My Longest Day

The twenty-four hours I spent without any electronic media was perhaps the longest day in my life. How did I get through and what did this experience teach me?

Before starting this assignment, I predicted that it would be much more difficult to accomplish then it actually was. For the first part of the day, I barely noticed the absence of my cell phone. I occasionally would look down expecting it to be there, but even then I didn’t miss it ridiculously. But as the hours passed, my self-control slowly began to wear down. I started counting down the minutes until the assignment would be over and I began to feel more and more anxious. Despite this, I still did not have an overwhelming urge cheat or give up. I am proud to say that I made it twenty four hours without any forms of electronic media.

Overall, the youth of our society feel the need to be connected with each other constantly. As stated in The Washington Post Article by Howard Gardner, “young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time.” I proved this statement to be true. As the hours passed, I began to feel increasingly disconnected from the world. For the first time in memory, I did not know what my friends were doing every second of the day, which made me feel uneasy.

In the past, there was a common view in society that electronic media decreased the amount of time that children spent with their parents. However, as newer technologies were created, the definition of family time began to change. In fact, electronic media has begun to bring families together. When my older brother and I are both home from college, it is common for my family to watch television together every night. Even my little brother, who is hardly around, joins us. Because of this assignment, I was forced to miss out on this family time, something which nearly persuaded me to give up and fail the assignment.

I admit that I never really realized how saturated today’s world is with media until I was forced to go without it. Things such as radio and movies, two things I never considered media, dominate today’s society. Without these things, it was difficult to find things to do. I have grown up in a world where video games are king and television is a way of life. Without electronic media, I turned to print media. For the first time, I read the entire newspaper, forgoing my usual morning routine of skimming through the sports section and checking the weather forecast. Because of this assignment, I can now see why newspapers are becoming a thing of the past. In his article, Gene Weingarten agrees. As he puts it “newspapers are famously dying.” Normally, I would check the news on my laptop instead of picking up an actual newspaper. Only when I was forced to go without it did I read an actual newspaper in order to get my daily news.

Without constantly having electronic media in hand, I had time to do things that I never would have made time for before. For the first time since I started attending UMBC, I was able to not only start reading a book, but finish it as well. I spent time actually talking to my older brother instead of texting my friends the entire day. Overall, I noticed a huge boost in my face-to-face communication. When my friend came over, I had much more to tell him since we had not been texting all day like we normally do. This assignment made me realize how much I am lacking this type of communication in my daily life.

In my opinion, the society in which so-called Millennials (anyone born between 1980 and 2000) have grown up is much more at fault for media dependence than personal habits themselves. According to Danna L. Walker’s article in The Washington Post, Millennials are “the first generation to link up through cell phones and instant messages. Personal computers came of age as they were born, and they grew up with the World Wide Web and e-mail, not to mention Nintendo, Game Boy, Sony PlayStation, GameCube and Xbox.” When I first got a cell phone, two hundred text messages a month were more than adequate. However, as society became more obsessed with the text messaging craze, so did I. Now I honestly cannot remember a time before I had my cell phone. I can’t even imagine how I communicated with friends on a daily basis without having instant contact via text messaging or even a phone call. During this assignment, I was only able to talk to one of my friends, and that was because he had already planned to come over to my house. I basically had to go an entire twenty-four hours without talking with my two best friends, as the only way we can communicate is through texting or instant messaging. For me, this was by far the most challenging aspect.

Some of the technologies that we were forced to go without have become essential to our everyday lives. I am not saying that video games or even radio are vital, but televisions and cell phones are. Cell phones allow people to communicate important information instantly. For example, my dad usually calls home a thousand times a day. Because of this assignment I could not answer any of these calls. What if something had happened to him and he was calling because he needed help? I had no way of knowing whether he needed something important or if he was simply calling to check up on me. Cell phones have become a vital part of today’s society and are something that everyone, even the older generation, cannot go without. Television is also essential in our daily lives. I’m not saying that entertainment or reality shows are necessary, but the news is. Many people do not have the time to read a newspaper every day. The nightly news then becomes their source of news and weather. I did not know about anything that was happening in the world until the next day when I was able to check my laptop. We may have become dependent on our cell phones and television, but this is only because they are most convenient for us.

Overall, I believe this assignment would have been much easier to accomplish had I been at school. When I am at school, electronic media is not nearly as prominent in my daily life as it is when I am at home. While at school, I rarely, if ever, watch television and much of the time spent on my laptop is used for writing papers or doing discussion board posts. The only electronic media I use with frequency is my cell phone, and even then I am not texting my friends constantly. When I’m home, I have a chance to catch up on reruns of my favorite TV shows or watch movies that my mom has rented from Netflix. Cutting that part out of my life for twenty-four hours was much more difficult than it would have been if I were still at school.

As a side note, I just want to say that I am glad we had to go without electronic media as opposed to being overly saturated with it like Gene Weingarten chose to do. As I was reading his article, I began to realize how damaging too much media can become. As Weingarten says “I am doing something that no one else likely has ever done before, something no one should ever do again.” I never thought that too much television or radio could have such effects on a person.

