The De-Alienated Life: An Experiment

By far the most life changing aspect of the experiment is the loss of the cell phone. Seeing as I watched little TV and Video Games before I began I do not miss them. I have substituted the time I previously spent on facebook and instant messenger with reading and other pursuits, this is exactly what I hoped and aimed to achieve. I have been reading more than I ever have in my life, my grades have risen, and I have picked up guitar again. The cell phone however is irreplaceable. Everywhere we go in our lives we are connected. We are always dealing with a problem, or are expecting to make/receive a call. Whether we are using our phones to do work, or to text a love interest we are always strapped into the network of people in our lives, and it can be very stressful. I believe this is one of the primary reasons stress has been on the rise for the last 15 years. Being completely cut off, and disconnected cuts away all that stress. I finally feel free, free from the desires and expectations of others. When I go for a walk, or go out with friends it is just my surroundings and I, no one else is interfering. With this freedom comes a price though. The ease, and convenience of being able to contact anyone anytime with the touch of a finger is gone. If I want to see a friend or inquire a family member’s agenda I must wait until I arrive home. This makes for a very different much more basic sense of communication and modern life.

So we’ve finally arrived at November 1^st and the experiment has begun. Along my last few weeks while discussing my experiment with friends and family I found that it hit home with many people. That many of those around me also find their lives burdened by facebook, and other technologies. Among these compatriots who feel the need for flight from the media are Lewis Pullman and Zach Grant. They will be joining me on my flight from the modern digital life. I finished iBrain by Gary Small a little while ago and can already see many of the phenomena that he discussed in his book occurring the first day of no media technology. I came home around 6 o’clock and immediately unloaded my backpack, and other items in my room (as I always do), I was ready to quickly hop on facebook and check my notifications when I remembered I had deleted my facebook the following evening. Then I heard the sound of a text message arriving across the house, got giddy to check my phone which I hadn’t had on me all day when I realized it was my brothers, mine was “off” and in a box where it would be for the next two months. I went over in my mind what I should do next to relax before homework, and found that each suggestion whether it was watch a movie or listen to music required technology I had abandoned. So I spent the next hour laying on my bed looking up at my ceiling, totally offline from my problems, my friends, everything except my own thoughts. This is something that I have not done in a very long time, and should have done a very long time ago.

Hello Tumbler,

                         My name is Nick Selden. I am a 17 year old teenager, who lives in Los Angeles, CA. To be more exact I live in Studio City in the south east San Fernando Valley. I go to a private school called Wildwood in Santa Monica. My loves consist of music, driving, and pool. I have no religion, and don’t subscribe to any political party. I am caucasian and am heterosexual, with brown hair and blue eyes. Now that we have all of my eharmony information out of the way I can begin to discuss this blog. Just kidding I’m not on eharmony, but I am on facebook, a lot. I find that most teenagers are on facebook a lot. Usually between one and three hours a night. When teenagers are not on facebook I find that they are usually on Ichat, watching TV, or using some other type of technology or media (i.e. cell phones, videogames, whatever). It hasn’t always been this way though. In fact I’d guess it wasn’t this way 10 years ago before the internet took off. Looking back on those days, they seem pretty nostalgic now. Remember when “fun” was about experience and people rather than computers and TVs. For my elective this year I chose to take an independent study in Psychology. I decided to read the book IBrain by Doctor Gary Small. IBrain is essentially about modern technologies affect on the brain. Horror movies scare me senseless, in fact after I watched Darkness Falls I slept with the lights on for 3 weeks. But nothing has scared me like IBrain. For my Psychology experiment I will abandon my cellphone, facebook, TV, music, and internet. I will be keeping a record/journal of it on this blog, and will have a friend post my journal entries for me. The only thing I will use a computer for is the applications Word, my school email, and Powerpoint. I will begin the experiment as soon as I finish IBrain, hopefully in October. Until then I will get in the habit of recording daily journal entries on this site.