Blog #4

Days before I actually started the 24-hour dooms day, I began to note how much media was affecting daily lives. I spent my first weekend of spring break in New York City. It is nearly impossible to avoid media in this city. Whether it is the jumbo-screens in Times Square or the many discount electronics stores throughout the city, media surrounds everybody. This made me think of Susan Jacoby’s article, “The Dumbing of America” in which video is making society less intelligent. I joked to myself about how NYC is becoming dumber and illiterate without its consent. Because New York City is such a big and busy city, I decided to take my “pre-analysis” experiment home to Maryland. While at home, I began to seriously realize that the only way we are all really connected is by phone and internet. Once you are connected to your friends and you’re “hanging out” (either in a chat room or in person), the conversation almost always includes music, movies, television programs, or anything of the sort. So even if you do not have direct media interaction, it will almost always still affect your life. Doing this “pre-analysis” prepared me to complete my project. I was able to plan ahead and understand what I was about to get myself into. It was smart to plan ahead because I had a few activities lined up. Unlike the students who dreaded going in to this experiment in “The Longest Day,” I was excited, and saw it as a fun challenge. This, however, was before the day began. Even though 24 hours seems like a very short period to be deprived of media, in this day and age, it turns out to be a very long day.

The day is Wednesday, March 18, 2009, and I am currently deprived of electronic media. I started my day off waking up at 8:30 AM to go to a delicious breakfast at Denny’s. I set my buzzer alarm, but I didn’t need it because I woke up on my own. My first instinct was to check my cell phone for text messages and to look at the time. Luckily, I was smart and put my phone on my dresser the night before. When I was getting ready to leave, I felt naked without my phone in the right pocket of my jeans. My boyfriend, Jesse, and his mom came to pick me up, but the radio was off, because they knew I was doing the project. When we got inside Denny’s, I noticed a somewhat ominous background noise: the radio. That was the first thing I noticed. I just brushed it off because I figured any place I would have gone into would have had background noise. After Denny’s I found out the Jesse had to go to the doctor because he was having back spasms. I already had plans to hang out with people at noon, and I had no way to contact them about this issue. I decided to go home and meet with my friends so they weren’t lingering around aimlessly, wondering what was going on. I got home around 11:00 AM and took a nap. Around 12:15 PM, I was awoken by my dogs barking their brains out: my friends had arrived. At first we sat around and made some jokes about some pictures in The Washington Post, but eventually we head out to the woods. I am lucky enough to have a State Park behind my house, so we wandered around for about 2 hours. We then decided to head to the mall. Surprisingly, I did not come in contact with any media because I did not really enter any stores. When I got home, I remembered my dad needed the truck, so I had no way to contact Jesse to see how his appointment went and how he was doing. I already felt like an insensitive girlfriend for not going with him to the doctor, so I gave into the media and texted him. Of course he was feeling better. When my dad got home, I drove over to his house and sat with him at the television. Mission failed.

The day is Saturday, May 21, 2009, and I am currently deprived of electronic media. This day started out as much more successful. I woke up at 9:45 AM with no alarm and got ready to go to the rock climbing gym with my mom and brother. Once in the car, I reminded my mom about my project and asked her to turn off the radio. Once we got to the climbing gym, there were no electronic media devices present. We all talked and got caught up with personal events when we weren’t on the wall. For lunch, we went to this restaurant called BD’s Mongolian BBQ in Bethesda, MD. I scoped the room from my table and saw a television, and quickly switched to the seat facing the window. Luckily there was no volume. After a scrumptious lunch, my mom and I dropped my brother at the house and I went driving with my mom to learn how to drive a stick shift. After about an hour of practice, I was doing okay. When I was dropped off back at the house, I sat on the couch for about 10 minutes thinking about what I could do. I finally decided to get a head start on homework, even though every fiber of my being did not want to. I tried reading my Psychology text book and after about 15 pages, I put the book down, put my head on the pillow, and let out a heavy sigh. I was bored. I encouraged my brother to help me walk the dogs by telling him I would play Warhammer, a tabletop war game, with him. After about a 30 minute walk, my brother taught me how to play Warhammer. I kind of knew how to play by watching him play a little bit before. It is basically a dice game that’s less nerdy than Dungeons and Dragons. My brother created all the terrains and painted all the little figures, so it was neat to play with all homemade items. After we finished, the time was 6:30 PM. The phone rang. It was my dad asking us what we wanted from Subway. I told my brother my order so I wouldn’t directly be using the landline. After we ate, it was about 8:00 PM, and I did not know what to do. I drove by Jesse’s house and asked him if he wanted to go to the store. We ended up going to Safeway to get some toothpaste and deodorant for school. It is 8:45 PM and time is dragging on. This time I knew I could not give in to my boredom because I was already so close. “Just 3 more hours,” I thought. We drove back to Jesse’s and got out a board game. At first we played Monopoly, but that got boring very fast, so we switched to Clue. We got his brother and sister to join us and played for about 30 minutes. It was Professor Plum, with the wrench, in the Ballroom, and I was the victim. Only two more hours left. I got a sudden urge to bake, so we made a double layer yellow cake with chocolate icing. The first layer came out fine, but the second layer crumbled. I failed (It was still delicious!). Jesse’s mom runs a home daycare program so there was a plethora of coloring books. I haven’t colored since middle school. One hour left. I took a nap on the couch. Mission Accomplished.

This project was very difficult to complete. I learned that we are all connected by an invisible limb known as electronic media. It is much easier to sit mindlessly staring at a television than trying to finish a board game like monopoly. Just reliving the day through this essay made me realize how long that day actually was. After I failed the first day, it dawned on me how essential electronic communication is. It is the quickest way to get the information you desire. Our fast paced society requires fast responses. We as a society would become extremely frustrated if we did not have our cell phones and internet. This project would have been loads easier if I could have gone camping with all my friends and play kickball, roast marshmallows, and end the day with a sing-along on the guitar. Instead, it was a day filled with the anxiety of not knowing who wants to contact you and the boredom of trying to find something to do.