Like taking Candy from a Baby: 24 sans technology

This has got to be the worst timing for an assignment based on communication, a day before I did this assignment I bought a T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 and being away from it for an entire 24 hours was sort of like separating a kid from their Christmas presents right after they open them…torture. It has a full qwerty keyboard, camera, unlimited web browsing and MyFaves…basically this thing is a fully loaded communication dynamo. When this was assigned I didn’t have a need for my phone other than to text and call, and my web browsing was circumscribed to the time I was near a computer. No more! Smart phones really do change your life; they’re status symbol, communication device and quasi-necessity all at the same time. While most people are a little over-dramatic about being without their media for a day I rarely watch television and often don’t use my cell phone (pre-Sidekick)…my boyfriend nearly died spending three hours with me as I told him about the no TV, movie, music, computer and cell phone stipulations.

“Eighteen- to 20-year-olds know in their hearts that electronic media are nearly as dear to their lives as physical nourishment. They have vague memories of a time before iTunes, personalized ring tones, Facebook, Google…They have tasted the pleasures brought by binary code, and, like most of us, they're not into deprivation” says Danna Walker, was I living up to her expectations by being bothered and annoyed with not having technology? Should I really be required to know what it is like to live like a Mennonite, and does it add up to being some kind of well-rounded person or is using technology smarter than indulging?

I started the 24 hours technically at 11 pm the night before when I went to sleep after work. I began my day uneasily, waking up at 11am only because the sun was streaming in the window of the guest bedroom of my boyfriend’s house. If I had slept the night in my basement bedroom I probably never would’ve woken up because I only have an alarm clock on my cell phone. To be honest, that was kind of nice but I definitely couldn’t do it everyday. My boyfriend had a real problem with not playing music or watching TV in the morning while I was there and continued to nearly “die” because of this assignment, I didn’t really mind it other than not playing with my new toy. On my way back to my house which is a 30 minute drive from Columbia I nearly fell asleep and was completely bored not listening to music or doing anything just driving the same roads I drive everyday of my life. I finally arrived home to a silent (sadly) home and set about trying to think of something to do next. It seemed as if I was sort of lost for a little bit like there was supposed to be something I was turning on or checking or writing or listening to but all I could hear was my refrigerator roaring into action and faintly the sound of falling raindrops.

I hadn’t fully decided what I would do with my day, but I knew if it was nice outside that I could probably spend the day outside in the state park that is my back yard…luckily for me (not!) it was pouring on Thursday so I had to go to Plan B. I set aside the whole day to get some chores I had wanted to get done finally over with, which mostly included painting my drop ceiling, armoire and desk with sticky, white paint. Honestly, it was boring I couldn’t do anything to distract myself from the time. Again, I found myself really wanting to listen to music…I even tried singing but couldn’t remember all the words. Then it dawned on me, our book had it right if we don’t “think memorable thoughts” how can we remember even words and phrases we hear every day? There never is any dead space as Gene Wiengarten surmises “it can’t be done”. Finally I seemed to slip into my thoughts and detach from the paint and soundlessness and get some actual work done and think clearly. I thought about what I would write about on this blog, perhaps I would write about horror films….you know because the first thing to go is always cell phone service. “It scares people to be without technology” I thought, “doesn’t the killer or the monster always cut the phone line or drag their victim into service-less areas…(which by the way includes my basement)…oh my god what if someone tried to kill me now, should I use my phone or use this as a grand scheme to get an A?!” A door opened and I jumped, thankfully it was not Jack the Ripper and just my mom home early from work at my sister and brother’s high school.

The day actually allowed me to hang out with my mom more than usual, I couldn’t really work on any homework because most of it was computer based so I really had no excuse for doing errands with her other than she couldn’t listen to the radio while we were in the car. This time the fifteen minute drive was far less boring, having someone in the car to talk to and also not having to worry about falling asleep and going off the road into a ditch. One thing I did learn is the value of not relying on technology and instead using one’s brain. When shopping in downtown Westminster (media free and 100’s of years old) my mom disappeared into some store and I had no idea where she was, I automatically reached for my cell phone before realizing I was helpless I had to find her and put my Blues’ Clue’s skills to work. I found her quite quickly and actually didn’t need to waste my cell phone battery on such an easy task, though I know I normally would have.

Later, after arriving home and putting another layer of paint on my furniture my boyfriend arrived at my house mostly annoyed because I hadn’t answered my phone to let him in. Although my parents were sympathetic to this assignment and complied, John really had issues with not having anything “techy” around. “I am a nerd, Kelly” he said “ I have to have my techy stuff otherwise I’ll die”. He got sick of my “boring” quiet and techno-free house and whisked me off for dinner and shopping. Luckily the noisy, music-filled mall was closed so we made a trip to Goodwill where they don’t play any background music and have no televisions. I paid with cash and brought home some new shoes (which I’m wearing today) and a few other articles. Looking for a restaurant was pretty difficult since most of them have music playing so we gave up and just got some chicken nuggets at Westminster Wal-mart which luckily is music free (weird but true) and they don’t play their televisions too loud. We steered clear of the electronics,well…I did…I lost John for awhile to the nymphic call of ipods and stereos. It was 10 pm and we had time to waste…we didn’t know what to do. For the second time that day I felt lost, like I had lost my plane ticket in Amsterdam or something. We sat in the car and talked, not about anything really important like I thought maybe we would. We didn’t come to any breaking point or pivotal point in our relationship or anything but it felt more worthwhile than talking on AIM all night or on the phone. John finally broke down and said that he had to watch a movie or he was going to implode so we watched “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” at 11 pm. So I did it! Other than the occasional note coming from faint background music I remained media free for 24-hours. To be honest, it was boring it was really boring and quiet and I felt useless (despite my white washed furniture…I felt like Huck Finn). But I would much rather do this than be chained to technology the way Weintarden was in his article, I think I would probably throw up or get a very bad migraine. The day was overall, very productive and pretty good, but mostly quiet.

