College students struggle to go without media for 24 hours

arstechnica.com

7 points·kmod··8 comments

Related HN discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1291520

God I wish someone would unplug me from media for a while, I've got a stack of books I never make time for :(

books are media.

One thing about the moratorium... Most college students nowadays have grown up alongside telephones, computers and TV. They haven't learned any other ways to contact people who aren't adjacent to them in a timely fashion... I, for one, would be very hard pressed to say "hello" to many of my friends on my campus, simply because the dorms are locked, and I have no way to say "hey, let me in". I don't blame college students for being dependent on technology, as that's how we stay in contact with each other.

I think this is important. The article also mentioned that this group of people doesn't read newspapers or listen to the radio, so the loss of their usual media cuts them off even more than might otherwise be the case.

(I'd be curious as to whether they still had landlines available.)

The next logical question that this kind of articles brings to mind is how do you 'treat' this -- or rather, what are the most efficient tools, tricks and behaviors to progress beyond this addiction, and control our urge to connect the hive brain and focus on productive work?

Our parents lived without "media". Their grandparents, without planes; theirs, without cars; telephones; lightbulbs.

The timeline might be off, but the point is as soon as we get used to tech, living without it is a struggle. Nothing new.

This piece is nearly devoid of information. What are "media", beside the examples given? Are textbooks included, for example? How many students experienced withdrawal symptoms, and how were those symptoms measured?

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