Between Moments

Dr. Susan Moeller and the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) released a study on American college students and the effects of living without access to mobile communications and other media ie they could not text, IM, blog, Tweet or access Facebook. Oh yes, the ban extended to TVs, radios, iPods & other music devices too.

The results? The students acted like a bunch of junkies deprived of their connectivity fix. Some prize quotes (I have put my comments in brackets).

“Basic things like text messages usually plan out my days but without a phone, the only people I really saw were the people who live in my building or people I accidentally ran into.” (Geez I have to talk to real live people? For shame!)

“I literally had to have my friend hide my phone so I wouldn’t check it by accident.”

“Interestingly, not having a way to tell time became one of the biggest stresses of this experiment. I tried to rely on clocks in campus buildings …and it became apparent that many buildings are not made for people without watches/phones. Consequently, I got to my first class 20 minutes early, ate lunch very quickly so I wouldn’t get to my next class late (again I was early), and was 15 minutes late meeting up with my boyfriend later in the day. Lesson: I really need a watch in case my cell dies.”

“The day seemed so much longer and it felt like we were trying to fill it up with things to do as opposed to running out of time to do all of the things we wanted to do.” (Is this bad?)

“I got back from class around 5, frantically craving some technology and to look through my phone so I cheated a little bit and checked my phone. From my phone, I accessed text messages, close to a dozen missed calls, glanced at some emails, and acknowledged many twitter @replies from followers wondering where I was and if I was ok. At that moment, I couldn’t take it anymore being in my room…alone…with nothing to occupy my mind so I gave up shortly after 5pm. I think I had a good run for about 19 hours and even that was torture.”

“My short attention span prevented me from accomplishing much, so I stared at the wall for a little bit. After doing some push-ups, I just decided to take a few Dramamine and go to sleep to put me out of my misery.”

“A few hours later, I brushed my teeth, came back to my room, opened my laptop, and got on Facebook. I was on the computer for a good ten minutes before I realized what I was doing.”

“I definitely felt some psychological effects, such as hearing my cell phone ring even though it was off or typing on a pretend keyboard without realizing it.“

Alright, I’m being snarky here but I think I would have some of the same problems (I’d like to think I’d last 24 hours).

Finally, some people actually found the good in being media-less.

“Life is not as boring as it would seem to be without cell phones, television, and the internet. My parents grew up without any of these things and said that as teenagers, they never felt bored. I had a taste of their experiences and thoroughly enjoyed the alone time I had with my boyfriend.”

“After 24 hours of giving up Facebook, I thought I would challenge myself further to do a week. So far I’ve done it and it actually feels great! I believe that I’ve been much more productive since giving up Facebook, having more time on my hands to do various chores such as cleaning different parts of my house.”

COULD YOU GO 24 HOURS WITHOUT MEDIA?

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