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Assignment Guidelines

(1)  In coordination with our screening of the film Into Great Silence, we will complete a classroom writing assignment (not graded, but weighted heavily in the "In Class Writing Assignments" portion of your overall evaluation) that tracks your response to two activities: (a) a personal technology "fast" lasting approximately 10 hours, and (b) a 1-hour observational period carried out in a public place.  Students will submit a 2-4 pp. typed essay chronicling their experiences.  Please include your name, page numbers, etc.

(2) Essays may be written in informal prose, but should detail your reactions and outcomes to both parts of the assignment.

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Assignment

Modern society is more driven by technology and technological advances on a daily basis than at any time in human history.  Collectively, we depend on a variety of tools to keep us connected to others around us: e-mail, the internet, social networking sites, mobile phones, interactive television, and so on.  This is chiefly a development of the past 10-15 years, and one that has intensified in the past 5-7 years.  I would say that it has defined the generation of people born since 1990 and may, as some have argued, be changing the way we think and process information. 

As we will see in Thursday's screening of Into Great Silence, not all human societies or human endeavors are as touched by such technological advances as we are; moreover, every work we have read this term was conceived, written, and shared in a world devoid of modern technologies.  In order to experience first-hand the effects that technology has had on our powers of communication, observation, and social interaction, you are asked to do the following between now and November 30:

1. Conduct a technology fast from sun-up until sun-down on a day of your choice.  This means no use of personal technology devices--no iPods, cell phones, texting, e-mails, WiFi, laptop computers, or television--from approximately 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.  Exceptions may be granted in cases where students are required for their courses to submit work electronically, but otherwise, all communication should be limited to emergencies only.  You should prepare your friends, family, relatives for this period of technological silence--inform them that you will be out of contact for approximately 10 hours on the day you've chosen, and to call only in cases of legitimate emergency.  Chronicle your responses: How did you feel being cut off from e-mail, cell phones, and personal tech devices?  What was your emotional reaction?  Did you feel anxious, angry, calm, pleased, something else?  How did your family and friends respond to your "fast"?  Did they become angry with you? Exasperated? Concerned?

2.  At some point during the same period of "fasting", go to a public place and observe the social interactions of the people around you for 1 hour, chronicling what you see and hear.  The place may be anywhere people congregate: a cafe, public square, dormitory common room, the library, Smith Center, a public building or institution, etc.  During this time, you should be taking note of the social behaviors of people around you.  How do they interact with one another?  How many are using personal technologies at any one time?  How many are listening to iPods?  Do they communicate?  What do they discuss?  Also, record your own responses: Are you more or less alert to what is happening around you than usual?  Do you feel cut off?  Does the absence of technology affect how you interact in a social space? What did you do instead?  Remember, the goal is not for you to be social--it is for you to observe others, much like an anthropologist in the field, and to record both your own and their reactions and interactions.

3.  Write a brief autobiographical account of your experience with the assignment.

Advisory

Some of you may find this assignment more challenging than writing a traditional essay.  My main criteria are that (a) you take the assignment seriously, and complete it to the best of your ability, and (b) you record your experience honestly.  If you break the "fast," explain why you did.  What were your reasons?  Would you consider them good reasons?  Reasons of choice or necessity?

Good luck!