indicating these crucial and substantial differences, between e.g. television and “the Internet”.

how many of you publish on the web? write on blogs? upload photos and videos? “remix” or explicitly comment on existing cultural products? does this feel different to you than watching TV?

(and an aside: what about advertising? how aware are you of ads on television vs the Internet? how do they seem similar? how do they seem different?)

lastly, my vote is that Mr. D looks much more handsome cleanly-shaven. that’s just one man’s opinion, though.

keep up the good work!

Great stuff people.  I am really enjoying reading your comments.  GregT7 talks about his ”perfect strategy” for breaking his habit.  You guys should check that out (Assignment #4, I think).  And I loved SarahK7’s response to my last post.  I loved all your responses, but check SarahK7’s especially.  And yes, Chynna, me too, I miss the hair.  Actually, ChynnaE2 has a great comment for Assignment #4. I will quote it here, as a segue to Friday’s assignment:

“…But with this tech-turnoff,
I’m realizing just how addicting our simple media habits are.
It’s really quite insane.
It makes me question our society and the current world issues we’re dealing with.
Would obesity be a huge issue if media weren’t so large?
Would our children be diagnosed with A.D.D. if T.V did not exist?
We blame so many problems on everything but our selves and our media.
But now that the media has a great grasp on the world around us,
Can we change things now?
Can we reverse the patterns?
Or are we to stay in denial,
And fall victim to a ‘Brave New World?’” 

Thanks, Chynna–and it’s poetic too.  So here is the assignment: How have these technologies affected us culturally?  Step back and take a long view, not at yourself, but at the culture of which you are a part.  How has the adaptation to the demands of these specific technologies changed things in our families, our schools, our jobs, our politics, our leisure?  Or how would ever further adaptation change things.  What can you foresee?  Do you agree with Chynna, and with Huxley, as it were?  Take up one part of our culture, or take up each in turn, and evaluate or speculate what is happening to us–or what we are letting happen to ourselves.  Consider the habits we have as Americans.  Consider the way technologies work–the habits they form, and not just the things they are supposed to do.  Be an alien scientist above the Earth and scrutinize these Earthlings.

Ok, good friends, have at it: your last weekend of the tech turnoff.  Remember that there will be a new post up Sunday, and then a final post on Monday.  That’s it.  And then we’re done.  Can you hold out?  We’ll see.

Mr. D

I am really enjoying your comments.  I’ll add a comment of my own here:

It seems to me that the the effects of these technologies are always far from, if not the precise opposite of their stated purposes.  That is, these media are designed to be habit forming, but they don’t advertise themselves by the habits they form; nor do we ever feel inclined to reconsider our own interaction with them in terms of such habits.  Their stated purposes, to inform, to keep in touch, to entertain, are frequently only excuses for satisfying ourselves in a wholly different way, satisfying a habituated mode of being–of escape–distraction–distraction as the accepted, expected mode of our culture.  Yes, we come simply to accept the changes wrought by these media as “natural,” maybe even as good.  Hence, all the disapproval from others.  Consider the fact that the only activity people do more than watching TV is sleeping!

Think about it, people often turn to these media when they are tired or bored, or when they “just want to relax,” or “just want to hear some background noise.”  How did that come to be?  And these technologies often sustain our moods only–they feeze our minds–whirling them around faster and faster–but without achieving much, if anything, to end or help our present situation–our exhaustian or boredom.  It’s all distraction, as I said above.  And time keeps ticking away…tick…tick…ticking away.  How many of you “tired” people have stayed up all night watching TV or surfing the internet, for instance, watching or looking at “nothing”?  Guess what you’ll be doing the next night.  Guess why.  You’re tired.  Relaxing?  I am all for relaxing when you need to.  But, as many of you have recognized, these technologies lead us to procrastinate a lot: homework, cleaning, organizing, exercising, talking to your family about important matters–we even procrastinate sleeping.  We don’t just kill time between this or that thing to do.  More often, we look to create time to kill–we press obligations, and worse, our healthiest impulses, greater thoughts and insights, truly creative tasks more and more to the margins of our days–to our tomorrows– our “tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow”s.  Does a video game really end boredom, or does it encourage it?  My guess is that humans are more bored now than they have ever been.

It’s not surprising that a salesman should choose to ignore the consequences of using or enjoying some consumer “good” without moderation–so all things are sold.  But the power of these technologies, their addictiveness–that is what makes them a unique kind of problem, I think.  We aren’t talking about lollypops here, or yesterday’s trend.  We’re talking about the very days of our lives, the very hours of our days.  And we’re talking about “advances” that change the “nature” of a whole populace–a whole culture.

…Hmm, okay, here’s your assignment:  Either respnd to my comment above or to any comment written by a fellow student.  Tell us, first, who wrote what (summarize the comment), and then respond to it.

All right, go for it.  Can’t wait to read your responses. 

