Perspectives

You see them everywhere. They are young, old, middle-aged. They are kids on swing sets, teens on skateboards, the guy at the coffee shop. They are plugged in, wireless, jacked in, tuned in and turned off. Their thumbs fly across QWERTY keyboards, while I-Pods blast music into one ear, laptops sit open and ready at their sides, while Bluetooth spills the latest gossip in the other ear. As soon as class ends, out come the phones to text a friend to meet up even if that friend was sitting one row behind them in class.

They are the large group of people at a restaurant for a Tweet-Up, all deeply engrossed in their cells, "talking" to the person across the table in text and posting to their Twitter page at the same time.

Take a look around, you will see them too. Or maybe you are one of them.

Across the country, college professors have been noticing this strange breed of human too. Some have decided to do something about it. They have been challenging their students to unplug. That's right. No Facebook, no cell phones, no I-Pods, no cable, no on line games, no internet except where necessary to complete homework. The amount of time for this experiment varies, usually from a day to a week.

At first this assignment looks easy to do. Just don't turn them on, right?

Many of their students find this a lot harder than it looks on the outside. It is too automatic to reach for the electronic "toys" when there is nothing else to do. Walking to class? Pop the I-Pod phones in.

One student remarked she knew everything that happened in her cousin's life because they were Facebook friends but, until she took part in this experiment, she hadn't actually spoken to her cousin in several years. Another said she lasted only a few hours before the ear buds went in, as it was habit to plug them in for her.

Most students participating in these experiments only lasted a few days or even a few hours before the electronics came back out and their fingers were once again flashing across keyboards.

This reminds me of when I was in high school, way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (ok, maybe not that long ago). A teacher gave us an assignment to switch off TV for a week. I freely admit I was a TV junkie at the time. I had favorite shows every day of the week. The TV was always on in my house. The minute someone got home the noise box would go on. And it would stay on until the last family member blearily headed for bed.

To go without TV for a week was horrifying. When I told my family about this assignment, I got horrified looks and the question, "This is just for you. Right? The whole family doesn't have to give it up."

So I was banished to my room for the week where the small portable TV sat on my shelf eyeing me reproachfully, and I had to avert my eyes from the flickering box in the living room whenever I went for a snack. I discovered books during that week of torture, and drawing, and nature walks. It was hard and many of my classmates cracked under the pressure of no TV.

I have been looking at the challenge the college professors have been handing out. Could I do this challenge now? Humm, no I-Pod, that's easy, don't own one. No texting, slightly harder but I don't really like testing anyway. No TV, not really a challenge since I rarely turn it on nowadays. No cell phone, slightly harder since cell is my only phone line now. No internet, now we have a problem, my main source of news and entertainment is the web. I think I could do it though.

Could my family do the same thing? My husband? Possibly but I think he would crack after a few days. That or I would find him rocking in a corner. My son? Definitely not, without his electronic entertainment, he is at a loss for things to do.

Could you unplug for a week? Could you give up instant access? Could you *gasp* call your friends instead of texting-tweeting-Facebooking-Foursquaring? Could you give up Second Life for a week?