In my COMM 230 class, my professor, Dr. Brophy, assigned us an extra credit assignment. The assignment is called "Media Blackout" and she wants us to take a 24-hour period and cut off all sources of mass media. This includes the Internet, texting, radio, cable, books, and newspapers. When she handed out the paper, my heart dropped. "This is impossible!" That is all that I repeated out loud. No Facebook? No Twitter? For an entire day! That's ridiculous. But after I spazzed out and thought about how much I would be missing, I realized how society is. Society makes us feel like we have no choice but to be on our phones, glued to is as if its in charge of our last breath. I told my improvisation teacher about it and he thought that it was a great idea, he would actually do it for longer than 24 hours, maybe three days to a week! That's absolutely outrageous. Cell phones/media is our generation's cigarettes. Before classes start, 80 percent of the class is most likely on their phones. Right after a class ends, 90 percent of students check their phones before they start walking to their next destination. Teachers now have to emphasize in their syllubi how serious they are about cell phones, but then eventually stop caring because students are automatically going to have their phones on their desks.
There are 5-year-olds out here with iPhones, there are 12-year-olds out here with more than anything that I have right now! I had to wait until I went to the 9th grade to get a cell phone. Society is changing right before us. What will it be like in two years? Five years? Will it be possible for two people to have spontaneous conversation? When my professors and parents and grandparents were younger, they didn't even have cell phones! I seriously cannot imagine that, but that was real life for them. Right now, it is easier for me and others to communicate through texts or direct messages on social media when it comes to serious information because I don't like to see the look on peoples' faces sometimes. But, there are others that use that as a blockade for actual conversation. There are individuals that lack the sense of clear communication without even noticing it.
Dr. Brophy wants the class to write a two-page paper answering the following questions:
Were you tempted to cheat?
Were there aspects of the media blackout that you enjoyed?
What did you miss out on while you were under blackout?
I challenge everyone to take a minute, an hour, a day, to step away from your phones. Step away from social media. And actually see how you feel afterwards. I haven't had a chance to try it because I can honestly say that I'm one of those people that need their phone by their side every second. I would have a heart attack if I didn't have my phone next to me! And that isn't healthy, if you really think about it. I think that society would be a better place if our phones didn't dictate our entire lives. It would enhance the communication of everyone and give room for spontaneity. I challenge you!