Kindle killed the Book Club (Blog #3)

In the television sitcom “The Office” a group of homely looking drudges toils under their crazy -management and their paper producing, no-name company, “Dunder Mifflin”. Part of the irony of this show is that all the characters are essentially working in a doomed industry, that of paper making in an increasingly paperless world. At one point in the show Micheal Scott played by Steve Carell has a near breakdown when one of his younger contemporaries tells him that “In five years paper will be obsolete”. How then could paper or the invention of papyrus near 2680 AD (23) have made an impact on society and so readily declined to somewhat of a joke? Has the technology we have today made reading and writing in its paper form obsolete, or has it just made this technology more important? After all, our modern society was formed on the spread of ideas from Martin Luther’s writings and the printing press to Jane Austen’s volumes of romance novels.

Writing matter seems to stem from the types of things society finds laying around. For the Egyptians it seems that they had a high population of rushes with which to make papyrus, and they manufactured it right by the river where it grew (23). The Babylonians and Assyrians primarily used clay in which to write, which was commonly used as a medium for brick making and construction (26). Similarly the paper we have today is made of a combination of already recycled paper and tree products, things that are seemingly “laying around” (or at least comparatively due to our travel capabilities). Are we just moving towards a new media that is made of hardware we are just taking for granted? For example, when the I-phone first came out it was nearly $400, today it is priced around $200. A simple economic analysis of this would indicate that demand has gone down, but more that supply has jumped dramatically. This holds true for nearly all of our technology as it becomes more and more mundane and overlooked to us and becomes more and more disposable. The Egyptians had their overflow of reeds, the Babylonians of clay and we have a never ending supply of computer chips and wireless networks.

Perhaps paper is just one more writing instrument on the long line of media available for writing and we are simply ushering in new era of screen-writing rather that print or handwriting. Paper seems to be the modern-day equivalent of heavy and hard to carry clay tablets, and handheld devices and the computer as the more advanced papyrus of the ancient world. According to Howard Gardner in his article, “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading” he argues that, “In the past 150 years, each new medium of communication -- telegraph, telephone, movies, radio, television, the digital computer, the World Wide Web -- has introduced its own peculiar mix of written, spoken and graphic languages and evoked a chaotic chorus of criticism and celebration” (para 6). Papyrus was probably criticized in its day, the change from clay to a disposable and easily broken medium may have seemed absurd and risky, just as a move to computer generated literacy today may seem to be a great loss today.

To many the use of computer-generated literacy seems like cheating. That the media we have today is not like writing and is completely something else. But what would we tell the ancient Egyptians who still wanted to use clay tablets? We would most likely tell them that they are crazy to carry around those heavy things instead of the ever-knowing pocket iPhone or Blackberry. , “…At the start of the 21st century, there's a dizzying set of literacies available” says Gardner, “Few media are likely to disappear completely; rather, the idiosyncratic genius and peculiar limitations of each medium will become increasingly clear. Fewer people will write notes or letters by hand, but the elegant handwritten note to mark a special occasion will endure” (para 10). According to Gardner the use of our technology is not cheating or even undermining the beauty and intricacy of print, but rather moving to a media more suitable out environment. Is the Rosetta Stone any less amazing to us, are the Dead Sea Scrolls any less monumental? No, and they shouldn’t be they were the stepping stones that modern literacy is based on.

Similar to the Egyptians our phones, MacBooks, PC’s and other hardware all seem to require some sort of magic and produce magic information production out of nowhere. Similarly, the spread of papyrus started with this same concept. According to Harold Innis, “The use of papyrus rapidly increased after the expulsion or the Hyksos. The cult of Thoth had played an important role in the New Kingdom and in the expulsion of the Hyksos. Thoth became the god of magic. His epithets had great power and strength, and certain formulae were regarded as potent in the resistance to, or in the expulsion of, malicious spirits” (26). Just one walk into the Apple store in the mall can tell you that the Itouch is truly magic. There is a screen that constantly shows you how the thing works, it can look up, down around it can zoom in on tiny places on the Earth’s surface, it can read books it can create books, and it is powered by magic. Essentially, whoever knows how a technology is run, can hold and use its “magic” to their own benefit. In Egypt this was most likely the priests of Thor, and in America this role most likely belongs to Steve Jobs.

Where will paper be in the next few years? Will it give way to the ever changing role of literacy and become the like the clay tablet of the past? Perhaps the Dunder-Mifflin crew should apply at Google or Apple. Regardless of our technological audacity and brevity paper will still be viewed as a viable media for writing, After all, computers require batter space, Microsoft Word or some office tool and require an absurd amount of energy. Our society is simply in a shift from one medium to another, as with the Babylonians and Egyptians this could take many years. We haven’t figured out all the details to make our literacy completely computer-generated but likely society will follow that path. Will handwriting become increasingly obsolete? Most likely, but even with this change there will be creativity and literacy…literacy is not dead it has simply “re-spawned” into a new body.