Mr. D

Hey, people, good stuff.  Someone please give Forrest some love.  His friends are all turning on him, it seems…

Anyway, sorry for getting this post up so late.  I have been busy painting my house.  What are you guys doing in place of turning to the prohibited technologies.  A lot of you are saying that you are having the hardest time keeping yourself away from this or that technology–some of you, in fact, can’t keep yourself away.  Why not?  What is the pull it has on you?  Or what are you finding yourself doing instead of turning to these technologies? Is it that bad?  That boring?  Hmmm…

Answer the questions above if you have the time, but here is the actual assignment: I have been teaching Brave New World for many years now.  I have also been doing some version or another of this media literacy subunit since Mr. Rhys gave me Postman’s book so many years ago.  But it wasn’t until relatively recently that I merged the two projects together.  What do you guys think: do they fit together?  How is the study of Brave New World appropriate to this tech turnoff?  What things carry over?  Anything?  Or would the tech turnoff make as much sense for you if we were reading Canterbury Tales or short stories or something?

Good work, all of you.  Keep it up. 

Guess what?  You made it pass hump day.  Well done…

Mr. D

Awesome!  Mr. Rhys is following along.

Mr. Rhys is the first person who made me consider all these issues.  He shared with me a book called Amusing Ourselves to Death about a decade ago, and you guys know that book because I have asked you to read certain chapters of it, like “The Huxleyan Warning” and, most recently, ”Foreword.” 

Anyway, far from feeling that he could possibly steal my thunder, let us go ahead and take up his question for our assignment #3.  In other words, go back to the last page you were on, and click on the post from Mr. Rhys; and then answer his question about the tech turnoff.  There is no need to respond to this particular post.

(By the way, class, being the intellectually honest people you are, you should know that it is not safe to assume that Mr. Rhys and I are on the same page with all these things.  Respond to him, not to me.)

Keep up the good work.  Wednesday is hump day.  Can you get over the hump tomorrow?  We’ll see.  One thing I know for sure: JasmineL2 will write about eight comments in lieu of text messaging…

Hi Heritage High,

This thought is “on the side” — please do not spend any time on this until you are through with Mr. D’s assignments. I would feel TERRIBLE to steal any of his thunder.

I am an old friend of Mr. D, and I help teachers teach with, and about media in New York.

I enjoyed your first round of comments. Although I have not attempted a tech-turnoff yet for myself, I admire what you are doing, and reading your responses has me thinking of how I would fare.

I’m surprised that several of you remarked that your peers and/or families were not impressed or curious about your taking on this challenge. Regardless of what role technology plays in their lives, I would think they would at least find the idea of living without it conversation-worthy. Maybe it’s like when you are on a diet, and people around you start to feel guilty about what they’re eating…

I would be interested in some reflections on how others are reacting to the idea of this project, and how it affects your perspective.

Is it making people uncomfortable? If so, why?

I know I can get sensitive when I’m knee-deep in say, a season of Heroes (guilty pleasure), and someone I’m hanging out with mentions how they’ve gotten rid of their TV. I feel a little judged, even though they may have no idea I’m watching Heroes…

Why do you suppose some of us have that reaction?

Nice work, those of you who commented on the last assignment, including those of you who commented more than once.  I am enjoying reading about your experiences.  I thought it was funny that JonN7’s family was proud of him, AdamW3’s were supportive, turning off the TV when he was there and talking with him instead, while TolanD7’s family simply laughed at him and said, “Have fun with that.” MichaelG3 doesn’t see the point of the assignment at all, and ScottK3 was surprised to discover how much time he wasted on TV and the computer.  Meanwhile, JasmineL2 was getting tortured by her vibrating text messages–but she made it–she did not answer back.  In any case you are all trying and that’s good.  Let’s see what comes of this experiement as your turnoff continues.  Will the week days be harder for you than the weedend days?

In fact, let’s consider the effect of these technologies have on our relationships.  A couple of you suggested that a world without these technologies would isolate us, or as LaurenM3 conjectured, it would make life boring and conversations meaningless.  As you guys know, text messaging, Facebooks, Myspace, email, even television (in one sense) boast of connecting us to our friends and to the world.  But some of you believe that the world without these technologies would actually improve your relationships.  So which is it?  Do these technologies impair or support our relationships?

Have at it, young people, and keep on track with the turnoff.  Remember, it will probably get worse or more difficult before it gets easy.  But you can do it.  Less than seven days to go now…

All right, young people, the weekend came and went.  How did you do?  Did you successfully turn off the specified technologies for the whole weekend?  If not, why not?  How and when did you break down?  What was your reasoning or excuse each time?  If you were successful, what was it like?  What differences did you notice between the first weekend of the technology turnoff and your typical weekend?  What did you do when you felt the impulse to turn on this or that prohibited technology?  What did you like about the weekend?  What was frustrating?  What reactions did you get from family and friends?

In addition to answering the appertaining questions above, all of you should answer this:  What do you think everyday life would be like if these technologies never existed? 

(Remember, to comment, just leave your first name, the first letter of your last name, and your period number: JohnD7.  Skip the email or website fields, and then write your comment.  Have at it.)