no cell phone or facebook... OH NO!

I rolled our of bed at 12:30 pm to the smell of bacon and banana nut pancakes. My first instinct was the grab my laptop and check out what happened on face book from 10 O’clock last night until now. Realizing I had picked Saturday November 24th to be my media deprivation day made my stop in mid grab. I walked down the hall as I screamed to my mom to “turn off the television.” I could hear her scramble to comply with my request since this is probably the first time she has ever heard such words leave my mouth. I sat at the breakfast bar as I waited for my pancakes and told her about my dreadful assignment. We talked about my major and my upcoming trip to Chile in January. As we talked the phone rang she walked up and looked at the caller ID and she said it was Abby and walked away from the phone expecting me to eagerly jump to talk to my best friend. I glared at her until she finally caught on that I was not allowed to use the phone. Luckily my best friend lives about 10 minutes away so I hopped in the car and drove over.Though I had made the trip at least 200 times before, this time was by far the longest. I waited impatiently at the red lights until what seems like an hour later they turned green. When I arrived I jumped out of the car and ran to the door eager to engage in some form of communication. We got in the car and Abby reached for the radio and I screamed “STOP!” she looked at me as if I was crazy and I then explained my assignment. She laughed at me and then gossiped as she normally does about her roommates and old friends from high school. We went into Filene’s Basement where we spent hours so I could complete my assignment as painless as possible. We then drove to my dad’s where Abby had to call my dad and explain my media fast. This was ABSOLUTELY necessary because my dad leaves the TV on 24/7 for my puppies. I arrived to a quiet house as I walked up the steps I saw my dog standing, barking at the television hoping it would turn back on. My dad jokingly said, “Your assignment pissed off the dog.” My deprivation ended while getting ready to go out downtown with Abby. At 10:01 I ran in my room turned on my cell phone, computer, and TV all at the same time.

I made it out alive. I had spent quality time with my family and friends and I had real face to face conversations. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? Though it wasn’t easy because I am so used to relying on these things to take up my spare time I was surprised to find out I could go a whole day without media.

Television and Print Collide

WHY DOES IS HAVE TO BE ONE OR THE OTHER? Both Neil Postman and Camille Paglia make highly educated and well supported points on the issue of print versus television. Because of this, when Postman argues for print and Paglia argues for television, I argue for both.

Going off Postman, print triggers the brain logically and encourages higher rates of information processing, but visual images stimulate a different type of information recall that is neither more or less important than print; it is just different. Postman mainly argues that nothing outweighs literacy and the infinite number of positive affects it has had over time, but when he starts pointing out the age difference in him and Paglia is when I start to side with Paglia. Her views on television and our electronic age are more relevant to society today. Our electronic world could not function without the visual attributes that television and computers bring to our everyday lives. Our reliance on these technologies has become so heavy that we could probably function a relatively normal life without having to read or write.

It is now understandable why in the end these two highly educated people can see the positive aspects of each others views and embrace them to form a more suitable outlook for today and more importantly tomorrow’s world.