This assignment made clear what I had expected from the start; I am much too reliant on my cell phone, laptop and iPod. Simple things like listening to the radio in my car or checking my facebook page every morning have become almost too necessary in my daily life. Living without them made me realize that a change in my lifestyle is a must. I now realize that I waste too much precious time updating my facebook page or instant messaging my friends from home. From now on, I will make a conscious effort to reduce the amount of dependence that I have on all forms of electronic media.



Gardner, Howard “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading.” WashingtonPost.com 17 February 2008 < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/02/15/A
R200802150298.html>

Walker, Dana “The Longest Day” WashingtonPost.com 5 August 2007 post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/01/AR2007080101720.html>

Weingarten, Gene “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” WashingtonPost.com 23 March 2008

Speech vs Writing: Which Dominates Today's Society?

Before the days of writing, daily communication was very different. Words had no “visual presence.” [Wong, 66] They were simply sounds. When writing was invented, it completely changed the culture of not only the United States, but the entire world and the human race as well. Through written communication we have given meanings to words which were once empty sounds.

At first glance, it almost seems as though communication through speech dominates today’s society. Both of the articles from the Washington Post seem to argue that the literacy and intelligence of Americans are steadily on the decrease, and the problem is only going to get worse with new technologies. However, I disagree. Based on my experiences so far, I believe that overall, today’s society is dominated mainly by communication through writing.

Some argue that leisure reading among young adults, and even adults, is at an all time low. Maybe this is because they are so busy text messaging or checking their facebook page. As stated in The Washington Post Article by Howard Gardner, “young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time.” For today’s youth, commenting their friends’ latest pictures or replying to a text is much more appealing than reading a book that they don’t necessarily have to read. The most important thing in their life is constantly communicating with their friends, even at the expense of their learning.

Another argument for a speech dominated society is the slow and steady elimination of newspapers. According to Susan Jacoby, “the decline of newspaper and magazine reading is nothing new,” and it isn’t. In recent years it has made local and even national news that many newspapers are being forced to eliminate staff members and even stop printing because of a decrease in readership. Recently The Rocky Mountain Press was forced to shut down after nearly one-hundred and fifty years in business. However, walking around the UMBC campus, you would never guess that the newspaper industry is in trouble. On any given morning, you can see numerous people reading the paper while eating their breakfast in the dining hall. On college campuses such as UMBC, newspapers are the primary source of news for students. Many of them do not have time to turn on the news every night to find out what’s going outside the UMBC campus. As a former staff member of UMBC’s own student-run newspaper, I have witnessed the popularity of newspapers on college campuses. This challenges popular belief that people no longer read newspapers, either online or written, to get their information daily.

Coming from a tiny town in southern Harford County, I have witnessed how writing can affect a small town culture. For years, both my high school and the surrounding area have been the subject of ridicule by a local newspaper. Because the area is so small, the community is dependent mainly on this newspaper for all of their news, despite the validity of the stories. The media has complete control over the public’s opinion. Many of the ideas in these small towns are communicated through writing rather than speech.

The recent facebook phenomenon further proves our society’s addiction to communication through writing. Facebook has become almost a necessity to college students. We check our page hourly to see who has written on our wall or updated their status. It has become almost an addiction, and is now an important part of culture. I wrote an article for The Retriever Weekly last semester about how facebook is now being considered as part of the admissions process for some colleges. Fifty years ago, this would have never been a factor. While researching for the article, I found out that eighty-six percent of students in four year colleges have a facebook and fifty-nine percent have a myspace. These numbers are shocking. In my opinion, this fact alone proves how much of a role writing has on today’s society.

Instant messaging and text messaging have further turned our society into a writing dominated culture. Almost everywhere you look people are text messaging. For us, texting is the most convenient way to remind people we need something or to simply let them know we are thinking about them. When we are in a crowded room or in the middle of class, it’s the easiest and most discrete way to talk to our friends. This is the perfect example of the rise of written communication in today’s society.

Even the older generation is starting to get involved in this new written culture. Parents, who before didn’t know how to properly use a computer, are now creating facebook pages so they can make sure that their kids are behaving. My cousin, who is in her late fifties, recently created a facebook so that she can keep in touch with her friends, as well as family. Instead of picking up the phone to tell me about family news or other things that are going on in her hometown, she simply leaves me a comment on my wall. This shows how society as a whole, frequently spreads news through writing, not speech. However, the older generation is not just using facebook. They are now text messaging as well. My mom barely knows how to use her phone, yet she will text me at least once a day to check up on me instead of picking up the phone and calling me. This further proves my point that written communication is seen as the best communication, even between loved ones.

Today, offers a perfect example of the influence WashingtonPost.com of writing here at UMBC. When updates were coming in on the status of classes this morning, many people were getting them through a text message. As lazy college students, it would be an inconvenience for us to get out of our nice warm bed and hear on the tv that school has been cancelled. In addition, many people would want written confirmation that classes were cancelled to ensure that they had not misheard the news anchor.

Only time will tell which form of communication will continue to dominant. Evidence seems to support that future communication may be a mix of speech and of writing, as more and more technologies are being created.


Gardner, Howard “The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading.” 17 February 2008

Jacoby, Susan “The Dumbing of America” WashingtonPost.com 17 February 2008

Ong,Walter. "Media in Ancient Empires." Communication in History; Technology, Culture, Society. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007. 66-72